Bad Day for Hired Hand and Combine

[ovrszd]

Roading this Combine down a steep hill on a gravel road to a narrow culvert crossing. Got to loaping and lost control. Didn't hurt the driver other than getting wet as the cab filled with water before he could unzip the window and get out. I'm pretty sure it totaled the Combine.

Had to help my Son retrieve it with two large Wreckers.

 

[Tx Jim]

That's too bad but glad combine operator wasn't hurt. I'll bet the wrecker fee wasn't cheap.

 

[TripleR]

What a mess, I guess he was just going too fast? I got behind our renter's combine not too long ago and it took up all the pavement and then some, man those things are big.

 

[ovrszd]

Jim, ballpark guess would be $3000. Had to move it 2 miles to farmer's homestead.

Larry, yeah I think he was going too fast and it just got to bouncing and got away from him. Looked like at the last second he locked up the brakes and the left side bit harder and he took a hard left turn. Luckily rolled in rather than going in head first which would have certainly hurt him. When we got the call we thought he had probably flopped it on it's side in the field crossing a ditch or dropping the downhill tires off into a washout with a hopper full of grain. Was quite a shock to drive up and see it laying in that ditch almost upside down. I stood on the belly of the combine while hooking chains to pull it with.

 

[TomSeller]

Not used to seeing the top of a combine like that. Wow! I bet the guy is out of work now.

 

[ovrszd]

Not used to seeing the top of a combine like that. Wow! I bet the guy is out of work now.

My first thought was I had never saw the belly of a combine before.


Yeah, at first the owner was saying it's just life. By the time we got it out he was bitterly saying shouldn't have happened. And he's right, it shouldn't have. The roadbed was plenty wide. Driver just got careless.

We were as cautious as we could be to not do more damage. Cosmetically it looks very bent. Not sure of the age of the machine but he said it had just over 1200 engine hrs on it.

 

[Green Power]

I am not sure when they started making 9770's but i would geuss 07-08 ish, i know 2011 was the last production year for them. I assume the Farmer had insurance on it... Did he have much more to harvest?

 

[ovrszd]

I am not sure when they started making 9770's but i would geuss 07-08 ish, i know 2011 was the last production year for them. I assume the Farmer had insurance on it... Did he have much more to harvest?

He said he had just finished corn and was ready to start cutting beans. Our planting season was late for beans so few are ready. And the ones that are have a moisture test of around 9%. Everyone is wanting a small rain. We haven't had any for at least 4 weeks. Combines are just barely leaving lug mark tracks in the fields.

 

[TomSeller]

I looked back that last picture and it sure does look twisted. I wonder what the local body shop would say if you asked them if they could straighten it a bit

 

[Green Power]

I hate to even guess, but 70-75k in damages? Im sure the insurance company will/did total it.