All the essentials
 

Best thing to have is another vehicle to drive to work on Monday morning, after you break your truck off roading on the weekend.

Aside from that, a decent tow strap, and a couple shackles is important, and having good recovery points front and rear on your truck.

Having a couple buddies to wheel with makes for a much more stree free time, as well

I am no off-roader but I do take my rig to the woods for hunting in North Idaho. Generally I can expect snow when I hunt and this is what I carry for getting un-stuck:

• 2 tow straps
• snow shovel
• hand-operated come-long and an electric portable winch (mostly for pulling elk out of ditches if I am so lucky!)
• traction tracks (4) to put under the tires if I get stuck in the snow
• 2 pairs of tire chains
• hatchet and saw

These are the things I'm considering adding:

• an elastic recovery strap (need another rig to use) with dampener
• tree protector strap
• a proper, approx. 9,000 lb, winch mounted on a portable cradle that can be mounted to the front or rear receiver (with appropriate upgrade to my electrical system)
• chain-saw

When I go out, someone always knows where I am going. I also have food, water, sleeping bag, cook stove, first aid kit, tools, extra oil, and a hand-held ham radio.

I'd be interested to hear what others bring or how they are equipped.

The more skid plates underneath, the better. It's tough to drive back home with a hole ripped in the gas tank or transfer case.

Depends on the type of wheeling you are doing. #1 thing to have is COMMON SENSE! Lol I have been known to leave that home a time or two. As far as what to have on or done to the truck, make sure it's mechanically sound if going out on your own. I've wheeled completely stock vehicles to fairly built rigs. Good tires help, a spare ( that has air in it) jack and lug wrench. Extra fluids just in case. But most importantly have fun, but respect the land and the laws. We don't need our public lands shut down.

Good tires and a well maintained truck. Past that a winch to help you get unstuck.

Good point. That is a problem on the privately owned timberlands here in North Idaho and also the public lands. Yahoos go out there to go "mudding", making deep ruts, ruining meadows, driving around gates causing damage to the environment and scaring game. Especially with the private timberlands, more restrictions are being added because some person selfishly wanted to play with their truck without consideration of their actions on others. The damage caused ruins fragile places for years if not decades if in high elevations and the hunting gets worse for the rest of us.

So, could you tell if either front wheel was spinning? Quite possible there is something wrong with the front axle actuator, it's a common failure with these trucks.

Also, the frames on our trucks sits really low, making it super easy to get stuck that way. The answer for that is lift+big tires!