Some advice on not ever getting stuck in the sand or mud:
The minute that you leave the pavement put the vehicle in four wheel drive and leave it in four wheel drive until you are ready to get back on the pavement. You may be tooling down a sand, dirt or gravel trail where you don't think 4WD is necessary then in an instant you might be bogging down in deep soft sand or mud. When that happens if you're in 2WD you are already in the getting stuck event. Your TJ does not instantly jam into 4WD as there are gears to engage and distance to travel before all of that stuff meshes up. It just ain't gonna happen if you are already in a hole.
The minute that you leave the pavement air down the tires. Don't wait till you are in two feet deep muck and the valve stem is in sixteen inches down at the bottom of the wheel deep in water or slimy goop. I always drop the pressure to 10 psi. then check it again in a few miles as the now soft bulging tire builds up heat and the pressure increases. So you just might need to let more air out to bring them down to the 10 psi. range. Since you mention that you will be getting new tires you might consider buying a set of rapid air down valves. I have them on both of my TJ's and they save a lot of time letting the air down like maybe ten seconds at the most for each wheel. They will require drilling and additional hole in the wheel as they are only for deflating and your original valve will be used to inflate.
When you are ready to hit the pavement air the tires back up to highway pressure. This can be a slow process depending on the inflation system that you have like a bicycle tire pump, an electric compressor or a 3200 psi. Scuba tank. I carry a Scuba tank in my vehicles everywhere I go. With it I can inflate each tire to highway pressure in about thirty seconds. One of those Scuba tanks can easily inflate ten or fifteen big off road type tires, as long as you keep the tank topped off.
Carry more recovery gear than you will ever expect to use. Of course it's an issue in a little TJ Jeep but make the space for it. First would be at least one of the longest pull straps that you can find, next would be at least two but three or four would be better, steel shackles to connect the strap to your Jeep and the vehicle that will be pulling you out or maybe to another strap or two depending on how far from solid ground you might be bogged down in.
Carry a real full sized shovel that can move some dirt, not one of those folding toys they sell that might be good enough for digging a poop hole. You might be bogged down to the frame and have to move hundreds of pounds of dirt in order to get the wheels back on solid ground to drive out.
Carry an extra hydraulic jack or two. Your stock jack is designed to lift the axle with stock tires on flat pavement, not lift it when the axle is under two feet of sand or mud. Keep two or three wood blocks to increase the height of the jack. I keep a 2x4, a 4x4 and a 4x6 block in every vehicle.
Carry a High Lift jack. These are the ultimate for a speedy lift if you can find room for it. Don't forget they cannot lift your axle or wheel as they require a solid, not body sheet metal point to do the lift. That point will be the front or rear frame mounted bumper which means the lift will probably be more than two feet in order to get the wheel up off of the ground. They make a 12" x 12" base plate for those jacks for use in sand and mud otherwise the jack will just sink into the sand and lift nothing.
Carry a functional winch. This will be helpful especially if you have something to attach it to. Good luck if your out miles on a muck beach or out in the dunes. The last resort for a solid pull point will be your spare wheel, if you planned ahead and have the strength and balls to attempt this: walk out with your winch cable as far as it goes, did a DEEP hole, wrap the cable around the wheel thru the center hole and bury it. You now have a solid pull point and just might be able to get moving. You might have to repeat this ordeal several times depending on how far out you ended up.
Carry a CB Radio that works. Good luck trying to explain where you are stuck, especially in Spanglish!
By the way, I have never been stuck or marooned in a spot that I couldn't get out of on my own even if it took two days! Some day let me tell you about the adventure that I had in a four hundred foot deep swale of talcum powder sand in the dunes on the west side of the Pinacate....
Thank you Jim for the above information. Yes, his rig is loaded for bear.
AZ_Mike...
