freak windstorm / tractor damage

Soundguy · Mar 8, 2006

Well sometime between me leaving in the am and returning in the late pm to/from work.. we musta had a freak windstorm come up. I have (2) 20' x 40' tube frame tarp covers for my big tractors.. the 5000 and 7610s, and mower.. etc. Also keep a small painball vehicle out there. Wind picked up one canopy and layed ontop of the other.. blew small stuff around in the yard.. bent about 7 poles on the canopies.. etc. On one canopy I had larger pipes sunk in the ground as sleaves for the frame, and had them screwed in.. that canopy stayed.. however it was shielded by the other canopy... that canopy had t-posts in the ground at each leg, and band clamps around the legs and posts.. and a screw holding it together. Actuall ypulle dthose out!!!

Spent from 2pm till 7pm getting the poles unbent and R&R'd. had to make some braces from thin angle iron .. what a pain... Looks kinda .. um.. farmy... but oh well.. I don't feel like shelling out for 20-30 poles to fix it this time of the month.

Decided to try my 500w/1000w inverter using my truck battery , to power my black and decker drill/ screwgun.. way easier than toting the genny out into the pasture... worked fine.. I'm pooped.

One pipe nicked the side of the headlamp on my 5000... I got lucky!!

Soundguy

IslandTractor · Mar 8, 2006

Bummer dude. Sounds like you have it under control though. Doesn't sound like any serious tractor damage either.

That Mother Nature certainly causes a lot of problems for you Floridians.

EddieWalker · Mar 9, 2006

Interesting, but pics would have been worth a thousand words.

We have 70 mph gusts forecast for tonight and in the morning. Can't do anything about it but see what happens and fix it.

Eddie

LarryD · Mar 9, 2006

Is this windstorm across the country? We've had 50+ winds for most of the day, even took out a concrete floating bridge (4 lanes) across Lake Washington.

Soundguy · Mar 9, 2006

During all the hurricanes we have, I go pull the tarps down. i remember last year ( I live in florida) that one hurricane we had, was so bad, that even with the tarps down, the wind coming across the pasture was pushing the bare tube frames around due tot he wind hititng the poles.. looked weird..

Soundguy

buckle97 · Mar 9, 2006

<font color="blue"> We have 70 mph gusts forecast for tonight and in the morning. Can't do anything about it but see what happens and fix it. </font>

The forecast is calling for hurricane force winds in Mississippi today. I'm like you, just wait until it's over and fix the damage.

Lawrence

hudr · Mar 9, 2006

We had quite a bit of wind last night between 2AM and 4AM. Saw a few barns upside down when I left out after daylight. Luckily, we have no apparent damage, just have to gather up some loose stuff that had been lying about.

Farmwithjunk · Mar 12, 2006

A couple winter's ago, I decided to put up one of those "tents". It was covering my 2440, where it sat ready to deal with snow on the driveway. I was using the barn space where it normally stayed to rebuild an old manure spreader.

One night it started raining about bed time. I woke up at 4 AM to the sounds of something going on in the driveway. The temps dropped to the mid 20's, and the rain turned to ice first, then a heavy snow. It collapsed the tent, bending most of the poles. The canvas top was pinned to the tractor, and then covered with 2" of ice. It bent the tent sideways, leaning against my pick-up. The temps dropped even further, reaching a low near 10 degrees.

I needed my truck to get to work. I needed the tractor to get the drive cleared. All this required busting ice off the canvas, hacksawing the pipe frame apart, then dragging it all off the driveway.

After that, the manure spreader spent the rest of the winter outside.

Still have a big scrape on the left rear corner of my truck bed from that fiasco.