DUMMY, DUMMY, DUMMY

JazzDad · Dec 7, 2004

I'll have ya'll know- this was not my fault. The people who poured the concrete in front of the garage forgot to tell me how much higher it was than the gravel. The ROPS that just slid under the door before, made quite a noise when it caught the bottom of the door. It popped up and then released poor Babs. Just goes to show, you can't trust concrete installers.

bczoom · Dec 7, 2004

Oops.

I just pulled a DUMMY!!!

Don't empty all your gas cans (yesterday) when you need gas in the pressure washer (today).

Then, don't syphon gas from your tractor to the pressure washer during business hours. I was using a very small syphon hose so I knew it would take 5 minutes (I went off to do something else for a couple minutes).

Sure enough... the phone rang. Client. Had to take the call. Went back to the office and worked with them for a good 20 minutes then realized the syphon is still running. Put them on hold. Gas everywhere /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

milkman · Dec 7, 2004

It's an amazing thing, that we've lived as long as we have!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

HammerFour · Dec 7, 2004

If I ever figure out the fool who managed to stick a 7ft sickle mower twice in the fence and once in the hay barn in one round around the pasture he won't forget it!

Of course it was the fool's first experience with a sickle mower and it took a bit for the fool to realize that this isn't something a novice uses to cut right up to the fence line. Fool's should leave a couple feet between the end of the sickle bar and the fence and barn until they get a bit more practice.

That doesn't even begin to mention the fence posts ( wood and T post ) that said fool has wacked with a front end loader bucket when mowing.

Or the funny dents in the back bumper of our pickup that I tried to blame on somebody at the rodeo until I got caught making another one with the leading edge of the FEL bucket setting on the tongue of the trailer while turning and backing up. ....

Ooops.

JDFANATIC · Dec 7, 2004

milkman and everyone, what a great post. 5 pages in 24 hrs., it must have hit vein with lots of us. I've done a lot of stupid things in my time, but I have one that happened this summer on my tractor.

The Mrs. and me are pulling out some rhodendrums and replanting some newer shrubs in their place. I bend the tip of my shovel so many times in our wonderful clay soil that I say next time I'm going to buy a really decent heat-treated shovel. The Mrs. goes out and buys another shrub from our local nursery (expensive place) and comes back with a shrub and a shovel. The shovel was nice, heat-treated American steel with a heavy-duty fiberglass handle. I ask her how much and she says $100 (plant and shovel). I say not bad, how much was the plant? She says $25. I say you paid how much for a shovel -- are you crazy? (maybe plus a few more choice words). Now she's really pissed and ready to use the shovel for my grave. She picks the shovel up to return it and I won't let her, saying I said I wanted a nice shovel, and you did what I said. Hopefully it won't work-soften with use and we'll get a lot of years out of the shovel. So I redeemed myself. The next day I was using the shovel while working on a new road to my shed and laid it down to mark the ground (the yellow fiberglass seemed like a good visible marker). YUP YOU GUESSED IT, I RAN OVER IT WITH MY TRACTOR. The fiberglass shattered like bamboo. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Dutch445 · Dec 7, 2004

I can see it now,,

"I just got this shovel,, and the darn thing broke the first day I used it, now it must have been defective, won't you take it back under warranty and give me a new one?

as the clerk looks at the tire tracks on the splintered fiberglass!

and yes,, they do splinter, especially after a few years... OUCH!
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

TC18guy · Dec 7, 2004

That sounds like something I would do! My $40 sears fiberglass shovel has a lifetime warranty, hopefully yours does too!

The vandals have been around my house too. I noticed they put a couple of poke holes in my brand new 18' garage door. They happen to be about the same size and spacing as the wire shelving rack that was hanging 4' out of the back of my pickup. They must be trying to make me look bad.

rdln · Dec 7, 2004

I have a level under or next to the septic tank, chainsaw left in bucket (replaced the handle $70, saw was $200 new), brushhogged a city water valve, utility bundle, fiberglass shovel, acouple cable hookup wires (that should have been buried), rototilled a LPG gas line (buried too shallow), 1/2 galvanized pipe (instant coil spring), a couple sprinkler lines, york raked a green transformer box off its base, etc,

hey its all in a days work, it happens

P.S. there is an advantage to backing the tractor on to the trailer, unless you made sure the hood is latched

DaveNay · Dec 7, 2004

( I can see it now,,

"I just got this shovel,, and the darn thing broke the first day I used it, now it must have been defective, won't you take it back under warranty and give me a new one?

as the clerk looks at the tire tracks on the splintered fiberglass!

and yes,, they do splinter, especially after a few years... OUCH!
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif )

Knowing most of the clerks I have run across (pun intended) at the home centers, they wouldn't recognise tractor tire tracks if they were on their own forehead. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Dave

getut · Dec 7, 2004

I watched some dummy lose a 20' chain on 2 CONSECUTIVE trips dragging downed trees.

Brand new tractor so anything that can be touched with the FEL looks like fun. I.. err... I mean the dummy that I watched drug a large cedar to the burn pile. Puts the chain in the FEL and proceeds to head back to the area with the downed trees. One of them is still attached to the ground slightly, to I, I mean the dummy, pops it out of the hole and proceeds to fill the hole. Then get off to fasten the tree to the back of the tractor and the chain is gone. Dig the chain back out, drag the tree to the burn pile. Put the chain back in the FEL and start to head back to the trees. On the way back, run over a big rock that has been hit many times with the mower and decide it has to go. Idiot proceeds to dig up the rock and bury the chain again. Not 5 minutes have passed since the last chain burial.

JDFANATIC · Dec 7, 2004

Not against negligence. Besides I'm too honest and figured all the stupidity was on my side. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I did end up getting a wood handle, drilling out the pin and inserting a screw. It really is a good shovel, I just can't imagine what the Mrs. was thinking! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

willywildes · Dec 7, 2004

I have put a gash in the shop with the FEL. Back filled a trench over the new pipe wrench. but this one happened today I just bought a new 3pt sprayer started putting it together reading the instructions how to attach the boom. and then the PTO pump they show a torque arm assembly no torque arm[I call the dealer and ask where is my torque arm he says oh they used to send them out with the sprayers but the farmers just use a piece of chain it works better i raise my eyebrow and say ok] a couple of hose clamps are missing and the fittings out of the pump to the hoses are not there so i figure i must have to supply those too i run to three different store to get the right pieces hook it all up ready to put water in it to test spray. take off the lid and low and behold there are is the operator's manual , clamps, chain pressure gauge, fittings and warranty.

sometimes you just have to laugh!!

SPIKER · Dec 7, 2004

Sometimes the dummy on the tractor is not ME /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I had my barn up the 200 amp electrical panel mounted in the barn, and the trench all dug a good 4' dep from my existing drop & disconnect box for the house, and the wire ran to my NEW Stainless Steel box I made to replace that 30 year old rusted out one which was home to some 4000 wasps (ouch was that fun to get rid of! couldn't spray em as it was HOT at the time! lol) anyhow Old house hooked up to NEW box, New Barn hooked up to new box, and #0-2 Al wires ran in conduit all way to the barn. trench was only getting back filled to about 24" so I could run other items in same trench. I was attaching the wires to the disconnect breaker at the pole, my brother was on the tractor running the back hoe back filling trench. all of a sudden I'm nearly smacked in the groin by the electrical conduit. seems he over filled some of the trench and was going to remove it. cought the conduit and tore it out luckly it didn't damage the "U.S.E." wire (under ground service enternace wire) so now I ahve my wire burried 4' deep for 75 feet in each dirrection from the middle and about 30" where we hand dug the dirt all back out and tried to get the wire back down deep enough and fix the conduit... somehow I know the wire is setting in a conduit that is full of water on each end now... /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif guess one day I'll have to FIX it again when he is not running the back hoe! lol... worst thing is he didn't put down my "burried cable tape" and the phone line either... GRRR /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif oh well he is one heck of a good framer and drywaller!. shortly there after was when he tried to drive the tractor across the trench to continue back filling.. oh ya I'm glad the back hoe has wnough power to pretty much RIGHT the tractor. I really couldn't be mad at him he was having FUN and getting some good seat time...

Mark M

Gary_in_Indiana · Dec 7, 2004

I posted about this a while ago but I'll share it again now that I have the picture handy. I started mowing early one morning and had on a flannel shirt. As the sun came up so did the temperature so I shed the shirt and put it under a bungee cord on the fender. All of a sudden I hear this loud yet muffled WHOOOMP as my RPM's dropped then came back.

I get to the end of the row, make my turn and head back. I see something in the grass but can't quite make out what it is until I get a little closer. Sure enough, the remnants of my shirt. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I have my share of knicks and marks on door frames and even bumped the barn siding once but never did any real damage. Of course, I don't consider damage done to equipment during completion of a task to be in the 'ooops' category.

If I did, I'd be listing all four lenses on my road lights, the scorched area on my loader bucket, the broken grille and LH engine cowl piece on my Deere and the bent exhaust stack on my International dozer.

It sure is a good thing that stuff doesn't count, huh? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Todd_C · Dec 7, 2004

One last stupy. Last year I was cutting down a tree in the back yard. A little over half way through the 60 foot tall oak the chainsaw ran out gas /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I couldn't get the chainsaw bar out of the tree so I ran around to the garage and got the gas can and a socket set. You guessed it, the tree fell before I got back. The tree kicked back up in the air and smashed my saw into several pieces. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Moon · Dec 7, 2004

One Friday I was doing road maintenance, making drainage ditches and since I know the gas line is run above ground on the right side of the road I had to be extra careful. I hand dug the trench under the gas line. The better half stops by to see how things are going and reminds me that the gas line is on the right side of the road. No problem, I remembered dear. So, I'm showing off how cool the tractor is and how well it can dig these trenches, all of the sudden I hear a big WHOOSH and hissing sound. I was sure I'd blown a hydraulic line. I backed up to where I could check under the tractor, but the noise stayed in front of me. Yep, I cut right through the gas line that I knew was there.
Remember I said it was Friday. The gas supply store wasn't open all weekend. Yep, one weekend I soon won't forget.

Moon of Ohio

sendero · Dec 7, 2004

( LOL, these are great .....

They remind me of the time I didn't back over a garden hoe in my F150 and split a sidewall wide open.

Or the time I wasn't backing out of that same driveway, about the same spot (hexed?) and I let my wheels go just a foot off the crushed rock and it was raining and I wasn't stuck tight and I didn't go back up into the woods 20' trying to get a running start out and my wife didn't helpfully suggest I get the tractor and I didn't ignore her suggestion for 20 more minutes so I could'nt play in the mud, and I didn't spew a stream of profanities that would make a sailor blush /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif )

I made the mistake of showing my wife this post. She, in her inimitable fashion added oh yeah, and you didn't say "I don't want to get my tractor dirty!" I sure don't remember it but it sounds like something I'd say /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This is the woman who once asked "what's burning?" an hour after turning a batch of cornbread into perfectly good charcoal /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif She's one to talk!

JayC · Dec 7, 2004

The shirt fragments in your photo are bright enough to look like a forensics team used luminol (detects blood). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

JimR · Dec 7, 2004

Today I was installing new oak planks in the barn project. It was freezing rain and I needed to bring some planks into the barn to groove them. No biggy right, just pile 9 2x8x14 planks on the bucket and chain them on. I get over to the barn and dump the bucket. Just before I get it all the way down I see a green thing fall out of the bucket. I forgot I had my Makita sawzall in there. Almost dumped the load on it. Duh, it was raining was my excuse for stupidity today.

Phred · Dec 7, 2004

I have one of those defective products also. I did not notice it until I had owned it a couple of months that my truck has a scratch about 5" long in one of the lower quarter panels. Clearly must be a defect. The funny thing is it matches exactly the paint on one of the sharp corners of one of my implements...... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

And I am still waiting on an apolagy and new paint job from who ever the turkey is that broke the taillight and chipped the paint on one side of my dump trailer.....its almost like they dumped a full bucket off 1 1 /2" gravel on the side of the trailer /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
But of course I would not know anything about this.... just pure speculation on my part.

Fred