[AT] Re: Time to 'fess up

[Jim Thomson]

   I have a story that put a real good scare into me. After I had my TD9 
up and running I decided to change the oil. With the oil pan very low to 
the ground I got the idea of driving the tractor up onto to some very 
big blocks of wood. I would say that the heights of the blocks were 24" 
or so. I drove the tractor up onto the blocks and had plenty of room to 
work underneath. Just to make sure of the steadiness of the set up, I 
tried pushing and generally tried to get the tractor to move. It looked 
like a very solid set up so I got under the tractor and started working. 
I had just enough room to work. The only problem was that the weight of 
the tractor was concentrated on the cleats which split the top blocks. 
The tractor then dropped within inches of my chest. It happened very 
quickly. It was my lucky day as I did not get hurt but it could have 
turned out badly. I was very shaken and waited a few days before I 
attempted to change the oil again. This time I dug a deep trench in 
order to get under the tractor. To this day, my wife does not know about 
this :-[

Spencer Yost wrote:

>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>On 10/15/2004 at 9:54 AM Mike Sloane wrote:
>  
>
>>You guys have some great stories to relate. I guess I have been lucky 
>>over the years. My only tractor screw-ups involve getting the same 
>>    
>>
>
>Lucky guy!   Keep your guard up though.   
>
>Another error I made was with my Farmall A.  I used loppers to cut a very
>small sapling, about 2 fingers around, and then needed to pull the stub(too
>small to even call a stump).    I wrapped a small chain around it a few
>times around and hooked to rear cultivator arm - (why bother attaching the
>with a drawbar for something my daughter could pull out with her bike? I
>thought).   Dumped the clutch - and oh my god - the front end was off the
>ground in a heart beat and I mean _way_ up.   The further up the front end
>went, the higher the cultivator arm went (spring loaded so the arm could go
>up some - I didn't think if this complication) and that in turn gave the
>stump more leverage.  Fortunately the stub started giving and lowered the
>front end long enough to gain my composure and get the clutch in.  I swear,
>this stub was NOT bigger than two fingers.   It cut with loppers for gosh's
>sake.  I don't think I would have gone all the way over, but I think if the
>stub was just a little tougher or a little bigger I might have.   I like to
>think if it was a little bigger I would have gotten a drawbar but would I
>have?   Or would I be a statistic in the paper?
>
>Moral:  Never hitch to anything but a drawbar, and never under-estimate a
>stub (or stump as I now called my new tough little friend (-; ).  
>
>Spencer Yost
>Owner, ATIS
>Plow the Net!
>http://www.atis.net
>
>
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>  
>

-- 
Jim Thomson
Naples, FL
L50bmg at earthlink.net

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