What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ?

[LS Tractor Owner]

I've done quite a bit of stupid things during my lifetime, but there are a few highlights.....

About 12 years old, I finished cutting the grass around the house with an old heavy Cub Cadet garden tractor. My dad had put a ramp and a double door on the side / back corner of the garage to make it easier to put the tractor away. Well, I always watched him back it in..... I thought that was a pain, so I stopped at the bottom of the ramp, got off and opened the doors..... jumped back on the tractor, put it in gear, and started up the ramp... very quickly... put it into 3rd gear instead of 1st..... popped the front end off the ground, smashed into the door jamb, and rode the tractor right up the wall until it went sideways, me going the opposite direction.
Smashed the hood, bent the mower mounts, and bent a front axel spindle.
Where it landed was in one of my mom's flower bed, messing it up quite a bit and taking out half of her blueberry bush....
I had to answer to both my dad and my mom.....

Another memorable event was a time my SIL and BIL came to our house to visit. They just picked up their brand new car the day before. When they got to our house, they parked right behind my '89 Suburban. A little while later, the wifey asked me to go to the store for something she had forgotten. I walked out to the driveway, walked right between the back of the Suburban and their new car, all the while saying to myself how nice the car was.....
Got in the Suburban, put it in reverse, and proceeded to use the bumper hitch to fold their hood into a nice "V" shape. I went inside immediately to tell them what had happened.... they thought I was kidding them.... I had to escort them outside to see the damage. Ended up costing almost $3500, and that was 35 years ago.....

My next escapade happened just a couple of years ago.... I was using my SCUT loader to pull up some fence posts. I had done a few already without incident, wrapping a chain around the post base and using the center hook on the bucket. I got lazy and didn't want to take the time to fully place the tractor in the correct location.... I said to myself "those came out easy enough... just use the hook on the side if the bucket. Jumped on the tractor, pulled the lever to lift the bucket..... nope.... twisted / tilted the tractor off to the left while lifting both rear wheels off the ground.... pushed the loader down quickly, resulting in the back end hitting the ground pretty hard. Thought for sure that I broke something either on the tractor or on me. Got lucky, no damage. It DID teach me a lesson.....stuff happens really fast, think about what you are doing!

 

[marhar]

I've done quite a bit of stupid things during my lifetime, but there are a few highlights.....

About 12 years old, I finished cutting the grass around the house with an old heavy Cub Cadet garden tractor. My dad had put a ramp and a double door on the side / back corner of the garage to make it easier to put the tractor away. Well, I always watched him back it in..... I thought that was a pain, so I stopped at the bottom of the ramp, got off and opened the doors..... jumped back on the tractor, put it in gear, and started up the ramp... very quickly... put it into 3rd gear instead of 1st..... popped the front end off the ground, smashed into the door jamb, and rode the tractor right up the wall until it went sideways, me going the opposite direction.
Smashed the hood, bent the mower mounts, and bent a front axel spindle.
Where it landed was in one of my mom's flower bed, messing it up quite a bit and taking out half of her blueberry bush....
I had to answer to both my dad and my mom.....

Another memorable event was a time my SIL and BIL came to our house to visit. They just picked up their brand new car the day before. When they got to our house, they parked right behind my '89 Suburban. A little while later, the wifey asked me to go to the store for something she had forgotten. I walked out to the driveway, walked right between the back of the Suburban and their new car, all the while saying to myself how nice the car was.....
Got in the Suburban, put it in reverse, and proceeded to use the bumper hitch to fold their hood into a nice "V" shape. I went inside immediately to tell them what had happened.... they thought I was kidding them.... I had to escort them outside to see the damage. Ended up costing almost $3500, and that was 35 years ago.....

My next escapade happened just a couple of years ago.... I was using my SCUT loader to pull up some fence posts. I had done a few already without incident, wrapping a chain around the post base and using the center hook on the bucket. I got lazy and didn't want to take the time to fully place the tractor in the correct location.... I said to myself "those came out easy enough... just use the hook on the side if the bucket. Jumped on the tractor, pulled the lever to lift the bucket..... nope.... twisted / tilted the tractor off to the left while lifting both rear wheels off the ground.... pushed the loader down quickly, resulting in the back end hitting the ground pretty hard. Thought for sure that I broke something either on the tractor or on me. Got lucky, no damage. It DID teach me a lesson.....stuff happens really fast, think about what you are doing!

Thank you for sharing. I am in my 50's and I still do dumb things. When I was younger I would do things without thinking; now I think about it and sometimes still do it...which is worst?

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

I think it worse when you think about it, but stubbornness prevails.....
Even when that little voice inside says -- "Don't do that"--- the end result is usually--- "you dumb a** ". I'm about 50/50 on paying attention to that voice.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Oh, let's see, last weekend I made the grave mistake of attempting to travel over my lawn.

I had to drop the box blade and drag it out of the way, as backwards was the only option.



I didn't realize that traversing my own property was such a sin, but nature was sure to remind me.

 

[bindian]

While loading on the trailer to go home, the main hose from the pump to the valve bank blew and I lost hyd. pressure. I was just about on the trailer where I chain it down, when I saw ground inside my right track. Next thing I knew, I was stepping out the slideup windshield opening on the side of the ditch. I tried to swing the boom around to stop my fall, but with low pressure there also, it just acted as an anchor. What I forgot was the brakes work off of the hyd. system. No pressure, no brakes.

I went home, got the Mahindra and kept thinking something would need to pull from the tow eye, while I lifted the boom with the FEL on the Mahindra. A dumptruck stopped by and said he could pull it after he got fuel. By then I had clearied trees for the Mahindra to position to lift the boom. I lifted the boom two feet by myself, looked at my friend and said,,,,,,,,"I'm gonna try it now". The Mahindra lifted (flipped?) the CAT back upright all by herself!

hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

 

[Cougsfan]

Once when I was in college I was walking out of a dorm to class. In the foyer there were these two gorgeous girls setting on a bench talking. As I walked by I guess I got a little distracted by looking at them. The dorm had a two sets heavy glass doors. The inside set was usually blocked open, but that day it wasn't. With my head turned sideways looking at the girls, I walked straight into that closed glass door at full speed and hit it so hard I saw stars and knocked myself dizzy. As I tried to recover my senses, pick up my books I dropped, and open the door to leave I heard one of the girls say in absolute astonishment to the other girl, "Did you see what that guy just did?!" I felt about 1 foot tall as I left.

My most recent dumb thing happened about 2 weeks ago. A bunch of friends got together to help another friend put in some fence and take care of other issues on his property. I was filling a hole in the pasture with the FEL on a tractor. Some other guys were putting in a fence. I got to watching what they were doing as I was lifting a bucket load of dirt. I just forgot what I was doing and kept lifting and curling the bucket until it it reach full height and full curl and the bucket dumped about half the full load the load of dirt backwards right on my lap! Of course everyone saw what I did and we all had a good laugh.

 

[Avenger]

Apparently loaning out equipment to parasites is not a good idea

Would You Loan It Out?

A neighbor who lives down the road from me, a neighbor who I've only met once or twice, finds out that I have a tiller. I have a Woods RT72.40 6ft tiller. Last spring, he "hired" me to till his garden plot, about a half acre. And by hired, I mean, I drove down the road about 10 minutes, tilled...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[Jstpssng]

Apparently loaning out equipment to parasites is not a good idea

Would You Loan It Out?

A neighbor who lives down the road from me, a neighbor who I've only met once or twice, finds out that I have a tiller. I have a Woods RT72.40 6ft tiller. Last spring, he "hired" me to till his garden plot, about a half acre. And by hired, I mean, I drove down the road about 10 minutes, tilled...

www.tractorbynet.com

I was thinking about that very thread while reading this one!

 

[newbury]

I loaned it out.