Tractor stuck, part 5

I've gotten the tractor stuck a few times this year, and I've finally worked out a system so that getting the tractor stuck is annoying, but no big deal. The first part is how I hook up to my truck.

The trailer hitch is a relatively strong point to hook to one the back of the truck. I'm using my tie down cable here, looped back to itself and hooked.

If you click on this picture, you'll see the tractor in the distance. What I've got is a 150' length of 5/8th steel cable, and a 300' length, and a 50' length. I use the different lengths for different pulls, and so that I can lift it. The 300' length of cable is pretty heavy. Maybe 150lbs.

Ok. So with the tractor hooked to the truck, you put the tractor into neutral, and the truck into 4x4 low and pull it out. If the full-sized pickup doesn't do it, I switch up to the 500hp dumptruck that weighs 25,000lbs. I'm pretty sure between the two trucks I can pull the tractor out no matter how much I get stuck.

But that's the brute force way. I also have a big pulley that allows me to use leverage to double the pulling power, but so far I haven't had to use it. A straight pull is quick to set up and the first try. If it doesn't work I'll break out the block and tackle.

At the end of the cables, I've got 4 tiedown chains, so as I pull the tractor out, I can remove chains and shorten the pull. Most of the time all I have to do is get the tractor back up to the surface, which I can do in a 10' pull, and then drive it off.

Fun in the mud, part 4

Well, this really isn't part 4, but it seems like I'm always trying to get something out of the mud. This time of year is not as bad as November -- at least it's getting drier, but I've got a constant challenge. Here I've stuck my 12 yard 4 axle dump truck in the mud. I was moving some compost around with it and backed it into a soft spot. Darn it.

The rear drive wheel is stuck and spinning and the rear axle is buried. So this is a job for SUPER TRACTOR!!

Coming to the rescue is my kubota 9580! Dump truck stuck! NO problem! Throw a chain on the dump truck, take it out of gear, and just drag that sucker right out of the mud!

Now I'm not going to talk about when I get the SUPER TRACTOR stuck.

Mud. Deep Mud. Even Deeper Mud

People in traffic jams are an easy audience. In this picture you can see the freeway that forms the south property line of my farm, (look at the top right) It's elevated a good 20' above the land, so that cars on the highway get a good view of anything I happen to be doing.

So when I'm doing something interesting -- like digging my tractor out of the deep mud with a shovel -- I get phone calls (my phone number is listed on a big sign that faces the freeway) and people honk and wave.

That's me looking at my kubota 9580 4x4 tractor, stuck in the mud. The mud has completely filled all of the traction ribs on the tires making them smooth. The rear axle of the tractor is on the ground. This is the 3rd time this year I've stuck my tractor, so I'm getting pretty good at getting it out. This time it only took an hour or so of digging to do it.


The hardest part is that the mud sticks to the shovel, and my hands, and everything. I'm standing calf-deep in the mud, so I have to pull and pull and pull three times to get my foot up without pulling it out of the boot.


The ground is so soft right here that my bucket won't lift the front of the tractor. So I'm bringing this timber over to put under the bucket. You can see from the tracks here that I've passed over this area several times with the tractor, but that was before the flood, and the ground is even softer than usual now.
Here I've raised the front wheels from the mud, and I'll put 4x4 cribbing in under them to give them some lift.

So enjoy the show folks.