Vehicle Recovery, Rainy Lake International Falls.

[Karlbiederman]

Ford F350 plow truck on the bottom of the lake. Driver is safe, truck is in 28 feet of water.

YouTube - Rainy Lake Plow Truck

First attempt to raise the truck on 2/1/08 Failed.

YouTube - Rainy Lake Plow Truck 2


Truck was raised at about 3:00pm on 2/2/08

YouTube - Rainy Lake Plow Truck 3

This is the Heaviest vehicle we have raised to date.
We sent divers down 7 times. I did 4 of those dives.

I thought you might enjoy watching these.

 

[dave4868]

Interesting.

Can you elaborate on the incident, the delay needed to wait for the ice to thicken, techniques used and problems encountered?

Dave C

 

[Hallmac]

Karl

Looks like fun, Nice job.
Has your team looked into using coffin floats to lighten the loading? A 4X4 in the cab and an 8 footer strapped to the bed would have given you 4200 lbs of lift. Sure makes the hoisting easier and allows for less stress of the ice pack.

Hall

 

[1_T_Submariner]

So will it ever run again?

Cool video!!!

 

[fppf]

Looked like a nice job.
I have seen videos of super B trains being pulled out in CA. They had it easier, the ice was thich enough to just drive the crain out there.

Did you guys use lift bags to float it up? Never tried to calculate how much lift you would need to raise a vehicle.

I'm also suprised that the ice could hold the point load that close to the hole.

 

[TheWetRookie]

Very neat to watch, thanks

 

[grumpie]

Figure about 80% of the weight of the vehicule.

 

[Karlbiederman]

The truck sat on the bottom for about 3 weeks before we could retrieve it. We used 3 lift bags on the front, probably could have gotten by with 2. We also used a 2 pulley system to relieve some of the stress on the winch. We typically do about 4 to 5 recoveries a year. This truck was totaled by the insurance company. A truck we pulled out in December was back on the road 2 weeks later.

 

[dmmike]

Just got two things to say.......Great job and glad everyone is safe...& Holy Cow.......

 

[Karlbiederman]

Thank you dmmike. Every recovery is a new adventure, and another story. Every time I get in the water is a learning expierence.