crossing soft ground; portable roadway?

[EddieWalker]

It aint cheap!!!! But for the added expense of the thicker and stiffer wood, I'd pay the difference in a heartbeat if it made the difference between getting stuck out in the middle of a marsh or being able to get through it.

This brings up another point. If you get stuck for whatever reason, make sure that you have a plan to get unstuck. 200 feet is a very long way to winch your way out, and if the ground is soft enough to swallow your tractor, it's going to be impossible to get anything else out there.

Eddie

 

[john_bud]

I would get the 3/4 plywood and rip into 2'x8' sections. But would add 3 2x4's (both edges and center) glue and nail them tight. That would be much cheaper to make as 6 sheets and 12 2x4's will give you a 24' long section. I would also seal them so water won't make them heavy while in use.


Mentally, there is a picture of getting to the center and finding it to be much softer than thought, the tractor tipping to the side, falling off and sinking from site. Try to avoid that!

jb

 

[chris.miller]

We ended up buying 6 track mats; just like plywood, but plastic, with cross hatch raised areas like jumbo diamond plate on both sides.

So far we've been lucky, as the ground is fairly frozen, and the tractor doesn't sink at all (or even leave behind wheel ruts). As it has thawed a bit in the last week, we'll use the mats first just across the softer/muddy sections. With 6 mats, we have enough for the tractor to sit on four while the other pair is moved out front.

Have also used them to drive the truck across a loose sand beach; work great, but best when there are a helper or two around to position them and remove them. They're pretty heavy, but likely a little less than plywood.

 

[jimmer2880]

Something to consider. We did this with a bulldozer doing marsh work.

Get a short piece of decent weight chain. Go ahead & fasten it to your tractor to a point where you would want to pull from if you got stuck. Then, zippy-tie the other end up nice & high (like on the ROPS). Everytime I get stuck, it's never easy to reach the "good" points to fasten the chain. This way, it's already there & you don't need to go mud diving to get to it.

 

[Egon]

There are metal swamp mats available commercially just for such purposes.

Don't know if any would be available in your area.

 

[radioman]

perhaps it might be easier with a lighter tractor and bushhog ? say like a BX and 4 ft hog ? (oh boy i am gonna get flamed for this ) a bx is about 1500lbs and i'm guessing a 4 ft is 500 lbs so that is about 2k verus 5 k for L grand.

 

[Chuck4310]

My neighbor keeps several rolls of old wooden/wire snow fence around for crossing wet areas on his property with his 4300.

 

[JHTFarmer]

Purpose built portable roadways are expensive. Maybe you could rent?
Another consideration might be some heavy pallets. I used rows of pine
logs recently. I cut them to about eight feet long, they were all about the diameter of
railroad ties. worked pretty good.

 

[CFHartman]

I am not an engineer but I believe you should use a full sheets of plywood. That will spread the weight over a 8 X 8 area then rib the plywood so it don稚 bend as you run over it. I think by using a full sheet of plywood and ribbing it you could use a thinner sheet. Be sure to allow room on the ends for overlapping.
Charlie