For all those interested in attending, drop me a line....
Now I have to provide some details, and I'm sure it will reduce the guest list by a few. ;)
I've been working toward finishing my house site road, home site, and creek crossing and things are starting to come together. I have the culverts ordered; they should be here in about a week. I have to order my gravel and rent another dozer, that will be based on the arrival of the culverts. I've already dipped out the soft muck from the bottom of the crossing. This is not your ordinary party, it's more of a work party. :o Don K and WDH, you are definitely invited, if there are any other takers, just let me know. I'll need some strong backs, good cogitators, and maybe even a few supervisors. Oh, and a good transit man for the stick end. :)
Stew
There's bunches of cogitators on the FF, although we may have to supervise/cogitate long distance. 8)
Got a date in mind, might be able to make the trip.
Willie
I definitely fit the once strong back category ;D. I would like to help.
I do have a date in mind, but it will really depend on the culverts arriving, so I don't want to set anything definite yet. I'll let you all know of an exact date soon.
Stew
Why ya gotta be all the way at the bottom of the country? I can hold my own on your transit or on the stick.
Send me a plane ticket, I'll be on my way... :D
Engineer, I could ask you the same question...it could be worse...like the west coast. :D
I'll do you one better than a plane ticket, I'll send you a few of our buzzards to fly you down. ;D ;D
Stew
Just saw the post. Hope it falls when this back ain't at my boring, real job. Don
Well Don, it fell when you weren't at your boring job..... :D :D :D
Stew
Went over to Stew's this morning to put in 2 big 48" culverts. We had been discussing the rain of the last few days and if it would be to wet. Already had the dozer on site so we decided to give it a shot.
As I was rounding up my necessary tools I thought I might need for the job besides rubber boots, I throwed one of my small 10" chains, two shackles and a come along on back of the truck. Debated on my 40" of logging chain and decided to leave it as Terry has his Famous 100' chain on site.
Left at 4:45 this morning to be there at 7:00. Keeping a eye on the sky as the sun comes up, I decide it might not rain. Really need to get these culverts in. Make it to Terry's and he is ready to go. I tell him I will drive my own truck to the site as his bed is full of tools and diesel for the dozer. I have a extra change of clothes and such and want to avoid the hassle of moving it from one vehicle to another.
After rounding up his stepdad, John, the dozer driver we head out. Arrive in short order and proceed to get ready to work. As we put on our rubber boots, John cranks the dozer and heads out to the creek. There is a little water there but it has a pretty firm bottom. The dozer must be on the other side as that is where the hill is that will be cut down to backfill the culverts. John makes it across and heads up the hill. We decide to fog for mosquitos along the edge of the woods. John heads back down the hill to the crossing and I hear him goose it up as he prepares to backdrag some fill out. I hear the dozer go to idle and hear the words " Oh S%#*" I turn and look as I am only 20 yds away. The tracks look like two clay rubber bands spinning around in the mud. I holler to Terry and say "Oh S#$* he is stuck in the creek." :o For you that have any experience with dozers, you know why my belly flopped over. It ain't like sticking a truck or tractor, this can get real bad, real fast. We haven't been here fifteen minutes and things are going downhill fast.
To try to make a two hour ordeal take only a few minutes, I will only hit the high spots. The dozer has a 6 way blade and we try to angle and twist to push it out backwards. This will work on slightly firmer ground but the creek bed starts souping up and the tracks cut into the bank. Not going backward. Those LGP tracks will float across alot of soft ground but not dragging the belly pan and pushing a big pile of clay with the blade all the way up. Soon the tops of the tracks are level with the mud and water is filling in around it.
All I can see in my mind is Terry crying as he hands over some heavy coin to the big wrecker man. I call a time out and grasp for straws. Now I think of my big chain I left at home. Luckily John has some on his truck. I decide to try my 2500 HD as a anchor and let the dozer angle blade his self out as the dozer was trying to get up the top any way.
I back down the road as close as I can get as we only have about 25' of chain. We loop around the reciever hitch and I take up the slack. and mash the brakes. Trying to pull is useless as the road is as slick as owl poop. The dozer moves a little and then the truck slids back about 4 feet. I move up and we try again Again a little farther. Soon we have to swap to the other side of the blade as the dozer is pulling into the bank. That thing is sliding that crewcab diesel around like a toy. We decide to chain my truck to the closest tree we can reach with the small 100' chain ( 3000# test strength) we double to 50' and barely make the tree. Now I am thinking to myself, what will give first, the reciever, front tow hook or the chain? Believe it or not we start working this thing out 3 ' at a time. We rehook the back chain after every pivot to take up slack. I swear every time he cranks on that blade I can feel my truck getting longer. Soon it will look like one of those stretch Hummers. I keep looking at that little chain out front and I swear you could play dueling banjos on it.
Finally the dozer gets some grip and it is a wonderful site in the rearview mirror to see it moving closer on its own. Those blade Hyds. are strong! Anyway, no damage done to the dozer, truck or us. I'm sure that stuck dozer probably weighed all of 28,000 # I would never have believed the now more famouser 100' chain would have held up. Thank you to GMC for making one tough put together truck. I was glad Terry didn't have to scrounge up a tow. I told Terry we needed pics but all hands were to muddy to hold the camera.
No, the culverts ain't in, but with a dry fall I'm sure we will get the deed done. Had a wild day and got to slither in the mud with a good friend and create some adventures to tell my future grandson when he gets big enough. All in all a good day. ;D
Yeap Don, you did get to slither in the mud pretty good....can we say "gone swimming" :D
Even for Murphy to be working against us at every turn, we had a pretty good day. We got a chance to do some serious cogitating, and swap some pretty good stories, although John was doing most of the story telling. ;)
My poor old chain was taking a beating for a while, but it was well worth the money I spent on it 12 years ago....and this is not the first jam it has helped me out of....
After you left, my wife ran me out of the house and wouldn't let me back in until I removed my pants....I told her it was only a little mud. ;D ;D ;D ;D
Stew
I wasn't going to mention the swimming part. ::)
I wasn't either...but what the heck, Murphy already had his way with us, might as well let everybody laugh with us. ;)
Stew
And I missed all this? What :o, no pics?
You guys did good to come out of a bad situation safely. Nothing like experience ;D. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say :D.
Danny, I figured you were getting ready for your Texas trip and this was kind of last minute on finalizing a date. My schedule was changed from set days off to floating days off at work last week.
As Don said, our hands were so caked with mud from pulling chains it would have ruined a camera. I know, no pictures, it didn't happen, but there are three of us that know it did in fact happen, and just the way Don typed it. :)
Stew
I went outside today and measured my truck and it is almost 31.5 inches longer ;) :D :D :D :D :D. I have one of a kind extended length super crew cab heavy duty with expandable bed. :D If anyone would like to have your truck customized contact Don K or Radar67 and when can fix you right up. You will have to bring your truck to Mississippi though. :D :D :D :D
Nawwww, ain't nothing hurt. Don
DonK and Radar67
Your experience with the dozer in the creek reminded me of working on the Sugar River in southern WI. We were fencing to keep cattle out and making crossings of gravel at limited points. The local National Guard got wind of the crossings needed, so offered some weekend help with a D-9 cat dozer for the training and experience of their dozer operator.
This thing was huge. :o :o
The operator unloaded the dozer and drove straight for the river. He decided the first thing to do was to cross to the other side. He picked a spot that was the narrowest part of the river....hmmm.... meaning it wasn't the shallowest part..... ;D ;D
He dropped over the edge of the steep bank, and ploughed into the bottom of the river with the front blade, pushing a huge mound of river bottom ahead of the dozer. When the rear of the tracks dropped off the edge of the bank, the dozer made a most perfect near water tight dam across the river. Immediately, the water rose and started cascading over the dozer, forming a pretty good size lake that then started running around both ends of the dozer-dam.
Took about 4 hours to get a tank retriever lined up to finally get that D-9 pulled outta there. It was a pretty good lesson learned by this hot-rod dozer operator and his engineering crew. Maybe building landing strips would come easier. :) :) After this, they probably picked the wider parts of a river to cross, that were likely the shallower parts too.
I would liked to have seen that ;D
Sounds like they had the sort of fun we were having. :D :D :D
Stew