Well, it didn't take long before I stuck the machine so deep I could not get it out...I bought the machine to clean the woods around the pond and then to do some cleaning out of the pond (the dam was broken last October). We have had a very, very dry end of May and June and I started doing some pond cleaning this past Monday....on Thursday morning I went back to the pond and was piling up dirt, going in a circle...I would push to the pile and then back up, move over and push back to the pile...my intention was to keep a track on previously cleared dirt....but I jumped ahead, made a push in a new area, backed up for another go but hit a very wet spot...the rear stuck in...I tried to use the bucket to pull forward (could not go backwards since that direction got wetter and firm ground was in front of me) and moved about 3-4 feet, but as I moved the bucket down, the rear would go down more.....neighbors brought over tractors, but in reality, all the efforts just made things worse....called the fella who broke the dam to see if he could bring his machine over (twice the size of mine) but it was down for maintenance...ended up called a local wrecker company he recommended and the wrecker came this morning and pulled it out without a problem....the machine was tilted so far to the left, the right track was not touching the ground; it was resting on the belly pan and the dirt to the left kept the machine from turning over...
The tow truck driver told me about using a log chained to the tracks to get a stuck machine moving, but I could not visualize how to hook it up based on his over the phone description, and with it leaning so far to the left, I really was leery of trying it. After he pulled me out, he showed me how to hook up the log.
Has anyone used a log chained to the tracks to get unstuck before? The driver suggested using about an 8-10 in log, but that seems big for a 455E.
With the track pads having extra bolt holes, could I make some wooden grousers out of maybe 4x6 timber and bolt these on? Would they be effective in getting out of mud?
Does anyone else have any good ideas for getting unstuck?
The tow truck worked but hit the wallet pretty good....
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)