Getting Unstuck from the Mud

[oosik]

There is a 1200 foot long by 130 foot wide drainage swale( called "The Moat" ) between my little lake and the big lake. One winter I tried driving my first tractor - Ford 1710 4WD - across the ice on the swale. I heard the ice start to crack - rapidly backing up - not fast enough - front end drops thru ice - water is just deep enough to reach bottom of engine - bucket down and lift - tractor completely up out of water now except bucket on FEL. So ---- PooP - there I am. Check and fuel tank is completely full - set tractor RPM @ 1400 - walk back to house and get cable come along.

Giant pine to tractor with cable come along - put tractor in low range, reverse - crank, crank, crank - tractor is out - fast like a fox I am back in the seat - the world is right once again. Fortunately, the cranking on the come along was far enough from the reversing tractor that I was not in immediate danger of being run over.

 

[WranglerX]

Avoid mud!....

Had to use winch (10,000 pound) on Jeep to pull my small tractor out of mud bog.... For a while it was a challenge whether tractor would come out or I was going to put (slide) Jeep in bog with tractor....

Dale

 

[Kaje36]

Let me add to it. You have to get your front axle up and out of the mud with the front bucket. Then you have to use the hoe to lift your rear tires up and out of the mud, and then pull the tractor backwards. I keep my outriggers out when doing this out of fear that I might flip over. There is nothing fun about it, and more then once, I just wanted to get off of the backhoe and go hide in my house instead of dealing with it. Especially when it turns into hours of doing this!!!

Oh ya I bet! I have lifted the rear with the backhoe before, but thankfully the front was on firm ground, and even then it wasn't a lot of fun! The outriggers was a very good idea! I think I would try to set them into the mud just a little, so they were touching after I lifted up the rear, just to reduce the amount it could tip! I hope I never need to use this info!

 

[Kaje36]

There is a 1200 foot long by 130 foot wide drainage swale( called "The Moat" ) between my little lake and the big lake. One winter I tried driving my first tractor - Ford 1710 4WD - across the ice on the swale. I heard the ice start to crack - rapidly backing up - not fast enough - front end drops thru ice - water is just deep enough to reach bottom of engine - bucket down and lift - tractor completely up out of water now except bucket on FEL. So ---- PooP - there I am. Check and fuel tank is completely full - set tractor RPM @ 1400 - walk back to house and get cable come along.

Giant pine to tractor with cable come along - put tractor in low range, reverse - crank, crank, crank - tractor is out - fast like a fox I am back in the seat - the world is right once again. Fortunately, the cranking on the come along was far enough from the reversing tractor that I was not in immediate danger of being run over.

Wow! I am surprised only the front went in! very lucky, that could have been a really bad day!

 

[dnw64]

M88 Pulling an Abrams - YouTube

A VTR never failed me!

The more traction a vehicle has, the more stuck it will be when it gets stuck. If you never get it stuck that's only because you didn't drive it to the "right" place.

 

[mred2]

I have used most of these except the wood on the wheels. I have put many short pieces of logs under the rear wheels.

One thing that I once did was with a 2 wheel drive farmall, 1949. I put the front of it into the edge of the lake while trying to clean up around the lake. No diff. lock. No other tractor. I put a long strap on a tree, hooked the other end around one side of the rear axle and hooked it into the wheel.(the axle on this tractor sticks out about 12 plus inches.) As the real wheel and axle turned in reverse, it wrapped the strap around the axle and pulled itself out. After the wheel stopped slipping, the tire being a lot bigger, allowed for the strap to be unhooked. Might not work on some tractors, as no room for the strap to wrap around the axle, instead of the housing.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^
I've done similar sans wrapping it around the axle, on old farm tractors using a good tow chain. it only pulls you a couple of feet but lots of times that is all that you need. It's a good way to flip a tractor though, so always use reverse as the tractor will (usually) stall first.

 

[dragoneggs]

I agree with Both points, I know I don't know a ton about hydraulics, but it seems to be the same motions and force loads that I would encounter while digging.

But you really got to evaluate your situation, I hope with lumber just a little larger than the wheels the flip-over risk should be minimal, I have seen some people use some very large logs that really looks scary!

My thinking is that if you 'yank' tow in a direction that your hoe is not designed for (not in line with the hydraulic actuators, you could easily overstress a component. For instance, extend your hoe arm and then pull to the side. You can easily put more load and twist on it than the hydraulics can to the side.

 

[Garandman]

Remember: there’s stuck, then there’s Army stuck....

 

[Fuddy1952]

As a kid, mowing too close to lake, I got tractor stuck. Of course, more I tried, worse it got. Neighbor with identical tractor failed. So lucky for me there was a tractor dealership close by. The owner drove down in an early 30s steel wheeled John Deere, 2 cylinder I think it was. Big chain, I went underwater hooked it to draw bar. That JD never changed pitch...seemed like about 400 rpm if that. It pulled it out like nothing...and I had forgot and it was in gear!

 

[BAP]

By a better tractor that doesn’t get stuck so easy!!

 

[searcyfarms]

my biggest suggestion would be this, be sure anything you pull on if it comes off or breaks will not become a projectile, people have been killed, mamed and equipment damaged seriously by the end of a log chain, end of a cable, clevis, it only takes one time so be very careful - I have had them break but thank goodness my father/grandfather and farmers I worked for were cautious - its scary when something breaks when you are that stuck with large heavy equipment - everyone be safe!!!

 

[TheMan419]

Lol when we were newbie tractor owners I got good and.... delayed. SWMBO was pretty made because she warned me about going out and doing the work I was doing.... that I would get stuck. Thankfully through this site and You Tube videos I learned to use the bucket and it's curl to lift and push me out of my situation. Have used that trick on several occasions since.

People ask us what kind of farm we have.... I tell them MUD. We have a MUD farm. Lots of clay in our soil out here.

 

[newbury]

Remember: there痴 stuck, then there痴 Army stuck....

Yeah. I wish I had pictures but about 2011? I was trying to get a maple tree out of my yard.



I was digging around the stump with my B7610 and the mud was bad. The front end slipped and caught both wheels between 2 large roots under about a foot of mud. The wheels were like in a bear trap. Had to cobble together a platform to put a farmjack on and lift it vertical. And then make a platform so I could back it out.

I don't go in mud anymore.

 

[Kaje36]

By a better tractor that doesn’t get stuck so easy!!

LOL it was actually really hard to get it stuck, I am working on a "making of" showing how much I had to work to get it stuck!

 

[Kaje36]

my biggest suggestion would be this, be sure anything you pull on if it comes off or breaks will not become a projectile, people have been killed, mamed and equipment damaged seriously by the end of a log chain, end of a cable, clevis, it only takes one time so be very careful - I have had them break but thank goodness my father/grandfather and farmers I worked for were cautious - its scary when something breaks when you are that stuck with large heavy equipment - everyone be safe!!!

We had the same concerns when winching with the truck. we put an old Carrhart jacket on the line to weight it down. the good part about cable, is it tends not to have a ton of built up energy like rope does, with the addition of weight of the jacket, it causes it to drop to the ground, killing most of the potential energy it has. It a common off-roader thing to do.

 

[Lowrider2120]

Remember: there痴 stuck, then there痴 Army stuck....

Reminds me...once upon a time while in the USAF I was doing a survey in the Everglades and we had an old D6 with a cable raised blade clearing the way for us. We took a break for lunch where the skeeters weren't too bad and when we headed back to work the last we saw of the dozer was the roll cage and the exhaust pipe...they left it running and the swamp ate it. Glad I didn't need to explain where it went to the colonel.

 

[Kaje36]

when we headed back to work the last we saw of the dozer was the roll cage and the exhaust pipe...they left it running and the swamp ate it.

Do they think the vibrations from the engine cause the swamp to swallow it? or was it something like quicksand reminiscent of the old cartoons?

 

[Lowrider2120]

Maybe both...can't say for sure but there was a lot of really soft spots along that road that we had to bypass to get a solid base. May have eaten the road by now...that was in 1968. This was before the big sink hole problem that developed in Fla.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have never owned anythings with R4s. Are they really that crappy in the mud or just worn out?

I have a big cylinder with about a 4 foot stroke. Shackles at each end. That will rip your house off it's foundation if you have a good enough spot to tie it to. Albeit, four feet, minus chain tension, at a time.