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

   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #31  
Another one of the many dumb things was back decades ago. The wife was helping me turn larger branches into firewood. Since I had taken "Time and Motion" classes in school that teach you how to engineer repetitive tasks more efficiently, we had a rhythm of she would pick up and hold while I kicked aside the recently cut wood and prepped for the next cut.

That's pick, kick, lift and cut; pick, kick, lift and cut; pick, kick lift and cut. Unfortunately, one was pick, kick, cut and oops. We got the rhythm out of order and I nicked her little finger with the tip of the chainsaw. It was just a nick and all was good. :)


Off to an old rural doc in a nearby town and when he asked my passive wife how it happened, she explained that "my husband cut me with a chainsaw". Whoa.

After the explanation, we all has a good laugh, no stitches were needed and I figured we best keep our chores gender-specific, She keeps the hearth and home and I do the rough things and maintenance . So far, it's working.


EDIT--wife told me she got two stitches.
 
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   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #32  
hauled a 35' telephone pole in a 12' trailer. Just a bit of trailer sway, but I made it home.
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #33  
Dumbest thing ever done with compact tractor: attempting to pull t-posts from ground with rear implement mounts. Pulled tractor front end off ground, snapped off a tail light. Did NOT get the post out of the ground. Moral: pull posts by hand or dig around them before trying to pull
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #34  
oh jesus -- am in my mid 50s -- have used tractors since I was about 6 and have done plenty of stupid things -- thank goodness nobody has been hurt or vehicles / property ruined -- 2 things come immediately to mind -- once -- clipped an electric meter (attached to my barn) with my bucket -- luckily no sparks or anything -- scariest thing was when I got caught between my backhoe and cabbed tractor -- tolerances for getting the backhoe hooked up were insanely tight -- luckily got out with only minor scratches; sold my backhoe the next week back to the dealer. Ended up (and I know I am lucky to afford this) buying a used excavator -- which brings me to stupid thing #3 ... felled tree took out windshield -- thank god for safety glass and Kubota insurance - beside having a "wet seat" moment -- only cost was Kubota deductible.

reminds me of the silly axiom -- only people that don't have chainsaw accidents are people that don't use chainsaws....
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #35  
Got two; First one I stupidly tried mowing a low marshy area too early in the spring and got my mower stuck. Got my tractor stuck trying to pull out the mower. Got my truck stuck trying to pull out the tractor. Got my buddies 4wd wrecker stuck trying to pull out my truck. Everything froze in the ground overnight. Took my neighbors dozer and a whole lot of chain to pull everything out and made a huge mess. second one I forgot to latch my trailer to the hitch, and when pulling my tractor onto the trailer put a huge dent in the tailgate of my fairly new truck.
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #36  
On the more comical / harmless side, we have one of these metal pole and canvas / small hoop barn-like garages as a lightweight storage shed. First year with the new (compact) tractor, I was not intending to use it during that winter so thought I'd park it inside and let it hibernate there until spring.

When driving through the doorway, I had to duck in the driver's seat to make it through. I did not cotton on that if my head, held normally, is too high to pass, the same might be true for the ROPS and backhoe behind me. Keeping carefully crouched behind the steering wheel, I eventually noticed that somehow the tractor wasn't moving. At least relative to the garage/shed top. But both tractor and garage were moving relative to the ground. It turns out I pulled out the anchors and dragged it -- undamaged -- about 6 feet.

My laughing wife helped me reanchor it at the new location and bend a few poles back to the originally intended angles.
 
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   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #37  
When trying to get the loader back on my bx somehow the attachment points on loader fell down below the attachment points on the tractor. Took about 45 minutes to get it back on. Not sure how that happened other that I was on asphalt with slight hill and usually put it back on on level ground concrete.
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #38  
Two things come to mind:

I was mowing with a finsh mower and my old 8n. I like mowing so I was having a good time, as this was a volunteer project, just me the tractor/mower and a nice early morning, helping out.
I was doing just fine when I discovered that one of the 3 blades had come off,
I shut off the PTO and discovered the bolt and blade were just gone.
I had a spare, so drove home and bolted on the new one and finished up.
It turns out that the blade had indeed come off and buried itself in the side of the bank of the near by city road, only 6 inches from the top. Could have struck a car, or hurt someone.
Same field where I was mowing on a Sunday with my brand new work phone in my pocket..never found that phone. Had to find a store that sold that exact phone and get them to replace it on the account before work Monday morning. Someone that I told asked if I called the phone to find it. When I explained it was on vibrate, he asked if I called it and looked for the grass to wiggle!
Funny man!

The other time was coming home from work. I used to threaten to quit and get a job mowing on the side of the highway. When I see these guys in the enclosed cabs just mowing and making things look good, I envy what they get to do. Well, that particular evening, I looked over and sure enough guy was mowing a head high bank of grass, but not moving. As we got closer, you could see that he was high centered over a concrete drainage ditch that ran from the highway to the area below. The rear wheel was just lazily spinning and he was not going anywhere. I knew right then and there, that would happen to me, and I never threatened to quit again.
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #39  
Sold them
2 Farmall H's, 1 Farmall A and a Farmall Cub
 
   / What is the dumbest thing you have done with your equipment ? #40  
Use my equipment for free, cost me more than anything! Let no good deed go unpunished. CJ
 
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