Bus stuck in mud!

[lonestar382]

Well, I wish there was something I could say that wasn't so blazing stupid, but it is, and now I need help on getting it out.

This weekend I took the bus to a friends ranch where I parked it and we played golf and fished all weekend long. During our golf outting yesterday, A large rain storm (un-forecasted) moved in and saturated the ground. I wasnt sure what to expect, so I very gently tried to drive out with 0 luck. The passenger side tires immediately lost traction, and the bus squatted about 4" into the sandy mud.

My question is how do I get it out? I know I'll need the ability to pull with my truck while I drive out, so how do I hook up to it? I'm going to wait until the ground is good and dry before I try, but I feel like I'll need some help getting the bus out of the rut.

Hope no one laughs to hard at this, I'll take some photos to validate my stupidity and post them when I go to retrieve the bird!

Thanks

[Randy Dupree]

wait until its good and dry,dig a little in front of each wheel thats in a rut.
hook the truck up with the towbar (if its your toad) and push with the truck while driving the bus.
if you have to tow from the front,slide the generator out,and you will see two large tow eyes bolted to the front of the coach,i have seen these used with a large cable attached to tow a bus out.
you have to pull from an angle,so the cable does not hit the light bar on the gennie slide,or from above.
or,you can remove the light bar and pull from the front.

Now,i have been stuck just once,and i know Robs been stuck,and i have seen at least 20 birds stuck on the same day (RIV years ago).
so its not a big deal,even though we are still ragging Rob about it!

[Bill Pape]

Not stupid or I would be in the same class

First year of ownership, we stored for a few Spring months in an outdoor lot.
We drove into the parking space and the earth parted under the front end weight and sank 4/5 inches. We were fortunate to be able to wait a few day until the dirt dried out at bit. Dug some dirt & backed out gently with the help of the Jeep Cherokee.

[White Hat Guy]

While I am by no means an expert in this or any other matter but when I was at Coachcraft recently Glenn Rogers showed me the hooks mounted on the cross frame above the genny. If I'm not mistaken he said if I ever need to have the bus pulled from those hooks, remove the upper front of the genny door first, then close the genny. otherwise damage will occur to the genny slide assembly as well as the door assembly. If this is not correct, please one of y'all say something.

[gcyeaw]

I had a friend who got his car stuck in the mud up to the frame while visiting in Vermont. It was late and he decided to call a tow truck in the morning. Did I say Vermont, where it gets real cold, and mud freezes? Waiting till spring can be a long wait.

[lonestar382]

I did find the tow hooks. I think my first try will be pushing with the toad after the soil has dried out, of course I'll dig out the ruts to eliminate the immediate hump to roll over. Thanks again!! Should be fun, i've dug my trucks outta the mud more times than I care to count, but this is a little different beast!

[bwinter1946]

Randy,

I don't have a tag axle so I am asking from ignorance here. Could or perhaps should he dump the pressure on his tag axle to get more traction or would it just make things worse?

[gcyeaw]

Just be sure the truck end of the towbar is lower than the bus end, othewrwise you could wind up catipulting the truck into the rear of the bus.

[lonestar382]

I was thinking about that with the tow bar, it'd really be the pits to get a ton of traction, and ride up and over the tow bar right into the back of the engine Not real sure how I'd explain that to the insurance guy, for both vehicles!!!

Thanks

[Joatha]

Originally Posted by lonestar382

I was thinking about that with the tow bar, it'd really be the pits to get a ton of traction, and ride up and over the tow bar right into the back of the engine Not real sure how I'd explain that to the insurance guy, for both vehicles!!!

Thanks

I hope you realize by now that you really really don't want to do it this way. Your tow bars and the like really aren't set up for pushing a 45-50K lb vehicle. They are set up to tow a 5-10K vehicle.