What have you messed up, with your tractor? Including ROPS into garage...

[sixdogs]

Reading this thread makes me feel better about some of the dumb stuff I have done. I once was going to replace a rear seal in a high crop tractor that had a gear case arrangement for each of the rear wheels. The gear oil in each wheel drive hub also flowed into the rear axle housing and the combination held a lot of gear oil. I can't remember but 15 gallons comes to mind.

Anyway, I started to drain the oil into a huge pan I had and for some reason had to go into the house. Maybe lunch. I started the oil draining and since I'm a savvy guy felt comfortable leaving it to drain by itself. Wow, dumb.

And drain it did. For whatever reason, maybe an air pocket, the oil came out and partially missed the pan. When I got back I had maybe 10 or 12 gallons of rank smelling gear oil on my nice concrete floor and a sheepish look on my face. I can still smell it.

 

[BKBoiss]

Just be glad it wasn't burnt gear oil. Gear oil smells bad. Burnt gear oil is AWFUL and it doesn't go away.

 

[CADplans]

Anyway, I started to drain the oil into a huge pan I had and for some reason had to go into the house. Maybe lunch. I started the oil draining and since I'm a savvy guy felt comfortable leaving it to drain by itself. Wow, dumb.
.

About 30 years ago,,, my BIL purchased his first 18-wheeler, a IH Freightliner.

Prior to that he had trucks like the F-750 Ford.

Well,,,he was used to engines with 6 quarts of oil,,, so he felt safe with a 5 gallon bucket under the dain plug.
That bucket held about half the oil that poured out all over the brand new shop floor.

I think he spilled close to another half gallon moving the slippery/full bucket.

WOW,, we had a real mess to clean up over the next few days, trying to restore the concrete!!

 

[gwstang]

Possible missed opportunity here. Husband should explain why he needs a bigger tractor....WITH A CAB, to safeguard her. Maybe even a second tractor.

Fixed that for you...lol

 

[PatrickS2222]

There are a few bruises on the corners of my buildings. I have sliced and diced more lengths of garden hose than I care to tally. Kong dog toys exit a finish mower at an exciting velocity. I've electrified the whole tractor mowing too close to the electric fence. I was diligently leveling out some lumpy spots near the edge of the yard but I had forgotten about the black currant seedlings we had just transplanted right behind me - I back-dragged the loader right over them.

No damage to anything other than my pride - I was on an older Craftsman ride-on which had a 3-speed transmission. The shifter was in the middle of the platform in front of the seat. I hopped off to clear some debris from my path and hooked my pant leg on the shifter thus power shifting it into 3rd gear. It was plenty fast enough to make catching up a significant challenge. Of course, the neighbors were entertaining guests at the time and they were outside to witness the event. I got a round of applause.

Jusy been reading through this thread, only up to Post No 83, but I'm just now able to stop laughing - so much so I've still got tears of laughter streaming down my face :laughing: :laughing: imagining those scenes!

To add my :2cents: I've only had two significant accidents - both as a young teenager. First one was refuelling our much-loved MF35 from an overhead 500gallon tank on a tripod frame (they are now outlawed - no prizes for guessing why). After filling up and hanging up the hose, looking rearward I reversed away. I felt something strange and turned my head just in time to see the tank falling toward the tractor. Fortunately I was out of reach, but the tank tore the exhaust off, glanced off the bonnet and front wheel onto its side on the ground, diesel running out of the vent at the top of it. I jumped off and covered the vent with my hand until we could unscrew it and plug the hole. The tank had a huge dent in its side, but I reckon I was lucky I didn't get squashed. We found the hose had inadvertently looped around a length of heavy railway track across the front of the tractor. Next day Dad got a nearby road repair crew to stand it up again with their loader.

The other silly mistake - leaving our MF135 idling while I jumped off to grab some tools from near an irrigation pump engine. Not applying the park brake, it rolled away, and went upside down into about an 8ft deep waterhole in the creek. We rolled it right way up and fished it out with the 35, then got it repaired. I was too young to repair it myself - I remember in 1975 it costing my parents $600 in repairs.

As someone else already stated - when you pay your own repair costs, damage is dramatically reduced. Only mistake I've made recently :ashamed: is reversing and putting a rear tyre into the door of our 300E - whilst watching the bucket doesn't damage anything! :confused2: Again, as already stated, watching one end instead of the other!

(Edit): I reckon though, the best so far is Post No 132 :drink:

 

[N80]

I've told this story here before but had forgotten about it myself.

I was mowing in deep grass with a 6' rotary cutter. Went to mow down by my lake. Right as I mowed in front of my (heavy duty) 14' john boat I noticed I was mowing over its bow rope which was lying in the deep grass. Before I could react in any way the mower caught the bow rope and that boat came sailing at the tractor like a missile. I swear I don't think I've ever seen anything move that fast. The boat smashed into the rear wheel of the tractor and immediately the rope was cut. It did not hurt the tractor other than knocking the paint off the rim. It put a large dent in the bow of the john boat and all but yanked the rope cleat off.

 

[beowulf]

I may also have told this story here before but not sure so. . .

If anyone wants to know how to get a nice 15 to 20 degree bend in an auger, well, I can help. I was digging a series of post holes and all was going well and I was into a nice routine. Back up to the spots I had marked, lower, engage, lift, disengage and move on to the next spot. I had done perhaps 8 to 10 holes like that when I somehow became too confident that I had my routine mastered. Anyway, in the next hole, I backed up, lowered, engaged and. . . .started to drive off - forgot the "lift the auger" step.

And if you want to be sure you can get a nice bend in your auger with the least amount of effort, do this is the summer when the ground is hard - it is much easier to bend them in hard ground.

The machine shop guy enjoyed the story and was able to straighten it out.

 

[shaeff]

I've got a '64 MF35 Utility. I've worked tractors a bit growing up (32yrs old now), but this is the first larger machine I've used extensively. I only got this thing about 1yr 3mo ago. Still learning, and I'm sure I will be for a long time.

We had a modular house built on our property after we cleared it. My father, brother, and myself spent countless weekends working my father's Kubota and our chainsaws to ready the property for the house to be delivered. I don't drive the machine close to the house. My first day running my flail mower after fixing bends, broken knives, shredded belt, welding the hood, etc... I was on cloud 9! We have an old telephone pole that's in the front yard standing near an old apple tree and some bushes. I was very carefully watching the mower's offset to make sure I didn't clip the apple tree- only to completely take down the telephone pole!

(our power lines and phone/internet are run underground) Luckily the pole doesn't have anything on it. I was able to pull the remainder of the pole out and shove the large piece back in the hole. Seems to be holding upright for now. It's only 15ft high.

I've done the same thing with small (1.5") trees in the field the first time I mowed with the flail. Take them right down with the bucket. Classic "watch one end while the other does damage."

So far I haven't hit anything of value. Yet.

 

[desh]

Brand new L4701. Brand new grapple. Brand new hydraulic lift trailer. Enjoyed the heck out of using the grapple to clean up several large brush piles in 1/10 time it would have taken me otherwise. I was careful to go slow so I didn't bump the trailer. Realized too late that the bouncing motion of releasing the hydraulics on the loader resulted in the tractor bumping the metal fenders on the trailer. Tractor won. I now have some real nice dents in the new trailer fenders.

 

[sixdogs]

One day you will look back on those dents and wonder why all the excitement. No one wants dents but they just happen and the harder you try not to get them the easier they seem to happen. :confused3:

 

[woodlandfarms]

Was laying a culvert the other day. Nephew brought the pickup over and placed it too close to the job site. I gave him some red azz and told him to move it down the road where it will be safer.

Well, cleaning up I had a bucket full of dirt and had it raised up so I was blocking my view. Yup, Rearended the truck. Some damage but it is a farm truck so now a battle wound. Thankfully it is all cosmetic and the tail light and tail gate still operate properly.

Downside is that I did this in front of not only the wife but the extended family. Not sure what santa is going to bring but I am sure it will be accident related.

 

[desh]

One day you will look back on those dents and wonder why all the excitement. No one wants dents but they just happen and the harder you try not to get them the easier they seem to happen. :confused3:

Yea, I'm not really worried. It was my father-in-law's trailer...

 

[Redlands Okie]

Was laying a culvert the other day. Nephew brought the pickup over and placed it too close to the job site. I gave him some red azz and told him to move it down the road where it will be safer.

Well, cleaning up I had a bucket full of dirt and had it raised up so I was blocking my view. Yup, Rearended the truck. Some damage but it is a farm truck so now a battle wound. Thankfully it is all cosmetic and the tail light and tail gate still operate properly.

Downside is that I did this in front of not only the wife but the extended family. Not sure what santa is going to bring but I am sure it will be accident related.

Seems it was not far enough down the road.........

 

[sixdogs]

Yea, I'm not really worried. It was my father-in-law's trailer...

Hmmm. Be braced for "mentioned exclusion" during the reading of the will later on. Best to offer to have it professionally repaired and paint matched--pronto. He will graciously refuse and you are back in the family photo. If he accepts your offer you will know how he felt when he first saw that dent and scraped paint.

Never ask how I learned all of this. I can dent stuff with the best of them and in ways others could only dream of.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Some of these are really really funny!!! Lol worst I have done so far knock on wood is the other night I was pulling into my barn I hit my nicely stacked sacks of cracked corn for the cows with the forks. Luckily I didn't puncture any bags lol.

I have a cabbed tractor and it clears the barn door by 4-5 inches lol.

I came inches from putting a nice line down my car when I was clearing snow on the driveway, I was turning around, saw the car far away, looked up front and the blades were dang close, so close I could believe if I did scratch the car. Those forks really stick out. I guess I have had a few close calls already but no damage yet.

 

[CubicleFarmer]

Just last weekend was my first. I always remember to put the ROPS down, as my barn door is too short. Well, I was clearing snow in the dark and was using the lights I mounted to the bar, and forgot to take it down... I was moving at a pretty good clip. Needless to say, I no longer need to take the ROPS down. I had to check my britches because that 12" beam spanning the door width was lifted by the bar, spun 90° and dropped right back down on the posts. When I put the loader back on the tractor, that beam is gone. My MIE plow worked awesome, by the way. Thanks Bob!

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I did have a issue with rops on a zero turn, I have used a zero turn twice in my life, I don't care for them but long story short, was mowing at a good speed, got near a tree, ducked from a limb and before I know it the front end started climbing lol. I let off the handles pretty quickly and backed it up, no damage there but was deff a surprise, wasn't used to rops and still am not lol.

 

[Indian MC]

Not the ROPS. When I built my garage I gave her a 10' ceiling. I came blasting into the garage with the Back hoe set all the way to one side. Clipped the side of the garage enough to scrape the cheesy molding. Glad I wasn't so drunk to run about 2" more or I would have busted up a lot of **** including my Neck.

 

[KubotaToy]

I have killed several shop doors with the backhoe on my L45, seems when I am in a big hurry, bad things happen. My wife set up a savings account and puts money in monthly, she calls it her idiot insurance. What is great about it is, she will let me have the money to buy something for the shop if I can go five years without tearing something up. I guess I will never see it as I average a door every few years...

 

[Baby Grand]

<snip>
Classic "watch one end while the other does damage."
<snip>
[/i]

Dang, shaeff, you jinxed me. Clipped the side of the garage door with the side of the FEL bucket this morning. I was looking backwards, trying to move the last bit of snow off the driveway with the rear blade. Nobody saw me do it ... so ...