2009 Jeep Patriot Owner's Manual - Page 285

STARTING AND OPERATING 283 Rock Cycling Your Vehicle Rock cycling your vehicle is one of the easiest, fastest and most commonly used methods. This simply involves shifting your vehicle from DRIVE to REVERSE, while applying throttle after each shift. During this process, for additional traction, try turning your steering wheel quickly back and forth no more than a 1/4 turn. If you are stuck in mud, sand, or snow, try spinning your tires during this process to clean the debris from the tread and improve the traction. You want to create a rocking motion with the vehicle. This helps build vehicle momentum, which hopefully gets you out. Remember to ease off and on the accelerator before and after the shift. If after a few rock cycles your vehicle is not free, stop and try another method of recovery. Continuous rock cycling will only cause unnecessary damage to your vehicle and the environment. CAUTION! Damage can occur when spinning your tires at an excessive high speed. Do not spin your tires faster than an indicated 30 mph (48 km/h). Do not spin the wheels continuously for more than 30 seconds. Using The Tow Hooks With A Tow Strap Tow straps are a quick and easy way to recover your vehicle from minor situations if you have a secondary vehicle which is not stuck. The tow hooks on your vehicle are designed to take the abusive force generated during vehicle recovery. Do not use the bumper or any other vehicle component as an attachment point. Using tow straps requires coordination between the two drivers. Good communication and line of sight are required for a safe recovery. First connect the tow strap to the correct attachment points on both vehicles. There should be a least 20 to 30 ft (6 to 9 m) between the vehicles to allow 5