Got that sinking feeling?

**FJRider** · 3rd July 2009, 22:34

A local firm doing flood mitigation work for Contact energy, in the Manuherikia river alongside Alexandra, got one of their diggers "a little stuck". The driver of the 45 ton digger, got it stuck yesterday.
Then the race against time to recover the digger before river levels rise with higher flow levels from the Clyde dam that are expected.
Its the old story ... when you get stuck in mud. The harder you try to get out ... the deeper in you get.

**hayd3n** · 3rd July 2009, 22:39

ouch my m8 was driving to alex today i hope he made it through all the road blocks and snow

**shafty** · 3rd July 2009, 23:12

OUCH! Great post FJ

**Headbanger** · 3rd July 2009, 23:28

A few years back I worked for a company that was rebuilding the stone walls that line the Brisbane river, when the tide went out we would drop an 8 ton digger onto the mud, and dig a footing for the new wall, The digger would start sinking immediately and the hole you were digging would fill with mud, and at the same time we were pumping concrete into it.

Great fun, But the digger driver had to have mad skills.

And I was that digger driver, Until I flipped her upside down into the Brisbane river.

The boss type person never quite came to terms with that incident.

**Headbanger** · 3rd July 2009, 23:30

Looking at that photo, If he had his tracks in the right direction he should have been to pull himself out easily enough.

Got any more pics?

**EJK** · 3rd July 2009, 23:34

Great photo indeed.

Good for a Fail poster?

**FJRider** · 4th July 2009, 13:25

Originally Posted by Headbanger

Looking at that photo, If he had his tracks in the right direction he should have been to pull himself out easily enough.

Got any more pics?

No more pic's. He got it into a pool of wet thick silt (read mud) ... no matter which way the tracks were pointing, no grip in the tracks ... just wriggle wriggle further in.

**Headbanger** · 4th July 2009, 13:35

Originally Posted by FJRider

No more pic's. He got it into a pool of wet thick silt (read mud) ... no matter which way the tracks were pointing, no grip in the tracks ... just wriggle wriggle further in.

To get out of mud you use the bucket and the tracks in conjuction to drive and pull yourself out (after using the arm to break suction). The direction of the tracks is the most important factor to be considered at any time when your operating an excavator on unstable ground, and in the event you get bogged if you don't have the tracks pointing in the correct direction then you will need to break the suction and swivel the undercarriage into the appropriate direction before attempting to remove the machine from the bog, even if your using a secondary machine to drag it out.

If that operator positioned his machine incorrectly and lacks the skills to save his machine as soon as he got into trouble then he probably shouldn't have been in it. If he was trying to drive out alone (no grip in the tracks ... just wriggle wriggle further in) then he should have been shot, he certainly shouldn't have been in any excavator anywhere near a river.