Best way to drive on REALLY slippery mud?

Last weekend I found myself driving on a packed clay road in the rain, and it was the most slippery surface I've ever driven on in my life. The rain had turned the clay into pretty much KY Jelly. Like, even at 1mph I could barely steer, the Jeep just went wherever it wanted. Rear was sliding sideways towards the downhill side whenever the road banked, front tires not really responding to steering input at all. It was sketchy as hell, basically felt like driving on a sheet of ice.

Rubicon 4xe, 37x12.50 Ridge Grapplers.

I was playing with all the different drivetrain combos I could think of: 4-hi, 4-low, rear axle locked, front and rear both locked, and it almost felt like it made no difference at all no matter what I was doing with the transfer case and lockers, in same cases it felt like I was making things worse. Mostly I just used 4-low with rear locker only, as that felt (barely) slightly better than the other combos I tried, but it still was pretty bad.

Any tips on which combination of transfer case modes and lockers I should optimally use, should I encounter something like that again?

There is no way to effectively drive on mud like this, particularly if running off the road would be a problem. Around here, we call it “gumbo” and it means “road impassable.”

If you must drive on it, high speed should clear the mud out of your tread lugs (especially with MTs) but they’ll just get re-packed quickly. Plus you risk running off the road due to lack of control.

The only real option is to creep along until you hit a better road (ask me how I know!). Then go grab lunch and a beer and call it a day early.

What John said! DON'T!!

G.

Dump air pressure in tires might help.

A proper mud tire and lots of wheel speed.

John VonJeep said:

The only real option is to creep along until you hit a better road (ask me how I know!). Then go grab lunch and a beer and call it a day early.

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That's pretty much exactly what I did, ha! We turned around pretty early on and just headed back. Fortunately the mud was shallow so I didn't really tear up the road.

Tires were at 30psi, probably I should have aired down but honestly that didn't even cross my mind for some reason, I guess I was too distracted trying to stay out of the ditch haha

Also, lockers may cause you to crab-walk off the road.

have dirty shoes and winch line

Desert mud. There is no easy way to drive it, even with big bad MT tires. You just have to go very slowly and experiment. Do what works best in that particular situation, which won't be very good.

It's like Reds Canyon in UT which is an extremely bi-polar trail. It's very easy when dry, just about any SUV/Crossover can travel it. When wet it's completely impassible. 1/4" to 1" of extremely slippery goo will practically guarantee you slide off over a cliff, even if you crawl along at 1 MPH.

Those are the days you stay home or stay in camp and drink.

AZ Hella said:

A proper mud tire and lots of wheel speed.

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Implying Off Road+ might have helped.

Ratbert said:

Implying Off Road+ might have helped.

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Sadly my '23 Rubicon lacks the OR+ button

C.Sco said:

Sadly my '23 Rubicon lacks the OR+ button

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Seriously? That's unexpected. I'm thinking it was introduced in '21 or '22. My '20 didn't have it, but my '22 does.

Ratbert said:

Seriously? That's unexpected. I'm thinking it was introduced in '21 or '22. My '20 didn't have it, but my '22 does.

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4xe does some stuff differently than the others. For instance I have the 4-auto transfer case mode while a lot of other rubis don't.

I think they added OR+ to the 4xe Rubis starting in 2024 though

Ratbert said:

Implying Off Road+ might have helped.

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Definitely couldnt hurt.

Low tire pressure (like 8-10psi not 20psi like when the tfl guys "air down"), wheel speed, and momentum. Creeping in thick mud leads to winching. Mud/deep snow/ deep sand are all the same. Use manual mode to keep the rpms and don't stop. If you can creep in it it's not thick mud.