Traction in the mud question

Have had a lot of rain (31 inches +/-) in the past 7 weeks. Needless to say things are damp. I have a low spot along one side of my pasture but it is not draining as well as I would like as the water is backing up into the pasture and running across my garden. (and staying there) The forecast is for about a week of dry days before it starts raining again. I am not looking to dig a trench, I just want to help the low spot drain out a little better. I plan on waiting for it to dry as long as I can but am afraid it is going to me pretty muddy when I get in there and I am not looking forward to being stuck again.

So that being said I have a 300 with a loader and a back blade.
What would be the best configuration to help me keep from getting stuck?
I have 2 pair of 12's, one new and one worn as well as 2 pair of 13's, one new and one worn. And 4 sets of wheel weights.
I was thinking axle duals would help but I still have a narrow front that will sink pretty good, as well as the extra weight of the loader on the front. Will axle duals work with different tread, new and worn or different tire sizes 12 and 13?
Thanks
Ken

Probably be less time, stress, and pain to dig a little trench or two than to play with the tractor then put it back to normal and clean up the mess you make. Sorry, I can't advise on the wheel setup.

Dave

Reversing narrow front wheels will get you through more mud- dish them out. Can you find a one or two bottom plow and plow a trench for the water to run out? Mounted would be best- back in as far as you can, and drive out. Duals certainly help. Or can you angle and tilt your back blade, cutting a shallow trench?

You didn't say how deep you need to go. I had a place that needed to be dug about a foot and a half but only about 50 feet long. I used the loader bucket cross ways to open it up. After it dried out I leveled things off. Made a big difference.

Ken,

Your biggest concern with the duals is tire diameter (height). The outer wheels should be the same diameter, or shorter, than the inner wheels. Don't worry about tread pattern; there are plenty of tractors out ther with four different tires on them. It's common to take an old worn set of tires off the tractor and use them for duals.

(quoted from post at 00:18:50 11/02/09) Have had a lot of rain (31 inches +/-) in the past 7 weeks. Needless to say things are damp. I have a low spot along one side of my pasture but it is not draining as well as I would like as the water is backing up into the pasture and running across my garden. (and staying there) The forecast is for about a week of dry days before it starts raining again. I am not looking to dig a trench, I just want to help the low spot drain out a little better. I plan on waiting for it to dry as long as I can but am afraid it is going to me pretty muddy when I get in there and I am not looking forward to being stuck again.

So that being said I have a 300 with a loader and a back blade.
What would be the best configuration to help me keep from getting stuck?
I have 2 pair of 12's, one new and one worn as well as 2 pair of 13's, one new and one worn. And 4 sets of wheel weights.
I was thinking axle duals would help but I still have a narrow front that will sink pretty good, as well as the extra weight of the loader on the front. Will axle duals work with different tread, new and worn or different tire sizes 12 and 13?
Thanks
Ken

Click to expand...

ven a well experienced dozer operator knows you can't work mud. If forced, he will if he has a winch truck, a lot of cable, and large tree or the like to anchor to, but that will drive up the cost. You need to put it off until dry, maybe next summer now. Better be looking for troubles, frustration, cost, etc. if you insist on TRYING to work mud.

The easiest way to make quik surface drainage is to use a plow and just run a furrow down the bottom of the draw. The real long range answer is to run some 4" tile drain, but thats a progect for drier weather.

A walk behind beam plow from horse days, and enough cable or chain to keep out of the mud would allow a nice furrow to be made through the area. Hireing a group of Kids with 4 or five spades is another option I would consider. (kinda like hurding cats, but if a lime line (or paint mark was made, they couldn't get too far of course. JimN

Since we're going to talk about technique, I too would avoid that area with the tractor like the plague. Even with duals you're going to at least tear up the area, and probably get good and stuck.

What did you intend to do to improve drainage without digging a trench? Other than re-grading the entire area... Those are really the only two practical choices, and as someone said, you can't work mud.

Really your only choice to remedy the immediate problem is a trench. That may be better handled by a backhoe or trackhoe, something that can sit up where it's high and dry and reach down in to dig the ditch from the side, much like a roadside ditch. You'll need to hire some heavy equipment to un-stuck the 300 after you bury it, so you may as well hire them outright to do the actual work.

Later on in the spring you can bury a 4" drainage tile and re-grade the area.

Watch out for the feds if you"re doing anything with what they call "wetlands." I know a farmer who dammed up a little stream to make a pond near his house. Spotted from a satellite, and the feds were on his case in no time. Then he bought a neighboring farm. Without checking with whatever authority now governs what can be done with wetlands, he drained a marshy area near a tiny stream. This land had been "underdrained" years ago with tiles and boards, which had eventually all collapsed and led the area next to the stream to become the bog that it probably had been a hundred years ago. Well, this got spotted, too---from the air, again--and it turned out that there were endangered bog turtles living in the marsh. The fine was going to be $850,000 for endangering 17 turtles. This being a second offense didn't help the guy much, either. There were federal prosecutors involved, threatening to put this guy out of business. They have all kinds of money at their disposal, at least compared to most farmers these days. There"s nothing like having a little power, is there, especially over people who don"t have much of it? Last I heard, this fellow was still paying lawyers to help him negotiate something with the feds.
Anyway, this may have nothing to do with your situation, but if it looks the least bit iffy, you can find out what the regs might be. I don"t know where to start--county agent, maybe.

There is a great story making the rounds in e-mails. It may not be true, but it's funny and to-the-point. According to this story, a man gets a letter from a federal agency, saying he had dammed a stream without authorization and demanding he remove said dam without further delay. The man writes back and tells the federal agency to contact the beavers that made them dam. There is more to the story than this, but this is all I can remember.