Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected...

   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #1  

Dan Hunter

Platinum Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
550
Location
Enid, OK
Tractor
2012 John Deere 3720 eHydro
Yep, I've dropped the mower and forgot to disconnect the PTO shaft 3 times. Today was the worst as I'd just pulled it apart and cleaned/lubed both tubes only to drag the end in the dirt. Wiped it off on my shirt and moved on. I blame the 100 F temperature.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #2  
Must have been a really serious reason to be mowing at 100F.

Nobody hurt - nothing damaged - I'll bet you won't forget again.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected...
  • Thread Starter
#4  
"I'll bet you won't forget again."

Sure I will.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #5  
At least you didn't back up and bend the shaft.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #6  
I’d rather pull the PTO shaft apart in 2 pieces than drive away with 7pin trailer plug for the tail lights or hydraulic lines still connected. That can cause damage.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #7  
Unlatched the Euro hooks but forgot to lower the arms so it would actually unhook from the lower pins of the implement... Multiple times. Worse one was with the tiller, which had the stand down, so you can imagine what happened to it. 🤦
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #8  
I haven't pulled off with the pto shaft connected, but at least once I started to drive off with hydraulic lines attached. Fortunately I am always looking back and noticed the lines moving.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #9  
Yep, I've dropped the mower and forgot to disconnect the PTO shaft 3 times. Today was the worst as I'd just pulled it apart and cleaned/lubed both tubes only to drag the end in the dirt. Wiped it off on my shirt and moved on. I blame the 100 F temperature.

Not mowing, but if it helps you feel better... I've been working in the shop the last three days re-wiring and replacing lights with high-bay LEDS.... 6 freaking trips to Home Depot in 2 days... except for the first all of them have been because I either bought the wrong item (as ex. 12-3 Romex instead of 12-2) or plain forgot something I intended to purchase (leaving a purchased j-box at the checkout counter).... the heat and humidity are no joke.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #10  
Forgot to close the tractor cab door while pulling into the barn.

Boy that door exploding sounded like a bomb!
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #11  
Set my grapple on top of a storage container, 8' up and forgot to unhook the hydraulic lines. Fortunately I saw it before I dragged the grapple of the top. That could have been nasty. Torn the lines off, or worse have the grapple swing into the tractor if the lines held.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #13  
I am so glad I'm not the only one that does these kind of things
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #14  
Any time I carry tools in my loader bucket, I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS forget they are in there and either dump them on the ground or start digging with them still in the bucket. Doesn't matter if I only put them in one minute before. I once completely buried a shovel in a pile of dirt filling in a stump hole. Spent quite a bit of time looking for the shovel at the end of the project, then found it while leveling out the dirt with a rake.

I have a front quick hitch adapter so I can, among other things, use the carryall on the loader. Usually, I'm only carrying things in there, but not dumping, so I don't normally need to install the lower pin clips. Sometimes I forget and try to dump in that configuration and am in for a surprise. Good thing is it usually just swings out, hanging on the top hooks, but doesn't come all the way off.

I do the same thing with the pallet forks occasionally..... :mad:

By the way, anyone that has a JD with the hook/pin connectors on the loader, don't even think about being lazy and letting the circle clips for the pins hang by the little cables...you will tear them off instantly. Ask me how I know...
 
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   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #15  
Yep, I've dropped the mower and forgot to disconnect the PTO shaft 3 times. Today was the worst as I'd just pulled it apart and cleaned/lubed both tubes only to drag the end in the dirt....
The worst? ...is not realizing that half the PTO is still attached AND backing up over it as it jabs into the ground and it lifts the rear end of the tractor...

That's when I learned how to replace the tube on a driveline.

I would like to say I wouldn't do that again but I have another driveline where I need to replace the yoke (which broke before bending the driveline tube. 🤬🥴
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #16  
I have a boom arm mower that is a royal pain to hookup or remove, on that unit I intentionally pull the pto shaft apart when removing it, I also have to extend the shaft almost all the way and connect to the tractor before I can back all the way in for the lift arms to hook up to it.
It seems like at least once a year I leave a pto connected and start to pull away on other implements.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #17  
Backed away from the loader after disconnecting everything but the "flat four" plug for the linear actuator wiring for the QA. Fortunately it unplugged itself. No damage.

Forgot to raise the stands for the loader and dug one into the ground. Slight re-bending required.

Disconnected the RFM end of the top link and didn't secure it with the support loop on the tractor end. Backed up and bent it. Replaced with one from Tractor Supply. Recently while tinkering I was able to straighten it and clean the threads up so now it's a spare.

Often forget to replace the cap after refueling - till I'm back in the cab and see the fuel door open.

Couple times stopped to pick up some debris, which requires stopping the PTO. Then hop back in and start mowing again without engaging the PTO again.

No limit to the dumb things I'm capable of:)
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #18  
Forget fullness is a sign of old age! :ROFLMAO:

willy
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #19  
Ha! My biggest tractor mistake so far was when I took delivery of my wood chipper recently. Picked it off the truck with my forks then proceeded to drop the dang thing off the forks onto my driveway like an idiot. That was pretty embarrassing.
 
   / Admit Your Failure! Mower off the 3-point but PTO still connected... #20  
There is a bend in the roll-up door where the tractor lives. ROPS is maybe 4 inches in the clear, but the door has to be ALL the way up.

An old cement planter sure looked like a snow drift with 6 inches of snow on it. It stopped being a drift after getting hit with the blade and forced into the pole barn's metal side.

Mowing goes faster if you drop the deck down to cutting height.

I'm sure there's more, but those are what's coming to mind right now.
 
 

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