What percentage of breakdowns....

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
...happen in the back of the field? Or running out of gas on an old tractor without a gauge? Seems to me I would have a better chance of winning the lottery than having a tractor stop running up by the road. I was just telling another forum member in an e-mail how my planting season is going. Just replaced a hydraulic hose on the 1586...easy...two connections. Except half the county musta blown a line this week because there was a wait to get a new one and the tractor was more than a quarter mile back in a field that was dry when I started...not so much now. I new I would play the devil getting that chisel back on the tractor (by myself) if I unhooked and limped up to the shed. So I worked on it right where it was. Pull up the floor, stand on your head/hang from your ankles, fight with a fuel line and wire harness....

Works now! Back up to the shed. Waiting on some sun to dry things out/warm things up a bit. Guess I'll see what is ailing the old corn planter that I had not anticipated. Rant over...maybe...

And people think I get cranky during tax season!?!? This is the life I chose.
 
My dad used to say "if it was easy everyone would want to do it" I'm not sure what the percentage is but it seems like there are a lot that happen the farthest away. Last week I was cleaning out a ditch that was as far away from the barn as I can get on this farm. The fan belt broke so I had to walk the 2 miles back to the truck. I still haven't recovered from the pneumonia back in the winter and I had to stop and rest several times. I also have a fair amount of breakdowns near the barn. I guess it all averages out.
 
My dad used to say it did not matter where you put the gas can, tractor would run out of gas furthest from it.
 
My aunt's place is the furthest land from home that I have. Two and a half miles away,then the place is half a mile long. Just off the top of my head,I can remember a flat tire on the front of the White,a power steering line on the 1850 and a pitman ball on the haybine going bad,all at the back of the field there. Then there was the clutch going out on the White and a big spring letting go in the variable speed pulley of the combine on that place so they both had to be towed home.

I don't normally carry a cell phone,but I do when I go up there.

Oh yea,there was that grass fire that I started up there burning fertilizer sacks too. The darned thing got away from me in a hurry.
 
(quoted from post at 12:02:29 04/29/16) ...happen in the back of the field? Or running out of gas on an old tractor without a gauge? Seems to me I would have a better chance of winning the lottery than having a tractor stop running up by the road. I was just telling another forum member in an e-mail how my planting season is going. Just replaced a hydraulic hose on the 1586...easy...two connections. Except half the county musta blown a line this week because there was a wait to get a new one and the tractor was more than a quarter mile back in a field that was dry when I started...not so much now. I new I would play the devil getting that chisel back on the tractor (by myself) if I unhooked and limped up to the shed. So I worked on it right where it was. Pull up the floor, stand on your head/hang from your ankles, fight with a fuel line and wire harness....

Works now! Back up to the shed. Waiting on some sun to dry things out/warm things up a bit. Guess I'll see what is ailing the old corn planter that I had not anticipated. Rant over...maybe...

And people think I get cranky during tax season!?!? This is the life I chose.

Last vehicle we retired brought me home even through the old horse was dead on her feet .
She quit with a thud, placed the shifter in neutral and tried my luck . Had enough momentum to just crest the last hill before home, gained a little speed on the down side and was able to roll into the yard and park in the usual spot.
 

Murphy was a Farmer
back before he wrote his law,
He didn't have to make it up....
just wrote down things he saw
 
most of mine have been stopping due to a fuel blockage with plenty of unusable fuel in the tank, and having to either walk to the house, or call a neighbor to come get me, [ this wont happen while the wife is home] or a flat tire or thrown track in the worst possible location
 
I have been lucky a few times, some other times, not so much. Last time I got lucky was a couple of winters ago when the loader tractor started to gel up. I was right beside the shop and had the door opener remote for the shop in the cab. I hit the opener, headed for the open shop door and sputtered to a stop inside the shop. Quite a few years ago I blew a steering line on the combine and had to walk a mile in blowing snow to get home, so there is the other side of the coin.
 
The one that always got me was on my JD 3020 I used to spread manure. Fuel always gelled in the bottom of the fuel tank, leaving the twin fuel filters full. Just enough to get out to farthest end of field and half unloaded when it died. You would think I would have learned, but it happened more than once.
 
I broke a crankshaft in my old v/6 S10 about 4 miles from home, figured it never let me down before so I kept going. Came up a little short, could see home from there but she was all done, just as well with the smoke from the belts burning and aluminum timing cover and oil burning I was plenty ready to walk. The vibration wasn't very pleasant either.
 
Yep, nothing ever breaks when I'm working on the land adjacent to my workshop, it's always at the muddy back end of the field two miles away. Example, rock somehow gets kicked up into radiator from the back when mowing, I get an antifreeze shower, and at least manage to move the machine to less-soft land (but still half a mile from the road). Walk home, fill up truck with tools, remove radiator and take to rad shop 30 miles away for repair, bring back rad and other stuff again (including jugs of antifreeze and water this time) and reassemble the whole mess, drive truck home, walk back to field again (this is wearing pretty thin) and finally finish the mowing job and drive the tractor home. Did I mention that it was 95 degrees and 80 percent humidity while all this was going on?
 
I'm gonna go the opposite way on this one. Drove down to Missouri from northern IL. The day after returning home, my fuel pump failed a mile from the house. Woulda been heck if it'd happened on the trip. Otherwise, stuff seems to go wrong exactly halfway between help.
 
Your comment about replacing the hose and having to wait in line for a new 1 is so true. I've been replacing hoses on my disk all spring only to have the blacksmith just chuckle to the effect he's done a half dozen of the same hose that day. The last time I was in he told me to check the front mounting for the hydraulic lift cylinder as he's just rebuilt 1 the day before and by goodness he was right, under all the grease was a long crack along the weld. He got mine in the next day.
 
Several years ago while I was still doing insurance inspections, I worked out of a motel in the middle of Iowa for a week.

The last inspection I did before heading for home was isolated several miles out in the boondocks, and had to take a detour to get to it 'cause a bridge was out. When I left there, I drove straight through to home. Went to go somewhere the next morning, got in my car by my house, turned the ignition switch and all I heard was "click". The starter called it quits. If I'd started it once more before that last stop in Iowa, or stopped somewhere on the way home, I'd have been screwed.
 
Unless it's a small machine, and I have room in the shop, EVERY repair I do is in the field.

I think the two worst were a PC150 Komatsu that blew one section of the main pump when it was sitting about a mile down a pipeline right of way that was composed of about 2 feet of mud. Thankfully the pumps combine flow when crawling and operating a function. By continually pulling back on the boom raise lever we were able to walk it out on one pump section. It took several hours, and we had to pull it the last 100 yards or so, but we finally got it to an area where it was accessible to be worked on.

The other was a crane sitting on the end of a temporary bridge. The closest I could get my truck to it was a pretty good walk to the machine. I bought a tool pouch the first evening.....and a small tool box the second. I got tired of walking back and forth every time I forgot or needed a tool. Took me several weeks but I finally got it rewired and back in operation.
 
Two years ago, a friend had a "new" Dorf tonner flatbed with a cattle trailer behind, it quit a dozen miles from home, on a highway, because the electric fuel pump in the frame rail died at 2400 or 2700 miles.

And I get PO'd when the JUNK I drive breaks down once in a while!
 
Your Dad and my B-I-L must have come from the same mold... some years ago, when the B-I-L worked for me he was always running something out of fuel at a remote location.

Breakdowns can't necessarily be predicted, running out of fuel can be, and avoided. Unless you like to walk!
 
My tractors don't have gas gauge. My gas shut off sediment bowel is made so it you only crank it out two turns gas is taken out from a little tube about an inch off the bottom of the tank. So when I run out of gas, I just crank the shut off out and then use the gas in the bottom of the tank. It's simple. Sediment bowel is like having a reserve tank.

Get a better sediment bowel.
George
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top