http://tow411.yuku.com/topic/6729 “I hope everyone has learned from this post. Just a note though,walking this would do you no good,unless you weigh 58,000 lbs.,remember the ground would kick up dust as you walked on it. Very hard ground(for the first few inches).Never saw it coming!” Clifton Location: Oakhurst CA US Is there any way to tell when the ground is gonna do this? I give him credit for taking a 3rd tow truck out there... I would have called some other tow company to come risk thier tow truck to get mine out.
That's not good when the tow trucks get stuck. I've seen wet ground before under dry, but thats amazing. It's pure liquid under the dry dirt. So who got in trouble first - the white box truck? Looks like the dozer did not help much. Well that's the way I find wet spots, it seems Any ideas where these pictures were taken?
Somewhere near Oakhurst CA since it was just a routine call for the local tow company that turned out horribly more complicated. Reading all 5 pages of replys is well worth the time. I give much more meaning when your peers are speechless about a situation.
Thats one way to do a proof roll.
Think it'll pass? might need to put down some black fabric and a layer of stone in a few spots
This type of think is relatively common in some areas of West Australia....although not as wet as that. It always occurs on that dark grey sorta bottomless dirt that is hard and sandy on the surface. It forms a crust and everything is fine, hard as a rock until you break through then, there is literally, no bottom too it. Out near a place called Lake King one particular road is well formed up and you will do 50-60 Mph no problems, beautiful dirt road and then next thing you are up to the axles. The only way to test is with an old fashioned penetrometer, which is sort of like a calibrated slide hammer you drive a couple of feet into the ground. I have seen semi-trailers (triple bogey) fully loaded running over this ground making like a bow wave in the dirt......something like them ice truckers. You hit the ground with the penetrometer and its passing compaction for the first 12" and then all of a sudden the pentrometer starts heading for china......sink hole country we call it.
I've been in a small handful of situations where I thought I was on stable ground only to find out that I wasn't, nothing nearly as crazy as those pictures though, that's absolutely wild. I've buried our skid steer a couple times, almost sank a mini ex last year but I was working when it was way too wet, should've known better. Common sense can only carry you so far, you really wouldn't have any idea what's underfoot without testing the waters.
Nobody looked happy in those pics!
Oops its amazing how hard soft ground seems until you slow down, stop or someone fallows in your tacks.
If you go aside of the "road" and look at the level of the water it can give you a hint. A high groundwaterlevel is always a big warning. In one of the pics u can se a smal "Creek?" flowing along the road with not more than 1/3 of foot of ground above it. High ground water can give u huge trouble in any type of soil. In this situation it looks like clay, U are asking for big trouble, in some areas near the flowing water, the salt get washed out of the clay and it colapses. Clay without salt and with water, is like water. Only a smal move may trigger a clayslide. Some years ago i was in a firm having exactly the same problem. Our sewage truck drove up to a house, and just sank to the frame in the middle of the road. We towed it out with a 950F, but nearly sunk that one too. We added a layer of fabric, and a lot of gravel/sand. Our smal Komatsu trackloader was the only thing floating on the gravel/sandfilling. When finished it was passable with a car, but nothing bigger. 300 feet of suction hose, to empty that tank the year after.