Freeing a stuck loader

[papa15]

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....

[Lavoy]

Chaining a log on works, you have to be careful. In the old days, heard of guys cabling them on with a short piece of cable and a clamp.
We buried a 70,000 Terex once, mud over the tracks, completely bellied out. We were able to lift the front of the crawler up with the blade, then keep stuffing logs or blocks under the tracks til you can get some clearance on the belly to break the suction.
Lavoy

[Tigerhaze]

Does anyone else have any good ideas for getting unstuck?

I've had to use a diesel wrecked before- so can relate to your pain. I have a photo posted on this board showing it

Having a backhoe attachment on really helps to get unstuck as then you can push in both directions, but it also adds weight so is a double edged sword. A hydraulic winch made for the crawler obviously can help as well.

I have used logs and boards to try and get traction- sometimes they can work and sometimes not. However if you only get traction on one track it's just going to cause you to turn rather than crawl out.

Another idea (that I have never tried) is you could take a long cable (woven, like used for crane hoisting work) and attach one end to the bucket, take the other end around and loop through a hoist block or pulley made for a crane attached to an immoveable object, and then attach to one of the tracks. As you turn the tracks backwards it would shorten the cable through the block and pull the front of the crawler just like a winch. However I would be leery of trying that without some stout tackle (I have a crane and the rigging for it so know my stuff is stout enough).

[papa15]

I posted some pictures on my Facebook page.....search for Buddy Puryear

[jsal]

If you have something to anchor to like a large tree I have hooked chains to each track and rotate tracks to walk yourself onto the chains then reverse direction to shoot chains back out and re hook and do it again have had to use this system several times

JIM

[papa15]

Jim
How do you hook the chains to the tracks? Do you put the hook onto the pads and then drive up onto the chain, or do you try to keep the chain outside of the track? When you reverse direction to spit out the chain, would that not send you back to the original spot....just trying to get a clear picture in my mind....I have lots of trees around the edge of the pond, and this idea seems very feasible to me, but don't fully grasp it yet....

The fella who broke my dam told me he has used a cable before...he hooks it to an immovable object like a tree and then around the bucket..gets it very tight and then raises the bucket and winches himself forward a few feet, lowers the bucket, retightens the cable and repeats.....I like this idea...it takes pressure off the rear end to help lower the suction in the back....but I did not have anything close by in my situation

[jsal]

yes hook chains on grousers to spin chains out push bucket or blade hard into ground so tracks spin then reset until you are out of trouble

[Lavoy]

Lifting with the bucket puts pressure on the front end and pushed you down further I the mud I would think.
Lavoy

[JWB Contracting]

This is where multiple machines work best.

We have a couple of 540 skidders with winches. Stick the ripper down as an anchor and with a snatch block can recover a fairly large stuck crawler. Largest I've done is a D7 3T.

We use the skidders for clearing and ripping right of ways. This weekend I was ripping in some fairly soft ground and winching our vermeer vibratory track plow at the same time. Free spool the winch, rip until all the line is out and then winch the plow thru. When I get a brush build up on the ripper, I winch myself backwards, push the debris out of the way and continue.

I know my dad has recovered up to D8 crawlers by dozing around them with a 2 cylinder deere, pull in logs, positioned them and cabled the logs across the tracks.

[PTO John]

You are probably not going to believe this, but I have used the tie on a log trick even on a dual wheel truck.

It was a long time ago, ( and in a far away land, Australia actually). We had about a 5 ton International 4x4 and hit soft ground about 30 miles from the end of civilization. The rims were Buds, but not solid so it was possible to stick a rope through and tie a hunk of wood across the tires. It worked!

Learn t that trick from seeing M113s driven into a swamp until they stopped, and then the trainee drivers chaining telephone poles across the tracks

[papa15]

Continuing to clean the pond....stuck the machine again....tried lifting too heavy a load in a moist area and the front end just sunk...could not back out even after dumping the load...tried pushing out with bucket, but the stuff just turned to muck....

Chained about a 6-7 inch oak log to the tracks using a schedule 70 3/8 in chain (all I had; someone had told me to use at least a schedule 80 but preferably a schedule 100 chain). I did use a shovel to clean out behind the tracks so the log was about under the tracks. The loader had a bit of a time pulling the log underneath, and when it did, it almost felt like it wanted to stand on its nose, but I used the bucket to keep it from tilting too much. I stopped backing when the chains came up on top of the idlers, and then knocked the chains off the tracks. I backed on out....so yes the log trick can work. I intend to buy a second chain so that if necessary I could hook a second log up to back further...

[Willie B]

I once wired a log house. The homeowner wasn't nearly as smart as he believed himself to be. On a fixed budget, he made expensive blunders one after another. Early in the project he contracted with a low bid excavator to "dig a hole for a foundation" With some excavators you could do this, not with this one. The lot was steep. The soil more like mud was deep. And behind the house, the pitch was way too steep. As the project progressed, more and more mud accumulated behind, until it was above the concrete foundation, on to the lower logs. The obvious solution was to move this mass of wet soil before the foundation was built. Too late, they needed a giant excavator to dig a back yard. The budget wouldn't allow for that. Feeling sorry for him, the builder borrowed a 350 C from a friend who likely didn't know the situation. He put the homeowner on it to move mud. As he worked, the water content of the mud increased, and he was running 13,000 LBS of iron in the bottom of a mud pie deeper than the tractor. Ultimately, he was buried up to the seat bottom in the heaviest mud imaginable. They dug with hand shovels a day freeing the winch, pulled cable to a 4' diameter maple 100' away, but the winch wasn't able to break suction. They spent another day and a half digging around the tracks to break suction, and winch it out.

Months later I saw the wife, an intelligent lady with the exception of choosing husband, she said mud was flowing into the cellar windows at each end of the house, and was again rising onto the rear log wall. It's times like this I'm grateful for well drained gravel.

[Willie B]

We have a local think tank, the former estate of a wealthy couple. The Mrs inherited in 1959 900 million dollars. As you would expect the decision maker for an organization like this had walls covered with diplomas. He wanted a pond. He challenged a local excavation contractor to build it. He decreed that without a giant crane, and dragline, it couldn't be done. The contractor said he could. He brought in a JD 350 dozer, and two giant log skidders. Before building the dam, they started at the lowest end, and winched the crawler back and forth thousands of passes. It took most of the summer, but with equipment he had, they built the pond! I wouldn't want to buy that crawler after that, but he got the job done using minimum wage labor, and equipment he wouldn't again need until winter.