Stuck in the mud

[JayDavis]

Another trick is if there are good sized trees nearby to pull/push against them with the backhoe to get yourself out of the muck. That may not have worked in your situation, but it is a nifty trick.

 

[bindian]

Another trick is if there are good sized trees nearby to pull/push against them with the backhoe to get yourself out of the muck. That may not have worked in your situation, but it is a nifty trick.

The closet tree was a sweetgum and it could come down with a good wind while sitting in that soil. I almost pushed it over after getting out of the mud just for grins.
hugs, Brandi

 

[AlanB]

Glad you got out Brandi, but have to go with Eddie, when you work out under your own power, it is a delay

Unfortunately, I have found myself in much the same predicimant a time or two in my yard

 

[ray66v]

The old timers have all told me you can't get a backhoe stuck. You have many built in options for self extrication.
Now, we just need to learn to use them.

 

[Willis Fecon Bushhogging]

Well, I finally did it. I stuck the Big Red Beast good. All the way up to the axles. All 11,100 pounds. The backhoe frame was sitting in the mud. When I deployed the backhoe bucket to lift the rear end up out of the mud. The bucket just went down into the muck. My neighbors came over to help. We threw boards under the BH bucket. Between the BH bucket and stabilizers, I got the rear end up out of the muck high enough to throw more boards under the tires. Then I raised the front end with the loader bucket and did the same under the front tires. We had to do this 3 times. After the first time, all my boards had dissappeared. So we started cutting down 4-5 inch trees in 2 foot lengths to throw under the tires. After the first try we had water appearing. I was concerned because we were scheduled for scattered thunderstorms. We didn't get the storms and after two hours of thrashing in the mud, the Beast walked out under her own power. Two mistakes I won't make again. I won't try to back out, as that dug in deeper. The front loader wanted to pull her out, but the BH frame just drug deeper. Don't use the stabilizer if you can. These just take up boards under them and time. Lift the rear end with the BH bucket alone if you can. But the Big Red Beast was so low, I had to use the BH bucket and stabilizers to raise her.
I had my camera hanging from the ROPS for blog photos. But I was too concerned in getting her out of the mud to remember to take photos! So now I just have a photo of the mud hole.
hugs, Brandi

I have one almost as good, I was operating my Cat 320 excavator, cutting in a road. I was having to dig about 6ft of muke and then replace with sand. I am backing up, digging and stock piling muke on the side, my next move was a bad move, I really dont know what happened, I must have backed on top of a under ground stream or something, the 45,000 lb machine just sunk, up to the bottom of the cab. As you stated also, we had bad wx coming in that night, so now Im in a mess big time. My brother was on my other Cat 320 clearing a lot about 30 miles away, luckily we had just started that job and our lowboy was still there, so loading up and away we go, to the sinking machine. We dug out a big area, with a ramp, in front of the machine. hooked bucket to bucket and used the power of the machines, to pull it out. This was the first time, I had ever got a machine stuck that bad, I had a huge pucker factor, if you know what I mean.
Pressure washed and greased and Im off again.

 

[bindian]

I forgot to say in my original post that at one point I thought I blew a hydraulic line while getting out of my "delayed" spot. My backhoe controls froze, but my loader still moved. I was looking everywhere for a leak when Lori pointed to the left rear tire. That is when I saw a quick disconnect popped off and I was trying to move a non-pressurized system.
Talk about being frustated. I thought I was "delayed" in the mud and had a broken backhoe!
hugs, Brandi

 

[dirtworksequip]

Thats right "stuck" is when another machine can't get enough traction to pull you out. There's water 2 inches from running into your fuel tank. You only have a half hour of daylight left. Its calling for rain and you already spent 6 hours trying to get unstuck. Thats stuck! Oh............. I almost forgot. Its the 4th of July and nothings open.

DON'T ASK!

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[bindian]

Thats right "stuck" is when another machine can't get enough traction to pull you out. There's water 2 inches from running into your fuel tank. You only have a half hour of daylight left. Its calling for rain and you already spent 6 hours trying to get unstuck. Thats stuck! Oh............. I almost forgot. Its the 4th of July and nothings open.

DON'T ASK!

Sincerely, Dirt

Dirt,
I see you were smart enough to photograph the mud thrashing.
Good photo of a bad situation. How long did it finally take to get her out?
hugs, Brandi

 

[dirtworksequip]

Brandi, we did everything we knew to do and still couldn't get the CAT 935C out. It weighed a little over 8 ton and the CAT 941 we were using to pull with weighed 12 ton. NO traction, so the stuck machine wasn't going anywhere. After messing around for 6 hours and with the threat of darkness and rain looming over us. I said, lets try hooking the chains onto the track shoe of the stuck machine and see if it could walk out on the chains.Using the turning tracks as a sort of winch. We hooked up one chain to each track in the front on the bottom towards the ground. So, we had a chain on each track and then running back to the pulling machine that was just going to be a 12 ton anchor point now. Got the chains hooked up and put the stuck machine in gear and slowly gave it some throttle. It walked out on the chains in about 10 seconds and was out of the soupy muddy mess I had gotten into. I just shook my head and said, We should have tried that about 6 hours ago! It was a valuable lesson learned and I have used the same technique many times after that to extract myself when stuck with a track machine. Thats what happens to you when try and you go that extra few inches you shouldn't have gone. It took me three days to get the mud clean out of and off of the 935.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[TroyT]

While I didn't do this personally. I did drive by it several time. By the time the story was over, two trackhoes were in the mud and it took a 3rd crane to get them both out. To make matters worse, the first trackhoe was a rental.

Here is a link to the local news story. HeraldNet: Man on hook for sinking excavator

Sorry I've never posted a URL before so I hope it works.

Troy