My HST pedals locked up yesterday.

[jinman]

I was clearing brush along the property line of a tract I have for sale. My method was to back the rotary cutter into the brush and then use a bypass-loper to cut limbs up to 1-1/2" diameter.

I was in a particularly thick bunch of postoak and blackjack oak trees when suddenly my HST pedal froze. I tried the reverse pedal, but of course, it was the same, frozen solid. Aargh! Here I am, buried in brush and my tractor won't move. Thoughts of how I could ever get the tractor out of there were racing through my mind.

I shut down the rotary cutter and got off the tractor to inspect the pedals. Back when I first bought the tractor, the attaching point to the transmission had broken and the pedals would not work, but the pedals moved freely with that problem. Their movement was just not getting to the transmission. This problem was different like something stuck in the pedal mechanism and keeping the pedals locked. Working in the brush, I expected to find a limb stuck in the pedals, but to my surprise, there was nothing there. I really began to get a sick feeling in my stomach.

So, I climbed back into the seat and pushed really hard on the pedal. The tractor moved slightly and slowly forward and I realized the tractor could creep out of this mess by itself, but I was sure afraid I would bend the pedal if I pushed too hard. I had a flash idea and reached down to flick the Rabbit/Turtle switch to Rabbit. Sure enough, the tractor moved a little faster just as it should normally. Instead of the joystick switch, I reached down to the fender Rabbit/Turtle switch and flipped it back and forth. Perfect! I was going to be able to get that tractor out of the brush to work on it.

Just as I was flipping the switch and watching the orange light on either side of the toggle, something caught my eye. What's that? It's. . .well. . .the cruise control green light is On. Wait! I flipped the switch to Off and WALA! The pedals suddenly worked normally. DOH!!! A limb had pressed on the cruise control switch just as I had lifted my foot off the pedals. This effectively locked the pedals in neutral. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with my tractor, just jealous brush that wanted to press buttons as I drove by. Woohoo! I'm a happy guy.

EDIT: Thanks to the moderator who moved this post from Buying/Pricing to Owning Operating. I was going to do it, but my connection slowed to a crawl. By the time I got back here, you had "done the deed" for me.

 

[JC-jetro]

I'm in hot pursuit here at work, great that you got out of perceived pickle quickly and safely. I got to be back to read and digest your details a bit later.

Glad you're okay


JC,

 

[djradz]

An additional positive outcome - you confirmed your cruise control is in perfect working condition!

Seems that working in brush causes more problems for me than all the other tasks I subject the tractor to put together. That stuff is just waiting there, ready to reach out and cause some mischief.

As you work your tractor much more and harder than I, I was reading your post, just waiting to get to the point where you would inform us all of some other hidden defect that we all might see several hundred (or maybe it's thousand by now) hours down the road. So glad for all of us, but especially you Jim that it turned out to be nothing. Thanks again for all your wisdom and concern to let us all know, even if it might be just a little embarrassing.

 

[gregkabob]

Jim, Glad all turned out well. I've had a few of those moments since owning my tractor. I'v had the "blowing black smoke,no power, because big dummy you didn't clean or replace the air filter" and the "Man this thing just doesn't want to go moment, as I drove it back to the barn to discover the parking brake was on" DOHHHHH

It is a good feeling to when you figure out it's nothing really wrong with your machine. Now go check your fenders

 

[jwstewar]

Glad you got it fixed Jim.

When I read the post title, that was my first thought. Once I saw it was you, I immediately, nope, can't be that. He would get that one right off. Glad it was a simple fix.

 

[JC-jetro]

EDIT: Thanks to the moderator who moved this post from Buying/Pricing to Owning Operating. I was going to do it, but my connection slowed to a crawl. By the time I got back here, you had "done the deed" for me.

I reread your original post and glad all worked out and learned something new. Jim... by the way, did something turned on your cruise control by accideny? same as your tractor?

JC,

 

[jwstewar]

I reread your original post and glad all worked out and learned something new. Jim... by the way, did something turned on your cruise control by accideny? same as your tractor?

JC,

No, nothing in particular. Just know by using it, that if the cruise is on, the pedals won't move. I use that to my advantage when I disengage the cruise so that I don't receive whiplash.

Sorry, wish there were a funny story to tell. I could tell you about installing the drain lines for the spouting and while I was straddling the ditch to cover it back up with the box blade the front-end slipped down into the trench and by the time I got it back out I had crush about 12 feet of the drain tile.

 

[JC-jetro]

No, nothing in particular. Just know by using it, that if the cruise is on, the pedals won't move. I use that to my advantage when I disengage the cruise so that I don't receive whiplash.

Sorry, wish there were a funny story to tell. I could tell you about installing the drain lines for the spouting and while I was straddling the ditch to cover it back up with the box blade the front-end slipped down into the trench and by the time I got it back out I had crush about 12 feet of the drain tile.

Jim,

I failed to get my message across, Jim(jinman) said his internet connection slowed to a crawl when he decided to move his post. I was trying to be funny by saying that if anything touched his "internet cruise control'" to bring it to crawling speed paralleling to what happened on his HST tractor.

JC,

 

[jinman]

Jim,

I failed to get my message across, Jim(jinman) said his internet connection slowed to a crawl when he decided to move his post. I was trying to be funny by saying that if anything touched his "internet cruise control'" to bring it to crawling speed paralleling to what happened on his HST tractor.

JC,

I suppose it could be something similar, JC. I have recently installed a wireless aircard from Verizon on my desktop and use the same card in our laptop when travelling. This morning, I noticed when I logged on that it said "Roaming" instead of the normal broadband connect message. The speed was about the same as a dial-up connection. My guess is that they had the system down temporarily for maintenance/repair. Anyhow, about 8:30 this morning, they kicked me off entirely. As I reconnected, I noticed the normal high speed message and my connection returned to its normal blazing fast speed.

On the tractor issue with cruise. . . I'm sure I would have noticed cruise was ON if I had been moving, but to have something engage cruise while I was sitting still is what threw me off. I suppose it may have been me cutting a head-high limb with my loper. As it fell, it hit the button. When I pressed on the pedal to go, it was locked firmly in neutral position by the electromagnet. Had I killed the engine or even stepped on both brake pedals, it would have dropped out of cruise. It was just one of those "Aw Darn!" moments that turn out to be "how embarrassing" instead.

 

[lhfarm]

...Just as I was flipping the switch and watching the orange light on either side of the toggle, something caught my eye. What's that? It's. . .well. . .the cruise control green light is On. Wait! I flipped the switch to Off and WALA! The pedals suddenly worked normally. DOH!!! A limb had pressed on the cruise control switch just as I had lifted my foot off the pedals. This effectively locked the pedals in neutral. There was nothing whatsoever wrong with my tractor, just jealous brush that wanted to press buttons as I drove by. Woohoo! I'm a happy guy....

Thanks for sharing/posting this. I've tucked it away in my mental "tractor behavior debugging" tool kit. In a former life, I managed a bunch of programmers, back in the mainframe days. My industry didn't pay enough to hire "experienced" programmers, so I would often have straight-out-of-school rookies. "Experienced" to me meant someone had made enough mistakes that he/she could quickly debug a program. I pretty much forced new people to spend no more than an hour trying to find/fix a problem. After that, we did a team debug, with the more experienced programers sharing their "been there, done that and fixed it" advice. I only had one programmer quit because he felt he had to find the problem on his own. For everyone else, it was a great team building and productivity experience.

The great thing about TBN is there a bunch of people like you willing to take the time to share stories that add to the collective knowledge base. If I can't find/fix the tractor problem, I don't wait an hour, I just start searching TBN.