2010 Stuck in a "Mud Bog"

[Tigerhaze]

Well, I thought I would share my latest mishap with my 2010 crawler loader. I have been grading my driverway and cutting drainage ditches along side of it (my driveway borders a very large corn/bean field). Anyhow we have got a lot of rain lately and against my better judgement I felt I needed to get some work done. That went well until I got to a low spot that happened to be inconnection with shallow groundwater. This was the result-





This actually occured about a week and a half ago, so I have already removed the crawler. However I blew a hydraulic line on the loader and had to get my neighbor with a large JD wheel tractor over to get me out (barely). I'll post up some pics of that ordeal soon.

[jeff Kemp]

Wow that really looks stuck. Reminds me of when I got a Cat D5 high track burried to the frame. I bet it took you a few days to clean out those tracks.

[shinnery]

I can only say WOW!! also. I would not have thought something with semi-grousers would have buried that deep.
Bryce

[Lavoy]

I am kind of disappointed, I thought any good crawler man would have had it down the the armrests at least!
lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

I thought about burying it to the armrests, but I am tired of having my neighbors roll their eyes when I present them with another pain in the rear task for their wheel tractors!

Seriously I didn't get into the muck too far and the rear of the machine (at least the tracks) were clear but I was just spinning tracks and it was sinking deeper and deeper so I quit and waited for the neighbor's wheeled Deere (no one else nearby has a crawler). I only have the triple bar loader pad grousers (not dozer semi-grousers) and they are worn down to boot so I had absolutely no traction in the saturated clayey soils beneath.

The neighbor's Deere had a tough time of it- I am not sure which model it was but it has a cab and the rear wheels were a good 6-foot tall. He had a bale of hay on the rear to provide downforce and he was still digging two- to three-foot ruts into the ground- all the time I was running the tracks (should have gotten pics of his tractor but didn't want the neighbor to think I wasn't serious about getting it out).

He finally did some start-stop pulling and I could feel the machine moving so we kept on until I could finally get traction. After it was out you can see in the pics that the underpan had molded itself into the clay below and was providing additional friction. The whitish material in the water was the hydraulic fluid I spilled when I blew the loader hydraulic line.





Didn't seem to ominous when I first tracked in there- it looked like the ground just to the left and ahead in the picture.



This is the machine after it was out- this is the left side which wasn't quite as buried. Getting the bulk mud out was my brother's task

The remaining mud I have been getting off by running it on dry ground.



I have noticed that the right steering clutch is weak now- it has been getting better as I have been using it but I am afraid that I got some water in the housing and it has messed up the clutch discs. It certainly was at a level where it could have affected them. I have been propping the steering lever open so the steering clutch doesn't swell/rust shut but don't know what else I can do for it now.

I do know I am going to be a lot more careful in boggy areas as I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't right near a drier spot for the neighbor to pull me out. It probably would help some to have the backhoe attachment on it so I can push oput with it; however that also probably would have caused the rear of the machine to sink deeper as well.

[mini kahuna]

when crawlers get hung up,they drop to the belly pan and your done.
they drop in fast,looks like you might have hit an underground spring.
I had a silage truck going across a field, the driver ran over an underground spring or something and without warning the back dropped down to the body and the front tires were in the air.
this time of year is when this stuff happens,frost goes out and there are pockets of mush everywhere.

[Tigerhaze]

That's what happened- the belly pan got stuck to the clays and the tracks went in the soupy mess.

I happen to know the geology there well- the shallow water table is high right now because we have been getting an excessive amount of rain in the southern half of MO. Right below the organic soils and silt is a clay layer that developed over the shale bedrock- it's a double whammy because the shale keeps the water table pretty high which also saturates and softens the clay. That water won't be at that depth later this summer. I have an open cistern a couple hundred feet away whose level correlates with the water table near the driveway. It is pretty interesting, but I hope not to investigate groundwater using my crawler again!

[mini kahuna]

no harm done Tiger,and trust me it won't be the last either....have fun!!!!

[rjamesh2008]

man dont feel bad ,, we all get stuck,, i did one month ago ,, it took me and my excavator and some fast foot work to get my lil dozer out after the i back bladed into a soft spot,,, and with the left side acting up,, just waiting for the parts to arrive to tear into the left final,,, the right side just kept diggin down deeper ,, some work but i get out ,, and with that single axle ole ford ,, man i get stuck all the time on my property,,, thats when i always break down and say i need to get a extra person there to operate the other unit,, but still cant find anyone willing ,,, but you have to get stuck to find out how much you can really do,, good day fellas rocky

[Tigerhaze]

no harm done Tiger,and trust me it won't be the last either....have fun!!!!

Well, you had that one pegged. Earlier this year, I had my driveway almost entirely shaped and graded but wanted to finish clearing out the side drainage ditch. Since the ditch was pretty shallow relative to the driveway and had been dry, I was grading down the ditch parallel to the embankment. I ended up slipping the interior (left) track to the inside fo the frame and pinning it against the left embankment. While trying to pull the track out with a skid steer loader, I also pulled off the front idler from the track frame.

Of course then we had some heavy summer deluges from various tropical storms coming up from Texas and washed around the crawler to form a big hole.

I finally got some time in town to get it out, but by then (last weekend) all my neighbors with large ag tractors were busy harvesting so I had to go the expensive route and call out a tractor wrecker. The first pic shows the crawler stuck in the bog- almost in the same spot as before (dumb me). The black hose was used to divert water around the crawler during the downpour events:



The next photo shows the wrecker hooking up to the crawler:



This photo shows the wrecker pulling the crawler sideways (slowly) to keep it as far back from the driveway entrance as I could. We were very careful to keep from torquing or twisting the frame so the bucket pins wouldn't snap. It was tough to move at first because of the suction. It was also obvious during moving it that I have worn bucket pins and bushings.



This photo shows the crawler rolling, but very obvious that left side track is off. I have a newfound respect for the versatility of the winch boom on the wrecker, as he got the crawler almost in the exact spot I wanted it in.



Final pic showing the resulting mess I have to deal with- as you can see the track wrapped around the fron of the track frame and is wedged beneath. I also broke the housing on the hydraulic track adjuster so will need another one from Lavoy.



Luckily this will not happen again in this location- I can dig the ditches out with my new skid steer and pull it out with the crawler if it gets stuck.

[Lavoy]

Of course you do realize the primary mistake you made here don't you? Should have bought another crawler and forgot the skid steer!
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

I actually have been looking at other crawlers, and even bid on once recently. I just couldn't wait and chance having that 2010 frozen in the hole all winter.

However I am seeing that the flexibility of a wheeled loader would be helpful at my farm. Thus, my question about the Hough Payloader

[MADJACK]

Wow, what a mess! thanks for sharing

[Lavoy]

Like I had mentioned, if the Hough you are looking at is the same one I had, you would never have it within 500 feet of where you have the crawler.
Lavoy

[Lu47Dan]

I have had my Super-H buried a few times out in the woods, when I first started cutting firewood years ago. The one spot got me twice, even after placing two 2-1/2 yard bucket loads of rocks in it. I then covered the hole with a brush pile and drive around it to this day.
The only realistic way to cure the wet spot is to run a tile from it to daylight to drain the water away and then dig out the offending hole and fill it with rock and gravel. The tile will allow the water to drain out and the rock and gravel will stay solid even when wet. A mud hole only gets worse over time as you have disturbed the layers that the water was draining through, albeit very slowly in this case. Dumping load after load of 3/4" stone will in the mud hole sometimes helps but may spread the affected area as the water is still setting in there and can not leave.
I put in 400' of tile to drain my driveway and take the water off the eaves of the house. Since the tile has been installed I no longer get frost heaving in the spring and the driveway stays solid year round.
Dan.