deuce vs excavator

[tm america]

i am way more excited about the snatch block than i was about the money.i felt his pain i dumped my backhoe on its side when loading it on the trailer muddy tires did it for me so i really just wanted to help him out .it had been on its side for almost a week and with the trees and all it would have been hard to get a crane or big enough wrecker in there to do the job

 

[tm america]

my truck weighs 15800 .the machine weighs 40000. i was only having to pull about half the weight of the machine to put it back right .i had two 3/4 inch cable chokers hooked to the machine they were both unused and have a weight rating big enough to pick up two of those . i had a 1/2 inch grade 80 chain holding me to the tree a 15 ton snatch block weak link is the cable -shear pin i know i'm not close ro breaking things when it doesnt bring the rpms down on my truck .we even had safety cones out for safety.a semi wrecker was out of the question since there wasnt enough room and it is so soft . only other option was a crane but yet again it was really soft so they would have need a really big crane to be able to pick it up from the road.something like a 100ton unit since they would have needed about a two hundred ft boom to get around the angle needed to pick it up safelybe safe first no amount of money is worth a life

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

..... In battle field conditions, you do what you can do with what you've got to do it with. GOOD JOB But PLEASE remember to be SAFE

 

[Mark2X2]

That looks familiar,I have rolled a couple of excavators on their sides when loading and unloading them.Especially when its raining or icy.Good job,maxed out the winch?

We fixed the problem of falling off the lowboy on two trailers. We had a single drop we put a beaver tail and ramps on. Then widened it out with 2"X12" tubing and gussets then we welded a piece of 4"X4"X3/8" angle iron on the edge to keep you on. When that rusted out we ordered a new Pitts lowboy 10' wide, with a 4" lip.
We have a logging operation and move a lot of tracked equipment year round, my machine is 9' 6" wide. No reason to push a guys luck and overhang the tracks 8" on each side in the winter.
Mark

 

[tm america]

i did the same thing on my trailer after i dropped the backhoe off the side you only need that to happen once to learn that lesson.i made my rail out of round tubing it did the job and gave you more places to tie things down.it really helped with hauling my wheelin truck to it use always be scarey putting it on there with muddy tires .this just goes to show the right equiptment can save your life .it doesnt take much to keep things from sliding off the side of the trailer.

 

[GoHot229]

It's hard to imagine the winch shear pin survived that pull..... I got'a get some of those ones.

 

[Scarecrow1]

Now that's the way it's done

 

[rmgill]

Well leverage was helping him. Look at his attachment point. It's up on the track. That's pretty high. What may have helped would have been to add a stiff leg at the tracks and routing the cable up and over to a higher point. Though he'd then not be able to take advantage of a block to get more pull strength.

 

[73m819]

you really went to suck seat, drop a crawler crane off the side of a trailer, that's bad enough, even worse when the counter weight is swung to the down side, then it takes about a week to remove the seat

 

[emr]

Yea i agree with the great post.... Nice work looks like U were thinking, I think U were near what u/ your truck could do, but handled it just awesome...I would have done it in a heart beat...Nice job...

 

[tm america]

yes that is one of the tricks .its the same reason you chain of to a tree as low as possible when winching and as high as possible when trying to pull tree out .its like using a prybar 'plus the one track that is on the ground didnt have to be lifted and the bucket and boom were close to the ground.the counterweight only had to be moved a small amount till it started working in my favor.the way things were laying half of the weight of the counter weight was sitting on the track thats on the ground along with most of the weight of the machine.for the most part all i was really lifting was the cab,boom,ane engine and hydro tank .its all about looking at what has to be done doing the math and using the right tool-hook up spots.

 

[tm america]

if i would have broke shear pins i would have just used the other snatch blocks i brought.you are only limited by the number of snatch blocks you have an the strength of your ground anchors for the most part once you have three snatch blocks in use you have to look for other place to hook them since the shackles are only made to handle one line pull each i wouldnt push it anymore that thati have a tm on offroad recovery it has been very helpfull figuring out what you need to use in different situations to safely get things done

 

[saddamsnightmare]

December 6th, 2009.

TMAMERICA:

Good job uprighting the excavator. Your shear pins in the winch didn't go on that load? I do seem to remember, in the TM10, that one is not to attach the M35A2 to a tree when pulling with the winch, as apparently it can strain the frame, but it has been done more often then you would think. Harpers Ferry NHP stuck an ex Army Allison payloder in a waterway and did the same thing with their turbo 2-1/2 ton dump to get the tractor out.
I would suspect that if my truck had a winch, which it doesn't, and I was gonna make pulls like that everyday, that I would track down a heavy enough snatch block set and let the tree take the strain with the truck just providing pulling power.It would be easier on the truck and harder on the tree. What'd the excavator sound like when it came down on its tracks?

Good luck and stay safe,

Cheers,

Kyle F. McGrogan

 

[tm america]

it came down on the tires like we planned and it came down slowly .so there wasnt much of a crashing sound and no damage was done to it in the recovery.good idea about running the snatch block off the tree didnt think of that knowing how easy most tree come out of the ground i dont think any of the trees i had to work with would have done the job. but i will keep that in mind next time

 

[PorscheTech911]

It's always cool seeing stories of these old beasts being useful again. I like how you did it and the planning involved. Bravo!

 

[feets]

Nice pick! You had a pretty easy time with that one. A little knowledge can go a long way.

Unfortunately, this one wasn't going to come out with a duece and a couple snatch blocks. It took a couple weeks of Texas summer to dry the ground, a backhoe to dig, and two 40 ton winch dozers to pull. A sharp eye will notice the dozer in the background is stuck too.
Gotta love Texas sink holes.

 

[dk8019]

Feets!! Those pictures are amazing, I've never seen a sink hole like this! How does it even occur?

 

[Harold43512]

I'm going to guess maybe more water than dirt?

 

[tm america]

ya that thing is really in there. i would have dug a hole for the water to run into then i would have flipped round the other way and dug a little in front of the tracks and put the boom out pushed down and pulled it with the bucket while working the tracks .that way it would have been picking up and pulling at the same time.even if you had to wait a couple days for the water to run into the hole and let the ground dry out a little maybe even cut some logs to throw under the tracks after lifting it with the boom

 

[tm america]

oh wiat sorry i thought the back was still above the water but it looks like thats just a reflection on the water. maybe i would have brought the sump pump and generator out first