Rookie mistakes

[AlanB]

It would have broke the camera murph /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[AntrimMan]

Here's a small sample of what I've learned so far,

When cutting a boat ramp into the pond with the loader bucket...
when the bucket engages the cut on an incline the tractor engine will stall 'cause you come out of the seat and the safety switch trips, and then the engine will start again, and no matter how many times you put a little more fuel in this behaviour will continue until you PUT YOUR SEATBELT ON. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

When you get the machine stuck in 4WD with the diff locked trying to get back up the wet boat ramp and the backhoe is only making it's own great big holes trying to help, ALL THE CHAIN YOU OWN WON'T REACH THE NEAREST TREE. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

The dent in the garage door moulding from the rops on the way in is nothing compared to what the backhoe boom can do to the overhead door on the way out. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Martin

 

[KYTurkey]

Hey Martin...I pulled something similar to your pond adventure last weekend. While mowing I went down a fairly steep slope, and wound up with a tree on the left, a driveway bank on the right, and a large drain culvert in front. That's when I learned that the slope was a little more slippery than I thought. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Between low gear, 4WD and diff lock I managed to get it out, but the word "ohnowhaddamIgonnado" crossed my mind more than once. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[have_blue]

Tractors are POWERFUL in low gear and high RPM. A slight bump against a building, vehicle, or anything will anhialate it.

Any implement that fails in 1 place and is repaired will very soon fail in another unrelated place.

Removing heavy implements from the tractor slightly increasees the height of the ROPS bar. Worry about this only if you have an 8' ROPS bar and an 8' tractor shed door.

Pay attention when fueling up. Diesel stinks, and your wife will give you "the look" when you walk in the house.

 

[jinman]

2. If you are using your pallet forks to lift an antique rolltop desk up to the 2nd floor balcony, don't untie the desk until you have it in position. No matter how good an operator and how level you keep it, that tree limb you don't see will be waiting to knock the desk off the forks. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

2. When an antique rolltop desk is laying on the ground in a gazillion pieces, you may find some interesting documents from the 1930s that were hidden away in secret recesses. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[jwstewar]

When you do your 300 hour maintenance and drain the hydraulic fluid into a couple of drain pans, remember to take the drain pans out from under the tractor before you move it. Man, 4 gallons of hydraulic fluid is a lot to absorb. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[AndyG]

NAG
</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
*that Daddy's "coolness factor" went up about 100% when he brought home a REAL tractor for the rugrats to sit on and pretend they're planting corn. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
)</font>
I'm going to nag you just a little. When I was a little boy I loved to crawl all over any piece of equipment and pull all of the levers. Wait, I still like to do that. Just remember to: ALWAYS rewmove the key to prevent unexpected startups. ALWAYS park it on level ground because the rugrats WILL knock the parking brake off when they stomp the brake pedal. ALWAYS lower all attachments and hitches to the ground so that Jonny can't drop the bushhog on Suzy. Wobble the joystick through all of its movements after stopping the engine to insure its all the way down. Sorry for sounding like an old lady but safety is the most important thing we must do with our tractors. When I used to operate backhoes I always lowered both buckets and even the stabilizers. Some guys made fun of me but I never had to worry about coming back to find someone trapped under the machine.

 

[SteveInMD]

My neighbor's kid was playing on their tractor, which was parked in gear with the wheels chocked. While sitting on the tractor he pulled it out of gear. He then decided he was playing airplane and needed to remove the wheel chocks prior to takeoff. He ended up with his body where the chock was. He was rushed to the emergency room, but was just fine. Fortunately it was only a Farmall Cub and the hill wasn't very steep so he just got scared and not injured.

 

[KYTurkey]

I actually considered that, believe it or not. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif They're never on it unsupervised, and it's parked in a level garage with no keys, implements down. I would say that the safety brake is also on, but the kids like to stomp on the brake pedal too much for that to last long. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[have_blue]

I have a sharp disk harrow, and no matter where I keep it it's dangerous to running youngsters. I let them play on the tractor a few minutes closely watched then run them out of the shed. Sometimes when I'm mowing I stop and let them climb and play a while with everything in a safe position. They sure know how to find every little glop of grease!