OT - Quick Mud

Me and the boys went out EARLY this morning while everything was frozen to cut a jag of firewood. Had a few what can go wrong can go wrong delays and the ground started to begin thawing.

Along the road we have into a section of woods, it has always been a little damp as it is at the bottom of a hill and flat a but NEVER had any trouble going through, even if it's raining. Not so today. Recently we clear cut the hill side above the road and the runoff goes straight to this section of the road. Before I realized what I was dealing with - bam - stuck and no 4x4 was going through it, including mine!

Hiked back to the tractor shed and got the JD and chains. Pulled alongside my stuck jeep (we use a jeep with trailer for hauling wood) far enough up hill where it was solid and yanked the jeep and trailer out of the mud - no problem.

Never encountered quick - quick sand type mud with no apparent bottom as long as I've been driving off road. Today was a first! Once I started spinning, I knew I wasn't getting out - so I quickly shut down the jeep - rather than bury it to the frame and make matters worse.

I've seen plenty of pictures over the years of farm tractors up to the frame, even 4x4 models in fields while plowing.

Didn't get any wood, but definitely had a teaching moment with my boys. First hand experience with quick, bottomless mud, second, 4x4's are not invincible and can be stuck. Third, once you atart spinning - stop or you can make matters worse.

Anyone had a similar experience? What did you get stuck and how did you get it unstuck?

Around here that happens when there is still frost in the ground.

Countless times, but each is a little different. Last one was my 850 ford. I've been in this area before, you can't tell now but it was all crop land at one time. Front wheels slice it open, sloppy steering box causes the wheels to splay out, that makes resistance, rears then lose traction, and it literally churned itself in and it was up to the main castings. Farmer friend had passed away, on the rare occasion this did happen on this land, he'd always come over, busy or not, and we used to do the same with our D7, I can remember fondly pulling one of his big JD's out of a soft spot when he was plowing in the spring. His son never got my voice mail, so I left it until I could figure out what I would do. 1 Harbor freight chain hoist and a 4" black cherry sapling to hook to at the base. It had dried up a bit, but slowly it pulled it up and out. Now this is not bottomless, I had the same thing happen in there 10 years or so back with the same tractor, just pushed myself backwards and out with the bucket.

Having worked in site development, site work, excavation, mass earth moving, pipe and utility work, I've seen lots of heavy equipment stuck. I spent a year straight on a D8K for one company. On a large flat site in Howell NJ, near Vanderveer road, what was once a really nice dairy farm, with some of the best topsoils. While stripping the top soil, I was traversing the site on undisturbed ground, in the middle of one of these huge fields, the 8K just sunk to the belly pan on one side. Saturated ground was all it was. I had to get 2 of the large excavators to dig around it and assist getting it out, and it did come out without too much trouble. These are very heavy tractors, this one had the 4bbl ripper on it too, and had a straight blade. Same site a driver on a 30 yard articulated hauler, went right into a deep filled area that was soft, it was flagged off too, and he was fully loaded. That took an excavator and 2 D8K's to get out, and that was a man made bottomless pit of muck. I guess he missed the flags, everyone else knew what it was and drove around it, he went straight into it.

On the 850, I tried the logs on the tire and a as many other ways as was feasible, forget it. As time passed, the weather finally was dry for weeks, by the time I got it out, that was a factor. This area was hard underneath, just this spot that was deeper under the top soil. I never saw a tire squash up like that with a log chained to it. That is or can be a dangerous thing to do, I don't recommend it for something like this, there was no way it would work. I broke a 6" piece of green hardwood doing this. The more you fool with it, the worse it gets, always best to stop and figure a way to get a line on it and get it out with some other means. Know when to stop or just stop immediately, it will save you some hard work later. This was not my first stuck tractor, I've seen that since an early age. Worse is throwing a track on a side hill headed to or where it meets the flat with that older of the 2 D7's. Wait til it dries out, get some heavy jacks, rigging, wood cribbing, shovels and some bodies on those shovels. That is some work for sure.

Brother went out with the JD G and loader to remove a couple rocks. The G went down. Took the DC4 to pull it out; DC4 went down. Brought out the D4- down it went. Brought out the HD7; it went down too. We let the whole mess dry a couple days and had neighbor come over with his tilt bed equipment trailer; he winched each tractor out one-by-one. There was not bottom to the soil in that particular location; very easy to go down with a half turn of the wheel.

Other soil that we farmed had a hard pan down about 12 inches and that was as deep as the tractors could go. I used to take the wide front H Farmall and chew my way from standing water to the drainage ditch to get standing water off the field. The tires would dig two nice trenches about a foot deep if you just let the wheels churn away. Of course, we had to blade the trenches shut again before we seeded the field after it dried up.

I burried the combine when it was still fairly new (JD 9500 RWA). The header was sitting on the ground. It took the 4440 and the 8430 pulling together to get it out. It was the same kind of deal - came out of nowhere in a spot that's never wet.

I grew up in a farm in west central Kansas. We had sugar sand. You could do anything you wanted when it was wet. It was when it was dry that you had to worry. I remember rotary mowing in a pasture and I got stuck just driving. The mower wasn't down or anything.

I've been stuck exactly four times with a 4wd pickup, three while I was blading snow, and once I hit a patch of mud that even a 4wd wouldn't go through.

Once while I was plowing snow I got hung up on a patch of glare ice. I got a tractor and pulled the pickup off of the ice. Twice while plowing snow, my wife was within CB radio range with a 4wd Blazer and she came like the cavalry (and hasn't let me forget it since). The time I got stuck in the mud, I got a tractor and pulled the pickup out.

My Dad had just bought his first 4x4 pickup, a Dodge Dakota. He pulled into the flooded woods just a bit to show us all how it wouldn't get stuck because it was a 4x4 so it would never get stuck. Well, it got stuck. and he kept rocking it digging deeper in. the 39' 9N needed a engine rebuild but it barely pulled it out. was about to give up when I got the timing just right with Dad in the truck and me on the tractor, when he was rocking it out was far as he could, I gave it a good jerk and out it came. oh yeah, he popped one of his almost brand new cooper tires in the process too.

We bought our first 4X4 in 1976. Naturally I thought it would go anywhere. What it will do is get you so stuck, so far from help, that you are really in a pickle.

I have been stuck in everything imaginable. Mud, sand, snow, you name it.

Gene

My youngest , and only one still home , bought a 55 jeep last year . Tinkered ,with some help , got her oing good . He wanted to make maple syrup this year. I built a pan , we rigged up a food grade barrel in the jeep . Last Sunday he couldn't make it up near where our taps are , remembered that some chains came with the jeep . Needless to say I was busy he got em on . Well he walked back down , not good look on his face. Long story short chains were a little loose , he spun a bit and they wrapped on tie rods and there he set in 6 inches of grease with frost underneath. Got as close as I could with truck , ended up talking tires off . Not fun . Longest ever to get unstuck on this farm.

One really wet fall I got my JD 4400 combine stuck so many times that I had my son follow me a round with a big tractor and a long chain. I eventually bought a combine with rear wheel assist and then, guess what? Right, I got stuck again only a little more so.
The worst that I got stuck was when trying to help a neighbor get unstuck. I knew it was such a mud hole that I should not have attempted it but... It took me 2 days to get all of the tractors out and then I had to use 3 of my own tractors and one that another farmer brought. One big problem was to get enough experienced drivers for all of the tractors.

Whenever I go on my fields my wife says do not get stuck. I do not have a good track record for following her orders!

My tri-axle dump had full lockers, and with a load it would go pretty much anywhere through anything. I think I had to get pushed twice in two years, and both times they pushed on the load. Empty was another matter. On one road job we were putting down sand, backing in down hill. It was live sand and after dumping we had to pull out up a pretty good grade. The dozer operator would watch me go back and forth a few times, and I would always stop at the first hop. Finally he would come over and hook on and pull me to the top of the hill. Probably 6-8 times In a day.

When I was young and foolish,about 1960, I owned a 1957 JEEP CJ5. There weren't many if any snowmobiles around. A friend and I decided we would go up to the fire tower in the Brookfield state land on Christmas Eve, about 5 miles from the nearest plowed road. Snow was 2 to 4 feet deep on the truck trails. We got just a short distance, and we were stuck. Rule was, driver shovels it out. Got her shoveled out, and switched drivers and went on til the next time it got stuck. We traded off about a half dozen times til we decided it wasn't really that much fun so we pulled out the chains and put them on all 4 wheels and continued on. The Jeep never got stuck after that. We got to the tower, and had to climb it of course. By that time his bladder was full so he emptied it from the highest step he could get on. We climbed back down got in the Jeep and drove back without incident.

Too long a story for here, but I had my 1955 4wd hung up so bad once we had to bulldoze mud and dirt away from the front end before we could even winch it out with a TD-14. Lesson learned. The heavier they are, and the further you go before getting stuck,the tougher they are to get out.

We deal with bottomless mud all the time here in our sandy soils. Clue: if a low spot looks wet and has no water standing on it, there is a reason for that. GO around! In our soils, when the frost comes out, you have about three to four days you simply do not go out in the fields. (chuckle)

This a little different,but the same kind of mud-runoff from a construction site next to our farm-and the temperature was cool/cold and it was almost dark outside.My younger brother and my cousin(both about 9 yrs old) were walking thru the construction area and stepped on the mud to see how soft it was.They would sink in and pull themselves out,until finally my brother got in over his knees,and was stuck!They tried themselves for a while,and finally my cousin went and told my Mom,and went back to my brother.She told me she went looking for them in the car,but could not find them, and almost got in a panic. I was about 14yrs old,and knew where to look.I found them,but could not walk on the mud at all,so I got a 2'x2' board/old door, and was able to stand on it to pull him out.It was real hard for me to pull his legs out-that mud had a grip,and it was like quicksand.My brother was exhausted,too.And he got yelled out too!
I have been stuck a few other times with equipment,but think this was funniest one though.Mark

That kind of stuck is not uncommon in my area. Was plowing with my 1370 case one spring and hit a frost heave. I stopped right away and went and got another tractor. By the time I got back the tractor had sunk to the belly so far that you could step directly into the cab. Also had to dig out to get a chain on the front axle.

According to some geology maps of the area we live, thousands of years ago the land was part of an ancient sea bed.
Overall decent clay base but it has random small pockets and veins of sand.
One spot you can dig a hole straight down with a backhoe, move over 50 feet and you are in pure sand that caves in the size of a bedroom before you can get down 8 feet.
The entrance to one of the corrals had one of these sand veins.
I do not own a piece of equipment that has not at least once been miserably stuck in this spot.
It will look level and dry but as soon as one wheel catches the edge it would suck you in leaving you sitting on the oil pan with wheels dangling in a seemingly bottomless pit. I am talking about half an hour with a shovel just to get a chain hooked on to the drawbar stuck.
Finally went to get to the bottom of it so to speak this summer and planted my wheel loader so bad I had to get a neighbor with a 4x4 backhoe in to dig out the muck and backfill the holes with gravel before there was any chance of pulling it out. 5 feet away from me his wheels were not even breaking the surface.
Hats off to good/great neighbors with big toys.
Once we got it out I spent a day and a half digging out the sand down to a solid base before hauling in 23 tandem loads of gravel to build it back up.
Some of these veins are no larger than a suitcase others I don't want to find out.

My uncle hired a city kid (great kid and willing to work) he was spreading horse manure on a field near my folks house. My uncle instructed him that he was to stay in the north 1/3 of the field. Evidently not clear what 1/3 was, he went to far. 1947 H pulling a 4 wheel spreader. The soil looked dry in the entire field. By the time he realized the narrow front was pushing, he was too far into a quick sand vein about 80 feet wide and 15 feet deep. Backing up merely put the tractor into the face of the earth to the platform. he almost got himself stuck getting to the spreader. After getting the spreader off, a issue requiring a near dive into the sand. we used a 400 and a 350U pulling at the same time and managed to drag it out leaving a interesting trench. he came back for a whole day to smooth out the field. The quick sand effect on that vein lasts about 3 weeks each spring. Jim

My stuck story is from the military. I was catching a ride to the chow hall with a sergeant and instead of taking the road he decided to cut through the cable cut and go directly out to Rt. 1 . Half way across he hit a sort of half underground stream , got stuck and started to sink. He was an operator . so he says no problem I'll run back and get the 10,000 lb Yale fork lift. He comes back with the Yale and chain hooks up; starts to sink the Yale. I go to get out and see a copperhead in the stream but what the heck I got combat boots on I get out and look and the Yale is still sinking. He says no problem I'll go get the Terex [ also rubber tires] Pulls up behind the Yale and the Terex starts sinking. Now he is starting to panic . He calls a Warrant Officer who was an operator. He comes out . Holy Cow you guys are screwed. He says you need a dozer. Sir we gave that back to the army. No track machines except an old Amtrack that needs work . Time is passing. To make a long story short they had to call a huge wrecker for 5 tons. A sergeant comes from the other side of the base . This is now about 11 at night shuts down all Rt 1, parks sideways on the highway and has us pull about 150 yards of huge cable from the highway to the jeep first. He says get rid of the civilian vehicle pulls it out to Rt1 . Then we hook up the Yale pulls that right through the swamp onto the roadway. Then finally the Terex pulls that right out through the whole huge mud hole to Rt1. But now it is about 1 am. Finally I stagger into the barracks at about 2 in the am covered in mud and grease, pants soaked , no dinner. and NOTE TO SELF -- don't ride with that guy any more. But all in all nobody got brought up charges and it was all because he wanted to try his POV Jeep on a shortcut that really was a swamp. I was a bit tired at work the next day.

I was in an engineer company in Germany. They had what was called german american friendship day. The Col decided to build a ball park socker field for the americans to use as well as the germans. I have a picture here somewhere of 2 HD 16 dozers hooked to each other and buried in the mud so deep that you cannot see the tracks. The land was on a flat spot overlooking a valley. We worked the land down and then a rain storm moved thru and ground turned to soup. You could not even walk on it. 4 years ago I was back in Germany and showed the field to my wife and it had grown up around it but was beautiful the way it is being kept up. Made me feel kind of good to see it and remember the times I had there

Also got 'stuck up' today after firewood. Backing off the county road into my access road. State had graded the ditch deeper last time but it didn't look that deep. Backed far enough in that when my front wheels hit the ditch, it high-centered my 4x4. No problem, had a log chain with me, a slight pull would get me out, in my own neighborhood, on a busy gravel co.rd. Busy except when you need someone to come along. 45 minutes, then 3 neighbors w/4x4's came, all at the same time. Caught up on a lot of gossip anyway. About the only time someone will stop & chat. Guess I'll have to do it more often.