The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts stuck in the mud-basic question

i tried to move my '46 ton and a half from the barn yard the other day and i got it stuck. it is on some slippery grass and it cannot move, just the driverside wheels spin in the mud. it is not buried mind you, just spinning. my basic question is are both sides supposed to turn or is it one side drive??? the tires are new but are highway tread. the truck is not very useful in its current position.....

both sides move if the rear is limited-slip or positrac - a normal rear puts the power to "the side with the least resistance", that's why it's called a "differential"

put down some gravel for that side to pull under the tire, or jack it up and put some boards under to let it get a grip - once you've got it moving, don't slow down!

Bill

make sure you don't have a brake dragging found that to be the problem when I couldn't get going on wet grass. backed off the adjusters and can roll fine now. The brake was dragging on one side and the other would spin on the wet grass it would move fine on dry surfaces.

Sounds like you need some of the old school lug tread tires on there.

Actually, if 1 tire is stuck put her in gear and get her going slow, then slowly put on the ebrake and this will cause the other tire to slip and the other to catch. It sometimes works to get things out of stuck places. An old trick my dad taught me. Good luck!

i just put the darn tires on and they cost 4 times the price of the truck, my wife loves that one, and the ebrake likly has not braked in decades. my current plan is to wait for dry ground after all the snow melts and then to keep it out of the mud. love this truck info stuff, keeps me off ebay!!

Hey Homer,
Take some sections of old rope and tie some knots every few inches on it and run it through the rim and around the tire and tie it off. Put 6 or so on each rear tire. This trick has gotten me out of a few slippery situations!!!

You might want to put some weight in the back. With a dually rear, the weight is distributed between 4 wheels. 4 wheels + no weight + stiff suspension = get stuck in wet grass.
Good luck!

Scooter

Unless you've got bologna skin tires on it, i'm leaning more tward the dragging brake senerio someone mentioned.. my '46 2 ton will walk right up wet/snowy/muddy/sandy grassy hills with no problem at all.. and thats with weather checked, 40 year old tires on it.

If you put it in reverse and just let off the clutch (no touching the gas pedal) can you back up at idle?

I once had a similar problem with an '87 Suburban. Here in Oregon the grass can be so slick that you won't get any traction even though you aren't sinking in. Nothing wrong with the truck, just street tires that filled all the tread with mud and grass and they became racing slicks. I was on a hill behind the house. By the time I got it back to the asphalt driveway I had another standard towdruck stuck about 75 feet above me and a Big Bertha tow truck that had to snatch onto the base of a telephone pole to get unstuck before he could winch the towtruck and my truck up the hill. I told him not to drive out on the grass and he just laughed and told me how tough his truck was. An hour later he was a lot more humble, so don't feel bad about spinning your wheels. there is probably nothing wrong with your truck that some gravel, sand, pieces of wood, etc. won't cure.

Have you tried using another truck or even a tractor to pull it out?

Robert that sounds to easy.This happened to me yesterday as I pulled my truck on the grass to wash the mud off my tires (I have a gravel and dirt driveway)spun the tires, 1 real nice no grass rut where I spun the tire. Man was my wife mad.Funny though, learned one very important thing.Better get it off the grass before it rains. Beaver 53

it has been warm and dry for a week and today i drove it right out and into the gravel road. it drives just like it should so i guess the sticky brake idea is unlikley. blame it on the slippery grass and a bit too early in the season to be fooling around with da truck

Homer glad shes right now,
All the fun you can have in the mud! We are so dry over here, the last 5 years, even the grass is blowing away.
Good luck wombat