Scared the crap out of myself this afternoon!!!!

On one of the farms my oldest rents there are two grain bins that we do not use. He rents them to a friend of mine. The problem with the bins and the farm is that the only access is on a county grade "B" road. Meaning that it is a low maintenance road. It gets graded maybe twice each year. They never push the snow out of it.

My friend has soybeans stored in the one bin. He has a April contract on the beans. The buyer called him and offered a 25 cent bonus if he could deliver them next week, last week of March. He called me to see if we could haul them for him. I told him no problem. I would just have to go blow out the county road to get back to the bins. We usually like them being snowed shut as it makes for fewer people that can cause trouble back at the farm stead.

The farm is back the road about 1 1/2 miles. At about the 1 mile mark there is a dip/valley where the road goes down a pretty steep incline and crosses a big culvert and goes back up a steep incline on the other side. It is perfectly straight so the trucks have zero trouble pulling the grade even on snow pack up at a fairly good speed.

So right before evening chores I started the snow blower tractor and went over to blow the road out and clean around the bin. It is about six miles over there. So I took all the chains off and just took the rear ones with me. I left the front chains at home. I chained the rear tires after I got to the road. I made the first pass without any issue at all the snow was soft enought that it blew real well. There where deep drifts in places maybe 4-5 feet tall. The only issue is that there is a layer of ice right on the gravel. It is real slick.

I was about half way down the steepest part on the second pass when I had the key way shear off the right rear wheel wedge. The tractor took off free wheeling. I hit the differential lock but then the one rear wheel would not hold the tractor. If I left the snow blower down there was not enough rear weight for the one tire to bite and hold. If I lifted the blower then the left rear tire would hold but the front end was light enough that the tractor wanted to twist around side ways in the road. Remember this happening while the tractor is rolling down hill with a narrow culvert coming up that has pretty steep drop offs on each side. I finally got the tractor straight and just kicked it into neutral an let it roll. I left the blower down to drag and just steered the tractor straight through the culvert. When I got started up the other side then there was enough weight on the front end for the MFWD to help the one tire push the tractor up the hill. When I got to a flat spot I got out to see what had happened. The wedge had sheared the key off smooth. So the axle was just spinning in the wedges.

I called my youngest son and he got a spare wedge I happened to have and brought the tools needed for the repair. I just pulled the tractor to where the broken wedge was on the top. We where able to remove the bolts and broken wedge without even having to jack the tractor up. I finished clearing the road and barn yard. On the way home I stopped and tightened the "new" wedge several times until I was not able to gain anything the last two times.

I have a local guy that will spread some rock chips on the road tomorrow before we take the trucks back the road.

I will admit that my heart was beating pretty fast for a few moments. All I could think of was going down one of those drop offs. It would have been a wild ride!!!!

This makes me wonder about guys I see with 8-10 ft. blowers on smaller tractors. I have a 10 ft Red Devil blower that is a mid range blower. It is not a real light one but it is not as heavy as some I see. I am running it on a JD 4450 MFWD with good tires all the way around and had the rear chains on when this happened. I will make sure and have the front tire chains on before I use it on any more steep roads/drives. Maybe put a few more of the front weights on too. I had ten on but the rack will hold twenty.

Well I guess all is well and it did not take fifteen minutes to fix it. The wife may have a harder time with my laundry than the repair was. LMAO

JD Seller, Glad to hear that you're ok.

Kind of a 12 on a 1 thru 10 scale of 'Pucker Factor'? LOL!Glad you're ok. !

It sure does sound like a death defying ride. Glad to hear that you made it all right.
Zach

That is what happens when you run them DANG OLD GREEN tractors..LOL No what happened is experience kicked in somebody without your experience might have had a different ending.. Glad you are OK.. Light rain and cold wind but just a sprinkle of the white stuff..

Have a good one and stay safe..Instead of paying us 25cents to get the beans they are wanting to pay 10 cents a month for us to keep them.

Hey you just passed your stress test.

Why would a wedge shear blowing snow on an icy road? It couldn't of been pulling very hard.

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

I think it was 90% broke and just happened to break when the down hill load hit it. This is the tractor that I made out of a wrecked one. I wonder if it was damaged in the wreck??? I never have had the wedges out since I put it together 15-20 years ago.

I am really glad it happened when it did. We use this tractor to pull loads of corn and corn silage to the barns on some real steep hills.

Here is a picture of the tractor during corn silage harvest two years ago on some of those hills.

The Good Lord was looking after you! What a strange failure. Seems you had your wits about you though.

Front and rear chains? Wow. Few people use any chains on a blower around here, bust things up with too much traction. Most of us leave it in 2wd for blowing, let the tires slip a little.

We have hills here too, so surprised you are hauling grain through something so steep that 3 wheels, one chained, wouldn"t stop it.

And yes, we"ve had the miserable ice all winter here too, lost a cow to it, and managed to happen upon a second one 5 minutes after she did the rear slipstream and saved her.

Anyhow, glad you were ok through it all, stuff like that is pretty exciting.....

Paul

I think it"s kharma payback for some of the positive things you do for others. Glad you"re still around.

The first winter we were married I was backing load of ear corn into the implement shed after unhooking it when I pulled away the tractor slid off the drive and down a hill in pasture towards a pond.I thought sure I could bring the front end around and go into the pond nose first but on that ice I had no control.I can still hear my wife scream as that 4010 went into the pond and broke thru the ice.When the lower wheel broke thru the ice the tractor stopped and the other side came off the ground and just hung there for an instant and thankfully went back down rather than upsetting.Wife was to shook up to help me pull it out.Our 3020 and loader had chains but not the 4010. Glad you are ok as I enjoy reading your posts.Neighbor broke a wedge in his 4430 years ago at a tractor pull.

JD! It sounds like the LORD still has some work for you to do!

Glad you are able to type about it. That could have turned out much worse.

Testing replies, please ignore.

Huh? Neither of my tractors will move in wet snow in 2wd with the blower down, they do have loaders on them though. I run chains on my smaller one and still need 4wd.

My larger tractor is a 100 hp mfwd but it has radials. Even with the front and rear diffs locked in 4wd it can barely move itself around in snow or ice. Driveways my truck goes up in 2wd I'll end up having to put 2 tires in the deep snow in the field to get up.

JD, what you need is a Blue bi-directional a yellow or lime green would work, at least you don"t have to look over your shoulder.
Glad the almost wreck came out ok.

VERY doubtful that key sheared all at once!

As I walk around tractors, combines, etc., and service them, etc., I am always on the lookout for a trail of powdered rust or a shiny area near the wheel hub, on the axle shafts, or in the wheel lug area that would indicate a hub loose on the axle and moving around or loose lugs.

Have seen that MORE than once and made repairs BEFORE something broke or fell off.

Probably a good thing to add to you PM routine!