Dumbest Thing you have done with your tractor

[Wildbill34]

Not a tractor thing, but....
Many years ago I was on my four wheeler, when up ahead, I noticed a large black snake sunning itself on the packed limestone road. Disliking snakes intensely, I ran over it at full throttle,(about 45 mph) quickly turning to look back...... NO SNAKE!! Imagining it wrapped up in my four wheeler, I "abandoned ship", thinking I would jump off and hit the ground running; WRONG!!!! After flipping head over heels for about ten minutes, I finally came to a stop. Lying there in pain, thinking it couldn't be any worse, two of my beer drinking buddies drive up in tears, yes, they were behind me, and saw the whole thing.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all the stories and mishaps in this thread. But I have to admit, I just couldn't stop laughing after reading the one above.

But I do have a few stories. I will tell you one. I was in the garage explaining to my wife why you always make sure the bucket is all the way down when you are done with the tractor to make sure no one runs into it. All proud of myself that I explained some safety features to her I proceeded to turn around to put the grease gun away and coco butted the bucket because I forgot to let it down after greasing the zerks! Dang near knocked myself out..... She still laughs to this day over that and says bucket saftey demonstration was well done and appeared and sounded real!

 

[Qapla]

I am not sure where to start. I have done the wheelie thing while trying to pull out some stumps. I have gotten the tractor stuck all the way to the axles (ever try pulling out a tractor?) I have done some other dumb things, but here are the two worse ...

1) I was trying to unload our Ford 1900 with a bush hog attached. Now, keep in mind that this mower is actually too heavy for this particular tractor. When you are mowing, the front wheels keep bouncing off the ground.

While backing down the ramps, the tractor started to go a little fast. I hit the brakes. I forgot that only the left brake worked. The front end came up, the tractor swung to the right and the whole thing came down half-on and half-off the ramps and the back of the trailer. Had to call my Father-in-law to come with a jack and another vehicle. It took a while, but we got it unloaded without damaging anything.

2) More than 30 years ago, I was digging with our backhoe. I had dug a rather large whole. After moving the dirt pile, I started digging the whole even larger. Now keep in mind that the whole was as deep as the hoe would dig.

I wasn't paying enough attention when I resumed digging. I dug a little too close to the back of the hoe. I turned around to move the tractor forward. As I lifted the front bucket, the dirt gave way from behind the machine. The whole tractor began a slow backwards decent into the hole. This backhoe was an old Case from the 50's and did not have a roll bar or any other such safety device.

I ended up riding it all the way down backwards. It came to rest just short of vertical. That was scary!

 

[patrick_g]

Some great stories being told here.

YUP!!

I have a little Bobcat seat time. One time I rented a Bobcat with a 500 lb hammer chisel on the front. My excavation contractor built me a ramp down into the basement excavation so I could square up the corners that he couldn't do with his big 4 ft bucket track hoe. The ramp was a tad steep. The only thing that kept me from rolling down it like a bowling ball was the hammer chisel acting like a prop. Still I nearly went over anyway. Amusing for the track hoe operator and a tense moment for me.

Had I exercised good sense I would have refused to go down that steep of a ramp and had him fix it before I tried to roll down it instead of after.

Pat

 

[Steve_Miller]

Not a tractor story but humorous. A lot of years ago my neighbor had an old Olds Cutlass with a sticky choke, the thing would idle so high you would have to drive with your foot on the brake out our icy driveway. She complained and complained and finally he says to her one day snarky like, let me show you how to drive, he jumps in, well he got to the first turn about a hundred feet out and plunks her into an eight inch spruce. I thought I was going to bring my guts up as I laughed so hard. He got the choke fixed the next day. I still remind him of that one now and again.

Steve

 

[NH-Rob]

When I was much younger and still in school we used a old case wheel loader to clean one of our barns in the winter. It was a snug fit in the barn. I made one pass part way down through the barn and pulled the lever to lift the loader and started to back up. I am looking back watching where I am going when I hear a bunch of crashing going on. I look ahead and the loader bucket is up in the rafters. I forgot the lever locks in. I think I took out three rafters before I got the old girl stopped.
On a realy cold weekend morning my dad called me to come help him at the farm. I get there and find the overhead door at end of the barn is all nocked down. He said it was not quite all the way up and the exhaust stack on the ford 9700 caught it on the way through (tractor had a arodynamicly tilted exhaust stack from then on). Boy does the wind blow on that end of the barn, I think my hands are still cold.
Rob

 

[FxdGrMind]

I haven't owned my tractor long (2 1/2 years) but I've had some scares... which have become Memorable. This thread is full of laughs and I have enjoyed them all. great thread!

It was my first year, new tractor, new rear blade, Brush hog and with the FEL so much to do and get done I was just excited to use the poor girl.

I took the day off, the neighbors all went to work, I took the opportunity to.... Manage the Community road.... without any neighborly "Oversight"....

started with the chain saw, trimmed up some encroaching trees... as in Felled across the road, limed up, segmented and hauled off to the pile... Went Well..
Hmmm what next?? Road grading.. Yup... needs done. Ok 2 hrs and smooth as a baby's bottom.... Hmm Looks like the grass on the sides could use a shave.... Yup swap rear blade for the BH.

Now it's 3pm... some neighbors are headed home and picking up kids from school along the way.

I'm headed up the hill and make the first pass up and down. WOW.. the first neighbor says as they drive by.... "LOOKS GREAT!!".. I get all happy and full of myself for doing a great job... so I decide I'll make another pass up and down a little wider so that it looks "BETTER".....

Headed up the hill, I'm getting into the ditch quite deep and then it happened.... I tried as quickly as I could to turn and get back to the road... but gravity had already taken hold.... down I slid to the bottom of the ditch.
How deep you ask... well I could stand on the road and my feet were above the ROPS....
I got off and she was wedged between the trees growing up on the bank and the length of the tractor, FEL and BH would not permit the tractor to make a turn .

I got the 4x4 truck out and a tow strap... had the truck pulled tight on the strap and then go to the tractor and try and dig out with 4wheels and the FEL working in that direction.... all for not. Had to drop off the BH from the 3pt, rescue the tractor with the truck then put the Rear blade back on the tractor so I could have the counter weight to lift the BH chained to the FEL out of the ditch....

Now the all the neighbor kids are home... the neighbors standing around watching (no none are farmers most are CPA's and such) and not saying much... but I think they had a real laugh.

My pride is long gone, all I can do is salvage my tractor and implements from the ditch and go home with my tail between my legs.

To this day I stay "WELL away" from that part of the ditch when mowing!

Lesson learned!

 

[Cat_Driver]

I brought home a bran spanking new Kubota with HST tranny and decided to burn an enormous pile of cut trees and brush.

The flames were about 20-30 ft in the air and HOT as I was pushing more cutting into the fire with the bucket. As I drove into the fire pushing the pile of brush and as I was into the burning pile - the tractor stalled.

The tractor now was only 30 minutes old I didn't even know how to properly start the tractor. As the tires are about to melt from hot coals and I can hardy stand the heat behind the windshield, I had to decide, jump odd and let her burn or keep a cool head and try and start her.

Well it started and I got the heck out and decided that was it for shoving wood into a burning fire.

 

[eepete]

Looks like this is an ongoing "hall of shame", so I'll post something. I used (or mis-used) Kubota B21 backhoe to corral some big hay bails, Got into unfamiliar ground with high grass. Tractor slide backwards, tipped. Hay bail curled up in the backhoe made for a slow motion fall. After uprighting, changed all fluids and battery, cleaned, and it's been going great ever since. Slow fall and sturdy tractor compensated for stupid operator. Upside is I'm too slope conscience these days (if there is such a thing).
The 2nd pix here is something I saw at a house being demoed, and a picture is worth 1K words.
I notice no pix in this thread, hope I'm not breaking some unwritten rule here...
- pete

 

[FxdGrMind]

Cameras were confiscated in my humiliation..... No evidence... no problem..

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I think I'm going to start a thread called "You know you're a TBNer if..."

One of the entries will be something like "you run for the camera at the first sign of a tractor mishap."