Frozen in Ice Castle ideas?

[eyexer]

All these house manufacturers need to do is provide a connection point in the frame work to attach a hose that runs from your exhaust on your truck. Hook up the hose and let it run for a while and it will warm the frame up enough to thaw from the ice. The frames just need to be hollow and completely closed up aside from an inlet duct and an exhaust duct for the exhaust hose.

 

[risingsun]

Tomorrow hopefully is the end of the saga. Ice is melted off the bottom. Just have to winch it the rest of the way off the hole we cut and drag it to the landing on the frame as the electric over hydraulic lift system isn't functional after the flooding. Fingers crossed that nothing unexpected pops up!

Does that by chance have a manual override system where you can just pump the hydraulics by hand manually? (possibly in owners manual) Not sure how that system is on there, but some systems like that do, for such problems like you have. Good luck.

 

[Opie11]

Does that by chance have a manual override system where you can just pump the hydraulics by hand manually? (possibly in owners manual) Not sure how that system is on there, but some systems like that do, for such problems like you have. Good luck.

Owner said there was no manual override, but I don't know personally. Either way, the hoses to the cylinder that runs the hitch mechanism were frozen in the ice and got damaged and eventually just cut off to get it lifted.

 

[SDMF]

I haven't a clue how this stuff works, only a couple questions.

1. Are the hydraulics to raise/lower the wheels the same lines that run to the hitch?

2. Isn't there some sort of a pin or lock that would ensure the hitch and wheels stayed in the trailering position? If so, one would think that the hitch and wheels would drop into trailering position if there was no line pressure and the house was lifted enough for them to drop.

If there is no way to make the house "towable" without fixing the hydraulic lines, I believe I'd hire someone with a tilt-bed wrecker to haul the house back home for me where I could work on it on my time with whatever tools I needed on-hand. Or, haul it wherever he's going to have it fixed if he's not doing it himself.

Mechanical problems with anything when a person is well away from tools, a warm (or cool) work-space, parts, etc. are a giant pain in the backside. Hopefully you and your friend are approaching the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

 

[Opie11]

You might be on to something SDMF. I would think there would be a safety pin system if nothing else so you weren't relying on the hydraulic system not failing during transport. Once we get it to the landing we can dig into that problem a bit more.

 

[risingsun]

The hydraulics have check valves in them when the wheels are down so if you lose oil going down the road the frame will not go down. There is a pin on the drop down hitch however.

 

[Brian Halse]

The owner told me from the start I could post pictures. I just didn't want his shack to become an internet meme with everything else he had going on. I didn't take any when it was still sunk in the ice. I took a few yesterday when we got it lifted out and you can see from the ice line on the tires how deep it was in. There was 4" or so of the top of the tires that were out of the ice when it was sunk. He and my father in law got it moved forward about 6 feet today and something wedged enough that they couldn't pull it with one pickup chained up on all four. Ice is getting soft enough the chains dig in pretty quickly. I will be out there again tomorrow and will snap a few more pictures. Once it's clear of the hole or it sinks to the bottom I'll post them! We really do appreciate all the ideas and have incorporated quite a few here and there so thank you all for that!

Why would you post pictures? If these internet wizards really cared they could have driven up and seen it over the last month and maybe lent a hand. People just thrive on other people's misery. I wouldn't be one bit embarrassed if this happened to me. It would happen to more people if they didn't fish from their keyboards. I also understand you asked for ideas to remove it but i think we got a pretty good picture from your posts how deep it had sunk in the ice. Glad you are making progress.

Brian

 

[Kurtr]

I dont miss ice fishing

 

[guywhofishes]

 

[Davey Crockett]

You might be on to something SDMF. I would think there would be a safety pin system if nothing else so you weren't relying on the hydraulic system not failing during transport. Once we get it to the landing we can dig into that problem a bit more.

Should be able to jack and block your way up with a couple of handyman jacks (or something safer) and put the transport pins in and do what SDMF mentioned, wait till she thaws out and warms up. Good luck.

 

[risingsun]

As said earlier, there are no transport pins with the hydraulics, as least not the 3 different ones I have been around.

 

[guywhofishes]

please post CAD drawings so we can dissect your potentially flawed diagnosis

 

[risingsun]

please post CAD drawings so we can dissect your potentially flawed diagnosis

Just for your feeble mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVrU3QZVIiU

 

[Opie11]

House is off of the hole we cut to free it. I didn't make it out there today as I had a sick kid home from school. My father in law and the owner made the final push and the owner is working on getting the axles down and locked in place somehow. I'm sure he's relieved! My father in law is the real good guy in this escapade as he put quite a lot more time than I did in helping him out. I will put a couple pics up later just so you all can see the extent of the problem. Once again, really appreciate all the suggestions. For everyone that thinks this could never happen to them, I sure hope you're right! lol It was a deal where it maybe should have been tended to a little sooner, but life got in the way and possibly he didn't realize what a big problem it could be to leave a flooded house. Not to mention the abnormally cold February weather.

 

[guywhofishes]

feeble?

that’s not very nice

 

[risingsun]

feeble?

that’s not very nice

Demented?

 

[guywhofishes]

gosh

 

[risingsun]

HA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Opie11]

Cut out and lifted up, but about 15" of ice still hanging from the bottom of the house.

Same day. Overhead gantry system would have worked better if it was 3-4' wider and about a foot higher. The width hindered the ability to cut easily in between the frame and the house. It also made it a little tricky where the hole was a little bigger because we had chiseled out around the front door to get it open. Had to rig some things to get it to span that spot while we were winching it ahead.

West side. Ice in the wheel well is how deep it had flooded and frozen in.

Inside the house. Didn't measure it, but it was 10" minimum. Maybe a little more.

Ice around the back was a couple inches below the RV plug. You can kind of see the line just below it. Measure to the line from the bottom of the frame, and it was about 18".

At the front it was between the two vents for the furnace for depth. About 16" ahead of the axles.

Pulled ahead about 10' off of the hole we cut and hit the ice hanging from the bottom from about the axles back. At that point he put heat in the inside again and drilled out the fishing holes through the ice hanging underneath to help break it up. Took a couple days.

Behind the house after we had it moved ahead 10' or so.

Finally off of the enormous hole in the ice today!

 

[Obi-Wan]

feeble?

that’s not very nice

hows does he expect a guy like you to know the meaning of such a big word