Pulling Vehicles out of a Ditch in the Snow

[k0ua]

This basically echoes my thoughts with just one small exception.
If you had used the drawbar and also filled the loader with a little wieght you might have been very surprised with the results. I have pulled many out of the ditches around here, itç—´ almost impressive when the transfer of wieght is onto the rear tires and your yanking trucks 3 times your wieght out without so much as a hiccup.

Yep. Agreed. See the bolded text in my reply number 16

 

[k0ua]

Somewhere on YouTube is a video of a recovery. The tractor is pulling from a raised bucket. The tractor turns slightly while pulling, causing it to roll over from a side force up high.

Bruce

Yep, a recipe for disaster. And it comes quick.

 

[k0ua]

I have seen that one before, and while it may seem cruel to laugh at someone's misfortune, it was kind of a "what in the sam hill did you expect was going to happen?" catatgory.

 

[airbiscuit]

I agree with pulling from the rear drawbar. Whenever I hook a chain or strap to my bucket, I am a fanatic about making sure it s a straight pull. The last thing I want to do is bend/twist/spring my loader arms. The differential lock is your friend, as is having sand or chains under your tires. It also helps if the person in the stuck vehicle has a clue about how to turn the front wheels. Finay, they hook up to their own vehicle (although I will advise if they are about to do something incredibly stupid).

 

[cqaigy2]

Sometimes a tow isn't needed.

A few years ago, i own a little 2001 white 4 door prizm. It's weight distribution contributed to it handling very well in the snow, even without all fancy traction control. One night i'm going home, compact snow and ice. Around a corner and i see a big FWD pickup had slid off the road, into the ditch. I pull up next to him and ask if he needs a hand, he eyes my little itty bitty car, but says sure. I pull back behind him, flashers on. Get out of the car walk past the pickup, then come back and looking up at him i say, "I think i can get you out of there, but it might cause a little more damage to the side of your pickup. You can just see the gears moving in his head, 'how the heck is that little bitty car going to pull my big azz pickup out of ditch', but he'd probably been expose to those wily "country folk" before and thought, got nothing to lose, and it might be entertaining. I said, straighten you wheels out until i say stop, then had him pull forward, up out of the ditch. He'd had his wheels cranked all the way to the left, trying to crawl back up and out of the ditch.

 

[Thomas]

Just be extra double careful when pulling stranger from ditch etc.,that's one of reasons many highway department won't.

 

[MossRoad]

I have seen that one before, and while it may seem cruel to laugh at someone's misfortune, it was kind of a "what in the sam hill did you expect was going to happen?" catatgory.

In all honesty, last year, my kid's Malibu died (ate the engine) about 120 miles away. I went with a car dolly to pick it up. It was on a slight incline and we couldn't push it up onto the car dolly by hand, so I used the winch on the car dolly to pull it up. I thought I had hooked it on the frame right above where the plastic aerodynamic stuff fastened over the metal, but I just got the hook under the plastic and.... ripped the air dam off. It was already damaged, so I just finished the job, but still, I looked around to see of anyone saw me. Then we loaded it up and drove away... :steeringwheel:

 

[paulfun9]

Yep. Agreed. See the bolded text in my reply number 16

I didn’t see your post 16 at the time of writing.

 

[goddom]

Somewhere on YouTube is a video of a recovery. The tractor is pulling from a raised bucket. The tractor turns slightly while pulling, causing it to roll over from a side force up high.

Bruce

Yes, there were a couple times the tractor tilted up and I was feeling pretty vulnerable to roll over so I repositioned myself to pull more straight on. The last thing I wanted was to end up a casualty to just get a car out of a ditch. No ones life was in danger so if it was left it wouldn't be the end of the world. Definitely wise to keep that in mind when pulling with a tractor.

 

[4570Man]

I am always amazed in what excavators will do. They are very powerful machines indeed.

It is strong but it’s a lot better vehicle recovery platforms to. A tractor in poor conditions that led to getting stuck to start with can’t pull very hard. The mini is mostly unchanged. All pulling with a horizontal chain takes a lot of force to plow the vehicle through the mud. The mini can pull up which increases its anchor point and decreases the vehicle drag.