Stupid Tractor Tricks

[Harv]

<font color=blue>do you think a 4 in 1 bucket would have helped change the factors enough where this might not have happened?</font color=blue>

Richard -

Certainly the log wouldn't have rolled back on me, but I bet I could find other ways to get into trouble. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif BTW - It's probably been answered in the 4-in-1 threads, but how much heavier are those buckets (i.e. how much lifting power would I be giving up)?

<font color=blue>could you have just plowed the first offending tree over by pushing with the bucket?</font color=blue>

I did that to some similarly-sized trees and too many were just breaking off, leaving me with a stump to deal with. I "thought" I could do a more complete job my yanking it out, roots and all.

DDL -

It's a little hazy in my mind, but I believe my tiltmeter said something like, "Holy Sh__!!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

You are absolutely right -- a tiltmeter doesn't help when the situation arises so quickly (hmmmm -- meter says 90 degrees. Crap! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif). My tiltmeters have proven most valuable when I'm entering "uncharted" territory, which, with 42 back-woods kind of hilly acres, happens fairly often. The usual scenario is that as I ease into a foreign slope or tilt area I watch the tiltmeter carefully to sort of "feel out" the terrain. If I get too close to 15 degrees sideways, or 20 degrees front-to-back, I back out and look for an alternative route.

Occassionaly, I'm caught by surprise when the general terrain looks okay but I hit a contour that tips me to that lump-in-the-throat angle I'm sure most of you have experienced. Thankfully tractors stop rather quickly when you take your foot off the gas. At this point I look at the meters to see if I should proceed or back up. More often than not it turns out to be around 10 degrees, but there's something about going from zero to 10 that accelerates one's pulse (anybody else ever notice that?).

My biggest scares, other than the ones I just confessed to in my last post, are when I'm backing up, usually too fast, and run over a rock with one rear wheel. That changes your tilt real fast. One time I simultaneously climbed a rock on one side just as the other wheel found a rut. Zero to 15 degrees in a split second can really take its toll on your underwear. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif One of these days I'm afraid I'm going to hit one of those situations when I'm already on a slope, after which I will probably take some real interesting pictures for this board. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[dmccarty]

Ahh, the 4n1 bucket....

That is the first thing that popped in my head when reading Harv's story. This would not have happened on my 4n1 bucket if I had grabbed the logs with the FEL. I HAVE had stuff ALMOST do what Harv described when place timber slash on a burn pile. Thankfully it was little itty bitty stuff, well only 3-4 feet long a 4-5 inches in diameter, and it did not leave the bucket. Still a wake up call to see the stuff bouncing around in the bucket trying to escape back on me or the tractor.... 8-(

Harv, I have had days like what you discribe. Just makes me go slower and try to use more brain power instead of Horse power.

Go Slow Go Slow Go Slow is my Tractor Operator Mantra. Since I'm not working farm fields, what a blessing that would be, but I'm up in the woods and go slow is a must. Last weekend, if I had been going anything but slow I would have likely damaged the tractor. My stabilizer legs on the backhoe sometimes move from their full up position when the tractor has set for awhile with the engine off. I keep the tractor near a tree and when I started to move off in the morning to work I glanced back and noticed that the legs were down a bit. If I had kept moving forward they would have grabbed the tree. If I had been moving fast I would have not been able to stop and steer away from the tree.

The other Almost stupid thing I did was back down my friends driveway. It has a curve in it and I had looked forward and started to move off the driveway into a very steep ditch. I caught it just in time but it would have been roll over time. I'm going to talk to my friends about this because they are very likely to have problems with their cars with the way things are setup. A few well place rocks would solve the problem....

Later....
Dan McCarty

 

[Thomas]

Harv,
I just as soon not see one of those interesting pictures and knowing you were a part of it...be careful out there....okay.

Like the old carpenter would say..measure twice cut once. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Thomas]

Bird,
Once on my dad's farm one night bunch kids got together and roll several round bales of hay down the field into the road, /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gifand its a darn good thing nobody was traveling the road that night...{look like big marsh mellows}...what a mess. /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif


Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[gordon]

First let me say I'm glad you are alright and also thanks for sharing the story, hopefully others will learn from it.

I've said this before---the learning curve can be very steep at times, I know I'm still on the curve it's never ending.

For a small tree like that next time try this--hook a chain a few feet up on the trunk to your drawbar. Make sure the chain is longer than the tree is tall--this is very important. then give it a yank. If the tree doesn't move try digging and cutting some of the roots on the opposite side that you have the chain hooked to. I only do this on smaller trees.

As for moving slash you learned a valuable lesson when you raise the bucket you must also roll the bucket forward to keep it level. This holds true for alot of things. If you get into that habbit you'll be alot better off in the long run. You know how I know this? All I can say is been there done that./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I've posted alot of my dumb tractor moves in the past so I won't bore you with them again. But a couple of weeks ago I was grading up to a couple of new greenhouses to cover the plastic edges and give water runoff. The bad thing was that inbetween the two greenhouses I had just enough room with my rearblade offset and a couple of feet to spare. So I was moving right along then I hit a small pile of dirt that I had graded out somewhat before the the ground froze. It was still froze and guess what---the back of the tractor slipped sideways and I put a gash in the plastic about 6" long before I got the tractor stopped. Well I figured that my insurance had just bought two very large pieces of plastic--it went through both the outer and inner pieces of plastic. I tried to call the owner on my cell phone but he wasn't home so I left a message about what happened and to give me a price of replacement plastic for my insurance. Later he called me back and was actually laughing, said I did such a good job grading. I did move alot more dirt to give a better grade for the same price but irreguardless, don't worry about that small cut he has greenhouse tape and would fix it no problem. Needless to say I was sure happy. He now has given me a list of things he wants done. He said just do them and bill him--nice to have some great customers. He did say becuse I was honest about the small tear as he called it, he now trusts me to work on a open ticket. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

So here I thought I was a total complete idiot for tearing up his greenhouse---it got turned right around! So Harv don't be so hard on yourself--stuff happens the main thing is that you learn from it! As I said before I'm still on that learning curve as well---we all are! If anyone tells you different tell them to go pound sand.
Gordon

 

[Harv]

Gordon -

Thanks for the semi-encouraging words, and thanks even more for sharing that great story. Since your customer likes you all the better for telling the truth about a little screw-up, maybe you should knock a tree over on his house and confess that one, too. He'll probably put you in his will. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

What really hurts about my boo-boos is the sheer stupidity of it all. The fact that I knew better than to pull with a raised bucket, the fact that I knew the bucket needs to be rolled when the loader is raised, and the fact that I screwed up anyway is pretty disconcerting. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

I guess it's going to be like so many sports I used to do. Downhill skiing, karate, racquetball, volleyball, whatever -- even though I learned the rules and the moves fairly easily, it was plain hard work and surely no fun until all I had learned became instinctual. I guess my grey matter runs at relatively low rpm, so it's not 'til the reflexes take over that I become competent.

Just rationalizing, of course, but what else can I do at this point? Just hope I survive this learning curve. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[dmccarty]

Sorry Harv, but I can't answer your question as to how much my 4n1 bucket wieghs. I never bothered to asked since I had to have the 4n1 regardless of wieght.

Removing small pine saplings is another good use for the 4n1. If I push over the sapling they just bend over or break off. If they bend over I can usually grab the sapling with the 4n1 and pull it on out. The trunk might break at this point as well. If it does or if it broke off when first pushing I just grab the stump and pull it out of the ground. This has worked real well on pulling pine stumps up to 4-5 inches. The hardwoods are more difficult since they seem to have more grip on the ground and the 4n1 does not bite is as much as on the pine.

If you have things to grab a 4n1 is the way to go. I can't imagine not having one on the tractor. I would be just so unproductive. I cleaned up a 60 foot section of road a couple weeks back that had some of the last remaining stands of saplings. Pines are real easy to cut down with an edger using a circular saw blade. That 60 foot section would have taken me an hour to cut down leaving just an inch or two of stump. It took me an hour, at most, with the tractor to clean up. The difference was that in one hour I had cleaned up the whole section, trees down, stacked in piles and stumps pulled. With just an edger and chainsaw it would have taken an hour to cut down the saplings. Another 20-30 minutes to saw up the saplings so I could stack them. And finally another 30 minutes of hard work to stack the trees. So that is one hour vs two which does not sound like much of a savings except for two things. With the tractor I don't break a sweat AND the stumps are pulled out of the ground and stacked. There is no way I could get the stumps out by hand.

Earlier last year I spend several months where every week I worked two to three days a week clearing that road. Its around 1600 feet long from where I had to start. And I had to clear both sides. So 3200 feet of road I had to work. A good day of work was 300 feet in one day for both sides, 600 feet out of 3200. But that would be very small saplings, mainly pine and not very dense. Some days I was doing well to go 150 feet on both sides. If I had the tractor with the 4n1 and my rotary cutter I could have done things in a much shorter time. And far easier. I REALLY wish I had the tractor back then!

Later...
Dan McCarty

 

[PaulInMi]

Harv-

I'm awaiting the arrival of my grill/hood guard which is on back order. Do you think that would've helped in your situation?

Glad you and the tractor are ok/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif.

Paul

 

[Harv]

You're being a little vague there, Dan.

Are saying you like your 4n1? /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Harv]

Paul -

I'm not real clear on what a grill/hood guard looks like, but off hand I would say, no, it wouldn't have helped.

When a log tumbles out of a raised bucket, it's pretty far above the hood of the tractor. The loader arms are pretty much the only things it touches until it gets to you. Unless, of course, a branch catches on the base of the exhaust stack and stops the rolling motion. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif