Is 2-wheeling irresponsible?

[Gary Fowler]

Sounds to me like good use of steering brakes. I can remember back when I drove the old 8n and 861 fords with 3 point disc that when you picked it up the front wheels were just lightly touching the ground. They raised every time you came to the end of the row and turned around. Since neither tractor had P/S this made it very easy to hit the brake and spin it around while dropping the disc at exactly the right time to stop the spin. You didnt even need to turn the wheel so when the disc dropped you were going straight. Kinda fun to do and easy too. Back then we worked with what we had and could afford and never thought twice about it being dangerous. The tractor wasnt going to flip because the disc would hit the ground way before you got high enough for that.
Now I would have loved to have had a pucker meter hitched to my BIL when he tried to pull my tractor out of a sticky situation by chaining to his FEL and reversing. At first he had no traction then he raised the FEl a bit and stood his NH 2030 on its nose. From where I sat on my tractor it was funny to see his facial reaction. He wasnt in real danger since his bucket wasnt that high and would have soon hit the ground. Hey life is interesting in the tractor world.

 

[Don87]

I disagree with a few of the other posters. It sounds like you were in full control of the machine at all times.

That's the point that matters:thumbsup:

 

[TripleR]

It's only irresponsible if you think it is. Sounds like fun to me! Heck, I rode my dirt bikes with the front wheel off the ground as much as my skill level would allow. Always.

Sounds like you didn't endanger anyone and you got your project done efficiently. Why shouldn't you have a bit of fun in the process? Plus you improved your skill with the throttle/brake balance. :laughing:

Agreed, what may be dangerous to some is just another day at work.

YouTube - European Stunt freestyle comp Chris Pfeiffer

 

[Botabill]

There is a level of danger in everything we do. What you did increased the level of danger to a degree over normal tractor operations however you got the job done and lived to tell the tale. Congratulaions on the innovative way you solved a problem. That is what separates humans from animals. We can innovate and not simply stay in the box. Wish I was there to cheer you on.

 

[Modn]

I disagree with a few of the other posters. It sounds like you were in full control of the machine at all times.

That's the point that matters:thumbsup:

I agree. Sounds like you knew what to expect, IMHO that is full control. I've done it many times knowing fully how it was going to react. Of course the tires are just off the ground or in contact with the ground. If it was 2' or so in the air then I would say there is no need for that. When you expect an action and it does it, then you are in control....That's my opinion.

 

[Mace Canute]

There's one thing that might bite you in that situation and that's dropping a rear wheel into an unseen hole. With that much weight on the rear axle, and depending on a lot of other factors being just "right" (or should that be "wrong"?) a sudden shock load possible could snap the housing. Unlikely but sh*t happens, eh?

This reminds me of a couple of times decades ago when I was at work.

First time, I was driving the big tandem 55 foot (working height) double bucket boom truck. It was spring and a layer of mud was on top the frozen ground and I was on the power line right of way going from structure to structure. I was going through a bit of a slough, hummocky, and in order to go slow enough that I wasn't bouncing the heck out of the truck, I was down in low range in the 13 speed Road Ranger(transmission). Well, at that speed, it wasn't fast enough to bounce out of the hummocks and I got stuck. Just spinning all eight tires. I got out, put the outriggers down and swung the boom out backwards and lowered it down as far as I could get it, raised the outriggers again and got back in. I put it in it's lowest gear and idled away. All that weight transfer took enough off the front axle that the wheels easily rode over the hummocks and the extra traction on the tandems gave me the traction I needed to get out on my own. I was very careful to watch the boom to make sure it wasn't getting shook around any which might have damaged the swing gears.

Second time we were out in the country with our tandem digger truck with a full load of power poles on the trailer and the digger truck loaded down with material. The truck also had a rear mount radial arm digger. That transferred so much weight off the front axle that the "powers that be" had a 900 lb front bumper fabricated to keep the front end down enough to be able to steer it. It was rainy weather and the roads were greasy. The driver slowed to turn a corner, but with the tongue weight of the trailer and the total lack of gravel on the side road we turned onto, the truck simply wouldn't turn (enough) and the front wheel went onto the soft shoulder and sunk down to the axle! We were stuck tight, couldn't even back up. The local District Officer came out with his single axle bucket truck and tried to give us a tug out backwards but no go. He couldn't find a farmer at home to pull us out so we finally decided to swing the boom out over the trailer and hook his truck to the front end to pull it up onto the road. With that much weight transfer, the front wheels barely made contact with the road and again, the rear wheels didn't spin any. We only had to move a few feet to get the front wheel back onto the road again and under way.

 

[pat32rf]

We just call those kinds of situations "ticks of the trade", knowing what your equipment can do under adverse circumstances. Most of us have seem people who are stuck in a spot where we could hop in and drive out, but they just sit there spinning their wheels. Same thing.....
I recently borrowed an OLD 680 Case 2wd industrial hoe. The owner suggested that I always keep a load in the FEL as the weight of the hoe would lift the front wheels if you were going up ANY incline.