BogMonster Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 A bit OT in that it has nowt to do with Land Rovers, but today saw me add some good photos to my collection so I thought I'd post them Crossing a valley close to town this morning to do a 5 minute job, a rather large Hitachi hit a bit of a soft spot Really quite deep now this would normally be quite a good photo for the collection but things were to get worse yet! First attempt to free it using a Cat D5 which just buried it a bit further - the problem being that it was sooo soft that every movement made the Hitachi sink a bit more Having decided that the only way was to dig to hard ground a second (lighter!) digger was commandeered and started to dig the Hitachi out but had some problems of its own and needed a tug from the D5 Trenching towards hard(er) ground.... By this time the entire machine except for the arm was below ground level and there were some major problems with slop getting into both the cab and the engine compartment and while it had the awesome power to pull itself forwards, rather a lot of goo was starting to build up in front! The cab was half full of semi liquid peat at one point.... Gonna be a while before this grasses over again Eventually when slightly harder ground was reached, using the D5 as an anchor point and digging its own (huge) bucket right into the ground to haul itself forward and lift, the Hitachi started to get out And success Bit of cleaning for somebody to do now though; 3 diggers and a bulldozer to wash not to mention a few new windows to make 9 hours from start to finish! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge 4x4 Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Stephen, how heavy is the Hitachi? Remember you've got the friendly JHSU Detachment up the road! If it weighs less than 11,300kgs (take the mud holding it into consideration too!?) a Chinook could lift it out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Henson Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Blimey what a mess! I don't think I would like to be sitting in the cab as the machine was sinking into the mud. Good pictures Stephen. Les. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidlandy Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 great stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 That looked like fun ! What are all the diggers for, Stephen ? Digging peat for sale ? Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Jordan Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 By the looks of it I would guess that the Hitachi is around the 15-16 tonne mark. I do feel sorry for the operator as I have dropped a 1.6 tonne 360 into a trench after it collapsed and I c**ped myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landrover598 Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 wow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted January 22, 2006 Author Share Posted January 22, 2006 The guy who planted it told me the Hitachi was about 30 tons Somebody said the little Halla that dug it out was 13 tons Mo the diggers are just used in the general construction industry, building roads, that sort of stuff. Not many people still burn peat here but for anybody that does, I can vouch for the quality of that bog being excellent - where it got stuck was actually while traversing one of the old (now disused) peat bogs where they used to cut peat for fuel. The bloke who used to cut his peat a little further up the valley turned up at one point and said that it used to be 18 feet deep in his bog, but I don't think that was what they wanted to hear right at that point The big digger (which I think is the biggest in the Islands) was on its way to shift a 20 foot ISO container. And - well as they say a short cut is the longest distance between 2 points The little one was just the nearest one that could be blagged at short notice to deal with the situation! It is also a good illustration of why tall narrow tyres that dig down to something hard aren't a great deal of use around these parts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Superb pics, drew a fair size crowd, bet the guys were glad to get it out & will be more aware of the ground next time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guilford Dave Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Superb pics, drew a fair size crowd, bet the guys were glad to get it out & will be more aware of the ground next time. Suberb Stephen, Be a hard pressed to find anything that extreme here. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will_warne Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 OMG, that's just unreal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJL Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Excellent Pics Stephen! I think that even the MM may have struggled on that one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted January 22, 2006 Author Share Posted January 22, 2006 Yes I think the MM might have made heavy weather of it James It shows what treacherous stuff peat is to drive on, the ground on the run up to where he bogged really looked not much different to many of my normal photos but the ruts tell the story of what is six inches below the surface You always have to bear in mind that there is an evil black stinking monster lurking down there and if you open up the ground for a look it will eat you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted January 22, 2006 Author Share Posted January 22, 2006 Cool B) I have just figured out how to make my first million B) Page 81 of the Feb 06 issue of LRE, there is (yes really) spray on mud! [break out calculator] 75cc of this costs £7.95 how many times does 75cc go into about 400 cubic metres erm according to my calculations that should be 5333333 bottles of spray on goo @ £7.95 = £42,400,000 Anybody want a new supercharged RR Sport? - they're on the house Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 Plus the cost of the canning plant, propellant, transport, marketing, how much would that cost just stick with real mud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted January 24, 2006 Author Share Posted January 24, 2006 A couple more I missed the first time round You know you're stuck when you are in the cab with a spade looking for the controls And the carpets were a bit grubby afterwards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watson Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 that is awsome ok i need another judge there is rhys and myself and i need one more as impressive that is i think we should keep it to landrovers watson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro_Al Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 Is 'Drunk in charge of a computer' a crime? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watson Posted April 6, 2008 Share Posted April 6, 2008 that is awsomeok i need another judge there is rhys and myself and i need one more as impressive that is i think we should keep it to landrovers watson sorry got confused wrong topice appologise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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