Stuck Stories

[dieselfuelonly]

I have been lucky enough to not get my tractor stuck yet...

But I know that time will come .

So lets hear your stories about your tractor or your tow rig got stuck and how you got it out!

(And please, no pictures of excavators buried in the mud unless that actually happend to you or someone you know ).

 

[whodat90]

Well, so far the only time I managed to get my tractor stuck was in the snow. B7200D, no loader, with turf tires, trying to push snow with a back blade. It got up on top of the snow and sat there very slowly spinning all four tires not digging in at all. Ended up getting off (with it still running in gear, low-1) and pushing it. Eventually it managed to drive itself forward, at which point I got back on and put it away.

 

[AlanB]

I stuck my BH about the second week I owned it.
Pictures etc. on the projects forum under Al B's House rework.

Pushing some garbage back, and ran crossways to the dozer tracks where he had gotten stuck, when my front wheels dropped into the depression from his tracks things went from bad to worse.

Long story short, I stopped when darkness fell and when I stepped out the cab of my 555 Ford, I was standing on level ground, my front wheels were out of site, and my rears were about half.

Got it out the next day with RR timbers, rock, and cinder blocks.

 

[jeffinsgf]

This Spring I spent several days over a few weeks cutting ditches on either side of our driveway. We had a couple of really heavy downpours that washed out my newly cut ditches. A couple days after one of the "toad stranglers" in what seemed like the 20th time I reworked my east side ditch, I was using my box blade to smooth things out. I was working down the hill toward the highway. Our property drops pretty slowly down the grade, but at the ditch for the highway, it is an abrubt 5 foot drop. I was trying to get my ditch to blend smoothly into the state's ditch, and had made box blade pulls into the state ditch several times in the past few weeks. Always a little pucker factor going down, but nothing serious. Well this time, the ditch was full of silt from what had washed from my ditches, and it had not dried out nearly as quickly as the stuff at higher ground. Got the tractor in the bottom of the state's ditch and buried it almost to the axles.

I could get it moving, but when I hit the edge of the bank to climb out, the box blade would grab a bite of mud and stall me out. I had all four wheels spinning (MFWD & Diff Lock) and couldn't get out, even with the BB raised as high as it would go.

Got out and waded through the mud and unhooked the box blade. Got out of the ditch and then drove out on the highway and used the FEL and a chain to recover the box blade from the mire.

That episode gave my pressure washer a real workout.

 

[ToadHill]

I purchased 60 acres from a neighbor many years ago and was driving my 8N around it. I drove down what looked like a logging trail and drove stright into a bog. I was stuck up to the oil pan. I went to see the neighbor I bought the land from and asked him if I could borrow his MF 85 to pull my 8N out. I had rebuilt the engine on that tractor for him about 5 years before and I wouldn't take any money for the labor. Well he tossed me the keys for the 85 and told me to get the 8N out and when I was done to park the 85 in my barn. He was retiring from farming and if he needed the tractor for anything he'd know where to find it. His last comment was "you wouldn't take anything for rebuilding the tractor so it's fair that you have it now."

 

[Podunkadunk]

I was being stupid...that's about all there was to it. Pulling a boxblade full of wet red clay... Fortunately I had enough smarts to know when I was stuck and stop digging ruts.

Hollered for my wife to come and bring my pickup. After several snatches, she got me out. She got the truck stuck a couple times, but I was able to get it unstuck and continue on.

These are several months old, but I keep them around to remind me.

Pics say it all:

 

[ccsial]

I’ve done it once. My land is very sandy. The back area is powdery sand. It is normally fairly dry but one year we got about 20 inches of rain by the end of April. There was a little bit of standing water here and there, which I have never seen before.

I went through there, avoiding the puddles, with a bucket full of small pines to plant and felt the 1910 bog down a bit. I Put it in 4WD and it kept bogging down. I reversed and the sod peeled off and it went to the frame and rested on the sod.

I knew I wasn’t getting it out myself so I got my farmer neighbor and he came out with a BIG international. Don looked at me and said “You know it’s been raining a lot, right?” We got about 200 feet of rope and chain together and pulled it out while I was driving in reverse.

Don was about 80 at the time. I think he is 94 now and still rides the tractor. He told me that when him and his Dad farmed that land in the 30’s they lost a tractor somewhere in that area and it is still down there. He called it quicksand.

After several hours with the pressure washer the old 1910 looked good again.

 

[rooftrussman]

Just bought a Ford 1210 and one of the first things I needed to do was rip rap the shore of our lake house. It's been dry in Virginia so the lake was down. Went down on Friday to clean up the shore line to bring rock down from parking area and got a little too close to the water( it looked solid) . I buried the front wheels pretty quickly. I've had very little experience with tractors so I spent a couple hours playing with the FEL and backhoe learning the hard way what they can do and not do. I also have had no experience with hydrostatic drives ( seems like the harder you push the pedal, the more power you should have) ) have since learned (courtesy of good people on this web site) that's not the case. It got dark as I was about to make some progress. My wife was concerned that the authorities around the lake probably frown on tractors stuck in the water so got up just before dawn the next day and with a little rock, some logs etc. got out in a few minutes. I would guess anybody with a little experience would have been out in a minute or two with all that hydraulics but dusk is a bad time to learn. At least it didn't rain and the lake didn't rise. I also learned about four wheel drive, differentail lock etc. I guess I learned more quickly because of this.

 

[jmfox]

I'm not sure how far back we get to go, but when I was fresh off the farm I had this CJ4 (Jeep). I would get this thing so ridiculously stuck it was legendary. This one time there was no one around except my 8 year old sister. I put her behind the wheel and told her to stand on the gas while I pushed. After pushing the Jeep out, I realized that I didn't have an end plan. She kept on going and I had to out run the jeep to turn the key off. Luckily there was enough mud to slow her down. You know how exhausting it is to push out a vehcile, now add running in the deep mud. I was so breathless it was painful.

jmf

 

[tz666]

You can enjoy the pics at
Tractor album | tz | Fotki.com
then you can all have a good laugh
Im famous in my part of the world for this