BIG Ooops!!!

/ BIG Ooops!!! #21  
I watched a Case backhoe operator last summer install a hydro pole in a marsh!

Amazing operator.

The Case had an 'extendable boom' and he used it to advance (drag) a pole as well as about a 2 yard steel tub filled with gravel as he went along.

He flipped the bucket in a pulling motion while he used the extendable hoe to push at the same time.

He even walked the machine over hidded in the muck boulders using the outrigger legs to balance himself as he pushed.

He'd jack the front with his loader and skid along while pushing with the hoe.
Every now and then he'd advance the pole and tub with the hoe and then slide push another few feet foreward.

All the while he had muddy water awash in the cab as that was how deep the bog was.

Sure wish I had a video to capture that amazing feat.

I'd estimate that he covered (walked) about 300 yards in the muck.
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #22  
Piloon,

I'be heard the same stories from some of the old timers. Before excavators were so common, they used backhoes for everything, and they took them everywhere. I've had a few close calls, but so far, I've never found myself so stuck with my backhoe that I couldn't get out.

As far as trying to find a dozer to pull out the dozer from the mud, that dozer is small enough that it will be easy work for a backhoe. A D6 is overkill and depending on the traction available, it might not even get the job done. Think hydraulic power.

One thing that I've been told, and taken seriously, is to only risk an area once. You can usually drive over a questionable area once, but the second time through it and your tracks will break through. While digging my pond, I found areas that felt like jello. I could see the dirt move just like a water bed. I backed out and avoided those areas. A week or month later, it would dry out and I could go back and dig some more.

Good luck,
Eddie
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #23  
Once drove my snow plow (4 x 4 GMC 3/4 ton / 8ft fisher) over a stone wall!
Well, just enough to sit the front frame on the edge as I could not locate it due to snow accumulation.
Tied chain to a nearby tree, attached the come-along (5-ton 'tirfor') and cranked away to get it taunt before calling the wife to 'slip the clutch' and help.
To my amazment the front wheels simply rolled up and over the edge of the wall!

Now a 3/4 4x4 fueler set up as a plow is some heavy up front!
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #24  
Try laying a log across the back of the tracks and chain it to the tracks on each side. Back up slow and the chains will pull the log under your tracks and you can walk right out.
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #25  
Here's a video showing an excavator pulling out a pretty good sized dozer with a chain. This is what I do with my backhoe and what I would try to do for your dozer.

YouTube - John deere dozer getting pulled out of a wet hole

Here is the link to the guy I mentioned earlier. He's in his 20's, but has a huge amount of experience and skill.

YouTube - Digging more creek channel and busting more beaver dams

If you ever get in the mood to watch some great youtube videos, take a look at what he's posted.

Anyway, the mats that he's using are basically what you will need to get under your tracks to get out on your own. If you find that all the other shortcuts are not working and you realize that it's time to just get it done, regardless of how painful and exhausting it is, then this will work. You don't need an excavator, you can just build them up one log at a time under your tracks.

Good luck,
Eddie
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #26  
If you ever get in the mood to watch some great youtube videos, take a look at what he's posted.
I did a utube search for this guy when you first posted about him.
I think I have now watched all his vids. The boy has some talent. Don't miss the styro cup vid.
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #27  
Cut logs to get under front blade. Put enough under till you can lift front of machine and break suction. TRy to force some under front of tracks to support weight. chain log to rear of tracks. after suction broke try reversing as log pulled under shove next log with it. rear of machine should start to lift keep feeding logs under rear tiil on mat. Dont forget to unchain fist log.........Have had to chan logs together so first log will pull next ones under when working alone. Good luck Breaking suction in that grey mud is important.......
 
/ BIG Ooops!!!
  • Thread Starter
#28  
Well, She's out!!! And she managed largely under her own power with only a minor assist from our Montana 4340C. Chaining the log to the tracks made all the difference. Now, as promised: Pics!!!!

Here's a general overview of the situation as it was around 9:00 this morning, after sitting all night.

overview.jpg


Here's a closer shot of the dozer before we worked any today:

overview2.jpg


And a side-view so you can see how deep the front end was buried:

sideview.jpg


A view from the front. My dad is standing behind the dozer (looking rather confused) trying to disconnect the chain that survived our aborted attempt last night:

front.jpg


(Not sure how many links I can have in a single thread so I'm going to break this up)
 
/ BIG Ooops!!!
  • Thread Starter
#29  
We chained the log to the back of the dozer again, only this time we wrapped the chain around the pyramid grouser twice before hooking it so that the chain would be taking the force rather than the hook. Started the dozer up and it took the log under, moved back about a foot and then stalled. At that point my dad went back up to the barn and brought our Montana tractor down and hooked on to the back of the dozer.

In this pic, you can see the montana hooked up to the dozer just after our first pull. By this point the log is already up to the front of the dozer and we've stopped to disconnect it.

firstpull1.jpg


Here are a couple of pics showing how far we got on the first pull:

firstpull2.jpg


firstpull3.jpg


This next one was taken before we disconnected the log before we pulled the second time.

secondpull1.jpg
 
/ BIG Ooops!!!
  • Thread Starter
#30  
Before we could get the log loose from teh right track I had to spin that track forward some more and raise the front of the dozer up with the blade. As I was raising the dozer up the downpressure from the blade snapped the post. The irony here is that the post we're using is the last remnant of a post I broke out from under our pole barn parking the dozer about a month or so ago. We didn't bother chaining up another log to the tracks for the final pull. Using the Montana to keep tension on the chain and keeping the dozer at full throttle she climbed right out of the hole.

Here's a few pics of the aftermath:

Looking from the back:
aftermath1.jpg


From the front:
aftermath2.jpg


From up the hill looking down:
aftermath3.jpg


Big thanks to everyone for the suggestions and moral support. :)
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #31  
Great pics! Good job getting it out.


You pond is interesting. I have cleaned ponds out before, but all that sand on top of the silt would sure make that job interesting trying to get it cleaned out enough so that it would even dry out so you can really work in what was truly to ponds bottom.
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #32  
Congrats and thanks for posting the pictures. It looked like you made a mud bog pit!!

The water level is more then I was expecting. I'm wondering how well the clay will hold water when it's all said and done. If water is seeping up from the bottom, it will also go the other direction when full of water. It will just seep down through the bottom.

Eddie
 
/ BIG Ooops!!!
  • Thread Starter
#33  
The water level is more then I was expecting. I'm wondering how well the clay will hold water when it's all said and done. If water is seeping up from the bottom, it will also go the other direction when full of water. It will just seep down through the bottom.

The pond used to hold water really well before the dam gave way. We also noticed today while trying to dig out around the dozer that there was about 4 inches of water, then that soupy grey gumbo mess, then if you scooped below that the sand was almost dry.

As far as I know the previous owner of the property died before he ever got to run a compactor over the pond bottom, but it still held water reasonably well. What I think is happening here is that about 4 feet of sand washed in to the pond just before the dam broke. All that sand is probably remnants of a dam that broke a little way up stream from our property. Since that sand has never been compacted it's softer than beach sand most of the time and it soaks up water the same way. When I started digging everything looked fine, but once I was about a foot below the rest of the area, water started pouring in. Then I hit the sediment/trash layer from the bottom of the original pond and the water turned it into muck.

Once I get everything down as deep as I want it, I'm planning on bringing in red clay from a vein that runs through our property right on the other side of the dam and tilling it in with the existing sand/clay mixture to help seal the pond bottom before I run a compactor over it.

I have a bunch more pics of the pond overview and the busted dam in this thread over at the Pond Boss forum.
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #34  
Been there, done that. As you can see in the picture I've attached, I did something similar. In my case, I was filling in a hole from a tree stump that I had let fill with rain water. It was a spur of the moment idea to fill in the hole as I was driving the dozer back to the barn towards the end of the day. I saw that water in the hole and thought to fill it in and stop it from holding water. That was a big mistake.

The dirt turned to oatmeal in the hole with the water. The more dirt that I put into it, the better it looked, but then when I tried to drive over it, I sank. The first time, I got out, but I'm not so smart, so I did it again. That's when I sunk. Then I made it worse by trying to get out and digging myself down deeper.

It took a full day of digging with my backhoe and shovels to get it out. The tracks were just spinning and the weight of the dozer was on the belly pans. It acted just like a suction cup and nothing was going to happen until the tracks got down to solid material. I had to tunnel under the dozer and remove that mess in order to get the tracks to get down to the solid dirt that I had dug down to with the backhoe.

In your case, I don't think that pumping the water will work. I'm not even sure that the problem is water table related, but it could be. I think that you broke through the sand, which was more stable and able to support the weight of your tracks, and into the silt, which has no ability to support any weight.

I don't think you can dig down to something solid to get out, so that leave you with two options. Neither are good.

You can try to pull it out. With enough power, this will be the easy way to go. One advantage to a small dozer is it doesn't weigh very much. I got a JD 450G stuck in the mud once and was able to pull it out with my backhoe. Just hook the chain to the dozer and the hoe bucket and pull with the hydraulics. You will always have more power with the hydraulics then you ever will with tires and traction. If that's not an option, then a tow truck might be needed with a big winch. In the end, this might be the cheapest way to go. Just bight the bullet and write it off as a learning expense.

The other way, and the physically demanding way is to cut and place logs under the tracks. You need to create a mat. Imagine a log raft like Tom Sawyer would have used. Get some logs that are longer then the width of your tracks. You will probably need at least a dozen of them, but it might be more depending on how bad it is. The size should be big enough not to break under the weight of the dozer. I'd guess at least 6 inches, with bigger being better if you can handle them.

I did this one time and cut down the trees with my chainsaw fairly close to where I was stuck. It wasn't as bad as the picture, and I was out in just a few hours. I never took pictures of that one.

I couldn't get the logs under my rear tracks, but was able to lift the front end off the ground with my blade. I had to put some smaller logs under my blade to stop it from sinking it, but once the blade was solid, I was able to get the front tracks off the ground a few inches. With a shovel, I slid the logs in under the tracks. My first attempt failed because I tried it with just a few logs. They just sank into the mud. The next time, I put allot more logs in there. Maybe too many, who knows. But it worked. I was able to get up on the tracks and just drive on out of that wet spot.

The longer the longs, the more they will support. It's just as simple as making that raft or mat. If you are unsure of this, go to youtube and do a search for excavator and mats or stuck excavators. There is a guy that uses them all the time with his excavator while working in mud. He's amazing and if you find his videos, you'll see how crazy or good a guy can be with them and working in bottomless mud. If I find the links, I'll post them here.

Good luck,
Eddie

Eddie, that is stuck, I've never seen a machine that stuck before, seems worse than loosing your track like the other post.

Thanks for sharing.

Joel
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #35  
Good to see that you got it out. We had similar problems with tanks in Nam. 60 tons in a mud bog is a bear. When no tank retriever was available, we did one of 2 things. Use an air compressor with a long pipe to pump air under the tank. Breaks the mud suction and usually you can back them out.

If that didn't work, put about 4 oz of C4 under the tank and pop it. It not only breaks the suction but lifts the tank up a couple of inches. Gun it and go like H... Oops - guess that wouldn't work with a dozer. Might be hard on the bottom!
 
/ BIG Ooops!!! #36  
Good to see that you got it out. We had similar problems with tanks in Nam. 60 tons in a mud bog is a bear. When no tank retriever was available, we did one of 2 things. Use an air compressor with a long pipe to pump air under the tank. Breaks the mud suction and usually you can back them out.

If that didn't work, put about 4 oz of C4 under the tank and pop it. It not only breaks the suction but lifts the tank up a couple of inches. Gun it and go like H... Oops - guess that wouldn't work with a dozer. Might be hard on the bottom!

I bet you guys from the war have a bunch of stories like the one above.

You guys have had experiences I sure haven't.

Thanks for sharing.

Joel
 

Marketplace Items

2014 MASSEY FERGUSON 5612 DYNA-4 TRACTOR (A59823)
2014 MASSEY...
500 BBL FRAC TANK (A58214)
500 BBL FRAC TANK...
2020 Kinze 3505 High Speed 6/11 Planter (A61307)
2020 Kinze 3505...
2004 CATERPILLAR 320CL EXCAVATOR (A60429)
2004 CATERPILLAR...
2013 Land Rover Range Rover Sport 4X4 SUV (A59231)
2013 Land Rover...
2007 FORD FREESTYLE SEL (A60430)
2007 FORD...
 
Top