Taylork
New member
Thought some of you would find the following humerous:
Bought a new tractor (5103!) about a month ago, got 4 hours on it and it started raining (I am in East Texas near Huntsville) almost since then.
The weather finally cleared up (and dried out enough, more importantly
) to get some serious mowing done- or so I thought. Seems the grass was up to my knees and the tassles up to my belly button. Good grief.
Anyway, after taking off the afternoon, I happily head to the barn, put the key in to that pristine JD 5103, and quiet- not even a click. Durn battery had gone COMPLETELY (shorted out- didn't even give a tiny spark when you put a wire across the terminals). No, it had not just discharged....
Then, the fun, no battery cables. Also, naturally I could not raise the loader (which really has to be out of the way to get the battery in/out). So, I had to wrestle with that for some time and *barely* got out the battery. Complicating all of this was I had an incomplete metric set, which of course I needed, which slowed it all down. Good grief.
Took the battery to JD dealer (about 30 minutes away, luckily), who kinda looked at me like I was crazy, but the test proved it was totally dead. Then, more fun, they go to get a new battery but then they didn't have enough acid! Had to wait while they graciously went to get it (thank goodness).
Then, I went and got battery cables and metric set. Ok, looks like things are better (but, it is now 4:00 and I still had to drive back to the place- I had arrived at my place at 1:00!) The battery was- of course- covered under warranty (and I got a MUCH Better -and slightly larger- JD battery to replace it than the Original equipment "Indian" battery.)
Thus, I fire it up using the battery cables (never hope to do that again) and get the loader up and out of the way. Fiddled around with the new metric set and put that battery in rather quickly, of course, sweating like a pig.
I never felt so darn good as when I finally jumped on the tractor (again, 1.25 months old) and got to do some shredding. But, it started raining again and has continued more or less since then (and still more expected today- never in my 56 years have I seen such a wet Texas July). At least I got about 2 acres done.
Anybody else have "short lived" battery(s)? I have obviously learned to always have battery cables available if nothing else (mine where at home, not at the place).
Live and learn.
Bought a new tractor (5103!) about a month ago, got 4 hours on it and it started raining (I am in East Texas near Huntsville) almost since then.
The weather finally cleared up (and dried out enough, more importantly
) to get some serious mowing done- or so I thought. Seems the grass was up to my knees and the tassles up to my belly button. Good grief.Anyway, after taking off the afternoon, I happily head to the barn, put the key in to that pristine JD 5103, and quiet- not even a click. Durn battery had gone COMPLETELY (shorted out- didn't even give a tiny spark when you put a wire across the terminals). No, it had not just discharged....
Then, the fun, no battery cables. Also, naturally I could not raise the loader (which really has to be out of the way to get the battery in/out). So, I had to wrestle with that for some time and *barely* got out the battery. Complicating all of this was I had an incomplete metric set, which of course I needed, which slowed it all down. Good grief.
Took the battery to JD dealer (about 30 minutes away, luckily), who kinda looked at me like I was crazy, but the test proved it was totally dead. Then, more fun, they go to get a new battery but then they didn't have enough acid! Had to wait while they graciously went to get it (thank goodness).
Then, I went and got battery cables and metric set. Ok, looks like things are better (but, it is now 4:00 and I still had to drive back to the place- I had arrived at my place at 1:00!) The battery was- of course- covered under warranty (and I got a MUCH Better -and slightly larger- JD battery to replace it than the Original equipment "Indian" battery.)
Thus, I fire it up using the battery cables (never hope to do that again) and get the loader up and out of the way. Fiddled around with the new metric set and put that battery in rather quickly, of course, sweating like a pig.
I never felt so darn good as when I finally jumped on the tractor (again, 1.25 months old) and got to do some shredding. But, it started raining again and has continued more or less since then (and still more expected today- never in my 56 years have I seen such a wet Texas July). At least I got about 2 acres done.
Anybody else have "short lived" battery(s)? I have obviously learned to always have battery cables available if nothing else (mine where at home, not at the place).
Live and learn.
