Dumbest Thing you have done with your tractor

[AlanB]

Man,,,, Dumbest.... There are so many.......


Hmmmmm,, just got tractor, lecture your wife about being sure to never run it out of fuel, do not have manual yet to show how to bleed it, moving a large dirt / rock pile with a big mud puddle in front of it. You grab a big bite of the pile, and start lifting, the front loader is pushing the front tires down into the soft mud, the loader arms get just above the hood, the front tires are over half way under water, and you learn that your tractor runs out of fuel in this attitude with 1/4 tank showing on the gauge....

Uhhhh,,,, honey, could you bring up 5 gallons of diesel, and the hand tool box, and a flash light and uh,,,, Not be too mad?

The other real scary one,,,, I have to stop lecturing the wife I guess..... You go out and see the wife operating without seat belt with Rops up... Don't do that baby...... Wife goes out, and drive's back in with the big truck full of tree's, Tractor is in the way on the drive way..... So,,, being helpfull, I jump up on the tractor and am just going to back it off the driveway, the trailer is hanging out into the road, so I am rushing, fire up the tractor (Naahhhhh,,, No seat belt) Drop it into first (I thought) push reverse (Hydro tractor) and start rolling backwards, turn off the driveway, backing down this mild hill, let up on the hydro pedal,,,,,, and I just keep going,,,, Crap,,, panic sets in as I try and figure out what the heck I have done..... Finally remember this thing has brakes as well as drive and get stopped with the PHD hanging over a ditch the size of my rear wheels.... Either I did not actually put it in gear and it just rolled backwards, or, it popped back out of first as I did not get it engaged well.

I need to stop telling the wife to be safe.

 

[JimR]

I don't know where the heck to start on that one. Rolled it over maybe. Latched onto my buddies dumpster with the bucket and put the rear end two feet off the ground. Pulled a wheelie with it by hooking onto a tree at too high a point on the 3ph instead of the trailer hitch. Drove on two wheels on one side going down a steep hill (change of undies) dang near lost it on that one. Dropped a few small dead trees on the roof (steel) when knocking them over. I'm embarrassed now, no more.

 

[Henro]

I need to stop telling the wife to be safe.

Or maybe start practicing what you preach! (As do I)

One of mine was forgetting I had the stick of my backhoe raised horizontal because I had been washing the tractor (it was quite new at the time), and as I was backing it up towards the house to park it, the bucket pushed in through a 4x6 window...

 

[roermo]

good morning all, I am the guy that hit the garage door 3 times. I notice that someone asked how many more times till I have it down pat. Well we will never know, I am breaking ground for a new 3 car garage one will have a 8 or 10 ft door. Should take care of the romps hitting door in the furture unless I drive into the wrong stall.

Roger

 

[Dmace]

After chopping down a large tree (24"+/- oak), I cut it into 8' sections to pile up and plane down to lumber. The FEL could not lift the sections and some branch stubs would not allow it to roll. So I turned the tractor around to see if I could pick it up with the backhoe. It curled the tree sections right into the bucket and against the boom and lifted it with no problem. I figured I could just leave it on there and drive across the yard to unload it. As soon as I picked up the outriggers, the tractor did a wheelie with the front wheels about 1' off the ground and the BH subframe resting on the ground. I put down the outriggers and lowered the tree to the ground. Lesson Learned !

I ended up dragging them one-by-one with the tractor.

 

[zcollins]

Still learing how close I can get to the fence and other objects and still leave them intact as I pass. Turning with a RC or a FM attached, I found you need a little more room then without the attachments. I have taken out fence posts, a leg for our above ground pool (wife is still mad about that.

 

[speedbump]

Just traded my JD 4720 for a 4520 with cab. The tractor is used mostly to mow 12 rows of Date Palm trees on 4 acres. The old deck was 6' which made me take two swipes down each row to get the width of the row cut. The new tractor now has a new Bush hog 8' pull mower. Who was it who said getting used to how close you can get to things. First day with new mower, start out on the side with the privacy fence held up with 4 X 4's.

Did you know an eight foot deck can take a 4 X 4 in half like it was a toothpick? Amazing, I tend to look back a bit more now when going down the fence side.

bob...

 

[rswyan]

Trying to drive into the garage with the rops up... twice.

Trying to drive into the garage with ROPS up .... way more than just twice.

Did it work any better the second time?
They say pratice makes perfect.

Trust me, it doesn't.

And yeah, I went with 10' high doors in the new polebarn.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Does submersing in 10' of water count?

Yeah. That counts.

Story?

Does it still run?

 

[knute_m]

This is more like the dumbest thing I ever did to a tractor. Twas when I was a young and foolish teenager about 40 years ago.

I bought a late 1940s Allis-Chalmers C to fix up. It mostly needed paint and decals. It ran pretty good when I got it.

This was before electric start -- had to crank it from the front. When it was cold, it was a little sluggish. It also had a nasty habit of kicking back and whacking me (growing up on a farm, I at least knew not to wrap my hand and thumb around the crank). But, a shot of ether would get her started right up. Well, over the winter I gave it way too many shots of ether. By springtime she wouldn't start anymore.

It's amazing how a little ether can bend all the valve stems.

I guess it was a good lesson.

Knute