My Weekend, or, How to Sink a Crawler.

Weekend_Sawyer · 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.

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

sawguy21 · January 06, 2020, 11:22:23 AM

Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. :

The dozer will be a challenge without some heavy equipment and serious rigging.

Weekend_Sawyer · January 06, 2020, 11:25:54 AM

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.

Ljohnsaw · January 06, 2020, 12:09:16 PM

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?

;) 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...

GRANITEstateMP · January 06, 2020, 12:48:14 PM

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

Nebraska · January 06, 2020, 02:57:15 PM

That qualifies as a really ugly weekend.

Texas Ranger · January 06, 2020, 03:53:23 PM

Drag out links work?

GAB · January 06, 2020, 04:03:02 PM

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.

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

Corley5 · January 06, 2020, 04:05:46 PM

I hate it when that happens.

Stuart Caruk · January 06, 2020, 04:21:27 PM

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.

Jeff · January 06, 2020, 04:33:06 PM

Look @Raider Bill Jon learned from your mistakes! He tried to drown his instead! That does suck Jon. I remember Nemo

Raider Bill · January 06, 2020, 04:43:22 PM

DanG it Jon!
I hates when that happens! :D :D

WV Sawmiller · January 06, 2020, 06:02:07 PM

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.

Magicman · January 06, 2020, 07:38:36 PM

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.

Houston, we have a problem!! Ain't going in, ain't backing out.

Cut a Sweetgum sapling and chain it to a rear tire.

And then chain it to the other side.

Back over it, unchain, drag it out, and move it to the rear of the tire again. You can see how far it hopped.

Chain it back up.

It took 6 hops before I got it out. That plus I was a muddy mess!!

WV Sawmiller · January 06, 2020, 08:13:29 PM

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. :

Chuck White · January 06, 2020, 08:39:04 PM

That works pretty good, Lynn!

As a sidenote: keep the chain AWAY from the valve stem!

GAB · 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!

And keep the engine rpm's to the minimum possible.
GAB

Magicman · January 06, 2020, 08:58:49 PM

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.

Southside · January 06, 2020, 10:31:50 PM

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.

barbender · January 06, 2020, 11:37:15 PM

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!

K-Guy · January 07, 2020, 08:25:44 AM

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

Ed_K · January 07, 2020, 08:46:43 AM

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.