Tough days afield? Share stories & pics.

   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #1  

Hay Dude

Super Star Member
Joined
Aug 28, 2012
Messages
16,229
Location
3 miles from where the gun was discarded
Tractor
Challenger MT655E, Massey Ferguson 7495, Challenger MT535B, Krone 4x4 XC baler, Kubota F3680 & ZD331 Ram 5500 Cummins 4x4, IH 7500 4x4 dump truck, Kaufman 35’ tandem 19 ton trailer, John Deere CX-15
Traveling on a local winding 2 lane road. Inside lane has sheer rock and trees, outside lane has a very close guardrail and a 10’ tumble down into a swamp. No shoulder on either side. There’s just nowhere to go.

While pulling my Hesston square baler behind my Massey 7495 on the inside lane, rock outcroppings on my right, you guessed it, here comes a dope over the double yellow lines, leaving me with 2 choices
1. Hit the drivers side of the car and possibly kill the driver
2. Eat rock outcroppings with baler

I chose 2.
Surprisingly, the baler steel and sheetmetal survived. The right side tire? Not so lucky.
The sidewall was ripped off, bigly.
Immediately slowed down and lost all air pressure. I was on the rim doing 2MPH with a line of angry drivers stuck behind me.
Luckily I hobbled off the road into one of my customers fields.

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On the last 100’ of pavement, I bent the rim in 3 spots. The tire was completely trashed.

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I ripped the 3 lines of twine down to the needles and broke off a spring assisting the trip arm.

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The baler has (2) 2000 lb bales in the chamber & chute. I estimated weight to be about 24,000lbs. This was just the beginning. The right side of the baler was bottomed out in a soft rain soaked field.

The first attempts to jack up the baler didn’t go so well. On soft ground, jacks don’t work so well :/

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After hours and 3 jacks and a lot of blocking & cribbing, we finally got her up high enough to remove the tire. We probably broke every safety rule there is to lift the 12 ton baler out of the mud.

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This morning we got back on it with 2 new BKT tires ($3200) and a “home repaired” rim. We also installed a Michelin tube in the tire with the bent rim.

The jack could not go any higher and we couldn’t quite fit the tire onto the studs.
We had to put lug nuts on the top 2 studs and draw the rim on, one stud at a time. Not what I like to do, but we didn’t strip any studs and it worked.

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At last we got the straightened out rim and the tire bolted down. The old girl got some new shoes and $4,000 later will roar once again.

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The accident scared the crap out of me, but the old tires were on their way out and replacement was planned this winter. The bent rim and the extra cost & labor to jack the baler out of the mud was an unpleasant and unexpected extra expense in an already rough year with doubling of fuel & parts prices.

Luckily nobody was hurt. I hope the driver that left me no choice has a nice life knowing he never stopped to help or offer to pay for the damage it caused.

Let’s Go Bale!

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   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #2  
Glad there was no major damage and yes amazing how little respect people have for larger vehicles and farm equipment.
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #3  
Dude-
You did the right thing. Sorry you got screwed over by it but you won't have any long term legal or emotional problems associated with putting 10-15 tons of farm equipment on some worthless pukes chest.
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #4  
I've had 2 close calls like that- one hauling liquid manure with a Case 8920 and a Houle 30k tank FULL and got passed on a double blind curve coming out of Chazy, NY. Idiot was on his way to the same farm I was wokring at and I was stunned to see his car there when i got back. Wanted to run over the car and do some free dentistry work bc he knew better.
2nd was with my 6410 and Moco coming back from field some old man was standing in the road staring at his mailbox. Sure enough another double blind hill and curve with a car coming over top. Locked up tires on 6410. Old dude staring at me like I was crazy, still in middle of road. He was not senile, just stupid.
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #5  
Think about filing a police report if you haven't already.
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics.
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Think about filing a police report if you haven't already.
I’m too busy to get those clowns involved lol
But that sob should be in jail…..
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #7  
Oh wow, good to see you instinctively knew how to react; situations like this are an absolute fothermucker.

That said, your baler is a beast! The square balers around here are absolutely tiny in comparison to that giant, it might actually be too big for the fields here. 😂

Do you get a lot of use out of that front 3 point?
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics.
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Oh wow, good to see you instinctively knew how to react; situations like this are an absolute fothermucker.

That said, your baler is a beast! The square balers around here are absolutely tiny in comparison to that giant, it might actually be too big for the fields here. 😂

Do you get a lot of use out of that front 3 point?

And thats the small one. The bigger one is about 50% longer. and 2x heavier.


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Yes, I use it for my Pottinger front mounted hay mower.

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   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics. #9  
I believe I would like that front mounted cutter, no looking constantly in mirrors and no sore neck from looking backwards.
 
   / Tough days afield? Share stories & pics.
  • Thread Starter
#10  
I believe I would like that front mounted cutter, no looking constantly in mirrors and no sore neck from looking backwards.
My very reasons as well. I really like it, but it’s a little more easily damaged with all the weight of the tractor behind it and no tractor tires to “feel” for anything in the fields first before mower hits.
They are popular in my area for production hay farming.
 
 
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