This is my brother's Cat 941B. He leaves it parked at my cabin build site in WV so I can use it. Very generous indeed.
Last weekend I was trying to retrieve some blown down red oaks from the valley floor. I knew it was mushy but thought I could get around the worst of it. Wrong.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10233/sunk_Dozer.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1578326459)
Then to help out my buddy Steve brought his new holland over and promptly got it stuck. We were able to get his tractor out and retrieve one log.
We will go back next with rigging to pull out the dozer.
And then I backed my pickup truck into a tree buggering up the bumper.
The forest won that day.
Jon
Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. ::) The dozer will be a challenge without some heavy equipment and serious rigging.
Luckily we have the rigging. Been stuck before but this is about the worst I have ever done.
There's another, larger, crawler about 3 miles away up on the mountain that Chris is doing some road work with. We'll go get it if we need it. I'll give an update next Monday.
oooh nooo!
So, at what point do you say "this isn't working" and stop? When your feet get wet? When your rear end gets wet? :o ;) Worst I've done is to high center my 2wd tractor in a flat field. Maybe you should install a big winch on the rear for future fun...
That looks like a real low score on the "fun" scale! At least you got a plan, and option "B", the other dozer. I end up at plan C or D most of the time... ;D
That qualifies as a really ugly weekend.
Drag out links work?
Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on January 06, 2020, 11:14:09 AM
This is my brother's Cat 941B. He leaves it parked at my cabin build site in WV so I can use it. Very generous indeed.
Last weekend I was trying to retrieve some blown down red oaks from the valley floor. I knew it was mushy but thought I could get around the worst of it. Wrong.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10233/sunk_Dozer.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1578326459)
Then to help out my buddy Steve brought his new holland over and promptly got it stuck. We were able to get his tractor out and retrieve one log.
We will go back next with rigging to pull out the dozer.
And then I backed my pickup truck into a tree buggering up the bumper.
The forest won that day.
Jon
Now, that'll change your plans for the day. Hopefully you didn't break anything.
Gerald
I hate it when that happens.
Cut down a 6" tree, strip the branches. Pick up the bucket and stick a couple under it. Put the bucket down and lift up the front of the tracks. Slide in a log and use chains and binders to clamp it to the tracks. Hop in and drive. You can drive out the length of your tracks. Repeat until you are on solid ground.
Did that many times before I had an excavator and enough brains to avoid the muck... although, to be fair I still have to get unstuck at least once a year or so... we never really learn apparently.
Look @Raider Bill (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4445) Jon learned from your mistakes! He tried to drown his instead! That does suck Jon. I remember Nemo (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=765.0)
DanG it Jon!
I hates when that happens! :D :D
Wow! I did not know we had mud that deep in WV. If I get down 6" and haven't hit a rock I figure I am over the gas line and somebody has already moved the rock that used to be there.
Good luck and be real careful getting it out. Equipment can be replaced but lives and body parts (other than an occasional artificial knee or such) can't be replaced.
You can also unstick a John Deere with a Sweetgum pole. No, there was not a tree close enough for the logging winch to pull it out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5894.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356364)
Houston, we have a problem!! Ain't going in, ain't backing out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5895.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356474)
Cut a Sweetgum sapling and chain it to a rear tire.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5896.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356605)
And then chain it to the other side.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5898.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356675)
Back over it, unchain, drag it out, and move it to the rear of the tire again. You can see how far it hopped.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5900.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356856)
Chain it back up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_5901.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1578356942)
It took 6 hops before I got it out. That plus I was a muddy mess!! :-X
Lynn,
I thought of something like that but looks like his rig is too deep to get a chain around a sprocket or such. He might just want to plant flowers around it. ::)
That works pretty good, Lynn!
As a sidenote: keep the chain AWAY from the valve stem! :o
Quote from: Chuck White on January 06, 2020, 08:39:04 PM
That works pretty good, Lynn!
As a sidenote: keep the chain AWAY from the valve stem! :o
And keep the engine rpm's to the minimum possible.
GAB
That was the second and hopefully the last time that I ever have to do that. I was one whooped puppy when I got back to the Cabin. :-\
I would not even know how to begin getting Jon's Chris' crawler out except how he described.
Magicman - with your love of sweet gum I am shocked that you would abuse one in such a manner!!
I don't have photos because it was well before the days of cell phone cams but I know of a tracked processor that went down so deep the only thing above ground level was the head itself with the boom extended up. Truck load after truck load of logs were brought in and stuffed under that thing along with about 5 excavators digging all around it. Took a week before it came out of that hole. :o
Tracked processors and fallers are good at all of the sudden falling 15' deep through our northern bogs and swamps while cutting winter wood. I've even had the forwarder in to the top of the back stakes before, thankfully it was just the back end of the machine and I was able to jack myself out o the hole by throwing wood under the tracks. A dozer or track undercarriage that gets buried in soup like Jon's is hard to get moving again, be careful!
This reminds me of a saying we had in the army. " If it's got tracks, "Admin Edit" or tires there is going to be trouble.
I hope it comes easier than it looks like it will. ;D
The idea of the poles across the tracks works. I walked a jd 850 out of mud like that with 3 RR ties chained to the tracks. Just make sure the chains don't get under the track where it can get stuck on the idlers or sprockets. We had an operator (bosses son) >:( that was so good at getting it stuck I welded d-rings to the underside outter part of the track on ea side ;D.
looks like the grousers are very worn on those tracks.
Jon around here this time of year ya gotta work fast ta git er out before it freezes in.
Crawler loaders typically don't have grousers, just flat pads.
Ah too used to dozers which have much more substantial tracks
I don't think triple grousers would have helped him.... :D
He could have dug that hole a lot faster with triple grousers, which would have given him more daylight to work on getting it unstuck. :D
Lots of crawler loaders have a backhoe too. Which he could have used ta dig dat hole. ;D Although it might have taken longer. :D
Sorry Jon, no mercy from this bunch. :)
"You'll have some of that on these big jobs"
Here's another method if you're sunk too deep for the pole or have a longer distance to go. Works on trucks etc. also, but not tracked vehicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d09MAs9bNpE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d09MAs9bNpE)
Greyman,
Thanks for posting. I started to say that was pretty slick but that is how they got in the fix they were in to start with. :D It is a very useful looking solution.
Thanks for posting that was pretty slick I have chained a pole across the wheels a few times but this looks to be less dangerous . Randy
He would have been better off to leave the bucket down with pressure to keep the front tires up an also stabilize the tractor better.
Jon, I stuck a D6 and it looked a lot like that. Mud was top of tracks were at the same level. Father of the gal I was digging the pond showed up with his large JD backhoe and dug me out. He had to dig all the way around me then in front , I just drove out.
mh
Jon, I feel your pain....
Read response #25.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=16250.msg290146#msg290146 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=16250.msg290146#msg290146)
Quote from: GAB on January 06, 2020, 08:44:48 PM
Quote from: Chuck White on January 06, 2020, 08:39:04 PM
That works pretty good, Lynn!
As a sidenote: keep the chain AWAY from the valve stem! :o
And keep the engine rpm's to the minimum possible.
GAB
And only BACK over it. Dad drove the exhaust stack on a Super M into the ground trying to drive forward doing this.
We are heading up this weekend to try and retrieve the machine.
I don't know what to expect as it snowed 4 - 6" (depending on who you ask)
and will be in the 60's.
Jon
Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on January 10, 2020, 08:37:23 AM
We are heading up this weekend to try and retrieve the machine.
I don't know what to expect as it snowed 4 - 6" (depending on who you ask)
and will be in the 60's.
Jon
Sounds like yer gonna have lots more mud :(
Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on January 10, 2020, 08:37:23 AM
We are heading up this weekend to try and retrieve the machine.
I don't know what to expect as it snowed 4 - 6" (depending on who you ask)
and will be in the 60's.
Jon
Good luck Jon. be careful.
My brother Chris and I had a good weekend to get the machine out.
The snow melted and the temp went up to 60!
We used block and tackle and rigged a 4 part line and using
Our neighbor Steve's 75 Hp 4wd New Holland, it came right out.
We spent Saturday afternoon helping Steve do some maintenance on his New Holland and then all day Sunday demudding the crawler, changing the engine oil and rear drive oil.
The engine oil was not compromised but it was time. 5 gallons.
The transmission oil looked fine so we didn't mess with it.
The rear end oil looked like a pink milkshake. We changed it. 15 gallons.
What I should have done was to drain the contaminated oil, refill it with diesel fuel, drain it and then put in the fresh oil. But alas I skipped the 2nd part and the fresh oil is now slightly contaminated. I'm going to run it for about 30 minutes and then change it again.
Overall, what a weekend.
Yes we and all of our equipment got real muddy.
But really, we all had a pretty good time working together.
I still have one saw log down in that bottom and it's going to stay there till we can install come culvert's and a couple loads of shale.
Meanwhile, next weekend there's a couple of blow downs at a higher elevation I can retrieve!
Jon
Congratulations on your success.
Gerald
Quote from: Greyman on January 08, 2020, 05:51:29 PM
Here's another method if you're sunk too deep for the pole or have a longer distance to go. Works on trucks etc. also, but not tracked vehicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d09MAs9bNpE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d09MAs9bNpE)
I grew up farming in Southeast Nebraska, and that is not considered a stuck tractor. Although being an International maybe I over estimated it's capabilities. :D :D :D
Next wet hole!!! ;D