A man drove 75 miles with a stump of tree fixed to his SUV instead of a rear wheel.

Russian Eduard Alimov logged it home after his vehicle became damaged when it got stuck in a swamp, and he could not afford to pay for a tow truck.

With a friend he used a saw to cut three pieces of tree which he used one by one to wedge into place as a makeshift wheel - or sledge - on his return to St Petersburg.

Eduard Alimov was faced being stranded when the suspension on his SUV collapsed miles from home

Mr Alimov removed the wheel of his Niva Chevrolet after he damaged it while driving through a swamp

Mr Alimov could not afford to get his car towed the 75 miles home to St Petersburg so decided to improvise

Onlookers were aghast at the sight of him driving his Niva Chevrolet at speeds of up to 30 mph.

But the ploy worked and he avoided the attention of Russia's traffic police.

He twice replaced the lumps of birch tree which he used to scrape his way home.

To fix the log Eduard and his friend used a winch with a steel rope, attaching it to the bumper.

Then they stretched the rope under the body of the car and fixed the log onto the rear axle, the motoring equivalent of a walking stick.

'We did not have money for a tow truck, and we were cold and did not want to wait,' he said.

Mr Alimov jacked up the rear axle of his SUV and strapped a length of tree trunk to the chassis

Mr Alinov later showed Life News how he managed to improvise his escape using the tree trunk

Passing motorists filmed Mr Alimov as he drove through the outskirts of St Peterburg with is DIY fix

'My car got into a swamp - its engine picked up water and stopped working.

'We managed to bring it back to life but when we drove to the road the back wheels got jammed'.

After some DIY repairs he was 'still without one wheel' - - so the hit on the idea of the spare stump.

One by one, the logs became worn out but he made it back and now faces a 30,000 rouble repair bill - £300 - to get his SUV roadworthy again.

Mr Alimov used a section of heavy-duty cable from his winch to strap the tree trunk firmly to his damaged car