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Stuck in mud!

Red Bank

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
323
Location
North Carolina
Well, it finally happened today, without getting into the whole story of why it happened, I have sank my 955 in mud, right side track is level with the ground, left side is 3/4 sunk. I tried to dig it out with the bucket, but it is just moving mud. We cut down some trees and put them under the bucket to use it to raise the loader up and put some under the tracks, I might have moved about 2 inches! Does anybody have any suggestions? And if I need to get another piece of equipment to pull it out what size does anyone suggest? I have a friend with a 160 Deere excavator, could that dig it out and pull it out? Or do I need something bigger? A wrecker or crane is out of the question based on where the loader is located. Any and all suggestions are appreciated, even sarcastic comments, no one can be any harder on me than I already have been:pointhead.
 

telescooper

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
Messages
103
Location
PA
Redbank
If you can get your tracks turning during the recovery, the recovery effort will be reduced. This will aid in breaking the "suction" of the mud against the belly. Just my $.02 worth
Telescooper
 

brian falcone

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2008
Messages
163
Location
r.i.
anything nearby to chain off of? you can hook a chain onto the track pads on the front of the machine and tie them off onto a tree or another machine. once the tracks on the loader turn and the chain gets pulled under the loader ,and if the hooks stay on the pads , it will pull itself out. hook the chain to the pads right in front of the idler.
 

Red Bank

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
323
Location
North Carolina
Thanks guys, yes the tracks are turning, Brian that sounds like a neat trick to try, I will check in the morning, there is a tree nearby if I have enough chain to reach, but I will have to do it in reverse, I need to back out of the mud.
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,361
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
Red Bank, can't say nothing sarcastic here, being stuck in the mud is no fun. Surely some of the track folks here will help you get it out. Stuck in the mud and tree reminded me of something. I was in Williamson West Virginia. The coal company provided an operator and a Deere 450 with a winch to drag my drill rig up the side of a mountain. We got to the bench on a slag fill that I was going work on and the operator had to fill the french drain at the edge of the slag fill with dirt to make a bridge for me to access the bench. He'd push some dirt, back up, push some more...he uncovered a spring. The 450 was just like you, sunk to the top of the tracks! Hooked the winch to a close by tree, no good. He had a full drum of cable, I said "a winch has more pulling power when the drum is a smaller diameter". We reeled off cable to reach a BIG TREE behind us. He'd put it in reverse and winch, moved a couple of inches. Did it again, couple more inches. Did this several times, dozer was inching out. Then one time, the winch just spooled up cable, but the cable didn't break. Huh??? I turned to look...an the tree was falling, and it was a big tree. :eek: I went one way and the operator went the other way and, sure enough, it landed right square on top of the 450. Just drove it down in the mud a little further! I looked at the operator and said "I told you it would have more power." He had to get some of his other crew up there, cut the tree off of it, and dig it out. :Banghead Felt sorry for him...they ragged that poor feller hard. I hope you get her out and don't have the problems we did. :D
 

bear

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2008
Messages
541
Location
South Central Kentucky
Occupation
Math, Physics, keeping out of trouble and doing od
atco that's nuts. i'm sure yer holding out on us with some interesting tales of your years of work. :D redbank putting the chains on the tracks should allow you to "winch" yourself out just don't pull over any trees like Atco :D you could try chaining logs or timber to the tracks to help pull it out you jusst have to be carefull and take them loose before they are dragged up into the loader arms or anything.
 

joispoi

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2008
Messages
1,284
Location
Connecticut
If you have a 10´long x 8-10'' diameter log, beam or section of telephone pole and two 4-6´long lengths of chain, you can probably get unstuck without the aid of another machine.

Put the beam up against the both tracks as if you were going to drive over it. Chain the beam to both the right and left tracks. Drive over the beam and the machine is unstuck. If it´s a real bad mud hole, it´s helpful to lay out some mud mats or additional beams that you can drive the machine up onto in order to get back onto solid ground.
 

special tool

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2008
Messages
878
Location
Bethel, Ct.
Well, it finally happened today, without getting into the whole story of why it happened, I have sank my 955 in mud, right side track is level with the ground, left side is 3/4 sunk. I tried to dig it out with the bucket, but it is just moving mud. We cut down some trees and put them under the bucket to use it to raise the loader up and put some under the tracks, I might have moved about 2 inches! Does anybody have any suggestions? And if I need to get another piece of equipment to pull it out what size does anyone suggest? I have a friend with a 160 Deere excavator, could that dig it out and pull it out? Or do I need something bigger? A wrecker or crane is out of the question based on where the loader is located. Any and all suggestions are appreciated, even sarcastic comments, no one can be any harder on me than I already have been:pointhead.


Pics????:D
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,361
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
atco that's nuts. i'm sure yer holding out on us with some interesting tales of your years of work. :D redbank putting the chains on the tracks should allow you to "winch" yourself out just don't pull over any trees like Atco :D you could try chaining logs or timber to the tracks to help pull it out you jusst have to be carefull and take them loose before they are dragged up into the loader arms or anything.


Yeah, when it all settled down, no one was hurt, and machine wasn't damaged, it was really kinda funny to see that Deere get squashed by that huge tree. Gave a whole new meaning to "fall over protection structure". :D

Interesting tales? Yeah, probably just like everyone else here that's lived a life of dirty hands, busted knuckles, and a sore back. :drinkup
 

Red Bank

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
323
Location
North Carolina
Update-tried to winch with chains, tree at wrong angle. Cut up lots of trees to put under the bucket, lifted it up and put trees under tracks. Still no luck. Went and got a 35D mini excavator and dug out from behind the loader. Built kind of a ramp to back up on. Cleared off some more area to work and found a better stump to tie off to. Hooked up the chain to the track and manage to get the loader back about 25 feet. We broke about 6 or 7 chain links and hooks, probably should not be using 3/8 chain!:eek: Had to stop-out of hooks:D Will try to get 1/2 chains tomorrow, and have the 160 Deere on standby:D Thanks to all who responded, and I thought about pictures tonight, might try to get camera in the morning.
 

Red Bank

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
323
Location
North Carolina
Well, we got it out of the mud this morning. We went and bought two new chains, Tractor Supply only had 3/8 chain, we bought the grade 70 transport chain. Hooked it to the track and it started coming out, had to rehook only once. While this was going on, heard my friend bringing the lowboy in with the 160. I drove up the hill and he saw me after he undid two binders to unload the 160:D We had to get it out on our own, last night he came up and looked at the loader, turned around and told his son "Let this be a lesson on why homeowners should not have their own equipment":tong After he left my Dad told me it was his mission to get it out without the 160:D. Anyway it was quite a weekend, had a whole lot to do, did a whole lot of work, just not what was on my list to do. It was a great feeling to work two days on this and finally get it out:drinkup I broke out the pressure washer and cleaned it up. I now have my inspiration to weld the grouser bars on:drinkup:drinkup:drinkup By the way, I never did take any pictures:(, but to give you an example of what I was in, the loader had sank about 2 feet between last night and this morning.
 

td25c

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
5,250
Location
indiana
It's good to here you got it out .I had the GMC wrecker on "standby" in case it got ugly.
 

willie59

Administrator
Joined
Dec 21, 2008
Messages
13,361
Location
Knoxville TN
Occupation
Service Manager
Well, we got it out of the mud this morning. We went and bought two new chains, Tractor Supply only had 3/8 chain, we bought the grade 70 transport chain. Hooked it to the track and it started coming out, had to rehook only once. While this was going on, heard my friend bringing the lowboy in with the 160. I drove up the hill and he saw me after he undid two binders to unload the 160:D We had to get it out on our own, last night he came up and looked at the loader, turned around and told his son "Let this be a lesson on why homeowners should not have their own equipment":tong After he left my Dad told me it was his mission to get it out without the 160:D. Anyway it was quite a weekend, had a whole lot to do, did a whole lot of work, just not what was on my list to do. It was a great feeling to work two days on this and finally get it out:drinkup I broke out the pressure washer and cleaned it up. I now have my inspiration to weld the grouser bars on:drinkup:drinkup:drinkup By the way, I never did take any pictures:(, but to give you an example of what I was in, the loader had sank about 2 feet between last night and this morning.


NO PICTURES!!! :eek: Man, we're going to get together and put a hex on you! :D At least you got it out...and didn't drop a tree on it like we did.
 

Red Bank

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
323
Location
North Carolina
NO PICTURES!!! :eek: Man, we're going to get together and put a hex on you! :D At least you got it out...and didn't drop a tree on it like we did.

Actually I almost did, it seems the tree stump I had put my strap around had been through enough, after the last pull, it was starting to raise up out of the ground. And yes, please forgive me for the lack of pictures. And we had talked about a wrecker, but there was no way to get one down where we were at.
 

JonesBros

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
127
Location
Farnham, VA
Occupation
Operator/Mechanic/Truck Driver/Fabricator
Glad to hear you got it out!

For our benefit, a local towing and auto repair shop has an old military tank retriever that we have to call on certain occasions to retrieve our buried machines.
 

stock

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
2,022
Location
Eire
Occupation
We have moved on and now were lost....
Glaad you extracted it safely annoyed there are no pixx.:mad::mad::Banghead:deadhorse
 
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