More Experience = More Nerve

[JimR]

Pineridge, you are so right about letting your guard down on a motorcycle. I ride and everytime I do that some a-hole does something stupid that could kill me.

As for tractors. The longer you own one the smarter you get. The older you get the less likely you are to do something stupid with it. You now are older and have too much to lose to risk wiping out your clock.

 

[john_bud]

Billy,

I think you are right, at first you are inexperienced and afraid to try things out. Then as you gain experience, and nothing bad happens, you try more and more. Pretty soon, you don't have a care in the world! That is until something bad happens! Then you either have to get bandaged up, change your shorts, fix the broken tractor or all three. Then it's back to cautious. LOL!

jb

 

[randy41]

i am way more cautious now than when i was younger. no...i dont have my wife walking in front of the tractor to be sure its safe for me. but i've learned my tractor's limitations. i've also learned my land so i know where the holes are and where the big immovable rocks are. i'm more in tune to what i drive over with the front wheels and quick to stop if it doesnt feel right. i'm also quicker to jump off the tractor to check out whats causing it to feel wierd.
i think mowing is the most dangerous thing to do on a tractor because it doesnt require much concentration. and i think plowing is the safest because you are constantly looking at what you're doing.

 

[slowrev]

As you get older you tend to get more careful until you get old enough to start forgetting things like setting the brake. In my are many tractor deaths involve men over 60. Darn I am gettin close

 

[dirtworksequip]

"GOOD JUDGEMENT COMES FROM EXPERIENCE.EXPERIENCE COMES FROM BAD JUDGEMENT"

 

[Billy_S]

I do have a tilt meter, but it only measures side to side tilt, not front to back. I bought it, shortly after I got the tractor, because of a creek that runs through my front yard. I mow along this creek every time I mow, but the slope, to me, has always been a bit scary.

When I put the tip meter on and went to mow the creek, it registered between 20-25 degrees. No wonder it was so scary. I stopped the tractor, at the steepest point, got off and tried to push the tractor over. It wouldn't budge, so now I feel a bit more confident mowing it. I do have foam filled tires too, which adds some stability.

 

[john_bud]

When I put the tip meter on and went to mow the creek, it registered between 20-25 degrees. No wonder it was so scary. I stopped the tractor, at the steepest point, got off and tried to push the tractor over. It wouldn't budge, so now I feel a bit more confident mowing it. I do have foam filled tires too, which adds some stability.

Yikes! What would you have done if it went over?

 

[Carld]

He would have watched it roll down the hill and then called for help.

I to mow some steep slopes and go by the seat of the pants feel. I can feel when it is getting light on one side and I slow down and turn down hill. Then I back uphill slowly and remember to NOT go back there again. I try to keep in mind what can happen when I am using the tractor and avoid that situation. I call it "avoiding trouble before it happens". I try to keep a healthy respect for the tractor for brave or bold operators don't last long.

This will curl your hair.

A friend in western Mo. had a cattle farm and he was bold and fearless. He used a large trailer to haul silage around the farm and wanted to speed up the process. So he pulled two trailers of silage instead of one. When he started down a hill he found he couldn't slow down. As he went faster the trailers began to whip from side to side. The whole thing finally flipped over and rolled down the hill. I think it took 6 months for him to recover from that event. That wasn't his only bold adventure that caused injury.

 

[tinsnip]

Ha! This is a little off-topic, but the trailer incident described above reminds me of something my brother did. Something I never get tired of kidding him about.

He bought some used cabinets and rented a trailer to bring them home with, towed behind his Blazer. Seems he was traveling along the interstate, doing the speed limit, and glanced out his window only to see the trailer-full of cabinets passing him in the left lane. In the time it took him to grasp what was going on, the trailer took a left into the median grass, managed a 360 without flipping over and came to rest as if it were parked there on purpose.

Verrrry lucky, for everyone on the road that day.

 

[Billy_S]

Yikes! What would you have done if it went over?

I probably would have said a dirty word, then got another tractor and pulled her out of the creek.

I kind of assumed that it wouldn't just tip over when I gave her a push, but would tip up on the two downhill tires first, thus giving me a bit of warning.