Has any else ever heard of this ?

BigAl · Apr 1, 2004

Hi All ,
I was talking with a "old timer" the other day about my 4x4 tractor and he was telling me how they would get the old 2 wheel drive tractors unstuck in his days . He told me they would tie a 6x6 wood beam or a log about 7 or 8 feet long as high up on the rear tires as they could . He said they ran a separate chain through the rims on each side and around the piece of wood beam or log to hold it in place . Then they slowly backed up until they were on top of the wood beam . Once they got on top of that log or beam they would unchain it and do the same thing again with another one if they still were unstuck . He said it work displace the weight and lift the tractor right out . He said as long as you did not have a rear attachment on the tractor it would work.
Now I am not going to run out and try this and I wonder how safe this would be , but it sounded plenty darn smart ,if it works . Anyone ever hear of this or was this a early april fool's joke ???

gone · Apr 1, 2004

It's an old trick the key is to back out so ttractor won't flip,if you went forward the torque could flip tractor backwards as tire stays in hole.the other one if a machine couldn't pull you. park other machine and chain through rim of stuck machine and back out, the other machine as dead weight.

ScottAR · Apr 1, 2004

My grandfather and dad told me about doing this years ago on the farm. It does work but it's extremely dangerous to operator and machine. One of the problems begins if someone tries to go forward while doing this. The log or beam comes around and crushes the operator.

My grandmother found the owner's manual to grandad's M farmall and it had two pages worth of warnings on stuff like this.

BigAl · Apr 1, 2004

Yes ,I can see why someone would not want to go forward for that exact reason ,you have stated . Well I guess they are actually people who have done this .
Big Al

Larry_T · Apr 1, 2004

this has also been done with heavy equipment. Larry

Ledgemere Farm · Apr 1, 2004

My uncle told me how to do that with my 200, but I never tried it. A come-along and some chain seems easier to me. When were come-alongs invented anyway?

leaddog · Apr 1, 2004

You are right about not trying to go forward. I was just a little tike but I remember my dad doing that with a jd-b. The next thing we remember was the tractor standing straight up in the air. My dad couldn't get off but because it had the hand clutch he was able to stop it . My mother had to run up and grab the front wheels and pull it back down. Later dad said the only reason it didn't go over was he had the draw bar all the way out and it stuck enough into the dirt to hold it. He NEVER did that again. He said that he always thought he could jump off if the tractor ever sarted to roll over but he found out that it is imposible when the tractor is tipped up straight. He couldn't get off. I never forgot that day as we just about lost him. So any time I'm operating things I ALWAYS try to have safty on my mind.
leaddog

Deerlope · Apr 1, 2004

I have done something almost like that, did not use a beam. I hooked a chain to the wheel and then to a tree acts like a winch but you had better know what can happen before you try this, you can flip over before you can bat an eye. The tractor that I was using then did not have a ROPS. I just made sure that I never got stuck after that.

boustany · Apr 2, 2004

I've done it, first with a 4x4, which snapped, then a 6x6, in very mucky gound. It worked, but you move only foot or so at a time, and I had 'broke through' into muck an I figured I'd be there for a week so I asked my neighbour to give me a tow.

I didn't think about the 'going foreward' problem, but I wanted to back up anyway. In any event, I was easing the HST, to the tires were moving very slowly.

SteveM · Apr 5, 2004

Come alongs have been around forever, but usually this situation occurs in the middle of a spring field when trying to get that first round of plowing in. Here in Upstate NY, the farmers started this weekend on the high fields. Since you usually get stuck with nothing around to achor to - and often only had one tractor, the log and tire method is best of available options. I consider myself lucky to have 2 tractors, and have used the alternate to pull out on more than one occassion.