It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired

   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #1  

PineRidge

Super Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2003
Messages
7,348
Location
Northeast, Ohio
Tractor
TC-40D SS New Holland
There it happened again, should have known better but what could I say?

It's my wife. I love her dearly but she is just plain mechanically impaired. It started way back with my last tractor. Rose wanted to help clear our then wooded lot so I said what the heck, after all what can she hurt? Well, later that same afternoon she came limping back to me on my 25 HP diesel with steam snorting from the radiator overflow looking like she was riding a flame snorting dragon. Honey she yells over the engine noise and the high pitched whistle of superheated steam bellowing everywhere. Is this friggin tractor supposed to be this hot when it’s a running? Just so happens that the temperature gauge was pegged but hey who looks at them gadgets? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

It doesn't really matter which tool that Rose uses. As it most always means some extra work for me at the end of the day to make it usable once again.

Just today I was helping my neighbor mount a new set of filled R4s on his Massey so I got behind on my regular chores from the start. Then it was back to mowing 7+ acres before tilling the food plot to get ready for planting a stand of sweet corn. The wife saw that I was getting behind on my timetable so she grabbed the 1 year old mower and offered to do the trim work. I just knew that as she pushed that mower out of the pole barn the day wasn't going to end well at all, but I just bit my lip and went on about my business. Just 30 minutes later as I was dragging the tiller through the garden plot she asked me if I could take a minute to check the mower as she thought that it was running hot. The oil was fine and I saw no problem with the mower overheating so I restarted the push mower for her and went back to my tilling job still feeling uneasy.

Later in the day Rose told me that there was now a totally different problem with the push mower, now it was vibrating so badly that she stopped using it. She suspected a bent blade but I braced myself for the worst case scenario. I checked it out and sure enough the main shaft was now bent so badly that the mower was unusable the way it was. She said that she had a run in with a piece of scrap 2X4 although I suspect that she found some other immovable object somewhere on our lot that did the deed on the mower. I was able to get it straightened out fairly well with the use of a long piece of pipe that enabled me to put extra leverage on the drive shaft. But come fall I'll start looking for another push mower to replace this one. I think bending an output shaft more than once merely weakens it and I don’t want to see anyone hurt with the mower.

I'm open for suggestions here, is there a cure for this curse? I'm not trading Rose for the world so please don’t suggest it, we have 8 wonderful years together. I have been fixing equipment regularly since we met.

Incidentally, I’m also not offering Rose the keys to the TC-40D either. I think not in this lifetime anyway. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Anybody else have these same kinds of mechanical failures?
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #2  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Anybody else have these same kinds of mechanical failures? )</font>

More times than I care to think about. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #3  
Re: It Happened Again, She&#8217;s Mechanically Impaired

Welll. If I sent my wife into the brush with an unprotected radiator and little knowledge of what might happen, I might expect her to come back with a hole in the radiator, or a hose ripped off (you didn't say what happened, only implied it was 'her' fault).

If I had a lot with hidden things to mow over (you thought a hidden 2x4 but then thought it was something else), I guess I would expect her to find it.

Doesn't sound to me like it is really just her fault. But you sound pretty convinced it is, so I would have to yield to the first-hand knowledge that you have. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

My wife went out amongst a tree plantation to mow, and couldn't stop before mowing off a 1" oak tree about 6' high with my 54" deck. It handled it quite well, and that tree was really in the way anyhow. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I hope she still wants to go out and mow again. As long as she doesn't hurt herself, all will be okay. I keep my fingers crossed.
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #4  
In the immortal words of the man that came to quote the price on paving our driveway... "Lady, why don't you go in the kitchen and bake some cookies.". Needless to say, he didn't get the job. That is the one thing that she can do well and does often. When it comes to mechanical things, I just don't let her near them. A woman's place is in the kitchen where the worse that they can do is burn the house down. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #5  
My wife grew up on an Iowa farm, left that farm 35 years ago and no longer gets the urge to drive tractors or operate mechanical things. She told me that the only reason she ever drove a tractor was because her daddy made her do it.....and I'm not her daddy.
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #6  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( .....drove a tractor was because her daddy made her do it.....and I'm not her daddy. )</font>

(LOL) Guess I'm not the only one then. Only difference is that my wife says,"Your not my Father" /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. G
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #7  
Junkman:

<font color="red"> </font> A woman's place is in the kitchen where the worse that they can do is burn the house down.

There is many a farm Lady dressed in coveralls who is quite competent on a quarter million dollar combine or just using the chores tractor to feed the cattle.

Of course the coveralls are replaced by more conventional clothes when she drives the manual diesel dually to town to go shopping.

Egon <font color="red"> </font>
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #8  
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( When it comes to mechanical things, I just don't let her near them. A woman's place is in the kitchen where the worse that they can do is burn the house down. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif )</font>

I guess my wife is a little odd she drives the truck into town to get groceries.. A guy at the gas station says something like "Isn't that too much truck for a woman" It's a K3500 Dually diesel... Hell it's probably too much truck for some men... I told her next time someone says something like that to use her best deep voice and respond "who says I'm a woman!"

As for tractors my wife my wife may end up driving ours... If my neck continues it's downward spiral she may have to...(No feeling in the left arm and the thumb and forefinger on the right hand cut out last week) She drove her dads JD 855 and has pushed for the an MMM... The new Kioti dealer I'm working with should have tractors really soon... We're going to start bugging him next week....
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #9  
You may have noticed an earlier thread on my B2410 not starting. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif This was the direct result of the mechanical comprehension of my wife. I love her dearly, but I can explain "the tractor thing" as many times as I like....I'll always end up sweating if she takes it out.

The first time she took it out while I was at work, it was parked in a shed. It had the rear blade on and she wasn't watching, cut the corner and just about pulled the front of the shed off! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif This last time she tried to start the Kubota without using the glow plugs and then when it was doing the diesel chug, she opted to push the hyrdostatic pedal like a gas pedal to "give it some gas". /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif It ended up getting locked that way and only thanks to a previous thread did I even get it going again.

I have 2 keys to the Kubota. Both of which are now not available to her. From now on, I'll start it, move it out to an open space, and THEN let her have at it and pray for the best!!

Kevin
 
   / It Happened Again, She’s Mechanically Impaired #10  
My wife is not very mechanically inclined. However, I am forunate in that she allows me to use her tractor most of the time.

I...ahhhh, I mean, she...recently purchased a new truck. Since she has a little trouble reaching the pedals, she allows me to drive this also.
 
 
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