Stuck

[Anonymous Poster]

Sequence of events:

I dug a trench about three feet deep into which I will lay a water line. Don't ask why or how, but on a rainy day following several other rainy days, I got the front and rear wheel of my JD 5310 into the trench. I tried to get out for a while, so now I have created a trench the width of my rear tire and about twice the length of the tractor. I can go forward and back but can't get out, even though I have a FEL.

What do you suggest? Thanks for your help.

 

[rdbrumfield]

No problem, lift the front off the gound with the loader and plank it. Take a 4X6 jor something of equal strength and lay crossways in front of the back tire and run a chain through the spokes, be sure not to use the one with the valve stem, and around the 4X6, use low gear and go forward, it will lift the rear up, you may have to use the opposite brake to get the chained tire to turn. Once you are up fill in the hole, front and back and drive out. Once up you may be able to just put some planks acros the ditch to walk on.

 

[MossRoad]

Go back as far as you can, then fill in the trench in front of the tractor. Then drive forward and out.

 

[cisco]

The preceding posts were correct. Filling in the trench in front of your tractor is probably faster (easy, don't need to get a chain, boards or anything but a shovel).
Congratulations, it takes a fair amount of courage to post self-induced mishaps on this site - BUT we all have them, whether or not we admit to such.

 

[CTyler]

I can appreciate it as well. Now I have something else to add to the back of tricks.

 

[herbenus]

The posts above will get you out, but your probably thinking " 'Fill the trench' ? With what, muddy dirt. And how? With a shovel." A lot of manual work when you can't use the tractor. I've been in a similar situation. The advice above of lift front end and planking may be enough to get you out. (I'm assuming 4 wd.) Get some boards under front wheels. Use a combination of driving out and pulling out with fel. I've been stuck so bad that fel would not budge tractor but by back and fourthing it got out.

If this doesn't work then there are other posts, as above, that describe the plank chained to rear tire.

Plus, can you get a truck out there with towstrap to assist?

How about come along to a tree?

My neighbor was stuck the other day and filled hole in with a bunch of rocks, but his hole was smaller.

Good luck.

 

[beenthere]

Do as rd suggests, - or just dig a ramp up out of the ditch for the front wheel to follow. If the right side is in the ditch, exit to the right (otherwise do the opposite). Use the individual brake on the rear wheel in the ditch and drive up and out the ramp, but plank across the ditch when the "land" front wheel is ready to cross. Yes, use a shovel /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I know, I hate that word too.

 

[bgott]

I had this happen last week with my TN 65 and I'm trying to remember how I got it out and describe it in a way that makes sense. You want to go as far forward as you can and back it out, that way when you use the loader to lift the front end it'll slide rather than dig in. Then you want to clamp down on one brake as you're backing up to swing the front of the tractor so the front wheel is out of the ditch. Clear as mud? I tried about six different things to get it up out of the trench I'd dug myself dragging a 32' travel trailer out of a sloppy lot, none of them involved unhorsing and physical labor. The tractor was in to the bottom of the gear cases and was dragging, by the way.

 

[manganos]

I know I have a smaller tractor ( a Kubota BX22 ) but I got it stuck a month or so ago in my drain field. I tried to use the backhoe to push the rear end up but the ground was so soft it just kept going down into the mud. Same thing with the FEL. I had to wait until the next morning when the ground froze up and then pushing down with the backhoe got the rear tires up. I put an old door under the rear wheels and backed it on out. I'd say either put planks under the tires, pour gravel in your trench and try to back out with using the gravel to make a hill or call a neighbor with a bigger tractor. The latter works ALL the time for me /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Soundguy]

Don't feel bad... most of us have gotten stuck at least once.

I was mowing a buddies pasture last year, and decided to save some travel time and traveled across a 'dry' lake bed... well... the top 1/4" was dry crust over about 18" to 2' of watery muck.. before I could hit the breaks, the tractor was high centered, and the fronts of my 1920 were burried to the top of the tread.....

Neither 4wd nor diff lock even inch the tractor...

to make it worse.. I still had the rotary cutter on...

HAd to walk back to the trailer, and get the ramps and a shovel.. ended up digging the rears and fronts out a bit to use the ramps as tread for the rear.. and some wood scraps as tread under the fronts.... just barely got it out before dark.... had to redig and replace ramps every couple feet till I got to a stable spot with which to retreat...

Boy I felt stupid...

Soundguy