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Looks like that will be fun to get out. I think I'd start by getting a couple of 2x12's at least 10' long, and digging down to where I could begin to feed them under the tracks. Of course that assumes I could get the thing to start, and run...
After you spend all of that time and energy digging down to feed those boards down under the tracks, what is the next step?
A slow steady pull to allow the sticky wet clay to move out of the way as the machine is pulled back. The little track hoe could to be chained to the biggest tree behind it, maybe even 2 or 3 trees. Then the chain we can see laying in the mud attached between the grapple on the hoe and BOTH sides of the loader. Finally thick boards placed to protect the windshield of the track hoe so when that little chain breaks, it does not kill that operator. Then if they work as a team, they might be able to pull it free.
It will take a pair competent operators to extract that machine. But we know from the situation, at least one of them is not competent, else he would not have driven so deep into the mud.
It often does not take much to free a stuck machine, but you need to be careful, else you end up with two machines stuck.
Locks like the operator will need to be pulled out next!
I don't think that itty bitty chain in going to be any help at all. It takes the wrong kind of talent to get stuck that bad. Trying to pull that small but heavy machine out with that light a chain would show less sense than was exhibited in getting the machine stuck in the first place. Looks like they've managed to fill the radiator with grass and possibly mud, as well, so overheating the engine is also a good possibility. The track hoe would make it easier to dig the loader out a bit, so you can place the planks. IF you can avoid sinking it, too. It will be weeks before that soil could possibly be dry enough to make the digging easier, at which time the treads will probably be locked in place and immoveable. I'm just glad I don't have to try to get it out.Originally Posted by hemmjo
If you take a close look at the surrounding wooded area, I think you will see that the mud he drove off into could have been hidden from view probably covered with foliage and crusted over. He could have been well into the bog before the machine even started to sink.
Bogs like that can be very deceiving sometimes only a foot deep while other times as much as 8 or 10 feet deep. I've seen farm equipment like combines sink all the way to the cabs in just the length of the machine trying to harvest. And requiring as many as 3 dozers to pull them out.
Their only chance of recovery with that small excavator and the what looks like a 3/8" chain will be like landing a 15lb black bass with 4 lb test line. It can be done and has been done without breaking the fishing line, it just takes a while and lots of care not to pull too hard or too fast.
2 things they have going against them though is 1 he had already partially bogged before much closer to the the excavator and 2 they are set up at an angle to the stuck machine
Last edited by Frank S; Aug 19, 2021 at 09:03 AM.
Never try to tell me it can't be done
When I have to paint I use KBS products
True, but he should have been aware of the recent weather. Assuming he's the operator who got stuck, he also should have stopped before he sunk in that deep. From the previous bogging down, he should have known better than to keep going. I wouldn't bet on that chain being 3/8", either. And freezing the video, I'm not sure that excavator isn't an attachment for the loader, instead of a complete excavator. All I can see in the video is the digger and a scraper blade, no power unit or treads, or cab. If so, he's doubly screwed, and I'm REALLY glad I'm not there.
Bill
A bog like that is probably not a weather related issue, rather a water table issue especially if it is anywhere near a river.
the stuck machine has a dozer blade on it so they are probably trying to get to where they can log some trees.
And yes after the first indication of bogging down the prudent thing to have done was once he was on top of the surface again would have been to probe the ground with a steel rod.
The problem we have is only a snippet of what happened
Never try to tell me it can't be done
When I have to paint I use KBS products
I had a situation just like this, was pushing brush forward and then hit a soft spot. Tried to back up, but I sunk just enough that a rock caught the rear of the dozer, so backing up was not an option. Had another time, rental CAT D6 with ripper on back and got stuck because I couldn't get the ripper high enough so it kept me from backing up, had to go forward.
On the first one, gave up after breaking chains and straps and called a wrecker - the biggest heavy duty truck they had. We bent a 1 1/8" pin in pulling the machine out, wrecker guy said it was over 80 tons pulling force.
Another stuck story, not me, tractor was plowing, duals front and back, sunk to the belly in a soft spot. They had to wait for the area to dry out and it took 2 large track hoes to dig a path to get to the tractor and then a bunch of digging out the tires and then they finally got it out a day or so later...
I have a few getting stuck stories. Looking back the one that makes me laugh the most happened on a motorcycle. At the time it was not so funny to me, but my friends got a kick out of it. Back in the 70's we rode dirt bikes, often in abandoned strip mines and surrounding areas. I was pumping up a flat tire, and told my friends to go on I would catch up. It was dry and hot, had not rained for weeks. I could hear them in the woods across the mine pit. I was cruising along a dry "creek bed", across the relatively flat bottom of the abandoned pit. At 45-50 MPH, my bike started to break through the thin layer of gravel and red sticky clay started to swallow up my bike. By the time I got stopped not much more than the seat and handle bars were above the surface. I ended up basically sitting on my butt in the sticky clay that had oozed up out of the hole as it swallowed up my bike.
When they came back looking for me, about 1/2 hour later, everyone had a good laugh. Only took about 2 hours of tugging and pulling to get it out. But could not ride it as the cooling fins were stuffed full of clay. We always carried rope in case of breakdowns, etc.
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