Human error. Lets help others deal with the pain of their mistakes by listing our.

[xzcVAbc5]

The two tractor related ones I can think of:

1)JD2440 has adjustable wheel spacing for row crops. The axle is a little proud of the outside of the tire. I was trying to box blade close to my garage and ended up tearing the corner tin piece. It's an easy fix, but I haven't done it yet. This story two summers ago.

2)JD2440 (same tractor above) last year I was moving gravel around near the building with the bucket. When I was backing parallel closely to the building I didn't realize how close the bucket was to the building tin. I caught the corner of the bucket on the tin siding and tore a hole in it. Fortunately, all of the damage was on one piece of tin. I cut above the damage and slid another short piece behind the existing piece and screwed it back on. I think a contributing factor to the accident was the loose steering on the tractor. It will wander a bit, but at the end of the day I was behind the wheel.

As far as chainsaws go I was cutting through something and almost cut my leg. It ripped a hole in my jeans on my thigh, but didn't leave a scratch on my skin. Chainsaw chaps would be cheap insurance against what could have happened. I routinely spend money upgrading tools or expanding tool sets so I really should get this added to my list this year.

When I was a younger guy I had a '84 Honda Prelude (my first car). One night my CD player was stolen out of the car while at work. Later that night when I went to leave I forgot to push the clutch in when I started the car. I was parked in front of a light pole with concrete base. When I left the parking lot my car bumper was the same shape as the base of the light pole. The plastic pulled back out almost flush and I straightened the bumper behind the cover as well as it needed to be.

 

[Deere Dude]

I practiced for my motorcycle license for a few week even the emergency stops.

Time came for the test in a big parking lot with cones and lines all over. I was supposed to get up to speed and stop fast. The bike dropped like a brick and fell but I bailed off and I kept on going on my feel. I looked around and about 20 people were watching so I was really embarrassed.

A couple days later in a different town I tried it again only with a busted windshield, but this time I cranked it up to about 15 MPH and took a long time to stop. I got my license.

 

[Deere Dude]

I had n=my X740 JD garden tractor in a woods pushing over small trees with the front blade. I had it weighted down to much and was working the dif. lock a lot and cracked the transaxle housing. oil went all over. To get it out of the woods I had to pull it out backwards with my new GMC dually. I cut a few small trees so I could make the turn into the woods and had a lot of room. I couldn't quite make to turn so I backed up about 4 feet and heard a crunch. You guessed it, the rear fender hit a tree that wasn't even in the woods. Then I had to tell my wife how my screwing around in the woods just cost her about $5000.
That wasn't even counting the doctor bills from her attack

 

[pat32rf]

I have a whole fleet of trailers parked around our place. Some are doners, some are loaners, two belong to our tennant, one to my son, some are even licensed but all get used for something, even if just to set the snowplow blade on. As a result I have a ball on the 3pth so I can back up to any trailer, lift the ball and move the trailer out of the way.
I just can't figure out how the latch handles keep getting broken off, 3 or 4 a year... Yesterday I brushed the snow off the tongue of my big float trailer, the one with the 2- 5/16 ball and found that it was also broken, but it is a odd hitch so I will need to replace the whole assembly.....before I float the trailer anywhere. Just replaced the trailer fenders and lights last fall too...

 

[Beltzington]

Thinking, thinking, man I got nothing.

Wait - Closed a pull down garage door by placing my fingers of both hands in between two panels and gave it a big tug. Fortunately it was flimsy gauge metal or I could have lost 8 finger tips, also fortunate it didn't latch or I could have been there for hours waiting on someone to show up and open the door. Good Times.

 

[xzcVAbc5]

I have a whole fleet of trailers parked around our place. Some are doners, some are loaners, two belong to our tennant, one to my son, some are even licensed but all get used for something, even if just to set the snowplow blade on. As a result I have a ball on the 3pth so I can back up to any trailer, lift the ball and move the trailer out of the way.
I just can't figure out how the latch handles keep getting broken off, 3 or 4 a year... Yesterday I brushed the snow off the tongue of my big float trailer, the one with the 2- 5/16 ball and found that it was also broken, but it is a odd hitch so I will need to replace the whole assembly.....before I float the trailer anywhere. Just replaced the trailer fenders and lights last fall too...

You're going to have to spell this one out for me. I can't figure out how the handles are getting broken.

 

[bcp]

Sharp turn so the latch handle hits the 3PH? Rotating drawbar with a ball that rotates HARD against the internal latch parts when starting or stopping, and breaking them off.

Bruce

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

Thanks everybody for being man enough to fess up. Now that everybody is mature enough to laugh at their mistakes I feel much better and not so alone in the world. Man I am glad you guys messed up. Lol

Guess the only people that don't make mistakes are the people that don't do anything.

Keep on chugging along and I sincerely hope your mistakes don't cost you any body parts.

 

[forestcreature1]

You ONLY have BRAKES on the REAR tires !!!

So, when you are not properly balanced, esp. downhill, you will not have the ability to STOP before the LAKE.

Just because the rears are touching the ground, doesn't mean they are helping you any....

from the former commander of U-4100 (and you didn't know Deere made submarines)

 

[coobie]

My mistake was to buy a shuttle shift tranny tractor the first time around in 2008.I resolved that mistake buying a tractor with a HST tranny in 2012.

 

[pat32rf]

The latch handles are left up, unlatched so I don't have to climb down, just lift the 3pth under the hitch and go. I always have a tongue heavy situation so it works, but that latch sticking up is the first thing to get caught by the bucket when clearing snow, the place where a piece of firewood falls, etc...
I have even been known to back one trailer into another, breaking off the latch handle of the rear trailer with the bumper of the first one...

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Ok I'll join in. I made the mistake last spring of lifting a boulder that was probably above the tractor's capabilities in order to move it off a trail on some land I owned. As I drove forward to move it off the trail, the front left tire ran up a bank and the tractor rolled on its side. I didn't react fast enough to drop the bucket, which may have stopped the roll. Thankfully it all happened very slowly and I had time to hop off and out of the way. ROPS do work.

I hope you hopped of and out of the way AFTER tractor stopped moving and you unlatched your safety belt. Otherwise, that would have been TWO mistakes.

Human errors always seem more emotionally devastating to people who take the most time to be careful. You can spend 50 years of watching, training, being careful, and in a split second of distraction for any reason, can have it all fall in the crapper. Our only consolation is that we usually live longer, in one piece, and can often minimize the damage compared to those who go through life with their heads stuck where the sun doesn't shine.

 

[dfkrug]

Guess the only people that don't make mistakes are the people that don't do anything.

Ain't that the truth. The trick is to make it thru your bullet-proof years without irreparable
body damage. AND learning from your mistakes and the mistakes of others.

 

[Garandman]

"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."
Will Rogers

 

[Ted Summey]

I've had three that come to mind right now.....yes there ARE others.

1. I was cutting a dado the length of a 20" white pine shelving board for some sort of box I was building. The board road up on top of the blade and kicked back. Thankfully, my fingers were well away from the blade but the board hit me in ribs on my right side. When it did, it split with one half being a sharpe wedge shape. The sharpe end stuck in my wrist about 1 1/2". It took about 8 stitches to put me back together. I use a hold down finger board clamped to the fence now days.

2. Clearing underbrush in some planted pines, I was cutting a 2" sprout of some sort with a chainsaw. It pinched and the saw kicked. It would have been okay but I was holding the chainsaw with the bar up cutting left to right versus the bar down cutting right to left. When it kicked it bit my shin......that one took a lot of stitches and ruined a very good set of coveralls. I wear chaps now.

3. Cleaning the manure out of our feed barn with a skid steer was an annual or semi annual event prior to getting tractors with loaders. I was hurrying to get the job done with the rented machine and I hit the corner of the foundation on the back of the barn. It didn't fall but I knocked about 8 or ten blocks out of the wall. The repair is far stronger than the original. We don't work so fast around here now.

 

[expedoman55]

Ok I'll join in. I made the mistake last spring of lifting a boulder that was probably above the tractor's capabilities in order to move it off a trail on some land I owned. As I drove forward to move it off the trail, the front left tire ran up a bank and the tractor rolled on its side. I didn't react fast enough to drop the bucket, which may have stopped the roll. Thankfully it all happened very slowly and I had time to hop off and out of the way. ROPS do work.

First problem I see isnt the mistake itself it is that the tractor is WAY TO CLEAN!!!!

 

[expedoman55]

So I have done my share for sure.. Like failing to latch the trailer hitch ball on the truck and go down the road and it pops off and skids nicely to the side hooked to the saftey chains.. those chains are for idiots like me.. Good thing it was empty

 

[expedoman55]

So in upstate NY we have had an unusual amount of snow this year. Before it however a lot of MUD.. I put down some OSB boards in the fall to facilitate getting into the back of my daughters house with a car so she could get in her house as she broke her leg and could not do stairs.. Well winter came and so did snow.. Dummy forgot to remove OSB boards.. using blower the other day I turned the snow blower on my boomer into a chipper.. well kinda.. a couple a shear pins later I was able to use it again.. Note to ya'll don't try this at home.. As my dear dad used to say use the right tool for right job LOL

 

[kneedeep]

My mistake is reading this thread! :confused2:

 

[Looking4new]

About 20 years ago, I was sitting in a campground sucking back a few beers. I was on the second 24 and had a half a bottle of rye to go (shot of rye with a beer chaser) and sharpening my hatchet at the same time....I got the hatchet razor sharp, shaved some hair off my arm to make sure it was sharp.(A dull hatchet will make a bigger mess IF something happens.) I decided to split some wood for the fire and was now very drunk (read this as hammered) and sitting on the seat of a picnic table with my left elbow on my left knee and the hatchet blade buried part way into a chunk of cedar. I whacked the head of the hatchet with another piece of wood with my right hand (I am right handed) and be dammed if the head of the hatchet went through the first piece like a hot knife through butter. My arm pivoted on my elbow and the hatchet carried on down in an arc and buried itself into my left foot. Only three stitches later on the Sunday and a whole lot of grief from the hospital staff that insisted I should have come in on the Saturday. That little mishap cost me a week off work (no compensation) and a bunch of pain.
Moral of the story? DO NOT split wood in bare feet.