View attachment 155303
This Memorial weekend I was farming rocks, and while they do move on their own, some needed a bit of help getting from Point A to Point B as they were not destined to head that direction.
Point A is back on a flat at the top of a hill, Point B is mid-way up the hill, and it's a pretty steep hill.
I didn't have the weight bucket out back because...it was just a few rocks.
Well, I had a fatty (rock, not
that fatty) and was headed down the hill in reverse at a snail's pace to the point I think a snail did actually pass me up. And the tractor got a bit off perfectly-straight-up-and-down-vertical, not much, but enough to lift one rear wheel a little. Now, little did I know, but the BX I own does not have a locking differential, so once one tire was off the ground I was rocketing down the hill, in reverse, with obstructions like rocks and trees and a turn at the bottom--at light speed--so fast I didn't have time to look where I was headed and had to steer from memory. In reverse. (I almost had a new racing stripe, not on the tractor itself.)
Thinking about it in hindsight, there is a pedal to lock the differential, which being Spring and not having used the diff-lock since last year I'd completely forgotten about. I also had on turf tires, because...I was on turf.
After
that incident I was definitely just as cautious going down "the other, steeper hill," however facing forward. I had a much lighter load than "fat Gertrude" and figured I was fine.
Well, guess how that went.
Same situation, one tire lost traction and I was heading downhill toward the side of the garage at light speed, so fast bugs were spattering on my eyeballs as if it were a car windshield. I don't know if you know this, but I didn't know it: the brakes affect only the rear wheels. So here I am mashing the brake pedal without any effect other that looking a bit more...uh, "puzzled." However, this time I couldn't "ride it out" because the roller-coaster was headed right for a building. BAM! Dropped the bucket and between the friction of the bucket and the braking force of the rear wheels now firmly planted on the ground everything came to a halt, other than some of what was in the bucket which continued on another few feet. (No rocks required medical attention.) However, everything stopped short of the garage, so all good there.
LESSON: Put your tractor in four-wheel-drive when on hills with a load. It's that simple. I think. I haven't tried it yet.
