[jp1203]

I'm the original poster. Every assumption that Plain OM makes is correct. See photo attached (I hope) But checking my original purchase material indicates that the car has "full-time AWD" and a "limited slip rear differential." So, would that explain why no movement with the right rear wheel hanging over the rock? If so, please help a mechanical peasant understand. Also, the left rear wheel was firmly on the ground, but did not move. And, from some Sub website demos and comparisons of variations on AWD, (see Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive | Subaru AWD, and Subaru AWD vs. competitors - YouTube), it would appear that in my situation, the front wheels (and the other rear wheel) should have pulled me out. So, could center diff or viscous coupling you mention be inoperative? How does one check that? A Sub mechanic recently told me "off the record" that a solution to my predicament would have been to open the fuse box under the hood and to put a fuse into the vacant slot marked "FWD" thereby disabling the AWD and turning the car into just FWD. Then, with no power going to the rear wheels, the front wheels should have been able to pull me out. What do you think of that? I don't really want to repeat the experiment and try the fuse thing, but is this mechanic full of it, or legit? Thanks. LRV
View attachment 24726

That looks like a heck of a ledge to try to pull that wheel out of. It's odd that the front wheels weren't spinning at all (did I read that right?), because one should have been. It sort of looks like even if they were, they would be on loose gravel with most of the weight shifted to the rear (and to one side at that), and I'm not sure you'd have enough traction to get out of that. Hard to tell for sure, though.