Stuck in the pond

[ttouring]

Many years ago I was bush hogging wth a tractor I had that didn't have a live PTO or over running clutch. While Bush hogging my pond bank I steered to close to the water. I tried to counter it by turning steering wheel, well it kept going straght. It all happened so quickly. When the tractor got stopped I was waist deep(sitting on the tractor) in the water. The bush hog acted like a flywheel and pushing the clutch in didn't do any good. It took 2 of my neighbors with 4 wheel drive pickups to get out the pond. I did manage to shut the engine down before it went under. So I had change ALL the fluids and buy a over running clutch.

 

[workinonit]

Ag tires are useless in reverse motion.

Just a wild guess that you don't farm. Back in the day we would turn them around on purpose. No difference.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I see your trouble! Wearing shorts when operating your tractor, you should be ashamed, LOL! Glad you were able to get'er out without any damage.

Correct. Swim trunks are the best choice mowing around a lake.

 

[johng@imbertconstruction.]

I was stuck (not that bad) used my front loader to wiggle me out, but I am sure you tryed that..

 

[Pearlsnaps]

Were you able to lift the box blade high enough to get it out of the way?

I’ve been stuck with my 2nd kubota m4800 more than I care to admit but have been able to walk it out backwards with the bucket except for one time with the shredder. That time Lifting the front with the bucket (even just a little) the shredder was bearing the weight and not moving. That time I had to drop the shredder and walk it out forward (much slower process).

I tried the bucket curl. I tried pushing the bucket flat, none of that worked. Pond is so thick from 50 plus years of just sitting there. Even with me walking out into it, it's a full 12 or 14 in to the packed clay bottom. So using the bucket curled downwards and pushing upward did raise up the front end, but not enough to get over how deep it sunk so quickly.
I just swallowed my pride and went and got the truck and let the wife steer.
She was a little freaked out because she doesn't drive a manual, but four-wheel drive low makes it very easy to just let out the clutch and let the truck do the work.

 

[Pearlsnaps]

I see your trouble! Wearing shorts when operating your tractor, you should be ashamed, LOL! Glad you were able to get'er out without any damage.

Lol. Yeah, I've got the shorts comment before. It's the cab's fault.... It makes you forget that you're working a tractor like my youth. Gotta love air conditioning when it's 105° outside, and the heat when it's in the 20s. I do forget some days that I'm actually doing work.

 

[Williy]

Mowing around ponds a set of water wings just might be handy

When I was working for a farmer the R1'S never were squisy?
Also using a loader no problem's there either

willy

 

[RobertEH]

Did some research a while back on forces exerted on Anchors and required force needed to extract a mired vehicle. I want to say pulling a vehicle on level smooth ground requires about 10% of the GVW (so an 8K lb vehicle would require 800 lbs of pull to move it.). If mired, it requires more:
Mire resistance:

• Wheel depth = 1x load
• Fender depth 2x load
• Cab depth 3X load
• Pulling opposite direction of travel can reduce the load by 10% (traveling in ruts)
• Moving wheels during extraction breaks suction and can reduce load but not in a dependable manner (40% for tracked vehicles)
• Example: 10 Ton tracked load mired to fenders, = 20T adjusted load. By moving wheels and pulling in opposite direction, this is reduced to 10 Tons

I also found the attached Army field manual for vehicle recovery. I found this very very helpful and easy to understand.

Be aware if you are using snatch blocks - you can end up putting double the load on an anchor in some situations. Combine a snatch block with a deeply mired load and you can accidently destroy your anchor which if it is your bumper could be costly and dangerous!

Using the diagram above I ran some numbers (I think I am correct but there are folks smarter than I am on this forum who I am sure will weigh in if I am not)
Variables:
Load 4 Tons (8,000 lbs)
Tackle resistance (10% of load per snatch block sheave)
Max Winch pull (6 tons, 12,000 lbs)
Pull per line = total load with resistance / # of lines
Load per anchor = load per line * # of lines to anchor

Situation 1: Single Line:
Mechanical Advantage = 1:1
Load on Winch: 8,000 lbs
Load on Anchor: 8,000 lbs

Situation 2: Double Line:
Mechanical Advantage = 2:1
# of snatch blocks: 1
Total load: 8,000 +800 {10% tackle resistance} = 8,800 lbs
Load per line: 4,400 lbs
Load on the Anchor: 8,800 lbs
Load on the winch: 4,400
Load on the truck anchor shackle: 4,400
Total load on the truck itself across all anchor points: 8,800


Situation 3 Triple Line:
# of snatch blocks: 2
Total load 8,000+1,600 {20% tackle resistance} = 9600
Load per line: 9,600/3=3,200

Load on Winch: 3,200 lbs
Load on Anchor 1: 6,400 lbs
Load on Anchor 2: 3,200 lbs
Load on Anchor 3: 6,400 lbs
Total load on vehicle (3,200+6,400)=9,600


Consequently, if you move anchors 1 and 2 to the same tree, the tree will see 9,600 lbs of pull (3,200 of the pull being felt by Anchor 2 and 6,400 being felt by anchor 1)


____________________________________________

I was actually quite surprised to find that the layers of rope (wire or synthetic) on the winch when pulling reduces the power of the winch.

Example with a 12K lb winch
Layer 1: 12,000 (100%)
Layer 2: 9,517 (79%)
Layer 3: 7,885 (66%)
Layer 4: 6,732 (56%)

 

[Pearlsnaps]

That is some good info. I'll be honest, what I got out of that is I need a good snatch block.

 

[prairiegirl]

At least that lesson was more embarrassing than it was painful.
I'm glad that I've never done anything like that. I'm even more thankful that when TBN format changed a few years ago it destroyed any evidence, including pictures, of my tractor being stuck in the mud for 2 weeks.