Winches Getting Your Kubota Out of Mud / Snow While Working Alone

[SDT]

I do it with a shovel. May take some time but always works.

Of course, there are specific techniques for use in specific circumstances but without more information, the shovel if the only fail safe technique that I know.

SDT

 

[JWR]

...FZ6: You said, " I maintain a mile and a half of steep private road and during the recent blizzard here in northeast PA, even with chains, it seems like I spent more time digging the tractor out than clearing snow. The older I get, the more of a hassle it becomes to get my tractor out of a jam. Invariably, it happens when working alone, at night and a mile or so from the barn."

In order to be very helpful it would be good to know --- 1) Is this a rock-base road/driveway ? 2) Do you have trees and other solid anchors all along the road or just in some places ? 3) Is this 95% a snow issue or do you often have "in the road mud hole" issues ?
While waiting to hear those things I do have one immediate comment. The R4 tires are not ideal for this. It is NOT cheap to swap (and you may well have reasons like backhoe work, etc. not to swap) but R1 ag tires have much less trouble in snow, esp where the snow tends to become ice almost the instant the tire begins to spin. You might find someone willing to swap R1 tires for your R4 set (?) Be interested to hear the rest of the story about your long driveway environment.

 

[k0ua]

A bush winch sounds like a good solution to me. As long as you have trees or something to pull against. Once your wheels are set up to attach the bush winch you are good to go. Do you work so far away from you storage area that you couldn't walk back to get the bush winch reels? It is a heck of a lot less complicated and less expensive than many of the ideas presented here. I also suspect many of you don't know what a bush winch is.

Notice the spelling. Bush WINCH, not Wench. while bush wench's could be a lot of fun, I don't think they would help a lot getting a vehicle unstuck.

 

[bcp]

Notice the spelling. Bush WINCH, not Wench. while bush wench's could be a lot of fun, I don't think they would help a lot getting a vehicle unstuck.

Why not?

Bruce

 

[k0ua]

Why not?

View attachment 505080

Bruce

Alright.. a nice handy bush wench..:thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

Here is how to make a flip flop winch if you have some rope and can cut some poles. a lot more work, but the cost is very low.

 

[k0ua]

Another idea is to have a hydraulic cylinder and hydraulic Quic connects up front on your tractor to "winch" forward. On the ram of the cylinder have a chain grab hook. Have another grab hook welded on the front frame of the tractor where you can get to it easily.

Extend the ram of the cylinder. Run a chain or combination of chain and cable over to a nearby tree or other immovable object you can winch against. Hook chain link into the extended hydraulic cylinder's rod, grab hook. Now apply hydraulic power and pull in the rod. Take the free end of the chain and attach it to the grab hook on the frame of the tractor. Extend rod and loosen chain in its grab hook. The grab hook on the frame of the tractor will hold the load of the tractor.

With the rod extended, go get another bite of chain and pull it in. This will loosen the force on the static grab hook on the tractor frame and hopefully roll the tractor forward a few inches (the rod extension length). Continue doing this until tractor is rolled forward enough to become unstuck. This is slow, and requires much hooking and unhooking for one man, but a lot of force can be exerted by the hydraulic cylinder if the proper size is chosen. Again this is something you may want to have stored at the home base, and go walk to get the cylinder, hoses, and chains.

The hydraulic cylinder may or may not be attached to the tractor frame in a semi permanent mount if desired. Or the cylinder could be hung in free space with a chain and grab hook arrangement on both ends. As long as the hoses are long enough to get back to either your rear remote QD's or your front QD's you would have for say to run a grapple.

When sizing your hydraulic cylinder, Keep in mind the the force to extend the rod is greater than the force that can be applied to retract the rod due to the square inches of the rod taking up the surface area for the fluid to act upon the surface of the piston. But still if you size the cylinder correctly you can still exert a great force.

 

[k0ua]

So there. Three ideas to get your tractor out of that hole or ditch. All doable by just one man.

 

[k0ua]

Oh, and if you do decide to find a bush wench, send her my way.:laughing:

 

[bdhsfz6]

...FZ6: You said, " I maintain a mile and a half of steep private road and during the recent blizzard here in northeast PA, even with chains, it seems like I spent more time digging the tractor out than clearing snow. The older I get, the more of a hassle it becomes to get my tractor out of a jam. Invariably, it happens when working alone, at night and a mile or so from the barn."

In order to be very helpful it would be good to know --- 1) Is this a rock-base road/driveway ? 2) Do you have trees and other solid anchors all along the road or just in some places ? 3) Is this 95% a snow issue or do you often have "in the road mud hole" issues ?
While waiting to hear those things I do have one immediate comment. The R4 tires are not ideal for this. It is NOT cheap to swap (and you may well have reasons like backhoe work, etc. not to swap) but R1 ag tires have much less trouble in snow, esp where the snow tends to become ice almost the instant the tire begins to spin. You might find someone willing to swap R1 tires for your R4 set (?) Be interested to hear the rest of the story about your long driveway environment.

The road consists of a red shale base capped with 6" of 2RC modified gravel. It isn't the road surface that causes the problem it's the deep drainage ditches necessary to handle water runoff on the steep grade. There are plenty of trees to use as winch points. I use R4 tires and have a backhoe. I've had ag R1's on previous tractors which do have better traction but I've been stuck with those as well. The problem is mostly in deep snow or snow on top of ice. If I break traction while working, the tractor winds up in the ditch very quickly due to the high road crown. I usually work uphill since it's easier to get out of a jam with gravity working with you. Occasionally, I'll have a mud problem when working in the woods but not nearly as often.