Snow Day 3-7-15

Loooonnnngggg day plowing… We got a Good 6” to 8” of snow since Friday morning.. In some places it added up to I think a good 10” of loose snow from this last week.

Plowing was OK, although with only my rear chains on I was having a hard time if I got too far off to the loose sides than hasn’t been plowed for that 10” or even 12”… Need to get new bungies and get the front chains back on Monday, so I can finish up the road after the(hopefully) last of the snow we’re soposed to get on Sunday.. 

Made the day even longer getting the plow truck un-stuck after I found a 4′ ditch/trench to drop one wheel into… Had the fron axle housing/ differential pumkin, plow mount and the frame sitting On The Ground. Thats pretty good considering the gound clearance this truck has.. 

FUN. heh.

My chains, which are heavy digger lugged chains for a semi/tractor trailer that were cut down to fit a pickup.  Not the clearance over the wheel in the wheel well… a lillte more than there should be since the truck is twisted to the other side wheel in the hole, but you still get a good idea of the contrast of how the front is sitting, with this side wheel so high in the wheel well in the next pic…

 Gives a good idea of how far Down the other front wheel is in the hole… The axle on the other side is Literally sitting on the ground level you see the tire sitting on, in this side.

Here the closest hole you can see is where the wheel was sitting, and the bigger round one past it is the one we dug to use a handyman jack to try to lift the truck out(no go, wasn’t enough room to work the jack between the truck and the back side of the plow)

 The rut like hole the wheel was in was about 14” or 15” deep down to the snow in it… but it was just loose snow where the tire pressed it to, you could press it down another 1.5′ ish…

The hole further up where we dug the snow out of the rut for the jack is about 2.5′ deep( had some snow packed in the bottom, so its hard to tell exactly)

I gotta remember to go tomorrow or monday and cut a sapling, and flag it, to sit in that biggest hole we dug out, and fill them both in… Fill them both with loose snow, then when it freezed over night no one should be able to get stuck in them, but I want to flag them to be sure…

No, I have no idea why that trench is actually there… It was put in ~15 years ago, and goes all the way around the top of the property… I get the feeling they had a problem with too much run off and flooding from the property above them… but this is a little extreme even as a drainage diverter…  I dunno.

This all looks terribly bad after yesterdays adventure getting stuck/ditching on the highway.., But this wasn’t my, or anyone elses fault… Just sheer “luck” that I found that ditch…. I knew it was there close to where I was plowing, but with the new deep snow we got, the burm from the last time the road was plowed, and the burm I was pushing at the time, I couldn’t see it, and there was no real way to judge where it was.. So going where I was sure was safe, was a foot too far.. Just one of those things that happens, even when you are being extremely careful.  

Next year I’m gonna get me some 5′ poles with little orange flags on them and mark the ends of that ditch… and the corners, and maybe every 4 feet! So at least I have Something to judge off of… (If I don’t just go get a loader and fill the damn thing in along there and be done with it… of course, it is on someone elses property along the road there… maybe if I do it in the middle of the night no-one will know who did it… hmmm… 😉 😀  )

 I even tore a section of the frame… NOT the bumper mounts like usually get broken, but The Frame, trying to get it out…  I forgot to get a pic of that, I’ll have to add it later…

Thought I broke my tow chain again, but looked and it was fine.. “But that was hooked ot the fram??!?!?” *Go look under truck* 

Whoops. 😉

I about died laughing at the time… It was just SO epic, So surprising to actually tear a section of frame while jerking on a truck to get it out… NEVER have I had something stuck that bad, or pulled that hard on a truck before.  Broken bumers, or bumper bolts? yeah… Bent bumpers? yeah… Tonr bumpers off? Yup. All the same with hitches and hitch mounts? Yup.. Broken a chain even? Yes… Have even dented/mangled the frame slightly.. But torn? Nope.

(This is not a frame side rail, its a cross member that ties the side rails together at the back… But its not much difference, its the same shape, grade, and thickness of steel as the main side rails… it just runs the other dirrection forming the end of the frame… The two ends are still there, I tore it in half in the center..)

But, thats good proof why I only use a chain on MY trucks, or for guys that understand the risks… a Chain has absolutely No give, and is usually tougher than the vehicles, its well know to break bumper bolts, hitch mount bolts, or just tear the bumper or hitch clean off a vehicle using a tow chain for this… I use a chain becasue with the average stuck vehicle you can break a tow strap; but not a chain. Used wiith care the chain won’t dammage anything… Note I said Average stuck vehicle… This Was NOT anywhere near Average!

Also good proof that I do need to get a good heavy duty strap to carry again… For times where I’m pretty sure Something os going to break, I’d rather it be a strap than anything else… 😉

After a friend and neighbor of mine helped me with several attempts of sane, and insane, normal, and decidedly Alaskan Redneck means… 😉 None of which worked BTW.  Finally got it out with the great help of a good friend that has a BIG winch on the front of his 4×4… The winch, blocking his tires good, and me backing up(I was spinning, WITH my heavy digger lugged semi Chains On!), and it came after 3 or 4 tries. Rather Easilly considering the hole it was in, and all else that had failed… Winches are amazing in the sheer amount of torque you can apply!

Only took 4 hours from when I went in, to when it was out. Only about 3 hours actually working on getting it out, I took an hour at the end just before my friend with the winch was able to get here, and I ran to the store for a drink and a treat… Had to get away from it for a bit…”Step Back” as they say…   That was an adventure in itself, since no-one has plowed the highway yet today… Nor all week this far out from town, as far as I can tell… Its a rutted, snowy, washboard rough mess..

(God must like you this weekend Weston; two days in a row I have Epic problems with stuck trucks, and find solutions that don’t involve calling and bothering you… 😉 )