The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts How To Unstick Brakes On '55 LCF

I posed the following question to Don, 2-Ton, about a situation I've gotten myself into. I received good ideas from him, but he suggested I post it here as well for others' input:


Don- I know that you fool with the big bolts and just have a quick question. I bought a '55 LCF and went to retrieve it this weekend way out in the western part of Oklahoma. The seller said that it was missing its left front wheel, so I took a wheel and lug nuts along. The thing he failed to mention is that the truck had been resting in the same spot for about 15 years. In that time with most of the tires being low on air and the surrounding sand that it has been sitting in, all four brakes are locked up. The seller wasn't the most helpful guy in the world and appeared to be allergic to work. In the past when I have sold a truck or rolling chassis, I have made sure it is rolling, tires aired up and ready to load when the customer showed up.

So, finally, here's the question: How do you go about getting this puppy unstuck and rolling?


Since my conversation with Don, I have thought about possibilities of at least getting it loaded on the trailer and working on it when I get it home. Since it has been resting in one spot for several years, it's kinda sitting in a low area. The current caretaker of it did try to pull it out of the hole with his 3/4 ton GMC short bus, but it didn't have enough oomph to pull it up the one foot or so difference in ground height to level and solid ground. One thought is to use a shovel and dig a large area of ground to level the ground, and playing field, to where his bus might at least get it to his dirt driveway for us to winch it on our trailer. Another thought is to use several boards and pipes to get it to roll along them. Once we get it pulled the 30' or so out of his field to the main drive, would our 5000# winch be sufficient enough to drag it with locked brakes onto our trailer, or do we need a bigger winch? I checked with local wrecker and tow facilities to pull it out of the pasture and their rates start at about $300, so that's out of the picture. Any thoughts or guidance is greatly appreciated.

Turn the brake adjusters to loosen up the brakes.

Dig out the dirt in front of all the tires.

Then once wheels are out of the holes turn the truck so the rear wheels do not fall into the holes in the ground left from the front wheels.

Though after killing a day and your back and not get the truck to move after you do all of that work and then pay a tow truck after all that.

Better to skip all that work and pay a tow truck upfront.

There is a lesson her for potential buyers....or sellers. Make note!

You can do it 55 2nd series. Patience. Then he next day order new brake parts with the 300 you save. You'll like yourself a lot better then!

Has to be a farmer in the area that has a BIG farm tractor that can pull it on you trailer for a lot less than $300. The truck weighs more than 5000 pounds and with the ground friction your winch is not going to be big enough (it would work IF it was rolling). The 3/4 ton bus is also to small...all he'll do is burn his clutch up or break a axle.

Take the $300 out of the sellers pocket...call the wrecker and have him drag it onto your trailer!

Mike B

Any chance they might break loose if you get under there with a BFH and wail on the drums with that for a while?

Use a high-lift jack to raise the frame enough to place long 2X12 boards under the tires, well lubed with chassis grease. Once the tires (even flat ones) are on a smooth surface your winch should move it, but only if you use 3 or 4 loops of cable and snatch blocks. A 4-line pull turns your 5K winch into a 20K. but it also decreases the speed by a factor of 4. This is a good thing! Just be sure your anchor vehicle is well-chocked (all 4 tires with BIG wheel chocks) so it doesn't get pulled backwards. Pull a little, reposition the anchor vehicle and slide boards, and pull again. I've used this method repeatedly to move wrecked 18-wheelers weighing 40 tons or more. Be patient, and pack a big cooler with bottled water if the weather is hot. You're in for some sweaty work!
Jerry

I do not know how to rig those snatch blocks but a quick search shows that they sell from $40 - $194 each and then the cable starts at $.85 a ft.

He can spend an easy $300 on rigging. Though then he will always have it. Though will he ever use it again?

Though on a side note my drive slopes down to the road. Very gentle slope. When my sons truck was brought home with the brakes not working and loud engine noise which turned out to be bent pushrods we needed to move the truck to the other side of the two car driveway.

We let the truck roll back to the rear wheels hit the street and then we got out my dad's come along and a lot of chains and we pulled the truck back up the driveway.

Was not fast but was not that bad either.

In about 15 minutes of searching, I found 10,000 pound capacity snatch blocks on Ebay for $17.50 each (3 required) and 100 feet of 3/8" cable for $62.50. Free shipping on both items. That's enough to rig a 30 foot pull with a 4-line setup.
Jerry

I just went to the first site I found.

Though how would you hook up a 3 or 4 snatch block setup.
Jeffrey

The cable is anchored to the disabled vehicle, then it passes through a snatch block on the anchor/tow vehicle, back to the load, through another block, back to the tow, etc. until the desired number of strands are strung. Now, let's assume a 1,000 LB. pull is made on the free end of the cable- - - -with 4 strands in play, the total pull is 4K LBS. The progress is slow, but the pull is massive. I used to operate a Grove rubber-tire crane with a 4-line lift capacity of 20,000 lbs. using a hydraulic winch with 1/2" diameter cable. The heavy haul wrecker I operated had 300 feet of 3/4" cable on a PTO drive winch with a 35 ton single line pull capacity. We used lots of snatch block recovery equipment with that one, plus two wrecker booms with 1/2" cable and 5-ton winches.
Jerry

DITTO!
Jerry Nailed it,
I,d like to have a nickle for every offroad,rollover/recovery or such I did as a Tow driver on the Police call list.
Before that,it started as a"Chase List"
You,d listen to the Police scanner and know that a call was coming in for an accident or such.
1st to the scene gets the prize!
You did not Know what you were rolling up on till You got there.
You Cant believe what was recovered and where from.
Nothing like a 1 ton wrecker a couple or 3 snatch blocks and 300 feet of cable,and a s47#load of J hooks and Chains.
LOOOOONG Before Flatbeds/Rollbacks were even Thought About,it was"get it back no matter what it takes"
Best regards,
steve sr.

32vld- It seemed logical to me to find a neighbor with a muy grande sized tractor to pull it out of the hole and load it, but when that was mentioned to the seller, oddly he didn't know anyone around with those capabilities. I'm just a stranger in his land, and he has lived there 15 years, but oh well.

Mike B- I would agree with you about taking the tow truck fee out of his pocket, but when I mentioned needing financial compensation from him when we were there before, he for some reason had already spent the money and wasn't warming up to the idea of replacing it. I would have had more results trying to talk the LCF into loading itself onto the trailer.

Rich- That was one of the suggestions that Don had about encouraging the truck to move. That's not totally out of the realm of possibility.

Hotrod Lincoln- I think your idea sounds like a sure-fire bet. That is probably the approach we'll take and we'll take 2 coolers along! And some serious carbs to keep the blood sugars level!


Thanks guys for all of the input here! I knew someone had probably been down this road before and had the answers.


Gary

Keep us up to date. Jeffrey

Just make sure the barley pop get saved to celebrate the successful loading of the rig on the trailer- - - - -Long experience has taught me that I can't do a good job of either working or partying, if I try to do both at once, and a big heavy truck can get deadly in a heartbeat!

One other suggestion- - - -never, EVER try to reinflate flat tube-type tires on multi-piece wheels. The lock rings can separate violently and unexpectedly. A flat, or even seriously low tire on a sectional rim must be disassembled, cleaned up, and reinflated- - - -in a cage if possible. One of my mentors in the heavy-haul wrecker business used to deal with damaged rims at a wreck scene by flattening the tires with a GI-issue 1911 .45 Automatic. "I'm not gonna lose my head over a blown-up wheel!" He spooked a few highway patrolmen that way!
Jerry

Easy to forget the details. Thanks for the wakeup. I just edited my earlier post. Jeffrey