Flooded Tractor

cfoxmd · Oct 2, 2005

Hey guys:

I live North of New Orleans in a Waterfront town--Slidell, Louisiana. As you know, we had a little hurricane--Katrina was her name. My town took the left eyewall. 155 mph sustained winds, 175 mph gusts. We left in a hurry and my tractor was at my camp on the water. The storm surge was pretty high--7 feet at my house. So my tractor was completely submerged. The house has been totally inaccessable for weeks, but now the trees have been removed.

where do I start? It is an FX28D with loader, finish mower and tiller.

California · Oct 2, 2005

You will probably get lots of different advice.

I visited a CalTrans maintenance yard a year after their fleet had been submerged by a levee break. (at Linda, near Marysville, for those who know Northern California).

The shop chief told me they just pressure-washed the mud off everything, drained and hosed out all cavities, changed all fluids and filters, lubed heavily, and went back to work. He said it was not cost effective to tear everything down. He expected somewhat shortened remaining life due to abrasives where they didn't belong, but no real problems so far in a year.

Yanmars are specifically designed to run half submerged in rice paddies so I expect it should be ok after cleanup. I would break the muffler/manifold joint to let water drain from the muffler and cylinders. Don't crank it over without releasing compression - cranking against uncompressible water will bend a rod. Look for drain plugs at the brakes if this model has dry brakes.

I expect dash instruments, alternator, and battery are damaged but I wouldn't replace them until they actually fail. (I'm assuming you need the tractor immediately for cleanup.)

How did your house come through the hurricane?

normde2001 · Oct 2, 2005

Ditto what California said, and using the compression release, I would try turning it over with a wrench on the front crankshaft bolt first, and make sure all water is blown out of starter and alternator and that they are dry and not frozen with rust.

Eddie · Oct 2, 2005

Yeah, I did recovery on a MF 245 that had been under water for 3 days. The first thing I did was take the injectors out and spin it over to blow water out of the cylinders and keep it from hydro locking and bending things. You can probably do the same thing with the compression release and turn it over with a wrench. I then took the fuel tank off and empied, drained oil, hydraulic fluid and power steering fluid. replaced all and fired it up. No problems.

Cord · Oct 3, 2005

Well having been in the marine enviroment for a while I can tell that I have "pickled" a few engines. The problem is that this must be done immediately. No more than a few days. In your case it's been several weeks. I'm certain that your tractor is a absolute total loss. Anyways, I'll go through the steps.

First drain every fluid. Axles, trans, engine, fuel, etc.
The problem will be the injection pump. You must get the water out of the pump. Some pumps are lubricated with engine oil, so that must be also drained.
Overfill the cases with diesel to help cut the water.
Pull the injectors and try to crank the engine. Keep cranking until no moisture comes out.
Pour in some 2 cycle or (better) fogging oil into the cylinder and crank a little bit more.
Tear the injectors down and lube everything with WD-40
The pump will proably need to be torn down
Bleed the entire fuel system with fresh fuel
Drain the diesel out of the cases and refill with fresh oil
Oil and grease every pivot point
Use a water displacing contact cleaner on every contact. Open the starter and alternator up and clean their insides. Every switch will need to be opened up and drained. The same is true for lights.

cfoxmd · Oct 3, 2005

Thanks for the advice. Lots of work to do. Was going to pull the tractor to my house up higher, but traffic was gridlocked. After an hour, turned around and went home, left the trailer. 20 hours to College Station Texas. One week there, and came back. 5 days on a generator, then our power came back.

Lots of work to do. My house that didn't flood has a roof off, water in every wall, flooring that is buckled, and a pool that is black. 15 trees down. Fortunately I got rid of 40 pines 8 years ago. The white oaks blow over--their leaves are big and don't fall off. Live oak trees shed their leaves. Pines snap about 20 feet up in the air. I guess I have $150,000 damage to my house and I am lucky.

20% of my town is gone--put the buildings in a blender pulse a few times and scatter about. 40% flooded severly--many up to the roof. 40% are just mauled by wind.

Go two miles south of my house (toward my camp) and it turns into the twilight zone. People wandering about digging belongings out of piles of rubble.

My camp needs a new roof, windows, siding, flooring, deck, stairs, etc.. I am surprised that it is still standing.

FEMA sucks, the Red Cross is little better, the national Guard is pretty good. Just my take on disaster control.

mark777 · Oct 3, 2005

Sorry to hear of all your troubles...My problems from "Rita" are miniscule by comparison. Hope and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Regards, Mark

cfoxmd · Oct 3, 2005

Thanks for the concern. Rita looked bad, but weakened some. New Orleans had the failed levee. We had the storm surge. Glad I wasn't here when it happened. One of my friends (another othopedic surgeon) stayed. He went out in the eye. As the eye passed, his son screamed "the water". It came in like a tidal wave. Others staying in a rental house managed to get to his door. In 5 minutes the water was waste high. He threw his kids up the stairs. 4 days on the second floor without food and water. Eventually he waded in chest deep water to another rental house on his property, broke in and looted for some canned goods that were floating in the house. Finally water went down and he went to the hospital.

His house is nowhere near the water. Just makes you think. As my 5 year old nephew tells me when he does something wrong, "you have to hide". As my niece says "you have to run first".

I have a new rule for life. "Never live below sea level".

arthr31 · Oct 3, 2005

cfoxmd, sir, glad to see you are back. I wish I could help you rebuild, but everything takes time.

I was a mile / mile /half from WTC NYC when it fell, took a few months to get rid of soot, asbestos, whatever from our windows,car ,etc. It'll get better. But, with that said, and with your lesson learned, where will you go now?

I left nyc a year and 3 months later. I was living in an orange/red level terrorist zone and couldn't stand it. Advice, move some place where you wont' stand the same risks you've currently withstood. anyway, good to see you are back! -art

p.s. with what you were faced, that is a tremendous thing as a family. bye.

AL_Josh · Oct 3, 2005

Sorry to hear about your loss. We had two of our cherry pickers go under in Bayou La Batre during Katrina. We drained all the fluids, cleared the fuel lines, greased everything, and made sure no water sitting in cylinders. They started up fine. It was just a week after the storm hit though. Those machines are pretty tough. I do not know what affect sitting this long will have on your tractor.

I have attached a picture of one of them after the storm. We were using them to clean up the ship yard. Water over the cab frame.