Tractor stories

When my children were small when I put them to bed they always wanted "A Story that Really Happened" so I told them stories of growing up on a farm, Me and my brothers,stories my parents and grandparents told they loved it and passed down family history as well. How about some of your tractor stories? I posted a question on the JD forum about an A my father had with a sticking hand clutch. They seem to take it personally. The tractor did a wheel stand as I was trying to pull a truck out of the sand I could not get the clutch to release finally reached up pulled the throttle back and shut it off. Doesn't sound like much but sure was scary to me. How some of yours?
Ron

My mother used to tell us bedtime stories of my grandpa's horses, he had three teams of draft and a team of carriage horses plus a few extra of each. We got stories of their adventures , dilemmas and the unfortunate death of one of them..I could see Queenie in my mind and still remeber her as the high spirited mare around which many stories were spun

RB,

I started driving tractors when I was 7 years old in 1951. Farmers were still shocking corn and then going back later and picking up the bundles by putting them on the hay wagon and hauling them to the barn.

One of the farmers my family worked for had a Minneapolis-Moline with a hand clutch. I would drive the tractor from one end of the field to the other while the men picked up hay bales or corn bundles. When I'd get the end of the field, one of the men would jump up onto the tractor and turn it around, then I'd operate it back to the other end of the field.

My own children, and grandchildren, were about 10 or 12 years old when they started driving tractors.

Tom in TN

When I was young I was riding on the drawbar of the Farmall H with grandpa. We pulled up to a gate that was closed and he kept yelling Whoa Whoa Whoa. Just at the last minute before hitting the gate he pushed the clutch in.

About 5 years later I figured out that he thought he was still driving the team of horses.

Gary

Don't be blaming us for "taking it personally"

You asked if there was something wrong with the tractor to cause this. You were told about some conditions that could cause the clutch to disengage hard and were also told if you hooked up the chain properly to the drawbar it would not of reared up in the first place.

You asked and we answered truthfully. Now you need to take responsibilty for your actions and lack of saftey.

When my oldest brother was about 9, Dad took him out to the field to harrow some corn with the 8N Ford. They got the tractor started and down the field he went. Dad went back to the house to get ready for his day. Pretty soon brother came running over the hill. I guess as the engine started warming up, a big bullsnake didn't care for the excess heat and started coming out. He started to wrap around the vertical exhaust, only making him madder. When dad and brother got back to the tractor the snake had wrapped himself around the steering wheel like he was guarding the tractor so no one would steal it! About 25 years ago I was planting milo with the 806 in the late spring. The tractor had a poor cab on it, but it was better than nothing. I had the tractor started and was headed down the field. I had used the tractor the day before and since it was spring, I had taken the feed sack out from in front of the radiator that had been there all winter. Felt something on my foot so I reached down to move it thinking the sack had gotten caught on my shoe. It was a bullsnake also. It didn't take long for me to get out of the tractor, since we do have some rattlesnakes around here. I jumped out of the tractor while it was still moving. Luckily I was going really slow so I could reach up and shut off the tractor. After getting the tractor shut off, I saw no sign of that snake. Made for an uncomfortable morning in that tractor.

In the late 70's, my friend Wyatt was skidding a log out of the bush with their Massey 1100.
Suddenly overtaken by a swarm of hornets, he jammed it in park and jumped off and ran, as any sane person would do.
There we stood, looking at the idling 1100 with the exhaust going straight up to a branch with a huge hornets nest, and hundreds of hornets buzzing about angrily.
I don't remember how we got out of that, I was only 11 or so at the time.

I remember my Grandad farming with horses. He finally bought a Allis WC w/hand brakes but continued to farm w/the horses and I could sure see why.

Older fellow in my church was telling of his father who had done sod busting "in the day". Large, vast land-very boring to ride on the tractor, so he rigged it so it would stay in the furrow. Had another guy on the other end-they just needed to turn it around! I would love to have seen that one! Greg

Speaking of snakes, my father hated snakes with a passion.

One morning when I was about five, Dad went somewhere with the truck. During the course of the morning, my mother killed a big bull snake in the garden. Dad came home at noon and went into the house to wash up and eat. While he was in the house, Mom told me, "Let's have some fun with your dad". She coiled the dead snake on the driver's seat of the truck.

Dad came out of the house after eating and saw the snake on the seat of the truck. We had a railing on the front steps made out of 2x4's, and Dad pulled a 2x4 out of the railing and killed the snake all over again.

By then, Mom was in stitches, laughing so hard I think the neighbors could have heard her. Dad not only killed a snake that was already dead, he had to fix the railing on the steps.

Sounds a little like what the neighbor kid did with a DC Case with a hand clutch when we were in Jr High. He usually used the Ferguson,but for some reason his dad had him on the Case. He came up in the yard,hit the left brake,spun around and drove right through the side of their moblie home. Didn't remember it was a hand clutch. His uncle turned white as a sheet and just got in his pickup and went home. He told us later that he was so afraid of what could have happened if he'd gone in far enough to decapitate himself,he got weak in the knees and couldn't even speak.

I had given to me a building that would work for a chicken shed. But it took 4 guys and 2 tractors to get the old thing up and on a trailer and back to house in the pouring down rain that came alone then.
At the house we got it off the trailer and on the ground. But it was not setting straight as I wanted it.
So I got on this old John Deer with clutch handle and a bucket to move it just a coupld of inches. Thinking I can do this even though I had only been on this type of tractor one other time for a short.....Well I moved closer to my fine building and forgot to grab the clutch handle. ...shessssss warped my building good and could not get it straighten again. So now everytime I go out to feed or check for eggs. I have to think about that stupied clutch handle on the old John Deer. ..Now I laugh.. was not so funny when I did it and scared the crap out of me to. Thought I was going right into the building for a big crash. lol lol

Heres a couple ,When I was about 10was hauling in hay at neighbors with a JD "B" ,about 75 bales on I guess ,there was a long grade to his barn lot ,thought it was neat to pull back the clutch,knock it out of gear and free wheel down the hill .It was till I lost control went thru a ditch ,thru a fence and wound up in another guys pasture.Never lost a bale

A neighbor had a bank barn with a hay loft at ground level .you could drive right in but the back
was about 12Ft. off the ground .His kid pulled in with an old Allis and he forgot to clutch ,tractor went thru the end of the barn,the load of hay was stopped by a barn beam,but the tractor was dangling straight up and down out the end of the barn held only by the hitch pin . No one hurt

my dad loves those old JD tractors, but it always the good old farmall H to the rescue.

one time he was pulling a trailer around back of one of our house in meigs county ohio, when that hand clutch sliped out of his hand and him the JD A and trailer went half way over a hill and got stuck between some trees. so had to start up the Farmall and grab a chain and pull it back up the hill. JD-0, Farmall-1

not long after that one he was taking the JD out to the field and then the fan blade went thro the radiator, and farmall had to pull it home again. JD-0, Farmall-2.

then he was mowing down it our hollow with that JD and a 7 foot finish mower between some trees, that hand clutch sliped again and it got wrapped around some trees, and agin the farmall to the rescue to pull the mower back up the hill. JD-0, Farmall-3.

then not to long ago when it was about 15 degesse of course that JD would not start so the old farmall had to do all the work. she started with one crank. JD-0, Farmall-4

just a few time that old JD got shown up by the good old Farmall.

Dear Mike,
I don't need to apologize I hooked the chain just like my Father told me. I was about 12 years old and if the truck had not choked down as soon as we started to pull that A would have pulled it out, it had an incredible amount of power. There was something wrong or out adjustment with the tractor we had or no one would have wanted to own one. Dad sold it back to the man he bought it from. He had been bugging Dad to sell it back to him not very long after he sold it. No I should not have been on it to start with but I usually did what I was told. Besides it was 50 years ago.
Ron

my grandma used to tell a story of my grandad who died in 1937 having a team of horses hitched to a wagon that spooked and ranoff down a road with my grandad still on board. two women in the community were walking down the road and could see him comming,standing up and fighting the reins hard as he could to regain control. as he passed them he tipped his hat and said mornin ladies. still fighting the team

I operated a trenching machine one summer digging a trench to put pipe in for a new town water system. I came upon an area that had some hornets flying around. I put the blade all the way down into the ground, put the machine in the lowest gear, turned the throttle wide open, and got off the machine. The trencher cut down an embankment, across a driveway, and up the embankment on the other side while I was watching safely away form the hornets. My boss drove by while this was going on and I heard his truck stop and back up. He scratched his head for about a minute and then drove off. I was hiding behind a bush as I didn't want to hear from him at the time.

I borrowed the neighbor's JD 70, and I was trying to back up to the baler, with wife standing there to put in the pin. Pushed the clutch handle the wrong way when trying to slow down, sped up instead, figured it out just in the nick of time and pulled back as hard as I could- stopped the tractor with the implement tongue lined up perfectly. Wife dropped in the pin, congratulated me on being pretty nifty with that thing, and went back to the house. I never told her how close she came to losing her life. To this day, when I'm backing up an unfamiliar tractor with someone in harm's way, I "practice" a little bit first, so I know when to zig and when to zag.

Mike...lol now that was funny. I would not have told mine either. lol

I had a JD 420C. First gear was less than 1 MPH wide open so I used to stop and get off in front of a farm gate, then, standing beside it with it idling, push the clutch in with my hand, put it in first and start it moving. I'd then open the gate, wait for it to go thru, close the gate and go back to the tractor. A guy stopped for directions once as this was happening....drove off shaking his head lol. Another time I got my old car I was using for a farm truck stuck on some wet grass on a slope. I did the same thing to give it a push, got in to drive. Went a few feet, turning slightly toward the right, and got stuck again. Crawler was still coming straight. I opened the door and got out to stop it and the crawler blade was so close I couldn't shut it. If I had slipped.... but I didn't. The door got folded into the front fender. It wasn't funny til much later.

Thank you for your stories I figured there was a lot of good ones to be told. One day when I can get the pictures scanned to post them I want everyone to see the planters that flipped up on my brother.
Ron