41 Tractors Caught in Sticky Situations
There is a story here, but we are not sure what it is. It could be the Transformers meets the age of Apocalypse while battling undersea monsters, or another Star Wars sequel/prequel. Most likely though, it is a sad, sad tale involving an overzealous digger and the unforgiving ocean. The claw does look rather impressive though, getting up out of the sand as if it is making a final attempt to pull itself from the depths of the sea.
Where is Captain Ahab when you need him? We don’t know. We don’t know where the owner of this earth-moving tractor is either. I can’t blame him though. I too would disappear quicker than an OSHA inspector at the safety convention if this happened on my watch. Luckily there are a few bystanders around to look useful, although their ability to help is probably very limited. Such is the life of a tractor stuck in the sand.
I told you this one was worth seeing. I’m sure the conversation started off something like, “Hey Bobby, what do you say we take the tractor mud bogging this weekend?” You can kind of fill in the blanks from there. The thing that makes this one a fairly sticky situation is the fact that it also has a piece of equipment in tow, firmly seated in the mud as well. Looks like this tractor is going to have to take a long time out and wait for the field to dry before it does anything. Then, a few other trucks and tow winches will probably be involved to help pull the beast free. Tractors do so much for farmers, it’s a shame when they get stuck wheels deep in a muddy field like this. If I didn’t know any better, I would almost say this fellow got hoodwinked into buying a piece of swampland disguised as farmland. At least, if I were him that’s what I would claim as soon as I filed suit! The punitive damages would be more than enough to get the tractor unstuck. Hey, it’s an idea, that’s all I’m saying!
Remember the time you thought it would be fun to try and ford a river with your favorite tractor? That’s what I thought. Me neither. Yet look close, the guy in the driver seat here can certainly lay claim to that statement. I’m not really sure what his friends are doing on the bank, other than simply staring in disbelief at his audacity. Or, maybe they are sorry they were not picked to be the driver. Come on, you have to admit that looks like a barrel of fun, even though the tractor is stuck. However, not all hope is lost because that handy extension arm in the back is all you need to get free and keep chugging along. Hopefully the guy in the cab knows how to use the arm. If not, I’m sure his friends on the bank will continue to stare at him until something happens. Moral of the story? Be the driver, not the two sad looking people on the bank. Chaos is more fun when you’re in the middle of it!
If General Custer were an excavator, this would be his last stand. This tractor just looks sad. I’m not saying that all hope is lost, but I’m certainly hinting at the idea that the situation appears grim. If you can dig a tractor out of a hole like that with nothing showing but the scoop, then you have done something. The good news is the scoop is probably the most useful part of the tractor to have free. If it works, this picture instantly turns from one of the most epic tractor fails into an amazing hero story of survival and persistence. You can almost hear the music playing in the background as the movie narrator says,”He was neck deep in trouble, but saved himself with his own resourcefulness, one scoop at a time.” Only this is not a movie, and tractors have yet to be personified, other than their short stint in Cars playing the part of cows and bulls. Bottom line, this is one stuck excavator, and I would not want to be the one who had to report it to the boss.
Looks like a bad day at the office for these guys. Sometimes tractors have a mind of their own, but usually it is the operator that has a bit to do with it. Whatever the case, this is not the way to stand a bulldozer on its head. If anyone ever dares you to do that, politely decline and seek work elsewhere. You would just get yourself in trouble, like I’m sure this individual did. Just trust me on that. There’s never a good time in your life for you to try and make a tractor perform gymnastics. But hey, at least they have a crane handy to help pull it back up the hill. As for the driver, I’m sure he is searching for another job and will probably neglect to put this one on his resume. I know I would. Don’t judge either. I mean hey, come on, you can’t win them all!
So you’ve heard of putting the cart before the horse. What about turning the cart over and lifting up the horse? Well, that is exactly what happened here. It’s kind of one of those pictures that you look at and just wonder how it could be possible. It’s like one of those surreal paintings where the stairs never go to the top, and clocks melt. Yeah, that’s the vibe I get from this picture. You really have to have a “perfect storm” set of circumstances to pull this off! On the other hand, you have to hand it to this driver. That’s pretty impressive stuff. Anytime you can successfully flip your tow behind your piece of equipment while keeping the tractor up right, you win the day. You may not win any safe driver awards, but you certainly win today. Kudos my friend, we tip our hats to you.
I don’t care how good you are at tractor hide and seek, you’re not as good as this guy. I’m sure it took his tractor buddies a few days before they found him. Also, I bet it took him a while to crawl out of this thing. Take a look, he’s buried all the way up to the top of the cab. We can’t see any windows kicked out from the front, but we know he escaped because he is not in there! Maybe he is some modern day Houdini. I guess we will never know. As for the tractor, well that’s another story. It looks like it will be stuck for sometime. You might as well go ahead and build a garden around it or something. It is going to be there for a minute. Maybe take time and set up a monument. I wouldn’t want to take that thing out!
Skateboards go down stairs. Bicycles go downstairs. People go downstairs. Tractors never go downstairs. When they try, they end up like this poor thing. The irony of it all is this. If you look closely and use a bit of imagination, it looks like the tractor is actually drunk. Maybe that’s what happened. It went on all night gasoline bender when it should have used diesel. Things can get a bit wild at the local tractor supply bar. Two gasoline shots down and the next thing you know, you are slurping down Ethanol by the quart! Then on the way home you steer right instead of left and end up in an oily droopy heap on the second level of a concrete stairwell wondering how it all happened. Let this be a lesson to you. Don’t drink and tractor. It’s just not worth it.
Hey what can I say about this picture, we all have a little A Team in us. Even tractor drivers have an inner stuntman screaming to break free, because they too, “Love it when a plan comes together.” My only suggestion would be if you have that inside of you, make sure you detach your plow equipment before trying to jump bridge. This 2 + 2 Pivot International Harvester tractor is just having a bad day. At least it’s built solid as a rock so extraction should not be a problem. Just give it a good tip and it should be able to climb out with ease. As for the lower equipment, just detach it and come back later. Or, you could always try to make a running start and jump the chasm all over again to retrieve it. If not, just leave it there and come back later. Tell the stuntman inside of you to go to bed.
Look at this tractor picture real close. Do you notice what’s missing? Yep, that’s right. The driver. He’s nowhere to be seen. I can guess where he is. He’s probably in the nearest restroom changing out his shorts. I know I would be. This is one of those times in life where you are glad that you have a rear attachment to your tractor. Had it not been for that this picture could have turned out to be something entirely different. Fortunately, for us it did not. We get a funny tractor picture out of this and can laugh it off. As for the driver? Well, he probably hasn’t stopped shaking yet. He might also scream every time he sees a tractor for the rest of his life. You can’t blame him though. A half ton beast falling through a massive self created hole in a rickety old bridge would do that to just about anybody.
Okay, so we are not even sure how this would happen, but it is pretty funny. Check out the wheelie wall crawling stuck tractor. It’s almost as if this tractor decided to morph into part Spider-Man and try to go over rather than under. When you do that in a tractor, it works out kinda like this. There is no over or under, just an impressive screenshot. And by the way, it is pretty impressive. This looks like one of those tractors you would want on your side if things get a bit too rough-and-tumble out on the farm. That combine giving you trouble? No problem, send in the green wall crawler here. When that cotton billing machine gets a bit uppity, let it deal with this beast. It will tame them all for sure. Plus, it can easily fit under just about any bridge… So long as it has a mind to! Check out the next one, it’s over-the-top!
At some point you have to let off the throttle, right? Well, evidently this driver skipped tractor class that day. I guess he thought if he kept throttling the engine that he would plow ahead, straightway through the field. Instead, he made it a whopping 6 feet. That’s a horrible distance, even for a middle school long-jump contest. For tractors, it’s simply embarrassing. However, back to the matter at hand. How to unstuck a stuck tractor? Well, I don’t know. I guess he will be waiting for the ground to harden, or get a few buddies with some big equipment to help them out. That is, if they decide to help. They might just stand there and laugh all day, or at least until lunch time. Moral of the story? “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead,” is a nice sentiment, but a horrible real life application, unless you have historical merit.
What’s worse than one stuck tractor? How about two stuck tractors and one is roughly 45,000 pounds. This unfortunate situation happened in England when one of the town’s lifeboats was being taken out to sea on its carriage by its designated tractor. An area of soft clay took the carriage and tractor by surprise and before they knew it, they both needed rescuing. Then enters the Volvo excavator to save the day. Except the excavator soon found itself in the same mess as its smaller counterpart. The last we heard, another tractor was brought in to recover all three stuck machines. This just goes to show ya, soft ground and tractors don’t always mix, even for experienced tractor operators. And when they do, a chain of tractors pulling tractors usually make an appearance.
Okay so it’s one thing to get one tractor stuck completely in a muddy field. It’s another thing to find to tractor stack if one was trying to pull it free. It’s a horse of another color entirely to find two tractors along with the third, outfitted with irrigation pipes, stuck in a muddy field. There is one heckuva story here, we just can’t seem to figure it out. Judging from the picture, it looks like none of these guys can either. The two working on the front wheels in the rear have an idea, as do the three guys working on the one closest to the scoop. Yet, look at that third guy standing there by himself. He looks like he’s just waiting there for something to happen. Nothing is going to buddy. Well, not until that field dries up at least. Then you might have a wing and a prayer.
This guy looks like he’s saying hey, look at me. I scooped out all of the ocean to make room for my tractor in the sand. Actually, who are we kidding? This Caterpillar operator looks as confused as can be. We’ve seen several of these pics in our series, which does make you wonder. Obviously, these operators are skilled and don’t wake up everyday thinking hey, let me get my earth mover stuck today. They have important things to do, like their job. Yet these pictures seem to pop up all over the Internet. So maybe the ground just gives way during construction and they are left to deal with it. That seems to be the case at least. At any rate, it does make for an interesting picture and leaves you scratching your head. Hopefully he will have a better tomorrow, because this day certainly didn’t turn out too well.
This tractor is stuck alright – stuck without a driver after he got hauled off to jail for DUI! We really don’t know exactly what’s going on here, other than the fact that this guy is obviously drinking and driving. Maybe that’s the reason he decided to tether many kegs to a used couch and attempt to haul them to his moonshine destination with the world’s most obvious brightly colored tractor. The big orange triangle on the back draws even more attention beyond the ridiculous contraption he has constructed. It was just a matter of time before he got caught, and evidently that time was 4:06 in the afternoon. At least, that’s what we can surmise from the time stamp on the dash cam. The things that some people will do for entertainment and alcohol boggles the mind. But then again, that’s what makes America so interesting, and that’s also why we have police!
Speaking of scratching your head over pictures, this one has me boggled. I mean I get the fact that a giant earth moving contractor can get buried up to its waste in the mud. We’ve certainly seen many of those on our list. However look at the track marks. They run perpendicular to the cab. That means he is either stuck sideways in the hole, or he rotated the cab after bogging down. Either way, it’s bad news. It’s not like you can use the big scoop for leverage, because it will simply scoop up the soft earth and further compound the problem. This is going to require an even heavier piece of machinery to help with the extraction. The worst part? Look at the scenery. This is one of the most picturesque hillside scenes you can imagine, with a big eyesore front and center. This picture proves if you don’t know how to operate something properly, it’s best for you to simply leave it alone. Like, permanently leave it alone.
Come on, admit it. This picture makes you laugh because it looks like one of those African safari shows where the animals are wading in the watering hole and enjoying the sun. That’s exactly what this tractor looks like. It is nothing but a big rusty water buffalo enjoying some cool off time in the local watering hole. Fortunately, predators won’t be an issue. Alligators tend to stay away from tractors, and hippos don’t make the list either. The biggest problem here is going to be extracting the tractor from the watering hole. You would have much better luck extracting the truth from a politician I would think. It just goes to show you, that as people we can sometimes get ourselves into some really sticky situations. It’s in those moments that we failed to realize we never thought of an exit plan. There, that’s your deep thought for the day.
You know when you get tired sometimes you just need to lay down right where you are? Well, evidently tractors do the same thing. Check this one out. It just decided to give up the ghost right in the middle of production. Before long there will be protests going and operators holding signs noting how underpaid and underprivileged the tractor is. News outlets will chime in and further stoke the fire. Every farming problem will be blamed on this one event. It could be the poster child for farming abuse and the world’s largest victim. How criminal is it to work a tractor to death this way. You should not push something to the brink of exhaustion. Or, maybe you shouldn’t try to drive a tractor across a muddy corn field loaded down with sprayer equipment. Maybe that’s it.
Look quick and this looks like the Loch Ness monster. Look again and it might look like one of those panoramic dinosaur scenes from Jurassic Park. It’s not. It’s just a big cat stuck in the water, and I’m not talking a tiger. No, this is a several hundred thousand dollar Caterpillar, stuck head deep in the river. Judging from the picture, it looks like this was some sort of flood event. Look at the tree in the background and notice how high the water is. That’s good news for the operator since no-fault can be assessed. It’s great news for us because we get a pretty phenomenal picture to show you. It’s not every day you come across something like this, a giant earth mover caught in a flood. It’s like one titan battling another, the kracken versus the sea. Only we know mother nature will win eventually, if the water keeps rising.
Overpasses don’t usually require surgery, but when they do it’s pretty serious. Take a look at this picture. This scoop is neck deep in the guts of this bridge. It shows no sign of an easy extraction either. Obviously this was not a planned event, and you would hate to be the guy responsible for this. An army of safety inspectors and bridge engineers are going to be your best friend for the next few months when something like this happens. It’s all the difference between leaving the arm up and leaving it down during transport. Look close though. It was actually loaded on the back of the truck before the mishap. Either way, it’s a bad day and this bridge will probably be closed for quite some time in the foreseeable future. If you’ll excuse me I have to go find a bridge surgeon to help me remove an earth mover from its… well, you get the point.
Remember when you were little and your grandparents used to tell you to go pick your own switch? Kids today don’t know what that means, but we do. It meant that you are about to get the beating of your life. Well, here is a variation of the same thing. This guy is picking his own switch and using it to beat himself repeatedly. It seems like that tractor just isn’t quite strong enough to pull the young cedar tree free. Or maybe it is the cedar tree fighting back! Who knows, he is getting pummeled though, that’s for sure. In a bit of irony though, what is a bad time for him is a good time for us. You know what they say, its always funny when it happens to someone else. When it happens to you, its hysterical! Better luck next time buddy. You’re going to need a bit of recovery time after a self-administered beating like that!
Lastly, we have a stuck tractor that’s stuck for all the right reasons. We call that a tractor win! What do you do when you’re camping and don’t have the necessary equipment to create your own barbecue grill? Simple, just take an old tractor and use it to create your own slow-roasted rotisserie. If necessity is the mother of invention, these people are constantly in need. That makes them resourceful too, evidently. We don’t care though. We think the whole contraption is pretty ingenious, and instead of a sad stuck tractor, we place this one squarely in the category of a tractor win! Really though, what a great use for an old tractor! Just remove the rear wheel, and extend the axle to create your own camping kitchen. This is called the instant friend maker. Check out the tents in the background. Those people might think you are crazy at first when they see what you are doing, but when the sweet smell of BBQ hits their noses, they are instant friends. Now, find an old tractor and do this yourself. Your wife won’t mind at all!
Well now they’re both stuck! Someone probably is thinking of the classic old joke, “How many idiots does it take to screw in a light bulb?” Except trade out light bulb for get a tractor out of the mud! Now, they’ve got to call their third buddy to get his tractor over…only to probably get IT stuck in the mud, too. Yikes, these guys are in a tough situation with the mud as thick and deep as it is. Well, good luck fellas!
Ouch. We don’t know what to tell you, pal. Unless you want to invite some of the guys over from the last image to get stuck with you…it looks like you’re up the creek! Or rather, in the mud. The good news is that at least you’re still dry and clean in the cab? It feels like we’re making this worse. We can stop if we need to. Honestly, we wish we could help…but it seems like you’re the only one who can get you out of this sticky situation.
Do you know how stuck you’ve got to be to have a crane have to pull you out! This track-wheeled tractor was about 2 seconds away from slipping away into the abyss forever. Until this saint of a crane operator came just in the knick of time. It looks like they are near some form of coastal town and the tide came higher and heavier than anticipated. Or the guy just didn’t know what he was doing…that’s always a possibility. But now, the crane is almost in jeopardy of getting itself stuck. We aren’t envious of these guys, that’s for sure.
What’s this guy trying to do, build a pool? 12 wheels and all of them are stuck….what a shame. This monster tractor has found itself in a stickier than life situation. But do you see much earth that thing has moved?! What an impressive display of power. Until, the part where it got stuck. He needs a good shove, backwards, if that thing’s got any chance of getting itself unstuck.
Well it’s just a regular old party, ain’t it? From what we can see from this angle, tractor 1 (far left) and tractor 2 (far right) are stuck like pigs and tractor 3 (middle) is trying to figure out a way to help his buddies out of this mess but isn’t trying to get suckin himself. That’s a pickle, right there. Or…we might have this situation all wrong. But that’s not what matters is it? What matters is that these guys are stuck in the mud and we’re not!
Look at all the mud. My goodness, you could lose an entire family of four in one of those mud-crushed tires. Given the overly large hat this guy is wearing, we’re going to venture a guess that this isn’t in America. Also, using some more of our context clues we can see he’s in the process of getting pulled out. It’s always nice to see one of our fallen brothers be helped out of a sticky situation. In this case, by a faceless, nameless hero. Way to go, team.
Well, to be honest, it’s not that hard when the tires are that size. But yet again, we have ourselves another tractor that’s in a messy situation. The main difference between this and all the rest is that this tractor will get out of this jam with just a little help from maybe one or two humans. Most every other tractor on this list needs an entire business operation to get out of the mud! Or worse, they get their buddies stuck trying to get them out. So, to this moderately stuck in the mud tractor that’s in a sticky situation nonetheless…we salute you.
Double trouble! Two for the price of one here at the farm. They look like they’ve found a hearty patch of fresh mud among a field of compacted earth. A patch fresh enough to swallow them up. These guys are going to need some serious help to get them out of this pickle. A crane? Perhaps not, but still some serious machinery is going to be employed for this sticky situation to get better. Best of luck to you, gentlemen.
22 tires. 16 in the front and 6 in the rear…and 5 of ’em are about to go under! Perhaps this driver didn’t know how deep it is down there, but he’s in a pickle that’s for sure. Reverse isn’t an option, and if he goes forward he risks cementing his tires and axle into the mud and getting the whole thing stuck. Yikes! What should he do? Cause we all know this thing is beyond towing if it gets sucked up into a mud bog. Let us know how it goes, we’ll be down at the bar.
Dang! That’s some messed up mud that swallowed up your tractor. Hate to see it. I mean, what even happened? It looks like the world just opened up beneath the rear and sucked in half your tractor! Luckily, like the last machine – this one is easily removable. As long as more sinkholes don’t open up out of nowhere!
Oh boy, he’s done a nosedive. With his front end reaching that dreaded near halfway-line – this tractor is in dangerous territory. There’s no one in the cab and if you look closely, the mud looks cracked along the outsides of the tires. It looks more like compacted earth rather than mud. There’s been some passage of time between this tractor getting stuck and this image being taken. Hopefully they will be able to get back in there and figure it out. Because it doesn’t look good right now.
Well this, this is just beyond reason. This thing might as well be completely buried. Y’all come back on Tuesday for the funeral service. Starts at 10 a.m. Sheesh! You can almost feel the hopelessness from that poor mans stance, as he himself barely made it out alive and now has to stare at the wreckage of what used to be a fully operational tractor beneath him. That’s another thing about tractors…you never want to be looking down on them. If the tractor is below you, and you’re on ground-level then usually something has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Like it has here. Good luck!
What’s going on here? This isn’t an easily understandable situation right here. It looks like in the process of lifting those boards the front wheels either A) fell off completely and rolled down the hill or B) they got sucked up into the earth somehow in that little rivet before the trail. Either way, something went wrong – that’s all we can say for sure. Just how heavy are those boards anyway? Are they heavy enough to cause the tractor to buckle under its weight? Are they light enough for humans to have moved them without this tractor? These are important questions, but maybe questions that we’ll never quite know.
I mean, this just becomes a natural part of the landscape, right? They can’t save that thing. It’s just there, forever, now. People will know when they go to this beach, don’t go over to that side because there’s a tractor that’s been sucked under and you might kick your toe and break it, or get meningitis, or something worse. The worst part about a sticky situation like this one is that there’s no machine on earth that can pull this out. It’s under so much heavy sand and water sucking it downwards that this is a hand-shovel and wheelbarrow type of exercise. It’s going to be a long night, boys!
Oh no, a little ghost-hole? You’re driving along, doing your job, enjoying the sunshine and then BOOM. Ghost hole. Swallows ya up before you even knew what hit ya. This front end might even need some repair after it’s all said and done. The bad news is that this tractor is definitely in a sticky situation, but the good news is that it seems easily fixable – just needs some torque and a chain. It seems like they’ll get this one under control…moving on!
All out of traction, from what it looks like. You never want to see smooth mud on the outside of the tires, that means the tread has become a part of the problem, not the solution. This tractor is good, old fashioned S.T.U.C.K. He’s been spinning his tires endlessly it seems like – to no avail. Bellied out! This is a sticky, muddy, unfortunate situation that we don’t want anything to do with.
They’re trying to do too much! Way too much weight on that soft soil after a rain. It seems like these guys were trying to get out ahead of the curve and haul that dirt before the earth dried up enough. And it cost them! Now, there’s a chain link around the front end. They better detach that trailer or else they’ve got a fiasco on their hands. Once they get the momentum up and moving, this thing isn’t too deep – so it’ll come out pretty easily.
Brutal! Nothing worse than getting stuck out in the cold. That’s just not what you want! This big boy looks like it was hauling some serious weight when it was stopped in its tracks. Perhaps that snow is melting and it moistened up the soil which swallowed up those big tires. Or perhaps everything just froze altogether. That seems pretty unlikely, but hey – crazier things have happened. Regardless of how it happened, what is important is that this guy is in a serious pickle. And we wish him nothing but the best of luck in getting out.
