I joined the stuck bus club...

[bevans6]

I had to move the bus today, it was blocking a horse trailer that is getting picked up tomorrow.  This winter has played havoc with my driveway, the freeze/thaws have it just about ruined (it's fine gravel on a larger stone bed).  I got one rear wheel just off the gravel and it just sank to the axle in about two feet.  The other three wheels were still on gravel but sinking about an inch an hour.  I dug a trench to get to a jacking point, jacked it, blocked it, repeat a dozen times, the wood blocks under the jack kept sinking so I kept adding more.  Finally got it level and the rear tire about 6" clear of the mud so I packed in lots of planks and blocks, and drove it out.  Now it's parked on the driveway but on ten foot long 2X10's.

I hated this winter and now I hate this spring...   

Brian

[TomC]

Ah yes-sunny California.

[usbusin]

Why we visit the Maritimes in June, July, August!!  Some of the best Bluegrass in the world is in the Maritimes.  You live in a beautiful area.

GaryD

[kyle4501]

That is a bummer! Glad you were able to get it out.
I hope my driveway behaves better than that!

[Lin]

What will you do differently next year?

[lvmci]

Brian, good thing you had a 5, could you imagine if you had 2 more wheels and 10,000 more pounds?  Good job, lvmci...

[bevans6]

My driveway is covered with these funny sink-hole spots that I have never seen before.  They are about 2 or 3 feet around, they are spots where the top three or four inches of gravel has lifted up a couple of inches and when you stand on them, you kind of bounce up and down.  When you drive on one with a car, no problem but with a truck, you sink down about six inches.  I drove on one with the bus, it went down almost 10" but I drove past it.  Very weird.  Next year I will leave the bus in barn until it dries out...

Brian

[lvmci]

Brian, poke a hole in it, see if it sinks down, or methane escapes, otherwise watch out, it could be the walking dead! Lvmci...

[bobofthenorth]

My driveway is covered with these funny sink-hole spots that I have never seen before.  They are about 2 or 3 feet around, they are spots where the top three or four inches of gravel has lifted up a couple of inches and when you stand on them, you kind of bounce up and down.  When you drive on one with a car, no problem but with a truck, you sink down about six inches.  I drove on one with the bus, it went down almost 10" but I drove past it.  Very weird.  Next year I will leave the bus in barn until it dries out...
Brian

My property in Carrot River has that kind of soil.  Its a heavy clay that expands and contracts huge amounts depending on moisture.  We've dug out large areas and filled them with pit run but the real solution is just to stay the H off it until it dries out.  When you go down in those spots there's no bottom. 

[Scott & Heather]

.....I really really really want to laugh.........but I'm more mature than that......but........I did inside.   Sorry to hear about this. Having done it tons of times myself, I feel your pain and in some ways, our "stuck" club makes me feel elite.

[bevans6]

Well - time from driving to buried to the axle (one side only, thankfully) to driving again (very carefully and parking on 2X10's on the hardest part of the gravel) took 2 hours and 30 minutes.   That is one person (my wife knows better than to help me fix crap I do to myself) with a shovel to dig out under the back of the rear dualies to get a jack in under the radius arm mount, a 20 ton air over hydraulic bottle jack and a whole lot of 2X10's (aged white oak that I have been saving to make a kitchen table) cut up for blocking and to disappear under the jack base.  I knew that if I didn't get it out quick I would be calling a recovery service, it was sinking and it rained almost 3 inches today.  I think I could water-ski on my back lawn.

Glad I was able to make someone laugh, that's why I posted.   

Brian

[Oonrahnjay]

Well - time from driving to buried to the axle (one side only, thankfully) ...

    Welcome to the club (I joined 8 days after I got my bus home).  Always a new kind of fun when you're a bus owner! 

[Dave5Cs]

I thought ours was going to be yard art. Took me 2 hours to get it going out on rubber mud flaps. I now have 6 of them and I park it on them. 1 under every wheel. They are the really thick ones about 1" thick.

Dave

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Brian,

Glad you got it out!

The only base that worked for me was recycled concrete.. 4" of it, then 3/4 trap rock on top.

The concrete tightens up after a few good rains and you will find it hard to even dig through it...

Good luck.

Nick-

[luvrbus]

Brian, remove your rock this summer and install Geotexile fabric under your base it will stop that the materiel is reasonable in price just labor involved 

good luck