OP
deepNdirt
Veteran Member
It is clear to me that having a 4x4 tractor along with a FEL is the ultimate tractor to have:thumbsup: and my next tractor will likely have 4wd. 
I might have told this story before, but in case I haven't I really must.... as many of you know I am a housing contractor ( Interior Trim & remodeling ) or at least was.... well being in this field of business for 35+ years working along side of other contractors, ( landscapers, trenching,septic system installs etc,etc, ) I see it all and how well they handle their equipment, to say the least they know what their doing,... this subject has brought up a memory I have of an old black man I once knew back in the 80's .
I would guess his age to have been mid to late 60's , His job was to dig field lines for septic tank system's,
Here in Georgia the builders seem to build houses in what we called Cliffs, Houses with back yards that dropped off within 10ft of the house. We called these homes "Cliff hangers" 70-80 ft high in the back and several hundred feet down on a extreme steep slope...., well ya'll probably have guess by now and know where I'm going with the story..... This black man would use an old beat-up yellow Case backhoe/loader tractor ( 2wd ) to dig up-n-down /back-n-across the hillside of these properties, One after another day after day, and never needed the assistance of 4 wd. of course he rarely ever used rear-wd either because most of the time he would move his tractor about with only the FEL and Backhoe buckets, truly an amazing person to watch at work,:thumbsup: In fact I can also remember one time when a guy was attempting to landscape the short level area on at the rear of one the homes with a bobcat when the ground give way and flipped / rolled the bobcat down the steep hillside,........ While everyone was standing around trying to figure out how they were going to get the bobcat back up on it's wheels and out of the 300 ft gorge, The old black man got on his tractor and worked his way down within 50 ft of the bobcat, hooked a cable to it pulled the bobcat back over on it's wheels, Only stopping long enough to let the driver back into the bobcat to see if it would startup, fortunately the bobcat did start , The Bobcat driver made several attempts to drive it out but could not, the front end would lift up, he tried to drive it backwards up but still no success, It took the black man pulling with only his backhoe and FEL slowly working his way back up the hill moving only a few ft at a time with the bobcat in tow, there came a point when he could go no further, However the old man did manage to get it about half way up the hill where they could link enough chain together to pull it the rest of the way with a Bulldozer, It was a suspensful and truely amazing sight to watch, I can only think how much easier the old man could of had it if he had a modern day 4wd tractor ....... about 6 months later on into the middle of the next year, it was a hot mid 80's summer we found the Old black man laying feet up on a short foundation wall where he had set down to take a rest and apperantly fell over dead from having a heat stroke, I remember hearing the builders say, how surprized they were that he risk his life every day doing what he did and didn't kill himself while doing it, but yet lay over and died from having a heat stroke, they went on to say they will never find another person who could do what he could do, ......
I might have told this story before, but in case I haven't I really must
.... as many of you know I am a housing contractor ( Interior Trim & remodeling ) or at least was.... well being in this field of business for 35+ years working along side of other contractors, ( landscapers, trenching,septic system installs etc,etc, ) I see it all and how well they handle their equipment, to say the least they know what their doing,... this subject has brought up a memory I have of an old black man I once knew back in the 80's .I would guess his age to have been mid to late 60's , His job was to dig field lines for septic tank system's,
Here in Georgia the builders seem to build houses in what we called Cliffs, Houses with back yards that dropped off within 10ft of the house. We called these homes "Cliff hangers" 70-80 ft high in the back and several hundred feet down on a extreme steep slope...., well ya'll probably have guess by now and know where I'm going with the story..... This black man would use an old beat-up yellow Case backhoe/loader tractor ( 2wd ) to dig up-n-down /back-n-across the hillside of these properties, One after another day after day, and never needed the assistance of 4 wd. of course he rarely ever used rear-wd either because most of the time he would move his tractor about with only the FEL and Backhoe buckets, truly an amazing person to watch at work,:thumbsup: In fact I can also remember one time when a guy was attempting to landscape the short level area on at the rear of one the homes with a bobcat when the ground give way and flipped / rolled the bobcat down the steep hillside,........ While everyone was standing around trying to figure out how they were going to get the bobcat back up on it's wheels and out of the 300 ft gorge, The old black man got on his tractor and worked his way down within 50 ft of the bobcat, hooked a cable to it pulled the bobcat back over on it's wheels, Only stopping long enough to let the driver back into the bobcat to see if it would startup, fortunately the bobcat did start , The Bobcat driver made several attempts to drive it out but could not, the front end would lift up, he tried to drive it backwards up but still no success, It took the black man pulling with only his backhoe and FEL slowly working his way back up the hill moving only a few ft at a time with the bobcat in tow, there came a point when he could go no further, However the old man did manage to get it about half way up the hill where they could link enough chain together to pull it the rest of the way with a Bulldozer, It was a suspensful and truely amazing sight to watch, I can only think how much easier the old man could of had it if he had a modern day 4wd tractor
....... about 6 months later on into the middle of the next year, it was a hot mid 80's summer we found the Old black man laying feet up on a short foundation wall where he had set down to take a rest and apperantly fell over dead from having a heat stroke, I remember hearing the builders say, how surprized they were that he risk his life every day doing what he did and didn't kill himself while doing it, but yet lay over and died from having a heat stroke, they went on to say they will never find another person who could do what he could do, ......
