(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Wile E.Coyote moment

R

rrlund

Well-known Member
I shouldn't have kept trying. We had some tree branched that had been piled up here from a storm two weeks ago. It had been way too hot and dry to burn. It was raining this morning so I went right out at 6:30 with a hand full of dryer lint and tried to light it. No luck,it was too wet. Rain quit at noon,I needed to change the filter on the gas barrel,so I threw the gas out of the filter cup on it. Went and changed the filter,went in and got some more lint,lit it and threw it. Nothing. Again.
The wife went and bought a new dish washer this afternoon. I took the box out and put that on top of the pile. Tried to light it,no luck. So now I'm getting tired of this. I pick up a plastic quart oil bottle,cut off the top,get about an inch of new gas in it,toss it in the box laying on its side. So now I ease up there,arm way out,head turned,strike the lighter and BOOM! Didn't get my face or my hair,but I burned the first two fingers to the first knuckle. I grabbed a hand full of mud and held on to it for about 15 minutes til the burn went away. Worst part is,I got bee stung on the back of the same hand yesterday when I put the header on the combine.

Yep,keep jumping up and down on the edge of the cliff til it breaks away Wile E.!
 

If you must start a fire with gas, the half safe precedure is: Use newspaper of whatever to get a small flame going. Get about 1/4 measureing cup of gas. Stand with wind behind you. Throw gas on fire, being careful to empty container in one throw so fire won't run the stream back to your hand.

BTW, don't use your wife's measureing cup!

If possible, figure something else out, like a propane torch to light kindling with no gas around.

KEH
 
Sounds like you were in a hurry, I don't mind an accelerant, gasoline sure does flash too, but I always take a rag, paper or piece of cardboard, attach it to a stick, soak it a little, then apply accelerant to what is to be burned, with the knowledge there has been no fire there, its rained of what have you, then douse, get away and toss that torch in from a distance, you feel the blast, (note to self, next time use less !!!) but you don't get burned. Used to do the same darned thing, like what am I a fool, much better when you take 5 minutes and make a torch, and don't get me wrong, using gasoline really ain't that smart either, every so often you need a blast though LOL !
 
Yea me too,but the gas barrel was gravity flow. I just took the hose down and got out a little bit that was in the hose.
Geez,all the times I've told the kids not to do something that stupid.
At least the wife wasn't there to see it. She'd have probably slapped my ears right off my head.
 
I used to go to a party every summer, lasts all July 4 week, All week people collect wood for THE bonfire. DONT TRY THIS AT HOME Property owner would climb up on pile with 5 gallons of gas dump it on and trail gas off to side for a fuse. One year I was about 150 feet away when he lit it and I felt the concussion. Dont use gas to light fire Super Genius you might get hurt. Kerosene or diesel not as dangerous. Hope your fingers are ok and all turns out well. Now about that firecracker that went off in my fingers ahhh thats another story
 
Ah! Another advantage to an OWB! Just shovel a bunch of hot coals/ashes into the loader bucket, then go dump it into the middle of the brushpile! Works for me!
 
Ah yea,we can all laugh now can't we. Probably would have even been funny if you'd have been there. Wouldn't have been so funny if the wife knew how I REALLY burned them though!
 
Best way that I have found to start a brush pile on fire is to take the bottom third of a barrel and put 5 gals of drain oil and about 3 gallons of diesel and set in under the pile. just before you go to start it put about a gallon of gas in and run a trail out and light that. The gas will get the oil and disel going and also the brush.

Bob
 
Years ag, when I was just a kid, my dad had a huge pile of paper fertilizer sacks. He made a round stack, brick layer style, probably five feet tall. Seemed awful high to me then, anyway. He threw about three gallons of old gas on it, and tralied a leader off about ten feet. When he threw the match, there was about a ten second lapse and BOOOOM! Nobody got hurt, but next morning we were collecting sacks from about five acres. Learned a lesson that time.
 
My father was bad about that. Pour gas on the pile. Give it a few minutes and then light it up.Just gotta know when to duck. Don't know how he made it to 78.
 
Just think what you could have done if you hadn't got that rain last night--which we didn't get any of by the way! Maybe tonight will be different, but I'm not burning any brush until next spring. Glad you didn't get hurt!
 
You know a gallon of fully vaporized gasoline is equal to 2 ton of dynamite ( maybe not with 10% ethynol in it). Not a good idea to use it for fire starting.
 
I don't mean to laugh, but reading your story stepping out, reminded me of something, now very funny to me, but back then, maybe not so funny.

When I was a kid, about 10 or so, I helped a buddy rake his yard as part of his chores. His family was kind of wealthy and they owned a several thousand square feet home on about an acre full of oak trees. When we got done, on the back of the property there was a pile of leaves bigger than the house I lived in. So wanting it to burn, my buddy goes to the garage and gets a five gallon can of gasoline, walks around the whole pile, and uses the whole thing, except enough to pour about a 10' wick leading away from the pile. Seemed ok to me too, not just him. I was every bit as mentally challenged as he was. He lit the wick, and it flashed through the grass about 3' wide, and into that mountain of leaves. We were just turning to run, and the whole thing exploded singing the heck out of both of us. We took off running and were getting showered by burning leaves for about 30'. Neighbors came running out of their houses because they all got shook. His mother came running out of his house, and there we stood smoldering as people were patting us trying to put us out. We really didn't get burned, but we sure got singed. My buddy's mom was yelling at us, "What did you guys do?", so my buddy says back, "Well Dad used gas when he burned the leaves last year", and his mom was in tears when she slapped him, "Thats because the leaves were wet". Our pile of leaves were drier than dry, except the part doused in gasoline and vapor. You know? Our mothers had gray hair before they were 30. We will never ever be able to repay them for what we did to them. God bless mothers, they are so forgiving.

Glad that you didn't get hurt, other than maybe your pride.

Mark
 
Had one of those myself. About 5 years ago I had a pile of brush and some old hardboard siding to burn. (it all would have fit in a pickup box). It was wet after a rain and on a sunday night. A half mile from the road and not visable to any houses. we used about 2 gallons very old gas mixed with about the same diesel fuel. It made a small "woff" when it went off. The brain damaged neighbor called 911 and reported "A huge explosin and fire, probabily a plane crash" Had 4 fire departments 3 ambulances, 2 first responders and 6 county squads with more on the way. Not my best night.
 
No way it"s a ton. Green Beret training taught me it was equal to about 7 sticks. Still, never bright to use gas to light a fire, even if it works on TV. Well, yeah, it DOES work!
 
Heard where a farmer burned up his pickup. Ask him one day how he did that. The watershed district inspected his watershed dam and told him he had to get the brush away from the outlet pipe. He throws some gasoline on it and light A rag and throws on it. Was burning just fine till a hot stick fall to the bottom of the outlet pipe and boom. The brush pile left and the rack off of the outlight pipe. While he was thinking what to do now, he didn't notice a burning stick had landed in his feed truck with some lose hay in the back and set it on fire.
 
I won't tell the stupid brush pile incident I did over 40 years ago, but will tell this true story.
I guy I know and some buddies went one night to a remote spot where a friend would always take his girlfriend to do whatever they did. The guys eased around the car pouring gas a safe distance away all the way around the car. Threw a match and the couple in the car sat up very quickly and naked.
They must have thought the devil had come to claim them.
 
I didn't see anyone mention used motor oil. I have had good results with pouring some on the brush and cardboard.
 
We cram newspaper in under the bottom, then spray with diesel. No "boom" that way.

Only had one brush pile we couldn't get started that way. It had been raining for several days and the brush was soaked.
 
Ah for lighting fires we prefer our own concoction of diesel fuel old motor oil and gas but not much gas and get NO BOOM , then add in some old baler twine and of course and old tire add two gallons of KICK AH POO joy juice and a fire stick and ya can burn a brush pile on a rainy day.
 
Had no idea so many had succeeded in blowing flaming leaves all over the yard (and themselves), as my boss and I did many years ago. In our case, it was a reasonable amount of gas, interrupted by a phone call, then more gas. "What could possibly go wrong?"

I think it arises from the basic masculine KABOOM mentality!
 
The procedure for disposal of un-serviceable, damaged or condemned munitions in the Air Force used to be to dig a pit of the appropriate size no more than 2 feet deep, line the pit with plastic, stack the munitions (bombs, bullets, cartridges and such) on the plastic then pump a couple of hundred gallons of jet fuel on it and use a "approved" remote ignition device like time fuze and a pull ignitor, IIRC I used det-cord once but got to many "kick-outs". With the JP-4 (yes I'm old) we didn't get that big of a whoof, with the remote device we were far enough away we didn't care. We'd go back the next day and check that everything got burnt and sign some paperwork so it could be sold as scrap iron.

About the "parking" in the field, our neighbor had two 40s that were long to the road and the far hay field was aways from from the house with a drive onto the road. He had a lot of problems with folks borrowing the field for un-approved romantic activities. One night after chores I was with him and he got the inkling "things" were happening in his field. We hop into his truck and he sneaks out into the field with the headlights off. He got about 15-20 feet behind the car (they must of had their radio on) and turns on the lights and lays on the horn. I told him he wasn't very nice, he replies if he wanted to be a real jerk we would of pulled and locked the gate when we came in. Folks can't drive very well when they're trying to get dressed and drive at the same time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
Ferguson 135 diesel wont run
Replies
9
Views
432
Rick Beament
R
C
smoking tractor
2
Replies
24
Views
2K
WIFarmKid
WIFarmKid
super99
Cement Poured
2
Replies
25
Views
2K
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
super99
Disappointing afternoon
Replies
10
Views
2K
Tgrasher
Tgrasher
mdm1
cub lowboy no start
2
Replies
32
Views
1K
showcrop
showcrop
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

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.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top