Late Night Animal-Powered Auto Rescue

[Carl Russell]

So last night as I was finishing my chores at about 7pm, I noticed that Erika’s truck was occupying a strange position along our driveway…. Yes indeed, she had parked(?) headed downhill, off the left side of the drive, partially in the cow pasture, mostly blocking the drive, and facing a small clump of birch trees about 1 foot in front of the bumper.

No way to get passed her with the truck. In fact the surface was probably to hard and slick to use the truck without getting that stuck too. Unfortunately there was no way to pull her downhill either, because to the trees.So we needed to harness the horses, who were just beginning to enjoy their evening hay.

I had serious doubts, but I also knew that we had no other choice, and I knew we could give it a pretty good go. The truck is a 2wd Toyota, that was loaded with a set of disc harrows. I figure the load must have been between 3-4000 lbs. Not only is it uphill on the drive, but the truck was hung over the berm of the drive, in the snow bank, and fetched up on a rock.

Needless to say the horses could not budge it. Footing was bad, old shoes needing to be replaced, and the load was rigid and un-moving…. other than actually sliding downhill once or twice into the tree.

The only way they could move it was to slam to the end of the hitch chain and bump the load…. which by the way is absolutely not my preferred method. It is really hard on the horses, and just not a good habit. I replaced the chain with a tow strap to add some buffer.

After a few hits they got the feeling that they were moving ahead each time, which gave them some confidence. As hard as it is to hit a load like that…. surging ahead into 5 feet of slack and slamming a dead load…. they kept at it each time I asked. Bit-by-bit most of the truck was coming into the road. Eventually, all four tires were back where they were supposed to be.

With only a slightly bent bumper, grill, and hood, Erika was able to resume her trip….. slowly at first so she didn’t go off the drive again. The ponies were happy to get back to dinner, not too much worse for the wear. One shoe was stepped on and pulled, and there was one mis-step injury on a hind foot…. but all-in-all about as good as we could expect for that time of night…. short of calling my neighbor to bring his skidder down.

Carl

[Andy Carson]

Sounds exciting… Where was your pulley?

[Carl Russell]

That would have been a good idea:o…. clearly beyond my thought process last night. We could have pulled downhill too:(. I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time:rolleyes:.

Carl

[Tim Harrigan]

Is that Erika’s normal parking place?:eek:

[Andy Carson]

Oh well, you probably would have though of either ideas if what you were doing didn’t work… I find it interesting that your team was able to move the truck with a buffer but not without. It would be fascinating to know if this was due to reduced peak load or to increased animal comfort. I don’t want to derail your thread, but it is always fun to see an idea applied towards some positive benefit.

[Carl Russell]

I think it was applicable as a way to capture that surge, both as comfort, and peak load. With the chain, they came to an abrupt stop, like hitting a brick wall. It was clearly upsetting to them. When we used the strap it was less of a shock. This increased the comfort, reducing their anxiety, making their effort more purposeful, but it also was clearly more affective at converting the power into forward motion.

There obviously isn’t a huge amount of elastic motion, but I think there was some stretching that the horses were able to capture and hold for a moment while the truck moved to catch up with them. I also know that from watching them, the fact that they can feel the stretching allows them to feel as though they are not hitched to a rock, making them THINK they can move it, so they try harder next pull.

This is exactly why I chose to use the strap. I’m kind of bummed right now that I didn’t think of the pulley, because it would have been a really good example of the mechanical advantage.

Carl

[dominiquer60]

I should have said something, I was wondering about a pulley, I even looked to see if there was an good tree to hitch it on, but I really don’t know much about these things so I just kept my mouth shut:(

It was a lot on the horses and I don’t know how we would have done it with out them. The tow strap certainly helped, and once Carl was at an angle that I could see him, I was able to better my timing when I let my foot off the brake. Once we got a good rhythm going we got it out of there inch by inch.

Tim sadly I don’t usually park there, after 5 winters in Florida and generally avoiding such narrow steep drives with a 2WD, I had forgotten how to use my E brake. It worked amazingly well once Carl reminded me I could use it for more than just parking:) Perhaps I will stick to visiting Central VT in fair weather.

Again Carl I can not thank you enough, sorry to put the horses through that, and the shoe, and fresh cut. Folks like you have plenty to do without fools like me adding to it. Just let me know what I can do to return the favor someday.

Carl for your curiosity, I looked it up, the GVW for my truck is 3, 320 pounds, add me, the dog, 200# of tractor weights, a disc and all the junk under and behind my seat and I am sure that we were at least 4300 pounds. Those are some good horses, yes sir.

Erika

[near horse]

@dominiquer60 23901 wrote:

I should have said something, I was wondering about a pulley, I even looked to see if there was an good tree to hitch it on, but I really don’t know much about these things so I just kept my mouth shut:(

It was a lot on the horses and I don’t know how we would have done it with out them. The tow strap certainly helped, and once Carl was at an angle that I could see him, I was able to better my timing when I let my foot off the brake. Once we got a good rhythm going we got it out of there inch by inch.

Tim sadly I don’t usually park there, after 5 winters in Florida and generally avoiding such narrow steep drives with a 2WD, I had forgotten how to use my E brake. It worked amazingly well once Carl reminded me I could use it for more than just parking:) Perhaps I will stick to visiting Central VT in fair weather.

Again Carl I can not thank you enough, sorry to put the horses through that, and the shoe, and fresh cut. Folks like you have plenty to do without fools like me adding to it. Just let me know what I can do to return the favor someday.

Carl for your curiosity, I looked it up, the GVW for my truck is 3, 320 pounds, add me, the dog, 200# of tractor weights, a disc and all the junk under and behind my seat and I am sure that we were at least 4300 pounds. Those are some good horses, yes sir.

Erika

Don’t feel bad Erika – Carl’s driveway is plenty steep w/o snow or ice on it. I bet they only get airmail delivered there. But I have to ask – “how’d you get up there? Sheer excitement about the potluck?”

Nothin ever happens if you only do nothin.

[Carl Russell]

This is the aftermath. The clump of birches were right in front, and you can see the right front tire track over the bank near the fence-line.

Carl

[dominiquer60]

Geoff,
The potluck was a driving factor for sure, and man was it totally worth it. I also had my “friend” Bazel as a co=pilot, he told me all the tricks on the way up. A minor factor may have been the brand new rear snows, 2 tractor weights and the disc that I had just picked up from Ben (that sweet little one that Carl posted for him). Carl’s driveway was actually less of a challenge to get up than Ben’s, yet Ben’s was less of a challenge to descend, it had a couple inches of fresh white on it, Carl’s was rather well packed.

Dale did a little body work today and the T100 is ready to take on the town again. No harm done to the truck, I hope the same can be said for those horses.

Erika

[Tim Harrigan]

@Carl Russell 23896 wrote:

I’m kind of bummed right now that I didn’t think of the pulley, because it would have been a really good example of the mechanical advantage. Carl

Well, this is a good example of where a draft buffer would come in handy. Carl, what would you have done if you had thought to use your tackle? Redirect the line of pull to take advantage of the downhill run, a multi-part line, or both or something else?

[Matthew]

I have used a old steel belted tire between a truck or tractor and whatever needs to be pulled out. It takes the shock out of things when the chain runs out of slack. A few years ago things were so muddy chopping corn I had to pull a 130 horse john deere with chopper and full dump wagon and the tire held up for all the fields to be chopped.

[Carl Russell]

Tim Harrigan;23917 wrote:

Well, this is a good example of where a draft buffer would come in handy. Carl, what would you have done if you had thought to use your tackle? Redirect the line of pull to take advantage of the downhill run, a multi-part line, or both or something else?

There actually was a really good tree about 30 feet uphill, and on the other side of the road from where the truck was. I could have tied off on the tree, attached a snatch block to the bumper, another back at the tree, and then pulled downhill. With the 2:1, the nylon bull rope, and the downhill advantage….. I actually am even more bummed now…. man it would have come out really slick I bet.

Carl

[Mark Cowdrey]

If I was to go out and buy a pulley, snatch block or whatever to have for similar situations, what does anyone recommend? Cable seems like an all-around PIA but I recall some thread talk about, possibly, climbing rope? Would that be rugged enough in a situation like this or would you need cable or chain? Or, a multiple pulley “block and tackle” setup?
I have nothing like this on the place and can see that the day might come that I wished I did.
Thanks,
Mark

[Tim Harrigan]

Mark, a while back in this thread

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=3536&highlight=rope

Scott and others mentioned Amsteel Blue bull rope. It is on my list. Maybe they have more thoughts to share. There are times it would be real nice to have something like that.

Erika, put that truck back along the side of the drive!

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