MinnesotaEric
Super Member
Watch the video.
What really happened is that I've been busting my butt trying to get as much material together into three slash piles to burn this winter all at once like I did last year.
The 14" snow we had was nothing but super wet, sticky hard to plow, and slippery. Nobody in their right mind is traveling anywhere and it had drifted over 2' high in many places. In my tractor I fell off the road once on my way over to my slash piles and got stuck in a ditch. I tipped my plow down and used it as a lever to slowly inch my way straight back up and out of the ditch.
I plowed out several neighbor driveways along the way.
And so it got dark, but I finally got to my new property and busied myself plowing access to my slash piles.
There is a bend in my main access road and last winter I thought, gee, wouldn't it be nice if I banked that corner a little so I wouldn't slide to the outside in the winter.
So this past summer, I did just that and put a slight bank into the corner.
Tonight while plowing, my plow caught that slight bank and followed it to the low point and I slid down to a tree that was caught itself between my front and rear wheels on the left side. I was unable to back my tractor up with trees behind it and unable to travel forward and to the right because I was stuck. Differential lock. Nope, stuck. Rocking back and forth. Nope, stuck.
Once I realized I really was stuck, several thoughts ran through may mind:
I left my chains at home 'cause I don't need them because I'm plowing. D'oh!
I don't have a key to get into my container to get out my 5-ton come-along and winch myself out because the keys are back home so I won't lose them in the snow. D'oh!
I may end up leaving my tractor and walking out. Double D'oh!
So while I freaked out a little, I hit on the idea of levering up the front of the tractor with my plow, while trying to get the plow to windrow to the right. My plow has a blow-off valve to protect itself from hits and wasn't super cooperative, but eventually I was able to windrow while holding the right brake, and trying to move forward and the entire tractor levered over to the right, away from the lousy tree, and then a hose on my plow blew because the blowoff valve was never meant to try to hold up the front end of 8400 pounds.
Without directional control, I was done.
On the way home, right where I had slid off the road there was a car and a truck stuck that had apparently been following in the trail I had made on my way out and I nearly got stuck there again driving around them.
When I got home, a neighbor told me on Facebook that two of our friends got stuck with their plow trucks tonight. I count myself lucky to have made it home.
What really happened is that I've been busting my butt trying to get as much material together into three slash piles to burn this winter all at once like I did last year.
The 14" snow we had was nothing but super wet, sticky hard to plow, and slippery. Nobody in their right mind is traveling anywhere and it had drifted over 2' high in many places. In my tractor I fell off the road once on my way over to my slash piles and got stuck in a ditch. I tipped my plow down and used it as a lever to slowly inch my way straight back up and out of the ditch.
I plowed out several neighbor driveways along the way.
And so it got dark, but I finally got to my new property and busied myself plowing access to my slash piles.
There is a bend in my main access road and last winter I thought, gee, wouldn't it be nice if I banked that corner a little so I wouldn't slide to the outside in the winter.
So this past summer, I did just that and put a slight bank into the corner.
Tonight while plowing, my plow caught that slight bank and followed it to the low point and I slid down to a tree that was caught itself between my front and rear wheels on the left side. I was unable to back my tractor up with trees behind it and unable to travel forward and to the right because I was stuck. Differential lock. Nope, stuck. Rocking back and forth. Nope, stuck.
Once I realized I really was stuck, several thoughts ran through may mind:
I left my chains at home 'cause I don't need them because I'm plowing. D'oh!
I don't have a key to get into my container to get out my 5-ton come-along and winch myself out because the keys are back home so I won't lose them in the snow. D'oh!
I may end up leaving my tractor and walking out. Double D'oh!
So while I freaked out a little, I hit on the idea of levering up the front of the tractor with my plow, while trying to get the plow to windrow to the right. My plow has a blow-off valve to protect itself from hits and wasn't super cooperative, but eventually I was able to windrow while holding the right brake, and trying to move forward and the entire tractor levered over to the right, away from the lousy tree, and then a hose on my plow blew because the blowoff valve was never meant to try to hold up the front end of 8400 pounds.
Without directional control, I was done.
On the way home, right where I had slid off the road there was a car and a truck stuck that had apparently been following in the trail I had made on my way out and I nearly got stuck there again driving around them.
When I got home, a neighbor told me on Facebook that two of our friends got stuck with their plow trucks tonight. I count myself lucky to have made it home.
Last edited:
I was sweating outside doing a few things this morning. 
