Worse Stuck?

[Deadwood]

I was just curious what some of the stories are involving people getting stuck with tractors, bulldozers (oh yes you can get one stuck...I've done it) and whatnot.

Now the hard part here is getting it down to only one stuck situation. Sorry, but those are the rules.

I have so many to choose from I could probably go on all day about them, but probably my worse stuck was also the most ironic. It was with a John Deere 770 Grader and was right in the middle of a paved road.

You see I was cutting ice off the road after the ice storm of 1998. Just shaving the 4 inches of ice off the road with a grader with ice chains on the rear wheels and with a 500 plus carbide teeth on the blade. I ran it all night and John ran it all day just trying to keep up with the demand for navigable roads.

The thing was if you took too much of a bite, it was like an ice skate and would skew you sideways. Well over the edge of the road I went, my front tires down in the ditch teetering on a morboard that would not go up anymore. So there I was crossways in the road, unable to back up or go ahead around a sharp curve in the middle of the night. Yep it always happens like that. It took a snowplow truck and a bulldozer to get the machine back in the road and to this day there are four ruts in the hottop where the ice chains on the rear tires cut into the pavement. Of course that also tells you how long it has been since they paved the roads here in town!

Well that's my worse stuck. Any body else have some whopper stories?

[Jeff]

A search will also yield several threads with such stories on the Forestry Forum.

Heres one of the first, posted by me.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=217.0

[slowzuki]

That reminds me of a grader story, the same thing happened to a grader operator in the summer doing the shoulders by our house  :D

In the same place the year before a transport tried to do a 3 point turn with a chip van on behind him.  The belly bottomed and he came unhitched crossways on the blind turn blocking both lanes!  Took him 30 mins with the air all the way up to catch the pin on the tipped edge of the striker to drag the trailer 3 ft so he could rehitch!

[Lud]

When we were kids and it got cold enough for the 2 acre lake to have frozen at the back of the farm,  Pop would take the 841 out on the lake and do the zamboni thing.  Well there's a little island he got too close too and one wheel went in then another and he was bailing off when it settled in hub deep.  It was a good 75' from the edge. 

Well it took a Cat dozer a neighbor had and a bottle of JTS Brown to get 'er out.   

[moosehunter]

I was brush hoggin' some paths in the wood with my buddy's M4500DT Kubota ( big Kubota). The brairs was 6 feet high! He told me " back into any place you can't see the ground". Soooo I was drivin' forward (I ain't too good at followin' directions sometimes) when the front drive wheels dropped over a root. This Kubota has a small casting that the front drive shaft comes out of. That casting is PRESISLY in the center of the tractor. It came to rest on a stump. I was spinning all four wheels and didn't even kick up any leaves! Had to put an old chain on the saw and cut the stump out from under the tractor.
mh

[MemphisLogger]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D 8)

[WH_Conley]

Boy that helps me at the mill wanted to know if he could take my Ford 7000 tractor around the edge of a field grown up in weeds. See if he could see a deer. Sure. Half hour later he walks back to the house, tractor stuck. Went down with 4x4 tractor to pull it out. Almost couldn't find it. Only thing visible was the drawbar. Blasted sink holes!

[Ianab]

I know what you mean about stuck bulldozers.
Our most valuable implement on the farm used to be an old MF PTO winch that went on the back of a tractor. It had a big blade arrangment that you would drop down and it would dig into the ground as you pulled.
I was mostly used by me to extricate my Dad and his litttle TD8  bulldozer from creeks and swamps.
We had it buried to the top of the tracks in mud many time  :D

It was also handy for extricating stuck cattle... most people dont realise how long a cows neck actually is, and how strong it is 

Ian

[wiam]

I had a New Holland skidsteer stuck on concrete.  I was pushing up manure in a freestall barn.  There was alot of hay in it.  I tried to go over a pile of hay and there I was.  The floor was very smooth from scraping and I could not even push myself with the bucket.  I had to lift with the bucket and clean out under it.  The worst part was that somebody caught me.

Will

[Faron]

I had drained my pond and was rebuilding it.  At the lowest point was a mucky area that had dried out on top.  I intended to avoid it.  Forgot to mention that to my brother, and he turned on that area with the Massey 1105 and pan.  Bloop!  Unhooked the pan and got it away.  We hooked our Massey 2745 (a much bigger tractor), to the 1105, but every time we pulled the whole slimy bottom of the pond tried to come with the tractor!  We would get it up a ways, spin out and have to rehook.  Every time we stopped, the pond, tractor and all slid back down to where we started.  Finally had to go get the long cable and block. Hooked to a tree with a two part line and pulled it out in one pull. When we got it out far enough, the slime broke loose from the tractor, and a lot of it slid back in it's hole.

[Mike_Barcaskey]

IT'S ALIVE, IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nyforester]

Here is one of my "Worst Stuck" situations. This took place on one of the coldest mornings of the season in 2003. When you breathed in your nose hairs would freeze. One of my logging contractors slid off the bridge and rolled his skidder into the drink. He was stuck in the cab for a moment until he got his wits together. He froze up instantly like the tin man in the "Wizard of Oz".  Luckily his partner was not far and pulled it out, just after some great photos were taken. No one got hurt and the contractor changed his cloths, replaced the fluids and worked the rest of the day. Loggers are tough as nails !!



NOTE FROM ADMIN: This photo was placed on the forum breaking 2 of our photo posting policies so I took some of my time to download it, optimize it. reupload it to the forum gallery and then place the correct link here. Photos MUST be under 30k and be in the forum gallery. MUST. 

[SwampDonkey]

Well now....I had marked a section of a woodlot for reforestation and I wanted the scarification contractor to stay within the ribbons. This was essential since I wanted to make sure we stayed well away from the head spring hole of a brook. I was away from the site for a couple days and the next thing when I called the contractor to go to the next site he tells me he sunk that DanG D-8 out in the middle of that spring hole that I told him to stay out off. The dozer operator apparently couldn't see the ribbons, the grass was about 8 feet tall in there. Anyway, he had to call the shop for them to float out an escavator to fish that D-8 out. I tell ya when your into one of them type of holes the mud suctions onto ya like steppin in a muck hole with your rubbors on.  :

Jeff's picture looks like the guy got out into an abandoned beaver pond, lucky he got it out. They usually have muck clean to China if they're old ponds. 

Oh well a little excitement in life is fun :D :D :D ;D

[Engineer]

Embarrassing?  Not heavy equipment, mind you - I was driving my F-150, trying to get around to the back of my house to the shed to get some lumber out and deposit some storage totes, it was mid-February and there was two feet of snow on the lawn.  I got stuck in the middle of my front lawn where all the neighbors and people driving by could see what an idjit I was.    I THOUGHT that I could get there from the driveway, just 4WD Low Range and first gear, heck no. 

It took me and my two older boys three hours with snow shovels and a small snowblower and a hundred pounds of sand to get me fifty feet back on the driveway.

The lumber never made it out of the shed.

[Ed_K]

 Had dinner at the lower farm this afternoon, and the milk truck driver comes in. Not our regular driver, he asks if the bil could pull the truck back onto the road. Going to the upper farm theres a pretty good hill, he said he was almost to the top. Well we asked if he'd like something to eat while we got ready, ok he says. Seemed to eat pretty slow, well bil says to get to the skidder he needed to go around town and come down from the upper farm and he and one helper left. I stayed to bring the driver back up to the truck. We finally leave, and on the way the driver says he really doesn't want to come back down the hill after picking up the milk. I said the other way is worse. He looked a little pale. Well we get to the truck, I look at it, wasn't off the road to far. But when you get out of the truck on the drivers side it was straight down to the brook 20'. No wonder he looked pale.
I says to bil, don't think the skidder is going to work. The truck was 7/8 full.
Suprise they walked right out, its only a 440 JD. and the milks on its way  8). Oh, did I forget to say it snowed here this morning  ;D.

[mrigney]

OK...I can't let all of you snowbound freaks tell all the "Stuck" stories...

Although getting stuck was one of the great passtimes of my youth, one in particular is noteworthy.  During finals of my Junior year in college, a party was getting boring.  So, everyone decides that we should take it on the road...specifically the cow trail out back.  Well, six 4WDs packed with about 30 folks (about 20 guys and 10 gals) head out at about midnight.  I know trouble is brewing when we lose everyone else while still going 30mph. 

The lead vehicle (77 Bronco) hits a creek bottom and goes into the muck up to the middle of the grill.  Needless to say, it was way stuck.  Rednecks can't back down in front of their ladies, so we decide to pull it out.  The second vehicle in line pulls up close to tie on with a chain.  Of course...he gets stuck.  Third vehicle tries to rescue second vehicle...gets stuck.

Now it is about 2AM and I have a final at 8AM.  Fourth vehicle (CJ7 with really bad driver) decides he can get around front and pull the Bronco out frontways.  He gets stuck.  Fifth vehicle pulls up to CJ7's rear to pull him out and spins his vehicle between two trees where he can't go forward or back up (kind of like Austin Powers trying to turn his golfcart around in that tunnel)  :D :D :D

Now...3AM...Everyone decides the girls should probably go home, so the sixth vehicle will take them back...And of course the guy decides to back off the road to turn around and gets stuck.  All six vehicles now down for the count.  We have all been pushing and pulling on these things for about 3 hours.  I am covered with mud, and it has been raining the whole night.  We finally get the fifth vehicle scooted sideways enough to get it free from the trees and ferry everyone home.  The next day, a friend of a friend brings out the 4WD wrecker and pulls everyone out.

Of course, all of the blame for every vehicle getting stuck is the fact that we brought the girls with us.  ;D  If only guys had been there, then we would have automatically left that first vehicle in the muck and gone home.  But, you know what a little testosterone does to the young male.  Everyone had to prove they could save the day.   :

Needless to say, that final didn't go well. 

[sawmillsi]

Hi guys,

I can't help myself.

In January here in Angola (west coast of africa, just under the congo) its the wet season.

Well that wasn't going to stop us having a party in the interior at our camp beside a big river system here (although it should have made us think abit first).

Well getting the 45-50 km's in was alright, only took about 3.5 hours or so in a Unimog truck (we have about 6 of them for general purpose work trucks), but the way out was a bit difficult.

On the fist try, we got stuck for 5 hours, only after about 30 people or so had dug and pushed to exhaustion (no other cars or trucks on that road or villages or towns within 30kms) we got it out, but only on the camp side. We couldn't get the unimog through to the other side where we needed to go. So we returned to the camp.

The next day it rained real hard. So no luck that day.

On day three we thought we might give it a try with 2 unimogs, one to get the other unstuck if something happened.

They got the first load of people through and returned to the camp for the second lot.

So this time we had 2 unimog trucks and a 4x4 MAN (ex army) 8 tonne truck as well. The unimogs have a higher ground clearence then the MAN and the MAN got stuck real good. It took both the unimogs connected by cables to pull the MAN out (they took run offs). In total that day, it took 18 hours to drive 120 kms back to the city (and i think we streched the MAN's chassie about 6 inches or so).

I use Mercedes Benze 6x6 trucks for hauling logs here, but we still need the D8 to pull them out sometimes.

Simon

[sawguy21]

A stuck Unimog is a true stuck :D I can just imagine some of the roads you get to play on.

[timberjack240]

ive had the jack hangin off the side of the bridge which isnt really stuck. when it comes to bieng stuck in mud or whatever im happy to report thats the only thing i think i  havent done yet  ;D  8)

[Phorester]

Reminds me of not the worst I've been stuck (not much of a story), but the first time stuck with a 4-wheel drive;

Many years ago when we got our first 4-wheel drive pickups (with manual lockout hubs), I was turning around in the woods and high-centered the punkin on a stump.  "Har, har", I thought; "I got 4-wheel drive now!  No more jack work!  I just gotta put the hubs in, shift the lever and pull off!"  Got out, put in the hubs, got back in, pulled the lever into "4H", smiled a smug little smile, put'er in low gear and let out on the clutch.  The darn truck just sat there, the left rear tire and the right front tire spinning merrily in the air about an inch off the ground.

I still had to get out the jack, jack up the rear, put a log under the tire, let the jack down, etc.  So much for 4WD, I laughed. But I've had much better luck since then.