Recovery of a Stuck 35 Ton Track Hoe from a Mud Hole

As usual, when somone posts a YouTube video I get lost in all the different and cool things on the right side of the screen. Sometimes for hours!

In this case, after watching the jet powered Amish buggy I made a trip to Sweden to watch a crew recover a track hoe stuck in the mud. Very stuck!

One thing I noticed that I have not seen on construction sites here is the rotating bucket on the track hoes. That bucket gives them a huge amount of versatility over a non-rotating bucket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzXQqlbO1Rg

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Originally Posted by Mike

As usual, when somone posts a YouTube video I get lost in all the different and cool things on the right side of the screen. Sometimes for hours!

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Guilty of that as well....

Me also:o:

That trackhoe operator is good...I like some of the recovery equipment the Europeans get to use...:clap:...Ben

I imagine you guys are aware that what appears on the right side is different for each person and is controlled by your individual viewing history fed into YouTube’s mysterious algorithm. For mike, a jet-powered buggy triggered giant machines in a mud hole, and mine brought up various jets dogfighting. I hate giant corporations in my head, but YouTube remains my sole contact by choice with ultimate evil, Google.

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Originally Posted by Mike

One thing I noticed that I have not seen on construction sites here is the rotating bucket on the track hoes. That bucket gives them a huge amount of versatility over a non-rotating bucket.

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They are available but not that common. They are most common in urban or confined areas where you dont have room for other tools. Here stateside, we used them in the subways frequently.

While I was on our global safety committee, we had a fatality in either Sweden or Finland from one of these. The connecting apparatus requires caution in muddy/icy environments. In our case the tool detached and fell striking and killing someones son/father/brother. We gave serious consideration to banning the use of quick connect tools.

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Originally Posted by wacojoe

I imagine you guys are aware that what appears on the right side is different for each person and is controlled by your individual viewing history fed into YouTube’s mysterious algorithm. For mike, a jet-powered buggy triggered giant machines in a mud hole, and mine brought up various jets dogfighting. I hate giant corporations in my head, but YouTube remains my sole contact by choice with ultimate evil, Google.

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Wondered why girls in Bikinis or lack there of keep showing up.:flip::flip::flip::flip:

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Originally Posted by FredK

Wondered why girls in Bikinis or lack there of keep showing up.:flip::flip::flip::flip:

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You too, Fred?...:shrug:...Ben

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Originally Posted by CactusCurt

They are available but not that common. They are most common in urban or confined areas where you dont have room for other tools. Here stateside, we used them in the subways frequently.

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Well that explains it! I've never been on a subway.

Back in my surveying days, I saw track hoes buried as bad as the one in the video above. None of them required anything more than another hoe to pull them out. But they were in a quicksand like mud, not clay with the suction it adds.

Exactly---the force suction can put on a stuck machine is hard to imagine :omfg:

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Originally Posted by CactusCurt

They are available but not that common. They are most common in urban or confined areas where you dont have room for other tools. Here stateside, we used them in the subways frequently.

While I was on our global safety committee, we had a fatality in either Sweden or Finland from one of these. The connecting apparatus requires caution in muddy/icy environments. In our case the tool detached and fell striking and killing someones son/father/brother. We gave serious consideration to banning the use of quick connect tools.

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My experience with a similar mechanism was with a telescoping man lift, not a back hoe. I defended a manufacturer of large man lifts (can’t recall the name at the moment) on which the bucket swiveled in all directions, but had the nasty habit of detaching and falling off. When that happens at the top of a power pole, you can imagine what happens to the unfortunate man in it. After learning of the defect my client sent notices of recall, but this was sufficiently in time after selling them that not all of the notices got to eventual owners/operators. My clients were obviously liable and many million$ were paid for tragic damages.

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Originally Posted by wacojoe

I imagine you guys are aware that what appears on the right side is different for each person and is controlled by your individual viewing history fed into YouTube’s mysterious algorithm. For mike, a jet-powered buggy triggered giant machines in a mud hole, and mine brought up various jets dogfighting.

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I have sort of the same problem with IMDB...When I'm watching an old movie on DVD at night, I always find the IMDB page for it, then read all the trivia notes...Then while I'm watching if I don't recognize an actor I look up his name and his page, and that invariably leads to another page and another...Sometimes it takes me days to finish watching a Humphrey Bogart movie...And don't let me start on a 3 Stooges marathon...:nyuk:...Ben

So what do you think? A hundred thousand dollar tow job?

I didn't watch the video, so I don't know how long it took in Sweden, but here in redneck America we would have that out in less than a day (we stuck and otherwise destroyed more stuff working on mines than you would want to believe). Double that in Sweden (their toys are generally smaller than ours).

The real expense is in cleaning/repairing the undercarriage depending on how long it's been there. When we stuck something it was generally in acidic water and tailings - harsh. The hoe will probably be out of commission for a week and opening up an undercarriage is like opening a box of chocolates anyway.

A good example of this environment. We were once hired to doze about 30' of ore off of a leach pad to investigate the containment liner. They spray acid on the ore to leach out the copper (in this case). Nasty place. When we had finished pushing the ore off, the dozer blade and tracks were completely coated with shiny copper like a brand new penny! That D10 probably had 100#'s on it. :cool: