Check my shorts - share your close calls...

[RCW]

Nobody has mowed shoulders here. A bunch of wild parsnip is growing - bad poisonous stuff if you hit it with a trimmer.

Took it upon myself to make a couple passes with the BX for 200 yards near house. Mowing 2-4 foot grass, weeds, etc. But only a 4.5 foot swath.

Unexpectedly, shoulder gets narrow and front of tractor starts to wash out toward an 8' drop-off. Wheels off the ground. Just didn't see it in the stuff I was mowing.....

Stopped, got it in low-range and 4WD.

Even me shifting around was going to make me wheels up in the ditch, and the mower deck was still in gear!!

Wondered for 3 seconds, continue forward or back up?

Continued forward, and the Kubota pulled itself out!!

I checked my shorts, and they were as good as the Kubota (orange, but clean)

For note - I did have my amber flashers on - and also had my seatbelt on. The BX2360 has a fixed ROPS, so that was in place as well.

Lesson learned: Wear your seatbelt, and check your path.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Message for all: Beware unfamiliar deep grass.

Glad you and your shorts made it.

Ray

 

[D2Cat]

Whenever mowing on a slope, one has to be extremely cautious. Walk it every time it it's too tall to see what's there.

I had a friend mowing a pond dam and he had a front tire drop into a rodent hole. Nearly rolled the tractor.

Good to know you're safe. And it's good to report such situations so others might get an chance to learn from someone else's mistakes.

 

[RonBoyBX25D]

Glad it turned out fine for you...great reminder for the rest of us to be safe.

 

[Daren Todd]

We actually mow our ditches about everytime we do the yard. Cuts down on the cover for the water moccasins Used to be able to mow it with my cub cadet. Too steep for the kubota.

Then county came through last summer and added 6 inches of rock to the road and seal coated. Definitely too steep for any mower now Then a few weeks ago, they were paving the main road, and swung down our street So there is 3 to 4" of asphalt on top of the gravel. Now it's gonna be fun dropping the push mower over the side

Glad it turned out good for you

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

Few days ago, was pulling a 8 foot wide rotary harrow, working a horse arena, all was good till I turned a little late drove the front of the tractor up onto a berm at the end while turning sharp, there was a dip and a rise in the berm, just enough to pop the front tire and the rear tire off the ground!
I hit the clutch and stopped and the tractor was just perched up on 2 wheels on it's side with the rotary harrow holding it there, used a small Dozer to shove the harrow around and right the tractor!

Needless to say shorts almost didn't survive it!

 

[WFM]

I was mowing last year on a steep hill heading down with my bush hog cutting. I adjusted myself in the seat and all of a sudden the tractor broke loose freewheeling down the hill. In a split second it happened. I was on the brakes in seconds but it still scared the hell out of me. What happened ? On the left side of my jeans there was a hammer loop that had hooked onto the
LnMnH lever. I always have my tractor(hst) in M when working around. I adjusted my self in the seat pulling the lever into N when the hammer loop was looped over the lever. When I wear jeans with a hammer loop believe me I'm aware of where the loop is now. It could of ended really badly.
HST owners please be aware of this.

 

[tiredguy]

Been there done that and do everything I can to avoid doing it again!

I have a suggestion for those banks that are so steep and you have a
problem with poisonous snakes: Round up!!! Then 2nd would be shotgun as
I'm sure they would be much harder to see in the dead grass and weeds.
Hell, if I lived in areas with that problem I'd never walk out of the house or
get out of a vehicle without a gun. I have a steep ditch I gave up on mowing
and have told a neighbor or two "if you don't like the looks of it knock yourself out mowing it yourself I'm not ever going to".


Al

 

[Lil Foot]

A couple years ago I had stopped the B7100 near the back of my garage to load some concrete blocks into the FEL bucket by hand. The brake was set, fast idling in neutral. As I climbed back on, the baggy pant leg cuff of my coveralls hooked on the gearshift knob, popping the tractor into 3rd, which promptly headed for the garage wall.
Thankfully, the transmission was in low range, giving me time to get seated & shove the clutch in before anything nasty happened. Parking brake made little difference in low range.
I'm much more aware of baggy cuffs these days. Figure I took a couple days off my lifespan with that little scare.

 

[RCW]

I started driving farm tractors at 5 years old, almost 50 years ago.

Kind of embarrassing to get myself in that kind of pickle; I know better.

But we are all human, and I gave you guys a perfect opportunity to poke fun at me, which I deserve!!

Take care!!

 

[Daren Todd]

I started driving farm tractors at 5 years old, almost 50 years ago.

Kind of embarrassing to get myself in that kind of pickle; I know better.

But we are all human, and I gave you guys a perfect opportunity to poke fun at me, which I deserve!!

Take care!!

We ain't gonna poke fun at that first time I finish mowed with the tractor I went a little close to the ditch and dropped the finish mower off the side pulled the up hill front tire off the ground and simultaneously spun the front of the tractor up hill I had a push mower for that area the next day And the shorts barely survived

 

[armylifer]

I was helping my neighbor dig a pit with my loader a couple of weeks ago and I rolled the tractor on it's side when backing out of the pit with a loader full of dirt. As I was backing out of the pit I got too close to one side of the ditch with the RR wheel and it climbed up the wall. Because the bucket was raised with a full load of dirt and the RR wheel was climbing the wall of the ditch, the weight of the bucket plus the off canter of the rear of the tractor made it go over before I ever knew what happened.

 

[ironpony]

I was plowing the driveway, asphalt slight down hill grade, with a rear blade angled to one side. I was moving along, all going well and the blade caught a piece of ice frozen to the driveway. Spun the tractor around 180 degrees in the blink of an eye. Looked around to see if anyone seen it, continued plowing.

 

[thedevilyoulove]

When I first got my tractor, I had a close call going down a hill with a heavy load in the bucket. Rear end of the tractor picked up off the ground, so I immediately dropped the bucket in order to shift the weight back to the rear wheels. Luckily the load was not high off the ground to begin with. It still gave me quite a pucker.

Experience is an expensive school, but fools will learn in no other.

 

[comfun1]

I have rolled mine twice, once in a ravine and once in my pond. My father-in-law rolled his once, in his pond. Both pond roll overs were caused by muscrats. I now use a 12 gauge on the muscrats. My father-in-law no longer mows close to the edge of his pond.

 

[Howling]

Right after delivery I moving brush pile and felt the tractor tilting and was sliding sideways downhill as I backed out of the pile.

Have rolled it once moving dirt. With FEL up to dump moving forward one front wheel went up on a rock. When it hits that over center point it just rolls and you go along for the ride.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I was plowing the driveway, asphalt slight down hill grade, with a rear blade angled to one side. I was moving along, all going well and the blade caught a piece of ice frozen to the driveway. Spun the tractor around 180 degrees in the blink of an eye. Looked around to see if anyone seen it, continued plowing.

Hey, I do that for fun every winter!
I'm the king at tractor drifting!

 

[SDMauler]

This isn't one of mine, but I saw on FB the other day where a guy was mowing around a pond on a ZTM and accidentally turned it upside down and drown. Those old-timers had ditch mowing figured out with an offset qsickle mower. I wouldn't mind having one of the 3-point trailer types for when the pasture gets really tall.

 

[xring]

In the Mid seventies and my teens I was cutting a field for a company that had a slush pit. Looks like a pond but not sure if water was all that was in it. As I was cutting near the bank I noticed the dirt was breaking off into the pit. I tried gradually moving away from the edge but the dirt was sloughing off faster than I could get away. Knowing if the dirt broke away under the wheels I would flip the tractor I Nosed it into the pit and shifted into reverse. It didn't matter the tractor kept going forward until the water shut off the engine. We had a 3/4 ton Chevy with a winch and I chained the rear bumper to some heavy equipment that was handy then winched the tractor out of the pit and eventually onto a trailer. That was the summer I learned how to work on a Tractor. Dad was not amused but was helpful. 3 weeks later I finished mowing that field.
X

 

[badgerking]

Rolled mine yesterday with too much weight in the front loader, nothing on the rear, and going downhill. Luckily, the ROP kept the tractor from rolling all the way over so it and I just slid together for a short distance. I was not wearing my seat belt. I was lucky. Just some abrasions, bruises, and aggravated old man pains. The tractor seems to be okay. I will be buying a ballast bucket for the rear this week and taking the tractor in for a check up just to be safe nothing was damaged... and wearing my seat belt from now on.