Dealing with Mud

[PBinWA]

What about this one:

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I don't expect it would have the best duty cycle but if you plan to get stuck a lot then it might save you enough times to pay for itself.

Up here you are supposed to plan things out better. You do your dirt work when it is dry and your repairs and maintenance when it is wet.

When it's pouring out - just sit around and get depressed like the rest of us!

 

[Mith]

Woodland, we've got alot of clay here too, and its very wet (England, dont you know it, always raining.....)

Best solution I have found is wider tyres. I tried duals but you tend to slide about on the surface. My tractor is 2WD so it isnt very forgiving. Wide aggressive tyres, and lots of weight, its doing it for me so far.

I've found the best time to go out it during or right after rain. It wets the clay down, and its less sticky. The most problems I have is when the clay sticks and balls up on the tyres, and eventually you just grind to a muddy stop. When its wet the clay slides off the tyres and keeps the lugs clean, and it grips more.

I'd rather find ways to not get stuck, I don't really like sliding about in the mud on foot, but its great fun on the tractor.

 

[MossRoad]

You could try one of these hand winches. 3200 # rating. Just attach it to a 2" receiver and slip it in when needed.

 

[Barryh]

This is the confusion is the amperage. Every spec I read makes it an unlikely candidate for a PT (my tractor is at 35 amps I think). But I hear guys using winches all the time with no mods (on pickups with old alts, tractors, heck, quads....)

As the PT alt is so darn expensive I have no wish to fry the bad boy. And because I have the 1850 I am going places my truck will not go...

This one looks to be made for ATV, Yard Tractors. I'm going to go ahead and get it. Guessing it also has low amp draw. I don't think it would hurt your battery that much. It's also remote radio controlled.

My guess is even at 4,000 lbs, with the tractor spinning wheels, and with the winch pulling. It should work it's self out of trouble. The big question is, do you have many trees near by for hook up.

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[Barryh]

Depends on what you have for a battery. I don't know what they use in the red machines. If they are big enough, it shouldn't be a problem. However, deep draw downs are bad for starting batteries and will shorten their lives a little bit each time it happens.

Just something to keep in mind.

I would be more concerned about rigging up a safe, permanent battery connection for a portable winch. That might be a bit on the difficult side.

It's a full size battery haven't had a change to examine it closely just yet. My machines orange but, I'll forgive you. ... By the way good info about the deep drain.

 

[SnowRidge]

The big question is, do you have many trees near by for hook up.

You don't need any trees.

All you need is something substantial and a shovel. Then you hook the cable to the something and go and bury it out in front of your stuck machine. You also need to dig a slit trench out to where your something is buried for the cable to lay in.

Next, winch yourself up to the something. Dig it all out and repeat until you are on solid ground.

A little trick I learned in the military.

 

[SnowRidge]

This one looks to be made for ATV, Yard Tractors. I'm going to go ahead and get it. Guessing it also has low amp draw. I don't think it would hurt your battery that much. It's also remote radio controlled.

My guess is even at 4,000 lbs, with the tractor spinning wheels, and with the winch pulling. It should work it's self out of trouble. The big question is, do you have many trees near by for hook up.

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The spec sheet doesn't list the current draw at all, but it does say it has a 1.1 HP motor. Extrapolating from the other unit that gave both the draw and the HP, I come up with 103 amps maximum.

The specs don't talk about the radio controls. It would be nice to know they use an encoded signal that prevents them from falsing. They probably do, but I would feel more comfortable knowing that they do.

 

[SnowRidge]

What about this one:

Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

I don't expect it would have the best duty cycle but if you plan to get stuck a lot then it might save you enough times to pay for itself.

Up here you are supposed to plan things out better. You do your dirt work when it is dry and your repairs and maintenance when it is wet.

When it's pouring out - just sit around and get depressed like the rest of us!

That unit is cheap enough to be interesting and too expensive to thrown away if it turns out to be junk. In other words, I would like to see someone else buy one and report back on its pluses and minuses.

Clark County, WA, one of my old stomping grounds. What part?

 

[Barryh]

You don't need any trees.

All you need is something substantial and a shovel. Then you hook the cable to the something and go and bury it out in front of your stuck machine. You also need to dig a slit trench out to where your something is buried for the cable to lay in.

Next, winch yourself up to the something. Dig it all out and repeat until you are on solid ground.

A little trick I learned in the military.

Interesting trick.. I've never been stuck before to where I couldn't get out or, where I needed a winch. Even done some off roading in my 4x4's. Guess there's a first time for everything... One of these days.

 

[J_J]

What is CU?

Carl, This is just one of my plans for a winch. I have an 8000 lbs Ramsey winch that i plan to use. On the small bucket, I am thinking about welding a receiver inside the bucket, I built the base of the winch to slide in a receiver. On either side of the winch would be a red or yellow top battery just for the winch, There would be a charging wire from the 12v system. If I got hold of something that weighed more than my PT. at 3900 lbs, I would hook a chain to the rear receiver and a tree, or a log deadman, anchor or spare tire buired about 3 ft.. . Technically, I could pull quite a load with this setup. I would also use a wireless remote to control the winch.

 

[BobRip]

This one looks to be made for ATV, Yard Tractors. I'm going to go ahead and get it. Guessing it also has low amp draw. I don't think it would hurt your battery that much. It's also remote radio controlled.

My guess is even at 4,000 lbs, with the tractor spinning wheels, and with the winch pulling. It should work it's self out of trouble. The big question is, do you have many trees near by for hook up.

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I have a 2000 pound winch for my 422. It is marginal for this machine. Be sure to get a snatch block pully to double your pulling power. That should give you enough. I seem to do most of the pulling from the back. Usually if I am stuck, I don't want to go further into the swamp and use the winch to back out. One of the nice things about electric versus manual is you can pull with the winch from the driver's seat and combine the two forces.

 

[Central_PA_Chris]

I bought a cheap $60 gorilla 1500# winch off of ebay.

I'll stick up for the cheap Gorilla winches, I got a 2500lb one for my ATV and it's been quite reliable (used, but only lightly thus far). They might even be cheaper direct from Gorillas web site than from ebay.

 

[Marks481]

I was actually very impressed with the gorilla winches. The winch came with absolutely EVERYTHING you need; enough wire to completely hook it up (with shrink wrapped terminals), a contactor with built in circuit breaker and a sealed toggle switch to mount on your dashboard. I bought the optional key chain remote, which is pretty nifty. Much higher quality package then I expected for the price.

 

[SpringHollow]

I have the 4000 lb (I believe) gorilla waterproof winch with the wireless remote. Broke the first time I used it - the side of the aluminum spool broke off. They sent me the wrong part. When I let them know that, they sent me a new winch. GorillaWinches.com - I paid a little more than some sites but it came with a much better warranty. They were a real standup company to deal with. I highly recommend them.

It is not an industrial winch but a nice winch for the price. i switched to the synthetic rope they had.

Used the winch to lower a lathe out of the second story of my barn (had built the barn with a cantilevered beam for this purpose - finally used it after 16 years!). Had it all hooked up and my brother recommended that I drive the truck further back for a better angle. Did so and then went upstairs with the wireless remote. Raised the lathe up and swung it out the barn. Then started lowering it. Got about halfway down and it started coming back up. Reversed it and it when back down and then started coming back up. Thought the remote was screwing up (first time using it). All of sudden - crash and the lathe is on the ground. Thought I broke the beam but it was fine. Figured I must have broke the rope but that made no sense. Went down and saw the rope had come off the winch I was an idiot! The rope was not long enough to lower the lathe after the truck was moved (I had checked before moving the truck) so it came off the spool. The going up and down was the rope wrapping around the other direction. I am sure most of you realized that from the symptoms. We could not see the winch so we did not know that was what was happening. I do not think I will make that mistake again. Fortunately, everything was okay - just broke a few bolts.

There really is no limit to my stupidity at times!

Ken

 

[sawdust_maker]

I do not think I will make that mistake again. Fortunately, everything was okay - just broke a few bolts.

There really is no limit to my stupidity at times!

Ken

Ken, you have a great deal of company in this. You made me think of the time when we were in a hurry to go skiing with friends. So I quickly put the brand new ski racks on the car roof, inside the garage. Open the garage door, then start to drive outside. Except for that sickening crunch I heard. I'd not checked that I had enough clearance for the ski racks under the lip of the door. I busted up part of the ski rack, plus bent the drip rails on the car.

John

 

[FOURTEEN]

So, my PT is 4,000lbs. Can a 3,000lb winch work?

You are trying to pull your PT out, not lift it up!! So any amount of pull may be enough to help!


I once had a 24' drywall delivery truck stuck in the snow of my driveway after it unloaded the drywall. All I had was a 2WD station wagon with studded tires, but I pulled that truck nearly 100' out to the road, FIVE FEET AT A TIME!
I used a 15' NYLON towstrap. Several times with the towstrap attached to my hitch and the front of the truck, I would back up bumper to bumper, then drive off as fast as I could. At 15' the towstrap would begin to stretch, the wagon would smoothly come to a stop, and the truck would advance 5' closer to the road! In less than a half hour the truck was out going down the road!
I have found that 'log chains' and steel cables usually don't work, but are more likely to damage the vehicles.

.

 

[MossRoad]

Yep. A snatch strap will allow a much smaller vehicle to pull a much larger vehicle out of some pretty sticky situations if the smaller vehicle has some traction. Heck, my kid had to use the PT425 to pull my van out of the driveway a couple weeks ago. The weight difference is almost 4500 pounds. The van had sunk in soft bottomed gravel with a snow covering on a warm day. Then it froze up real fast. The van just could not climb that small incline out of the tire depressions. Probably only an inch or so. So we put the snatch strap between the two, she took off down the driveway and just kept pressure on the van until I could drive it out.