# worst stuck



## plowking35 (Dec 21, 1999)

I started this one on the last forum, and I was just wanting to see what the new guys have in their history.
What is your worst stuck story? Or worst breakdown/or just one hell of a bad day?
Dino

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Professional Ice and Snow Management 
Products:Services:Equipment Think Snow


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## 90plow (Dec 22, 2001)

*hey*

start it up again


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## Pelican (Nov 16, 2001)

Worst stuck:
Got a call for a drive I had never been to before after we had gotton about 18 inches of snow. I'm plowing blind and the plow catches something. Little did I know, this was the first plow of the season for this drive and it was coated with ice. When the plow caught, it kicked the truck off the drive over a bank and into a 5' snow drift. I had to climb out the window and after looking at what happened didn't even attempt to shovel. Called a tow truck and learned a lesson that day.

Worst breakdown:
In the middle of a blizzard half way through my route, the driver's side axle housing to my Twin Traction Beam Ford front axle broke in half. I had to wait for my brother-in-law to finish his route and then rent his truck to do mine. After the storm I converted to the Monobeam front axle, I'll never own one of those trucks again!


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## Ohiosnow (Sep 20, 2001)

*1977*

21" of snow. I was over it my girlfriend's (now my wife) & the storm started getting ugly we had 18" on the ground at 2:00am when I was leaving to go home. I tried 2 different ways to go home & both roads were closed so I backtracked & tried 1 last way home, well I was tired & it was a blizzard. I came around the curve of the road & there was a drift 10' high & 40' across the road, I was in a 1972 CJ-5- 6'6"Meyer blade & bang I was in the drift . I couldn't go back or forward couldn't open the doors I was stuck  . I crawled to the back window & unzipped & climbed out, man my Jeep was 4' past the start of the drift. I got to the other side of the drift it was 25' in depth & I was only 5' short of getting through. After a hour of shoveling I was able to get through only to find 7 more cars blocking the road 1/4 mile away. I plowed my way past them & told them they could follow me as I was going to get through He!! or high water 4 hrs. later I got home. A 10 min. trip took over 6 hrs.


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

How about first stuck?

In 1979 I bought my first truck--a 76 F250 4X4, with 12 X 16.5 tires. When I went to pick it up the dealer had pulled it out and parked it by the curb. There was *one* patch about 2 feet square, of hardpack snow/ice in the gutter, and they just happened to park the truck with the rear wheel directly on it. It was a level street too, which didn't help--had it sloped either direction I could have just drifted a foot or two. I, and I swear this is the truth, had to lock the hubs and put 'er in 4 wheel to pull away from the curb.

(And that's pretty much the way things continue to go....)


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## 90plow (Dec 22, 2001)

*hey*

come on thats the best worst stuck story you got?


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## SIPLOWGUY (Mar 21, 2002)

Hey guys...I got a few.

I was a wild 17 years old. My neighbor had a Mercury Montego with chains on it. I fixed his battery terminals and thinking a car with chains was as good as a 4X4 I decided to try getting through an unplowed street. We had a blizzard that year and this was the next day so I went at the street with my foot to the floor. I got in pretty far but not out the other side. I had all four wheels spinning in the breeze! I had to get a tow truck to winch me out. It cost me $15 which took me a few weeks to pay my parents back. I hadn't learned my lesson though.

Two years later I was working after school installing drapes and blinds. The full time installer was out sick and I was out late doing installations. I went to make a u-turn and backed the van (a 79 E150) into a snow covered field when I heard a crack and the back of the van was in the swamp! My boss was mad as hell but I was out until midnight that night and he paid me even though he said he shouldn't have.

Years later you would have thought I should have known better but I came out of the doctor's office and saw some mud. I went though once but that wasn't good enough. I made a second pass and this time the truck slid to the left and in I went. I couln't get my door open. I had to climb out the r/s. The r/r wheel was 4 feet off the ground! I took the bus home to get my tow truck. I had to winch it out with the boom. It took me a few hours to clean all the mud out.

Last but not least....My son and I went to put fliers in an uncanvased area. I had my Bronco II with the plow hung. I backed off the road and the l/r wheel dropped into the ditch. The r/f wheel was 1 foot off the ground. We walked 3 miles home to get the F-250. We went back for the Bronco. I took the Bronco home and then had to walk back for the F-250. I was glad the trucks both had good heat!


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

> come on thats the best worst stuck story you got?


Yep.


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## Pelican (Nov 16, 2001)

I'm bettin' it's the only story you're willing to tell...


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## SIPLOWGUY (Mar 21, 2002)

OK GUYS....I'll let it all out

I had my license a few days. My Dad let me take my Mom's 68 LeSabre to school. I was so cool I almost went home without my girlfriend. I ducked down a sideroad to make a UB. I backed the Buick into a snow pile and was going nowhere. Some guys stopped to help. I told the smallest guy to get behind the wheel. He held his foot to the floor. The car came out of the snow and one of the rods came out of the block. My Dad forgave me and then bought my Mom a Limekist Green 71 LeMans (off the Ford dealers used car lot for $1800)!

My first truck was a 61 F100 short bed stepside. I saw an ad for a couple of tractors and at the bottom of the ad it said Ford pickup with tool box $250 (this was 1979). I went to see the truck...dead battery,no fuel and a flat tire. I took the battery home to charge it. The next day I came back with the battery ready, 5 gallons of gas and a tank of air. I had the truck ready to go in no time. I drove the truck across the field and right into a ditch! I worked like a demon and remembered my Dad saying, "use high gear!" I rode the clutch in 4th and came out like a champ! I gave the guy $200 and off I went! My first truck! I got married in 83, the truck went in 84. Oh well,but it's still on the road!

My first 4X4 was an 80 F150. (how did I survive without a plow?????). I just finished putting the rear back together. I went for a hell ride and smashed the l/f fender in the mud. There was a shopping cart under there. Go figure?

ANYBODY???


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## SIPLOWGUY (Mar 21, 2002)

I forgot a good one.

In the blizzard of 96 we had to clear the roof (where we park). We had 3 wheel Cushman scooters in the way. I thought I'd cut the wheel sharp and slide a little..... I slid alright..... on the front rudder with the rear wheels in the air. My boss said he never saw anybody so white.

ARE YOU GUYS GLAD YOU ASKED???


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## oldmankent (Mar 2, 2001)

Ok, I'll tell mine, which isn't even that bad. In southwestern Colorado, going up a mountain on one of those many switchbacky dirt roads that leads to nowhere. spring time so the snow was very hardpacked. Chains on the front tires, nothing on the rear. Front tires broke through the hard snow and the front end sunk down. Couldn't even turn the wheel. The rear end slipped to the edge and I had one rear tire threatening to fall off the side of the hill. What to do, why not shovel for an hour. Shoveled all the snow out from under the front end and drove her out. Used all four chains on the way down and had no problems.


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## Rob (May 15, 2001)

Ok, here's mine, also not too bad (knock on wood)

I was in a customers driveway that has a slight downgrade toward the garage. They didn't use the garage and had told me just to plow up toward the doors and leave the pile there. Ok, that's easy. Well, one day that had been warm with some melting during the day turned cold with some wet snow at night. I went down the drive about 2 in the morning only to find that their gutters were broken and had layed down a good thick layer of ice under the snow. Luckily the truck stopped and didn't hit the garage or house, but I also couldn't back out. It was solid ice. I had sand / salt on the truck but this was nice smooth, thick ice. I took me about an hour of putting salt under the tires and rocking the turck, before I resorted to leaving the turck in low 4, easing off the clutch, the tires spinning and me sanding the tires as the turck inched up the driveway on its own. (So, in addition to being the worst stuck, it would also go down as the most dangerous thing I have done !!) I wan't to wooried though, I figured if the tires did actually catch pavement, the truck would have stalled out.

Anyway, that's my story. (Before you all hammer me about leaving the truck moving, I learned my lesson when I really thought about what I did and will not do that again. Next time, I call a tow truck)


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## CT18fireman (Nov 30, 2000)

My brother did the same thing one night when I was out of town. He was in his 67 Mustang and had been caught out and was trying to get to our shop to get a truck. Well the Mustang had a posi rear and a low ratio so when he got stuck in an intersection he put it in low gear and got out to start pushing. He got it out and made it to the shop no problem. Not the safest thing but at that time of night not much to do otherwise.


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## Pelican (Nov 16, 2001)

I remembered another one where I almost lost my truck. I have one acount where the driveway goes up a steep hill and one side is a 50' embankment. It's also pitched dramatically to the high side for water run off.

On this occasion there was ice under the snow and every time I tried to climb the hill, I ended up in the drainage ditch due to the pitch. I started backing up and then pushing down a little at a time, but I was still ending up in the ditch. I gave it another run trying to hug the lip on the edge of the embankment and the plow got hung up in my windrow (I had forgotten to straighten the blade) and kicked me over the edge. The only thing that kept me from going over was the rear end housing getting caught on the frozen lip.

I called a tow truck but he couldn't get past me to pull me up the hill. When he tried to pull me down and out, the truck went further over the edge. We finally put a snatch block on a tree to the side about 30' away to winch from. The only place he could hook to my truck to get the right leverage was to the frame rail about midway front to rear. This was going to wrinkle the box quarter, but at this point I only wanted the truck out to complete my route.

We got the truck out and I did suffer the body damage, but my truck had previous damage so it didn't hurt as bad. I had planned to put a new box on the back after that season anyway. I talked the client in to reducing the amount of pitch to the drive and haven't had much trouble since. That was a scary night though...


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## mud_man93 (Mar 5, 2002)

i have not had a bad stuck yet but knowing me it wont be long.


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

> I'm bettin' it's the only story you're willing to tell...


Are you trying to infer that there's a *story* that goes with this picture??


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## cat320 (Aug 25, 2000)

well that is a stuck 580 alright.But nothing that the hoe part can't get him out of.How did it get that stuck and so close to the house?


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

> But nothing that the hoe part can't get him out of.How did it get that stuck and so close to the house?


Funny you should ask....

First, it was the lot from h*ll to begin with. And the customer was an "Owner/Builder". (Meaning he was acting as his own general contrator, and was thus lacking experience--this was his first and last house.) (BTW, he did *get* LOADS of experience...)

I was back there to backfill the house. There was no way to get around the end of the house farthest from the camera, so I had to back in from the end nearest the camera. I took the picture from up on the bank in the backyard. The guy that dug the foundation (not me), left a flat spot about 10 feet wide, with a 1 to 1 slope above it. He also left the yard about 18" higher than the back door. He also left it slightly sloping toward the hole. Mother nature provided the mud. Also, the part of the hole the front bucket is in was wider by a couple feet because there's a large window opening behind that piece of plywood that's nailed to the foundation wall. There was going to be a big window well there.

I got in okay, and started cutting with the hoe, just letting the dirt go into the hole as I made a nice level grade at the right elevation. The problem came when I moved forward. That slight slope toward the hole was just enough that the front wheels slid toward the edge as I moved forward. I tried pulling myself backward toward more level, drier ground. That slight slope toward the hole was just enough that the front wheels slid toward the edge as I moved backward. I tried planting the hoe near the house on my fresh fill and pushing the rear end away from the house a little. The front wheels slid closer to the house. I tried planting the hoe and pulling the back end away from the house. The front wheels slid closer to the house. I was sitting there idleing, there *thinking* about what my next move might be when the front wheels slid over the edge--I didn't even have my hands on the controls.

And BTW, you're wrong about being able to get it out of there with the hoe. Some fool had built a house there and if I'd done *anything* with the hoe it would just have pivoted that front bucket right through the basement wall. Not an example of good customer service....

Final chapter....I drove 15 miles and borrowed a skid loader. I dug a notch in the bank big enough to back the skid loader into, and to back it up about 5 feet more. Gave the homeowner a quick lesson in skid loader operation and hooked a chain to the front loader arm on the 580. Hooked another chain (actually, I think it was two chains because the nearest tree was about 30 feet away),....anyway, I swung straight out to the side and hooked the backhoe to a healthy sized tree. He pulled with the skidder, as I pulled with the hoe and she slid right back out just as easily as she'd slid in.


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

Somebody'll probably be ill-mannered enough to ask about *this* one next....


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## cat320 (Aug 25, 2000)

digger sorry to see that it got stuck so bad.I just about had a simmilar thing but it was my own falt got to close to a fence that was on top of a retaining wall.I knew i should of not got that close but It's always this will be the last pass situation that got me too close but luckaly i was able to swing myself overwith the hoe.I will not even get into your other photo.Looks like the machine got stuck in a sinkhole in florida.


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## Remsen1 (Jan 5, 2001)

The worst stuck that I was ever part of, wasn't the driver, but helped dig it out was when my father found a sink hole in our country driveway with our old john deere bulldozer one easter. I looked out the house window and saw the bulldozer up to the seat in mud. All one could see was the seat, blade and top of the hood. We winched and shovelled, winched and shovelled, and winched and shovelled for eight hours. 

The mud and water ruined the bulldozer. My father spent as much fixing it as he did when he initially purchased it


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## digger242j (Nov 22, 2001)

> I will not even get into your other photo.Looks like the machine got stuck in a sinkhole in florida.


Well, actually....no. I dug that hole.

It was a long time ago, and I was younger, but just as stupid as I am now. (The only difference is that now I'm old and stupid, but I'm not stupid enough to forget things that *should* have killed me.)

This site had better than 30' of sand under it--not clean enough to use for anything but fill, but we'd use it around water, gas and electric lines. It was a corner of the site that was destined to be open space, so we just dug up truckloads of it with the backhoe and even hauled some of it across town to other jobs.

I got the bright idea that I could load it out faster by going down into the hole with the 450 Case hilift and carrying it out. It was probably better than 15 feet deep, plus there was a pile of dirt stacked not to far from the edge of the hole. One side fell in--the side with the dirt pile next to it. I had dirt in my lap, all around my feet, and there was about a wheelbarrow full on *top* of the ROPS.

Here's a picture of it getting "unstuck"....


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## Ohiosnow (Sep 20, 2001)

*Digger*

Isn't it amazing that were not dead from doing the stupid stuff we did when we were young. I've been stupid enough to be buried above my waist 2 times by dirt caving in so now I use a cage every time. It took me having kids to realize life is very important & I think before doing something stupid  . Not to say I don't still do some questionable things  but not life threatening ever as my 2 kids & wife are everything to me.

PS: Do you have a mining permit, here they require it if your digging that deep. A friend of mine got busted for mining on his own 80 acre property.


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## nsmilligan (Dec 21, 1999)

The how and why would take too long to post! It took alomost 8 hours with chain saws to cut a path in the ice to shore, and a skidder to winch it out. had to replace all the control moduals, and change all fluids of course, and some minor body work.

Bill


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## Underdog1 (Jul 22, 2004)

*stuck*

when when i first got my license i told my buddy id teach him to drive stick. we took my SAAB900 out to the middle of an enormous sams club parking lot and he got in the drivers seat. he did alright until he stalled it out right in the middle of the parking lot. as soon as the engine stoped we felt the car drop a couple inches into the snow. everytime we got the car out of the rut it was in, it moved about a foot and sank back down, so we tryed going in reverse. i told my buddy to get in, start her up and reverse her out. He got in the car and snapped the key off in the ignition! we ended up picking the key out of the ignition with a pair of needle nose pliers and stealing some lumber from the back of the store to get the car out
the whole ordeal lasted about 4 hours


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## 85F150 (Mar 13, 2003)

haha, these are great, but it would take me a day to type all the bad stucks i have had where somethin bigger has to come get me (of course i am 20 and still young and dumb) Prolly the worst stuck was when i was trying to clean up my mud path that i thought was mostly dry, i was using a case backhoe 4x4 580 construction king with all the optonal crap. I was leveling things out, when after i was using the front bucket like a bulldozer the front axle/end just dropped in up to the bottom of the motor. The toy wasn't even ours, so i was flippin out. Used the D9 cat to pull it out backwards and got it stuck too. So i loaded the tracks up with railroad ties and got it out, then got a little further away and finally was able to pull the case out. I found this trackster on another site, i can't even imangine how it happened


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## Allagash (Mar 5, 2005)

Ohiosnow said:


> 21" of snow. I was over it my girlfriend's (now my wife) & the storm started getting ugly we had 18" on the ground at 2:00am when I was leaving to go home. I tried 2 different ways to go home & both roads were closed so I backtracked & tried 1 last way home, well I was tired & it was a blizzard. I came around the curve of the road & there was a drift 10' high & 40' across the road, I was in a 1972 CJ-5- 6'6"Meyer blade & bang I was in the drift . I couldn't go back or forward couldn't open the doors I was stuck  . I crawled to the back window & unzipped & climbed out, man my Jeep was 4' past the start of the drift. I got to the other side of the drift it was 25' in depth & I was only 5' short of getting through. After a hour of shoveling I was able to get through only to find 7 more cars blocking the road 1/4 mile away. I plowed my way past them & told them they could follow me as I was going to get through He!! or high water 4 hrs. later I got home. A 10 min. trip took over 6 hrs.


How'd that 72 Jeep do at plowing? I've got a 74 CJ5 that I've thought about plowing with but can't seem to bring myself to do it as she's in great shape.

Pics: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ktrembla/album?.dir=2caf&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos


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## northwest lawn (Mar 28, 2005)

worst stuck ever.......two years ago at deer camp it had been raining and snow off and on two days b4 the opener of gun season well we tried to drive my dads 3/4 ram 4x4 with the v10 and 3.73 gears up on of the drives and ended up sliding up hill sideways and went into the wash needless to say after about eight hours of digging and driving back and forth we still coudlnt get out the trucks driver side door was pushed up against the hill and if u stood next to it u could climb on top of the cab....we ended up getting the nieghbors dozer to pull us out


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## Fastcar (Oct 17, 2003)

Allagash said:


> How'd that 72 Jeep do at plowing? I've got a 74 CJ5 that I've thought about plowing with but can't seem to bring myself to do it as she's in great shape.
> 
> If you ever decide to sell it give me a shout. I just over the line in A-boro
> 
> Roy


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## Seamus (Aug 17, 2005)

*BFV got really mired...*

When I was in the Army I was driving a Bradley around just having some fun. I decided to take it into what I thought was a "little" puddle. There wasn't actually that much water, but there was a lot of mud. I can only guess that it was some kind of sink hole. The front went in deep enogh to cover the drivers hatch. Then it shifted to the drivers side enough to cover the rear troop door. I had to climb through the hellhole and go out the gunners hatch on the turret. It took three M-88's using the main winch, rigged 2:1 to pull it out. The worst part of the story is that I had to pull out the winch cable for all three M-88's because I got it stuck. I almost got stuck in the mud trying to get the cables to the BFV. It wasn't the only time I got stuck, but it was by far the worst.
Seamus


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

How about these pictures of one time I went ice fishing.

A road grader fell through a pressure ridge when he was trying to widen the road....


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

.......................


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

Some more.... luckily, the lake is only 13' deep in this spot.


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

Here it is on the trailer.... and yes, a regular full size road grader....

The ice is usually 30+" thick, so there's enough support, he just found a weak spot.


Buck, you can attest to this I'm sure. :waving:


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

Forgot the picture... sorry........ :waving:


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## danno (Sep 16, 2004)

Wow ! Thats amazing !


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## GetMore (Mar 19, 2005)

I did that with a snowmobile! Lazing around sightseeing and found a thin spot. They'll run across open water if they are already going, but if you are too slow you are going in. I'd been to that lake a few times during the summer, but that was the only time I went swimming there!


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## roscioli (May 24, 2001)

Hey guys- Im a lawnsite guy here, but happened to come accross this while looking up info on the Chevy Colorado. One time while driving to my girlfriend's house in my 1983 f-250, i took the short way, (which is closed in the winter). I started getting stuck in the snow, overheated and popped a hose off. I got the hose back on, but didnt have any water, except of course what was already in me... so..... Didn't exactly fill it up, but got me to the little lady's house!


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## westernboy16 (Nov 2, 2005)

hey LwnmwrMan22 
Was that photo of the grader taken on a minnesota lake if so what lake


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## justme- (Dec 28, 2004)

westernboy16 said:


> hey LwnmwrMan22
> Was that photo of the grader taken on a minnesota lake if so what lake


Holy Resarected a dead thread, Batman!


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## WetChicken (Dec 23, 2006)

Ohiosnow;46721 said:


> Isn't it amazing that were not dead from doing the stupid stuff we did when we were young. I've been stupid enough to be buried above my waist 2 times by dirt caving in so now I use a cage every time.


Please remember that you should have EMS and fire there to get you out. If you are that buried and suddenly get pulled out, you could go into shock and you will be dead in moments.
That is equivalent to MAST, Military Anti Shock Trousers which is an apparatus that gets inflated once it is over your lower extremities to keep the blood in core of the body- for example large blood loss. Deflating this is only done in the emergency room under a doctors supervision, not your employee's or your drinking buddies supervision. A DOCTOR.
I am a firefighter, and MAST training was a part of my FIrst Responder certification.

Jason


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## WetChicken (Dec 23, 2006)

For my opening story I was on a snowy twisty road NH 175 in Campton and I was going just a touch fast, and that ol 78 C10 went right into the ditch (I can't imagine how it got loose heh). A family friend lived down the road, so I walked down and called a friend who drove a wrecker, and it took an hour or so for him to get there. $20 and a case of beer   not bad. The right lower control arm was tweaked, but my Dad changed it out and did an old school alignment on it- he spun the tires marking it all the way around, and them measured between the lines front and back. My Dad's a fart smucker.

The next one is in that same 78 C10. I was going from a side road to a main road, and the turn was pretty much a 180, and it was an upslope. Well, I had to stop for some reason, and I was perpendicular (can I say that here??) to the road. I was right up against the snowbank at the rear bumper and could not go more than a foot or so. I rocked that thing back and forth turning the wheel so I got pointed in the right direction and rolled out. No wrecker call!
That 78 Chevy was great, it had an Straight 6 250 and I overheated that thing so bad one day it stopped running. I let it cool off enough and ran it again until it stopped running again. My first vehicle. 

The last one was on a dark night (heh) many, many moon ago in Meriden, CT. Some friends and I left the coffee shop and decided to go 4-wheeling about a mile from my house. There was one big set of ruts near the entrance, so we hit it on the way in and screwed around in there for a while and went through those ruts quite a few times.
Well, we decided to hit it one last time on the way out. Boom! We were airborne, and when we came down, my knee hit the shifter and knocked it into neutral. We were sitting on BOTH pumpkins. Three hours later, we dug out on our own and I finally got home at 6am.



Jason


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## StratfordPusher (Dec 20, 2006)

*Looks like a bad day*



digger242j;46621 said:


> Somebody'll probably be ill-mannered enough to ask about *this* one next....


Yikes, hope that didn't hurt......

tymusic


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## LwnmwrMan22 (Jan 20, 2005)

Westernboy - 

If you're still around, that was on Red Lake, northern MN.


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