Stuck in the mud

[turnkey4099]

That front tire doesn't look it in the picture but it was stuck. The mud was thick and heavy and it was preventing the axle from moving. Both rears were on relatively solid but slimey ground. The R4's were just spinning. I could get it to go a bit forward but not backward. Going forward just made the front dig in deeper.

I have an 'unsticker' in my PU for just such happenings. It is two covers off a lawnchair, one of those with the springs inside. Insert one edge as far as possible under the tires and out you come (as long as you aren't buried). The springs and etc., provide grip against both the tire and the surface.

Harry K

 

[MadReferee]

Now here is a lot of mud. I was out today "grooming" the other end of the mud hole my son got stuck in. As you can see, the mud sticks to everything.

 

[MadReferee]

Now here is the mud hole, or mud area if you will. It's about 100 yards long and 10-25 yards wide. I just finished leveling it with the hope that it will dry out and be good and ready for some planting in the spring. The mud is anywhere from 6" to 24" deep in spots. The average depth is about a foot, at least that's how far the dozer sinks in when traversing it.

 

[jbrumberg]

MadReferee:

I also live in NE. The readership who do not live in glaciated areas do not fully comprehend nor appreciate mud. I will probably get stuck within the next 3 weeks "finishing" my driveway project. R-1's work much more efficiently "goowing" forward than backward. I will probably try the "FEL Crawl" method of extricating myself. Maybe I should start taking pictures. Jay

 

[BobRip]

Mad

Looks like there was no effort to use the FEL. I believe that would have got this out.

I agree. Use the bucket to push down and lift the front wheels up. Then roll the bucket to push you back combined with the wheels driving you backwards. Repeat this several times and usually you will get out. This does not work if the mud is so soft that the bucket sinks in real deep. I don't really call this situation stuck. Of course I was not there and it might be worse that I can see from the pictures. It sure is nice to have a bull dozer though.

 

[jwstewar]

Mad,

Glag to hear to go it out. That dozer sure made it easy.

But the FEL would have gotten it out. No, I have an area like that. I've been stuck in it several times. Usually the loader just ends up pushing a big bunch of mud up in front of the loader or if trying to go forward pushing a BIG bunch up under the front of the tractor in turn burying it more. My extractor isn't near that reliable at moving it. I have to rely on my Silverado. I think I've only been stuck once or twice the truck wouldn't pull it out and then I had my neighbor with his 36 HP Long and R1s pull me out. Of course, I've had to pull him out to with my little NH TC24 and R4s.

 

[Duke4AZ]

Hands down, two toys in one day for same project . . . the dozer was the way to go. Certainly don't want to get those boots muddy. That stuff looks like a lot of fun to wash off of something. Good luck getting the dozer clean.

Now, had toy number two not been available, and you did not want to tear the drive line out of the Saab, you might have had to sacrifice that load of wood. I believe the wood spread perpendicular to the edge of the bucket would have provided the support needed not to sink the bucket in the mud when you raised the front end. However, as with all armchair quarterbacking, actually being there can add another dimension that photos just don't show.

I sure do envey you guys that live in the NE. Some very pretty country you have there, mud and all. Just a bit different here in the SW. We have ugly mud too, but wait a few hours or at worst a day or two and it becomes pretty tame and managable . . . at least until it gets completely dry and turns to rock.

 

[Duke4AZ]

Oh, jsut curious, ever get that dozer stuck? Got pics?

 

[MadReferee]

It took about an hour to get it relatively clean. It still hasn't dried yet.

I do have a Jeep Cherokee that would have pulled the Kubota out if I didn't have the dozer.

I have never gotten it stuck but it's always in the back of my mind. The loader crawlers have those low profile flat tracks that are good for turning on a dime but not so good for pushing and getting unstuck.

 

[8561]

My father owned Mad's bulldozer for about 25 years and we managed to get it pretty stuck once. As you might expect, Dad did the loader crawl until it was freed up. Once the undercarriage on one of those starts to unweight the tracks, you're a dead man.

 

[slaveToHorses]

I don't call that stuck. I call it "lost traction". Stuck is when it is seriously burried.

Having something heavy around to pull you out is always more convenient. But a trick I have used might help you out if you find yourself alone sometime.

It has many variations but what I have used is a long cable and snatch block. I attached one end to the tractor and the snatch block to a tree (or big rock). I fed the cable through the block and attached the other end to the loader.
You lift up/back on the loader and the cable pulls the tractor. Sometimes this just lifts the rear tires up, in which case you pack stuff under them and try to back out.

Another trick is to lay the loader bucket down flat, so it doesn't sink in, and then lift the front tires up so you can stick stuff under them.

 

[Maine_Polack]

I wanna dozer too...

Lately when faced with a mud hole that gets rode over, I have turned to Geo-Textile material.

I scrape the top off, hopefully to hard pan, and lay down the material. Then I try to use gravel, and/or rocks. But sometimes just fill over with the soil from the top. It keeps the "top" from getting pushed down into the bottom when muddy.

The drawback is the material is fairly expensive. At this point any roads I make are just for fun, to improve access. I really like the idea of handing down property to my kids that I have improved and practiced good stewardship on. Very mind relaxing...

 

[N80]

Someone said something about the mud in the NE and I certainly wouldn't argue but the red clay down here can be a nightmare too. I've had my little Kubota up to the hubs a couple of times but haven't needed a pull yet, but the day will come, I have no doubt. We also have something we call bull tallow. It is a sticky, yellowish/tan clay and you can really get stuck in it too. When I was building my cabin it rained all spring long and one day I was using a rented off-road fork lift (kind of like a Lull but made by some British company, JCB.) That thing was one of the most amazing vehicles I've ever used. It was 4wd, the boom could lift over 6000 pounds and lift it high. It was self leveling which made it indespensible on my property. But one unique property is that it had four wheel steering. I managed to wallow it down in this bull tallow and could not get it out until I remembered the four wheel steering. Turning the rear wheels in line with the fronts didn't help, but turning them parallel to the fronts did the trick, it eased out sideways like a crab.

 

[RobJ]

Someone said something about the mud in the NE and I certainly wouldn't argue but the red clay down here can be a nightmare too. I've had my little Kubota up to the hubs a couple of times but haven't needed a pull yet, but the day will come, I have no doubt. We also have something we call bull tallow. It is a sticky, yellowish/tan clay and you can really get stuck in it too.

I ran into some of that tan stuff up near the Red River in north Texas. Slick stuff, still holds the water but sticks to the tires. So you sink about 1" but are all over the place, zero tractor.

We have the black gumbo stuff in the river bottom here. It'll look totally dry till you hit it. I've seen 2" of it stuck to my slow moving truck tires. The ATV will pick it up in little balls. Actually once we were digging some holes with a 3pt PHD down in the bottom. Took about 15 minutes for a 3' hole with about 4 of us on the auger. The spoils looked like black marbles, nothing fine.

The red clay isn't a problem around here, most of it has the little iron ore pieces in it. It makes the best roads. Water just runs off and the little pieces of ore give you all the traction you want.

Some of our black gumbo...

 

[jjcc246]

I believe this is stuck.

 

[Doc_Bob]

I believe this is stuck.

That looks like very fertile soil, so soft it will swallow a tractor!
Bob

 

[RonR]

I need to dig out my old slides and digitize them to add to this story.

In the mid 70's, I was in a Marine Artillery Unit in Okinawa. We were at one of the firing ranges for a multi-day firing exercise, when we had an issue with "mud". We were at the base of Mt Fuji, which is total volcanic ash type stuff. I'd never been in that stuff before or since, but there is no base to it. It's has the consistency of gravel.

Anyway, we had the six 155 Howitzers in firing position, and we were "tactical", meaning all our 5 ton, all wheel drive truck were hidden in gulleys. Our fire direction center (FDC) tent, a 40 man tent, was also in a depression at the base of a several hundred yard long valley. I was range safety that exercise, so I was sleeping in the XO's tent, which was behind the guns, not in such low ground.

We knew there was a typhoon off the coast, but didn't figure it would bother us. Then it started raining. And raining. And raining. And raining. And raining. And the wind was blowing................

We had a land line phone between our tent and the fire direction tent and each of the guns on the line. About 3AM, we started hearing that the FDC was cot-deep in water and everything was SOAKED.

Not much anyone could do, but wait for light. Our tent was collapsing as the tent stakes in the volcanic ash didn't hold for squat. We were thankful though, that we were on high ground. Our tent finally collapsed at 5AM, so we crawled out and started packing stuff in. It was obvious that our exercise was over.

We gave the order to box it up, and head to the barn.

That's when we discovered that all our tactically dispersed trucks and jeeps were now TACTICALLY STUCK! Things were not looking good, but wait--we had our own bulldozer, an Emco tracked loader (maybe 75HP???). We moved it to the first tactically stuck truck. Now our Emco was semi-tactically stuck.

We spent an hour or so tossing wooden ammo crates under the tracks as the operator struggled to move it. All it did was bury a bunch of wood crates!

Sensing defeat, our CO called home and asked the detached tank company if they could send a coupla tanks out to tow us out. NO PROBLEM, they said, so we chilled until they showed.

We'll, Tank #1 promptly threw a tread near the quagmire, which made it's crew very, very mad. We stayed away from them as they fought their own issues.

Tank #2 was able to drag each stuck truck, howitzer, and jeep to the hardpacked road. We were able to re-assemble our convoy on the road.

It took us all day to get the unit out of the mud and everything anyone owned was SOAKED by the end of the day.

Need to dig out those slides..................

Ron USMCR

 

[bones1]

Yes Ron. Would like very much to see them.

 

[Volfandt]

Neat story RonR, I too spent alittle time on beautiful Oki by sea in the mid 70's at a nice little airstrip called MCAS Futema
Those typhoons could be wicked....

S/F
Volfandt

 

[scott_vt]

I need to dig out my old slides and digitize them to add to this story.

In the mid 70's, I was in a Marine Artillery Unit in Okinawa. We were at one of the firing ranges for a multi-day firing exercise, when we had an issue with "mud". We were at the base of Mt Fuji, which is total volcanic ash type stuff. I'd never been in that stuff before or since, but there is no base to it. It's has the consistency of gravel.

Anyway, we had the six 155 Howitzers in firing position, and we were "tactical", meaning all our 5 ton, all wheel drive truck were hidden in gulleys. Our fire direction center (FDC) tent, a 40 man tent, was also in a depression at the base of a several hundred yard long valley. I was range safety that exercise, so I was sleeping in the XO's tent, which was behind the guns, not in such low ground.

We knew there was a typhoon off the coast, but didn't figure it would bother us. Then it started raining. And raining. And raining. And raining. And raining. And the wind was blowing................

We had a land line phone between our tent and the fire direction tent and each of the guns on the line. About 3AM, we started hearing that the FDC was cot-deep in water and everything was SOAKED.

Not much anyone could do, but wait for light. Our tent was collapsing as the tent stakes in the volcanic ash didn't hold for squat. We were thankful though, that we were on high ground. Our tent finally collapsed at 5AM, so we crawled out and started packing stuff in. It was obvious that our exercise was over.

We gave the order to box it up, and head to the barn.



That's when we discovered that all our tactically dispersed trucks and jeeps were now TACTICALLY STUCK! Things were not looking good, but wait--we had our own bulldozer, an Emco tracked loader (maybe 75HP???). We moved it to the first tactically stuck truck. Now our Emco was semi-tactically stuck.

We spent an hour or so tossing wooden ammo crates under the tracks as the operator struggled to move it. All it did was bury a bunch of wood crates!

Sensing defeat, our CO called home and asked the detached tank company if they could send a coupla tanks out to tow us out. NO PROBLEM, they said, so we chilled until they showed.

We'll, Tank #1 promptly threw a tread near the quagmire, which made it's crew very, very mad. We stayed away from them as they fought their own issues.

Tank #2 was able to drag each stuck truck, howitzer, and jeep to the hardpacked road. We were able to re-assemble our convoy on the road.

It took us all day to get the unit out of the mud and everything anyone owned was SOAKED by the end of the day.

Need to dig out those slides..................

Ron USMCR

Hey Ron,
That was a great story thanks for sharing it !!!