So, how bad did you get your tractor stuck ?

[shadled]

Okay here goes. Picture this its a warm Friday afternoon (9/24/04) I was mowing brush down on my property with an Agri 72" 3pt mower and also burning a brush pile.. I see that the brush pile has burned down so I decided to push the pile closer together with the loader.. Well my property was wet. I sunk in upto the frame (The goo was about a foot deep and was like glue), Well I am stuck, the mower is hung up, I can't push myself out with the FEL /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif, I then decide to get off the tractor, I almost lost my boot in the goo, and remove the mower.. Well I used my '77 Dodge to pull the mower to saftey. I get back on my TC33DA and it wont start. I wont even spin over.. Now I am getting worried /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif because the fire has flared up and the bucket is in the fire.. Again the tractor will not spin over.. Nothing.. So I decided to try and pull my tractor out with my Dodge (which has a locker on the front axle), after pulling for about 10 minutes back and forth, she poped out of the muck. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif, she still wont start. So I decided I was going to pull the tractor upto my workshop and try and figure out the problem. Well I was going fine and then my Dodge sunk in upto the hubs in a swampie area. Now I am no longer pissed, but very very frustrated. So I now have my neighbor get into my Dodge, I bring down my '04 F150 and wrap a chain around the plow frame on my Dodge and hook it to the receiver on my Ford (at this point I should have taken a picture).. So its Ford hooked to the Dodge which is hooked to the front frame of the tractor, once I got traction with the Ford, I pulled the dodge and the NH to saftey.. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif


Well this was the second time I could not get this tractor started. So I decided to check the 4 wires that go into the gear case and low and behold one of the little bullet connectors unpluged AGAIN!! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

This was a poor design on NH's part..


Shadled
NH TC33DA, Agri 72" Mower, King Kutter 72" Box Blade, 60" Woods Back Blade.

 

[fireshawn]

On one of my first trips around my dad's farm/ranch I decided to detour across the pasture. I don't know what made the muck I hit, there sure was a lot of twine in that stuff, but it was deeper than my front tires were. By the time I realized my front end was sinking the rear end was in it too, not as bad, but in it none the less. FYI, a two wheel drive f250 and a tractor w/ the rear wheels locked tied together is a funny sight when the truck is trying to pull the tractor. I had no traction on either and the truck was sliding side to side on the rock/grass in the pasture. When it finally did come loose it took about 2 hours to cut all of the plastic hay twine out from around the rear axle. Needless to say, the one other spot that looks like that one is off limits to motorized vehicles now, and I got a four wheel drive f250!

Oh yeah, that wasn't me in the above story, it was somebody I knew...... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Robert_in_NY]

After 3 years I finally buried the TN. Last spring was very wet and I was trying to finish disc the last field and found a wet spot. Couldn't make it thru and the 12' disc sunk and down went the TN. Couldn't un couple the disc as the hitch was a foot under the clay much I found and the TN was buried to the floor. Went and got my neighbor who pulled me out with his 856 Ih and I was back to work.

 

[kensfarm]

I've never gotten stuck.. at least not for long.. the FEL is strong enough to pull me up a creek bank.

I did have two dairy neighbor's come to my farm to asked me to help pull them out.. one had his skid steer stuck in the mud in the woods.. I had all four tires spinning.. and dragged him out. The other was cuttying hay w/ a big ford cab tractor w/ a rotary conditioner.. my tractor grunted.. but we got him pulled to dryer ground.

 

[tugwell]

The number of times I've had my old 9N stuck is innumerable. I've had gotten used to latching on with my F350 4x4 to yard it to solid ground again.

The worst was the day I half-rolled it into a ravine (30 feet deep). I was grading a dirt road that runs along the ravine and dropped the right front wheel into soft dirt. Those skinny little tires just grabbed and pulled her down the slope. As I quickly backed my way off the tractor, I managed to shut it off and it slowly rolled into the ravine but fortunately was stopped by some small alders before tumbling to the bottom. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif It took my F350, a friend's truck with a 15,000# PTO winch, and a couple of come-a-longs to get the 9N out of the hole. Scared me enough that I stayed off a few days!

Only three days after my Branson 4220 was delivered this summer, I was shortly "detained" when I dropped the front axle through a hard crust into black muck. I was filling a hole beside my road, and suddenly the front wheels just disappeared (just the top couple of inches showing). /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Four wheel didn't even budge the tractor, and I couldn't push out with thhe loader, because the bucket was sorta "floating" on the surface and slowing the sinking process. I jumped off and unpinned the backhoe, but couldn't pull the tractor out. Finally (this is NOT recommended, but at the moment I didn't think about it much) I put the tractor in a low gear FWD reverse, then with wheels slowly turning moved to the backhoe and the combined forces let the tractor crawl out.

(I plead with the safety committee to not stone me for this behavior /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif)

Tugwell

 

[JeffRey30747]

Shadled,
I would suggest either some duct tape (quick and dirty repair) or some heat shrink tubing (better looking and probably more appropriate) over that bullet connector if it is giving you that much trouble.
Just to stay on topic, I was attempting to tear out a small beaver dam with my L3710DT and the creek bank got a little too muddy for the tractor to pull back out under its own power. I couldn't push myself out with the loader but I was able to elevate the front wheels enough to shovel dry soil into the ruts under them and free the tractor from its temporary detainment.
Jeff

 

[MikeIA]

I waited until someone else posted a bobcat story.
9:00pm on a beautiful fall night. Backfilling the basement on our new house with a rented Bobcat. Bobcat has to go home and I have to go to work the next day. At the point where the trench is the widest, where the porch foundation meets the house, It starts to slide into the hole, and doesn't stop until the bucket hits the foundation. It's nose down so far that I'm hanging from the seat belt. Moving the bucket just makes to go farther. I shut 'er down and unstrap myself from the seat. The back of the bobcat is perfectly level...you could play cards on it. I start the Ford, hook on, and give it a try. It moves, but the bucket hits my beautiful new foundation and wedges in. Someone is going to have to tilt the bucket down as it is pulled out. 9:30 at night, and I'm 8 miles from the closest town, 20 miles from home.
Tow truck? maybe as a last resort.
The only person I know in the neighborhood is the farmer we bought the acreage from....I guess he wins. Mrs Farmer answers the door, explain the situation. She turns around and hollers. He replies "NOW?". He puts his shoes back on and goes out to start his loader tractor. I head back to the site to wait. Call my wife on the cel phone. "I'm thinking about quitting pretty soon" To this day she doesn't know. Mr Farmer drives the loader bucket up over the Bobcat and I hook it on. Climb back in, and manage to strap back in. Diesel bobcat starts right back up....doesn't care that it's 90 degrees off from normal. He picks me up and I tilt the bucket down to get past the foundation.
Thank Mr Farmer, park the bobcat where the rental house will pick it up (I'll have to arrange another rental in a couple of days) and call it a night.

 

[Golfgar4]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I waited until someone else posted a bobcat story.
)</font>

Except for the audience that watched my adventure -

- YOU WIN! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Very shortly after I got my tractor I was just driving it through some very, very high growth that hadn't seen any attention in over a decade. Essentially I was "mowing" by just knocking thing over with my loader bucket. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

It was going rather well until I dropped both front wheels into a rut. Fortunately, I was able to use the FEL to help myself out of it. Unfortunately, on a couple different levels, I had elected to keep moving forward and just as the back wheels dropped into the same rut my front pair found another one and I'm bottomed out in the middle. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

OBLIGATORY WARNING: Kids, don't try this at home!

I ended up unbelting myself and turning sideways in the seat so I could operate the FEL with my left hand while running the backhoe with my right. It was neither pretty nor graceful, but I eventually got myself out by lifting both ends simultaneously then pushing out with one bucket while pulling in with the other then alternating them until I was out. I have to admit that was the first time that I experienced the "pucker factor" on my tractor. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Birdhunter1]

I got my truck stuck in front of the barn after I had loaded the trailer full of hay in the dead of winter. It was just slipping on the top (slighty thawed ground) so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal to tow it out. Hooked a chain to the 180 Allis Chalmers, sunk it with the chain pulled tight so there ws no unhooking the truck. Hooked the JD 4020 to the 180 (which was hooked up to the truck) and since the 4020 was on gravel we didn't figure there would be a problem, it got stuck too but it didn't sink quite as far (thank God) and the chain had enough slack to unhook it. Great big IH 4x4 tractor, it pulled out the JD, the AC and the truck. And I thought it would be an easy day that day.

 

[GoodGuy]

I'll let my pic explain "one" of my situations...

 

[jinman]

That is some real muck, GoodGuy. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I copied your photo and resized it for a little easier viewing. How did you get the tractor out of the mud?

 

[MMM]

I was dressing up erosion on my newly built pond dam with box blade. Found a patch of slick clay and slid right down to muck at the base. FEL had nothing to bite on to get out, and Super C wasn't pulling 7k lbs up 3/1 slope.My wife thought I was nuts when I told her to pull me into the pond with 250' rope. I drove the Case through 3' of water to gentle sloped edge and out. Took a while to lose that pucker! Glad pond wasn't near full yet and has hard bottom. After that episode, I planted grass and waited months for it to take hold, then just filled washouts with fel.

 

[GoodGuy]

Jinman.......
Again I'll let my pic speak for itself. Good Job I had some trees handy & the hoe mounted, eh ??
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Eric

 

[gcrabb]

I was bringing logs to be cut up and split in an area that was excavated for a new house a few months earlier. What the picture doesn’t show is that tractor is at the base of a small hill or now a valley were the black dirt was pushed to base of the hill. Little did I know water had collected and froze in the valley, I had been using that path all winter. It was a Sunday afternoon in late March in Wisconsin and the valley had thawed enough for the IH656 front end to break through and into a slurry of muck. I removed the logs and used the FEL to lift the front and placed 2X10’s under the front tires. The IH656 is now level and I tried to back up the hill and the tires spun. I then placed 2X10’s in front of the rear tires and tried to go forward, I had to only go approximately 10’ before I was on untouched soil. I didn’t make it! I stopped the 656 after the I heard the 2X10 break and decided to leave the tractor until the ground froze again, but what happened was the tractor sunk in the muck another foot or so. I almost got it out when the ground froze again. It was August before I could drive on that area. Thanks to the implement dealer a few miles away who pulled me out, he didn’t charge me a sent, he said it was worth the laugh.

Greg

 

[gcrabb]

Attached is a picture being pulled out.

 

[Jrrcorp]

My 4 boys were young and wanted to play hockey on the pond next to our driveway. The ponds about 25 yards wide, 40 yards long, and 12' deep. It was February and my neightbor just told me he cut a hole in his ice and it was a foot thick. We had'nt seen temperatures over 10 degrees in two weeks but we kept getting snow every day so it kept piling up on the ice and the boys were too small to shovel it all. Dad has a day at home in the office and being a nice dad like I am, I decided after lunch to plow some snow off the pond with my Kubota 275DT w/FEL and 5' snow blower on the rear. Into the shallow end I drove pushing the snow to the far end of the pond. Put it in reaverse and returned to where I stated. I noticed that the snow along the edge was a bit slushy which was hard to believe considering how cold it was. I made a second pass six feet out farther when I saw what looked like black lighting race along the bank of the pond. Than a sickening cracking sound and down I went! Some of the ice broke into 12 to 24" pieces but the piece the tractor was on held together and the main ice flow to the right of me hit against the right side of the loader arms and stop it and me from sliding down to the bottom of the pond. I jumped off, ran to the garage, got my longest chain, wrapped it around the loader arm and threw it up on the bank. Once again, I jumped into the water and climed up the bank. Now what to do? Called a local excavation contractor/friend who was not home so I changed clothes and drove into town to find help. When I returned home the boys had got home from school. I was concerned that they would think I had drowned. When I possed that question to my eldest son he replied "No Dad, we couldn't believe you were that dumb"
Moral of the story... Kubota's don't float! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Wow Jrrcorp good story. Glad you weren't hurt and no serious damage was done. I'll just bet that incident taught you what pucker power was all about. I keep my TC-40D away from my pond at all times. I have to admit that I have had the urge in the dead of winter to use it to clean the snow off the pond ice, but then I remember just how cold that water is just below the ice and it snaps me back to reality. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[TCBoomer]

Not sure if this qualifies as bad as the others, but...

Back in my rookie days, I had a D4 or 6? that was loaned to me through my BIL. First time for me with a track machine. I was doing site work at my new house and figured this thing could help remove some rocks that were poking out of the ground in the future lawn area. So off I went, pushing and digging(yep, with a dozer) and had one rock that did move, but I couldn't get it out. Before I realized what I did, I had dug a mote around this rock that was about 5' deep. This 'little' spud turned out to be one huge potatoe, but since the dozer could move it back and forth, I kept at it.

Next thing I know...CLANK...the track broke. One of the pins snapped. So here I sit, knowing nothing about this machine that was stuck in a big hole. I was worried that the owner of it would not be a happy camper, so I tried to fix it. I used a couple of cumalongs to bring the track back in place and try to reconnect it. Turns out the master pin broke. I got it to within an inch or so of reconnecting, and then the cumalongs broke!! Now what do I do?? I had a buddy that wrenches on these rigs, so I called him. He couldnt stop laughing after I told him what happened and what I tried to do. I felt pretty stupid after he told me that all that I needed to do was remove a plug, which would have released the grease for the slack adjuster. I was able to reconnect the track finally, but had to travel about 2 hrs away to find a grade 8 bolt big enough to fit.

The sad part, I blew almost 2 days on this rock and fixing the track. As it turns out, the rock was HUGE!! I ended up using a 580 extend-a-hoe to dig next to it and bury it deeper. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[GoodGuy]

Yeh, it's funny how the simplist of jobs turn to disaster in the matter of seconds. With me, I told my wife that I was going to move some dirt & wouldn't be any longer than an hour; well, 2-1/2 hours later, I'm back in the garage with nothing accomplished. I sure hope that the Kubota that didn't float, didn't have any permanent battle scars.