Dumb noobie move

millsan1 · May 13, 2015

If it doesn't seem right, figure it out.

Was doing some work tonight and i could not get a good drive on some boulders I was trying to pick up.

I was going uphill, trying to get the boulders into the bucket, and the machine just would not make it happen.

Couldn't figure it out, but wrote it off to "maybe the hill is too steep and maybe the boulders are too heavy." even though I had moved these same boulders before.

After giving up and moving on, I headed down the driveway and noticed I was moving quickly. DOH! The machine was in high gear.

dumb noobie move.

k0ua · May 13, 2015

millsan1 said:
If it doesn't seem right, figure it out.

Was doing some work tonight and i could not get a good drive on some boulders I was trying to pick up.

I was going uphill, trying to get the boulders into the bucket, and the machine just would not make it happen.

Couldn't figure it out, but wrote it off to "maybe the hill is too steep and maybe the boulders are too heavy." even though I had moved these same boulders before.

After giving up and moving on, I headed down the driveway and noticed I was moving quickly. DOH! The machine was in high gear.

dumb noobie move.

It sounds like you have discovered the relief valve in your Hydrostatic transission. It was always there just waiting to do its job... and you gave it something to do!

repete · May 13, 2015

You do not need to be a noobie for this one millsan1.

SGStriglos · May 17, 2015

My noobie move years ago was not checking to see if I was in 4wd before I started down my very steep wet grassy back yard that ends in a lake. We finally stopped at a flat area right before the water. I now never drive over the crest without glancing down at the 2-4wd lever.

AStanton · May 18, 2015

Better to not be moving due to being in high gear than having the parking brake on.

Ed of all trades · May 18, 2015

I have been driving tractors for almost 50 years and I still do that.

k0ua · May 18, 2015

OK, I guess my noobie move (I have been operating tractors for a long long time) came tonight. I was grading my gravel road after one heck of a storm today, or so the wife says.. Any way the road is washed out bad.. So I had parked my ballast barrel in the barn and had my scrape blade on. So anyway the rain started pretty hard and I headed back inside the barn but by the time I got it parked it was REALLY raining..

So, no problem I will just wait in the barn until it subsides a bit. The big door was open and I was watching the water come around the building and it was getting near to spilling over the threshhold, so I went to the ballast barrel and grabbed a shovel to stick out of the door and redirect the "lay of the land" a bit so the water would be re-directed.

Well coming around the side of the ballast barrel, I ran my shin into the draw pin. Since the barrel weighs 750 lbs and was setting firmly on the ground, it did not move, not even one bit.

So as I sit here typing this with an ice pack on my shin that now has a "goose egg" bigger than any goose ever laid.

It has been a while since I did something that stupid. Yes it was fairly dark in the barn, but I still knew it was there, and should not have done that.

troutsqueezer · May 19, 2015

I was pushing poison oak down the hill, lots of it. Maybe two acres or so. The tractor seemed to move slower than usual. I thought geez, it must be my imagination or my tractor just doesn't have the power it used to. It took a long time to clear that brush and about half way through I was thinking it's almost like a stick or something is caught under the pedal and not letting it go down all the way. When I finished, I got off the tractor and looked under the floor board. There was a stick in there that wasn't letting the pedal go down all the way.

millsan1 · May 19, 2015

troutsqueezer said:
I was pushing poison oak down the hill, lots of it. Maybe two acres or so. The tractor seemed to move slower than usual. I thought geez, it must be my imagination or my tractor just doesn't have the power it used to. It took a long time to clear that brush and about half way through I was thinking it's almost like a stick or something is caught under the pedal and not letting it go down all the way. When I finished, I got off the tractor and looked under the floor board. There was a stick in there that wasn't letting the pedal go down all the way.

That actually made me LOL.

EagleTDL · May 19, 2015

As mentioned above, wait until you leave the parking brake on...

The one that really got me on my BX was unknowingly knocking the gear lever halfway between rabbit and turtle as I dismounted on the off side, then spending 15 minutes trying to figure out why it wouldn't "go"?!?!? <sigh>

yoshi1 · May 19, 2015

Have to add my 2 newb moves. 1st, forgetting to put down rops before pulling into garage. 2nd, forgetting to put rops back up before going down steep hill in 2wd and no rear implement (avoided disaster by the grace of God).

Thomas · May 19, 2015

Wait until you try and plow to close to Mrs. car.:duh:

Gary Fowler · May 19, 2015

yoshi1 said:
Have to add my 2 newb moves. 1st, forgetting to put down rops before pulling into garage. 2nd, forgetting to put rops back up before going down steep hill in 2wd and no rear implement (avoided disaster by the grace of God).

This is why I think it better to modify or have it modified so that it will fit in your garage if that is where you intend to keep it. Shortening it a few inches and then welding it back by using an internal backing plate will make it stronger than original in that area. I don't know why they make some of them so tall in the first place. It seems the smaller the tractor, the taller the ROPS which makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Having one that is never used because of forgetting to put it down or up is the worst situation you can get. Much better off with one that has been shortened but used all the time than one that isn't used at all.

lakeside · May 20, 2015

Mu newbie moment was when I was plowing snow off my gravel driveway. Going downhill I turned to the left to pick up a bucket of snow. OK, now tractor pointed downhill and at an angle. As I lifted the bucket full of snow the tractor sort of leaned over towards the downhill side. I managed to lower the bucket in time so I didn't tip over. No damage done besides having to change my jockies

. It did make a lasting impression though as I'm now very careful when lifting the bucket, even empty, when on a slope.

I've also tried working with the lever in High, didn't work all that well....:ashamed:

David Devuono · May 20, 2015

More like, common tractor oops over Newbie actions, I still do all of the above and I agree that some ROPS are too high. I like to clamp a sheet of wood to the Rops when its raining, but being 3 feet above my head makes little difference. Though I admit, I have not ever bumped my head on the ROPS.

Industrial Toys · May 20, 2015

That's not how I figured the story would end!

You can chase boulders around all day long, and not get them convinced enough to jump into the bucket!

s219 · May 20, 2015

AStanton said:
Better to not be moving due to being in high gear than having the parking brake on.

Yeah, that will be the next goof. Not only did I drag a box blade in high by mistake once, a few days later I pulled a tree down with a rope with the parking brake on the whole time.

millsan1 · May 21, 2015

Industrial Toys said:
That's not how I figured the story would end!

You can chase boulders around all day long, and not get them convinced enough to jump into the bucket!

Amen brother. I swear they get rounder when I go to pick them up.

Several times, I have gotten a boulder half in the bucket and say to myself "self" I say, and I know it is me talking because I recognize my voice, and am wearing my underwear, "go and just push the boulder into the bucket". Then I try, and remember why I have machines to do this type of work.