small soft spots, bus is partially resting on frame

[Adarian]

Ha I was just there

That is about how deep my wheel is. If I had a tag axle I wouldn't be stuck.
That must bite to have two wheels stuck.
That is one big wrecker. Time to call road side assistance.

[DaveG]

In 2005 Ian Woofenden dropped the right rear wheel of his 04 off the side of the road. He was able to jack up the wheel and block it so he could move it onto the road...Cable

Now that there is some Yankee Enginuity

[BG6]

I went to move my bus today as a storm is coming. Wanted to move it to firmer ground.
I parked it in one spot and the front wheels started to sink. As I was backing up to move it again the right rear wheel sunk.
It took all a matter of maybe 30 seconds before I knew what was going on.
The right rear wheel is also the drive wheel. I tried at first to dig around the sunk wheel. After digging the wheel out, I notice that the frame was sitting on the ground. I need to figure out how to raise the wheel up to put boards underneath it, so that I can get the frame off the ground

CALL A BIG-RIG WRECKER!!!!!!!

Your coach is on DANGEROUS ground.  There is NO WAY to SAFELY jack, fill, etc., and ANY ATTEMPT MAY KILL YOU.

Think about this. The ground is soft enough that a large, flexible support sank into it.  Where are you going to put a jack that will be any firmer?

[Slow Rider]

Hey Ed,

That isn't Bruce's place by any chance is it?

Frank

[jjrbus]

I sunk in an area where there was no getting a forklift, tow truck etc in!!  This took lots of time, patience and scrap wood.  The bus would move a few inches in the rut it was in.  I dug out behind the wheel's and put short 2x4's crosswise behind the sunk wheel's and scrap plywood under the unsunk wheels. Backed up on wood and repeated the process under the front of the wheels, except no or little digging this time. Took the bus forward and put more wood under rear of wheels, backed up and more wood under front. About now there is mud on the boards and the bus does not want to move so I found some crushed stone and put it on boards. I kept up the process untill bus was at ground level. Crushed stone could be used instead of wood, but I had lots of wood and little stone.
Next I cut 4 sheets of 3/4 in plywood in half length wise and drove bus on strips and moved 8 feet at a time! which was fine till I hit a bit of a grade, the rear wheels would kick the plywood out. I nailed 2x2 to the underside of plywood to act as track's.  Now the plywood is wet and muddy and I'm on a grade so the wheels spin.  So a bit more crushed stone and I'm moving again.
PIA but the only option I had was wait till summer.

ps Don't plan on reusing plywood for a future project                      HTH  JIm

[bobofthenorth]

I've had a lot of big stuff stuck over the years.  As others have suggested the absolute best bet is to wait until things dry up on their own but sometimes that isn't possible and other times you just don't want to wait that long.  If you decide to tow it out you need big rigging - really big rigging - and breaking something during the pull or shortly afterward is a definite possibility.  Often during an extraction you will overstress something and it will break shortly after the pull.  Farm tractors are about the worst bet for pulling - they are geared too high.  The best best, short of a highway wrecker, is something with an automatic transmission like a wheel loader.  As others have already pointed out, a big winch could actually pull the tow hooks off the bus or worse, there's a lot of suction when a big frame is sitting on muddy ground.

[fe2_o3]

Adarian;  It's gonna take quite a forklift to get it out. If your coach is 27,000lb like mine. I would figure about 10k front and 17k rear.That would be between 8k and 9k on each side. The lift of a forklift is based on it's capacity at the drive wheels. The length of the forks reduces the lift capacity by moving the load away from the fulcrum and can cause the upright to tilt forward as the steer wheels lift off the ground. I would estimate a need for a 10k lb. machine to guarantee no contact between the upright and your coach. Having seen the results of under estimating this. That's the kind of crap that keeps me awake at night...Cable

[Adarian]

Going to wait until the ground is dry at the least.
At the moment the mud around the wheel has been removed. May be a good thing or bad thing being that it is still raining.
It appears that when the air bag deflates the rear sub section is off the ground.
What appears to be the issue is the right side of the A frame.
That is why I thought that a forklift could be used just to raise the right rear wheel high enough to put 6 inches of wood underneath it.
My thought was that I would only be lifting the wheel and not the bus.
But a wrecker would be able to do it much easier.

[JohnEd]

Truck repair facilities have a special pneumatic jack that grips the "tire" from the lower side.  The jack has a air bladder in it that is retained in a huge cylinder.  Four of these will elevate the bus 4 feet in the air in a shop.  I am not there and even the pics don't tell it all but I thought I would mention the jacks as a possible option.  Finding one to rent will be problematic.  Transporting them might be the big issue as if that thing isn't made from aluminum it must be extremely heavy.

I have seen air bladders on wrecker/recovery vehicles that are puncture proof, sorta, and they are 10 feet by 6 feet and can lift 4 feet.  They are less than an inch thick deflated.

I think your idea to wait till it drys out is a really bad one from an entertainment perspective.   For all of us, that is.  For you, it might be better, however.

John

[Adarian]

Bus is unstuck. Lifted rear with a forklift high enough to put 6 x 8 post underneath frame resting on top 1/4 inch steel panel.
Then raised up the rear wheel 3 inches and slid a 5 foot long 6 x 8 post underneath wheel.
Due to digging out the mud around the wheel, the rear wheel didn't need to be raised as high to get the log underneath it.
Started bus and floored it. It rolled out. Now it has a new parking spot.

[DaveG]

Hurray! Good to hear you are outta the mud!

[Chopper Scott]

I'm sure you are happy!!! Glad to see you got her out.