Dumbest Thing you have done with your tractor

[gizmo]

My first tractor was a JD 850 without a FEL. It was in really good shape with just a couple dings on the fenders. The front sheet metal was perfect. I noticed that a pine tree had fallen over at the back of my property and the trunk had broken off about 4 feet above the ground, but the tree was still "laying" on the stump. My thought was that I would push the tree off the stump and drag it out to the fire pit. I nudged it with the tractor without success. I nudged it harder; no go. I backed up, got a little run go, and hit the tree trunk right across the head lights. The tree did not move and I completely caved in the front of the tractor. The head lights also got wiped out. I sat there a couple minutes just wondering how I could have done something that stupid. New hood metal and various components ended up costing me nearly $1000.

 

[Timber]

Greatest thread ever

 

[ToddW]

You guys should write a book, outstanding!! My boneheaded mistakes aren't even in the same league

/Todd

 

[rpeter]

I was the one that started this thread and I do admit it has made me feel better........Not smarter, I just feel better.

 

[patrick_g]

I surely know better but... Yesterday on Labor day, I labored. Among other things I moved about 15-18 tons of gravel with the FEL. I get impatient and try to work as fast as possible with dull repetitive tasks. Fill the bucket, drive to lovcation 2, spread the gravel, back drag it a bit, drive back to pile and refil the bucket, repeat ad infinitum.

I don't like to dribble gravel along the way so when I fill the bucket I raise it substantially and jerk it back and forth with the joy stick to level it in the bucket and get rid of excess that would likely dribble along the way at every small bump. So I am lowering the bucket while simultaneously backing with the sheels cramped all the way to lock, expecting to punch the hydro to the max foreward while straightening the wheel (yeah I have the coordination to do several things at the same time.) As the sheels straightend a bit I'm, sliding on the wet grass (working in the rain.) Well this one time I caught a bit of traction as I straightend the wheel and punched the hydro and sliding was *** nearly converted to rolling over sideways.

I was lucky that I always keep my hand on the FEL joysitck if the tractor is in motion (self defense) and was able to immediately put the FEL bucket into free fall (faster than powering it down with the hydraulics) and cut the wheel again sharply to let the front tires roll instead of trying to slide and develop traction to "trip" the tractor and cause a roll over.

Very high pucker factor and a first for me. I have had the Kubota on every possible two wheel combination there is multiple times but never from sliding sideways and then catching a bit of traction. I do back up aggressively while turning and punch the hyudro forward but never with a high bucket (that would be entirely stupid.) The wet grass caused me to slide and after 5-8 trips and repetitions of sliding sideways on the wet grass got a tad too confident and a tad too lax about getting the bucket lower faster ahead of part of the rest of what was happening.

I am a more cautious citizen now. Maybe not a lot but hopefully enough. Low bucket before turning or getting on a side slope are now ABSOLUTE RULES no matter how much of a hurry I'm in or how boring staying on 4 wheels could get.

A roll over with a cab tractor is a lot less fun and a lot more expensive than with a ROPS.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am very strict with myself as regards automotive seat belts and only recently started to get lax as regards the seat belt in the tractor. Yet another new rule: Seat belt fastened prior to setting the tractor in motion.

Stay safe,

Pat

 

[higgy]

Well, it was not my tractor, although it coudl have been.

I backed my dads car into my moms truck while my daughter was sitting next to me.

Now, let me tell you, there is a difference the way that the genders react to a situation like this.

I was in the dog house with the girls for a good week or two, dad, he brought me a beer and a smile.

 

[DmansPadge]

My only substantial mistake on a tractor happened about 2 years ago. I was wanting to take out a small tree at the front of my property.... and of coarse... close to power lines. I had my little Kubota w/FEL to help shove it over. I got my chainsaw and notched the tree so I could lay it over. First try... nothing more than making the tree sway with the tractor. Cut a little deeper and tried again... still nothing. So I cut the notch even deeper.... a little too deep. There was very little material left holding the tree together and this time when I shoved with the 'Bota... instead of laying over it broke loose at the bottom. Here it came in the only direction I didn't want it to. I pulled the kill cable on the tractor and bailed off. The tree grazed the power lines causing a fuse at the end of the road to blow. No damage to the tractor or me but the tree was still being supported by a cable TV line and the bottom of the tree was up against the FEL. Since I was afraid to touch anything until the lineman got there.... everyone who came past knew exactly what I did. The neighbors lost power for about an hour and gave me a hard time for longer than that.

 

[Pooh_Bear]

One thing that I keep forgetting,
is that when I have an implement on the back,
when I turn one way, the implement goes the other way.

Friday I took out a whole section of fence when I caught it with the grader blade.
Broke everyone of the insulators on that strand of fence.
And of course it pulled it loose from the other end.
Then end that was connected to the fence charger was still connected.
It's a wonder I didn't get zapped real bad.
I fenced the cows out of that part for the weekend and just got it fixed today.

Pooh Bear
(yeah, I got fluff for brains)

 

[Neophyte]

Last week I was taking the loader off my B7800. I got flustered (the boss was talking to me) and managed to drop the crossbar of the loader across the hood of the tractor making a big crease in the hood. It was one of the dumbest things I have ever done.

When I was first looking at tractors a few years back, I went to a Kubota dealer to look at B7800/B2910s. The salesman came out and I asked to see the loader removal. He proceeded to drop the crossbar right across the hood. He went to get another salesman who was thoroughly unimpressed by what he did. The other salesman tried to recover it and made it even worse. He finally declared that something was wrong with this loader and moved onto the next tractor. The other salesman then proceeded to drop the crossbar across the hood on the second tractor. Without saying a word, he walked away and came back with a mechanic who proceeded to remove the loader for him. Needless to say, I was turned off by the loader removal process on these models.

Once I was using a Case 580K backhoe to load crushed stone into a wheelbarrow. I was keeping the bucket very close to the wheelbarrow to reduce the dump height of the stone. As I was rolling the bucket back to dump the stone, I didn't realize that my foot was resting a little too hard on the extend-a-hoe pedal. By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late. Result ... a low rider wheelbarrow.

I have already had some pretty interesting 2 wheel combinations on my 3320. One sure fire way to get a tractor to do an endo ... quickly pull away from a tree stump while forgetting the chain on the bucket is still attached to the stump.

 

[mark4Jesus]

Last year I had a FEL installed on the Kubota that I used to have. I was bush hoggin' my Dad's field and learned the hard way that one must turn a little sooner when the FEL is sticking out front. I caught the end of the bucket on the tree and came to an immediate stop. This brought about the first time that I took the loader off, so I could straighten it out on the frame. It slipped on the mount, nothing bent.
Well guess what? It takes me at least twice to learn something. About a month later, after telling myself that it would not a happen again, BAM! At least this time it was a different tree!