If I had money, I'd love any excuse to use a backhoe, but I gotta tell ya, the edge of the pond is the scariest place I can think of to use a tractor, whether there's water in the pond or not.
Now I will have to agree with you there. I have included a pic of me and my new E110B excavator cleaing out one of our ponds. As you will note that I was almost in there but didn't give up. LOL
Well it's not that long of a story so you shouldn't get too bored. Well first things first, I just bought the unit and upon delivery I had to unload the thing off a flat deck trailer. And not the one that you can just crawl off but did manage to get it unloaded. Well then I moved her to the spot where I wanted and then all of a sudden the engine quits and won't start again. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Long story short ran out of fuel after running 5 mins. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Only have about 10 gal on hand in the 5 gal containers and put that in. Proceeded to go to pond and start digging and just didn't quite have the reach I wanted so I put the under carriage over the bank some and dug about 3 buckets full of heavy sticky muck when I felt something give....... I thought I would just dump the spoils and then adjust accordingly. Well I had the boom about behind me when she started to let loose (the bank that is) and being use to backhoe controls and not use to the normal excavator controls (Cat) I actually ended up pulling the stick in the bank instead of lifting the boom up to miss the bank so I ended up going head first. Throwing my feet against the front window glass so I wouldn't go through it head first and was tilting over but not too bad yet. Well then again I messed up because I couldn't tell if my sprocket or front idler was in front of me and didn't move my forward control in the right direction and rolled off more but was able to move the boom in front to catch me from going over. [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] When working on angles like this was the little 10 gals doesn't put a dent in the tank so the engine died again due to not being able to suck any fuel so I just figured I better get some pics and get my heart rate back to normal [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] The next day and 35 more gals of fuel I got the unit running (after cleaningn the suction strainer before the primer pump because I was sucking all the mess left from the bottom of the tank when it ran out of fuel the first time) [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] When the thing was running I was then able to push my stick out while going backwards. Thank goodness. I met alot of people in those two days and most of them said that to get a wrecker (big one) or another bigger excavator to get me out would have ran me major $$$$$. So I did feel kinda lucky that I got her out on her own power. Oh my sorry I guess it's not too short of a story. [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] see attachment
Looking at that picutre, it's hard to imagine how you got it out under its own power. I guess you found something firm enough to push against with the bucket down there, eh?
Now I'm waiting for the video. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Actually I wanted to video tape it but my red face was ruining the video [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] But then again after today's adventures I don't feel so bad........Used the excavator today to help get a tri-axles dump truck out of the ditch with full load but later had to get it out because we couldn't move it with a 550 dozer and excavator. Then after getting the thing out it almost went back in the ditch because the tires were full of mud and no weight in the dump for traction. Was able to run his newer JD550H dozer today which was waaaaay cool. Boy you steer this thing with just your joysticks...no pedal or levers with the new ones I guess. THis was all done by an "experienced" guy too,,,not like my rookie butt. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]