Traction Stories about mud

[Gary Fowler]

Foggy: that looks like a with a little FEL manipulation you could have pushed yourself out of that situation

 

[rd_macgregor]

Jinman, it looks like you could go into the pottery clay business.

BOB

 

[GGB]

Not quite a getting stuck story, but pretty close. Back about 1966 the Corp of Engineers began filling a federal resevoir near my hometown. My grandfather and uncle farmed some of the ground which was going to be covered when the dam was full, which was expected to take about 2 years. They had wheat almost ready to harvest that year when unexpectedly heavy spring rains soon had the water backing up into one of their wheat fields.

Trying to salvage what they could of the wheat crop, they reversed the front drive tires on the combine and would then cut into the mud from the rising water until the wheels began to spin. Then they could simply back out of the mud because the tire lugs would be in the right direction for best traction.

They did manage to get some wheat out of what would otherwise have been a total loss. It was really fascinating to watch. From behind, it almost looked like they were cutting into the lake as the water rose into the far end of the field. Some of our neighbors had fields that filled in as short as two hours.

This is probably old hat in other areas that getting flooded frequently, but it was the first and only time I've seen anything like it. I think about my grandpa and my uncle nearly everytime I hit some serious mud with my combine!

GGB

 

[foggy1111]

Foggy: that looks like a with a little FEL manipulation you could have pushed yourself out of that situation

Ya know.....I thought so too....and I was sooo close once. Kinda why I persisted...only to make things go from bad to worse. But after a time I had to admit defeat and pull it out by chain with my SUV (glad I didn't get that stuck too!! :confused2.

(Actually I think it was a bit worse than the pic shows....as I see some of our blocking under the rear tires and we had a chain on it when we snapped this pic.)

Good thing too....as it rained cats and frogs a few hours later. :thumbsup:

 

[Thomas]

Foggy.
Sooo did you ever get the stone.

 

[Thomas]

Jinman.
You indeed have a way of taking it to the limit where most of us would be belly hung.

 

[Johndeere3720]

I have came close to stuck with my Yanmar 169d but every time i either backed out or used diff. lock. It always pulled right on out. I did do a mowing job for my neighbor and he was planning on me going up a hill near the creek so i wouldnt have to drive over his lawn. I got going up that hill and all of the sudden i was sinking and sliding, loosing traction by the second. Being on that hill was scary, the creek to my right about 8 feet down, i just backed on down the hill and said my tractor didnt want to climb that hill. He saw the ruts and just had me go over the lawn. :confused2:

 

[knightrider955]

My 7000 lb tractor sinks like a rock in mud which is why it probably never gets stuck because it sinks to the hard ground underneath. But for some reason in deep sand it cant fight its way out of a wet paper sack. Especially backing up in sand, just spins. Crazy

 

[Dargo]

I never got stuck, but my feet got cold.

 

[The Haymaker]

Managed to get stuck today on a "trail" in the woods. I had cut down a 60' dead elm and was in the process of turning around to hook up to it. Nosed a little down grade to back around and that was the fatal mistake. I broke through the layer of leaves and needles to find about 18" of saturated loam on top of blue clay. No matter what I tried I couldn't get back up on the surface.

I cut down every alder with 100' to keep shoving under the tires and the bucket, which I was pushing myself back with. I backed about 60' this way but couldn't get turned and finally ended up against a small bank that kept the roll cylinders from being able to push.

Finally had to recruit my Dad and his turf-equipped 955 with about 50 feet of chain. Once free, crossed over my new "tilled" span at 90 degrees and twitched the tree to that point and then had him pull me and tree back across.

Lot of work for what ended up to be the elm and a 50' white pine that blew over in last weeks wind storm. Maybe not "free" btu's at this point, but it was at least entertaining!