What is some of the worse breakdowns you have had?

Tractor or farm related: I mean the ones you did not see coming that really put you down for the count! Lets just say Jocco has had a few.

I replaced the badly worn cross bin augers on the 9500 combine last year. I didn?t realized that they gave me two of the same auger not one of each (the boxes were marked right but the contents were not right. The first full bin full of beans was entertaining. I hit the unload switch and it shot that auger out the side of the bin with quite a bit of force. Fun times. The dealership spent lots of time working on their dollar after that.

The one that surprised me the most, I was moving a JD 9600 combine down the road and the front duals fell off. luckly I had just finished cutting some steep ground.

Bearing on head of a 95' leg went bad and that caused the motor to go bad also. Luckily i had it built with a pulley on the head. I used a heavy nylon rope and when I hoisted it off the head platform, I was hoping the specs for the rope were right. Thankfully, it worked.

Broke the top feeder house shaft the night before but did not relize it until I started the next day. Put the corn head on and blocked it up. Then cocked the combine after removing the top clamps. Was able to get the shaft out and put in new bearings, sprockets, and shaft. It was on a 9500 Deere with 925 head that was always bunching on the right end. Have a 630 on a 9760 that is much better all the way around.

The 1660 Case combine has a petcock to drain oil out of the power box. I had no idea the petcock was not tight and was dripping oil out as I was going along. After about 60 acres it went dry and locked up. Quite a bill for that one.

My 1030 spinning a bearing the first day after I overhauled it last year, and finding out the "re-built" rear end I bought for it had a busted housing patched with jb weld. And the new tire that I was counting on was rotten on the bottom from sitting in the dirt. But that is only the beginning on that tractor. Lol

Going up hill on a gravel road with a 1 ton ford flatbed dually. Had many thousand dollars of farm chemicals on the back, shifted gears on that gutless wonder. Sheared off all the lug bolts on the RR axle. Had to sit there for several hours with my foot on the brake till the repair man got there with new lug bolts. Similar thing happened with the same model truck several years earlier but this time the darn clutch blew up. Drug this one about 4 miles to the junk yard where they replaced the clutch.

4230 Deere complete out of frame engine overhaul including new cam shaft. Was running it on the dyno breaking it in when the cam failed locking the engine up so fast the fan belts screeched on the pulleys. Valves all out of time and hit the pistons broke several rocker arms. The company admitted to having some bad cam shafts and stood the parts bill and a labor allowance. Not fun overhauling one twice in the same week. Tom

I was hauling an oversize load, very heavy, when a truck drive tire blew out. It also took out a air brake hose. locked everything right there. on the highway. I had a spare tire, changed it while waiting for a guy to bring me an air hose. Thankfully It was a wide road, traffic could get around everything. Lost several hours of daylight.

I don’t know where to start. Nothing much exciting has happened on this farm because I kept things in good shape and I run the machinery. The 13 years on the wheat harvest was a real adventure with all those young cowboys in the combines , grain carts and trucks. I should write a book.

This is not the worst but it was the most surprising . blew a front tire on a sidehill 6620 going down the road wide open ...that will get ypur attention quickly. This was thirty years ago

Some of these Guys are gonna have some tuf stories ,..mine is not so exciting ,but still the lessons i have learned is most intriguing . it has been a long hard ride ,Do You want a "friggin" book ? And Worse ,do you mean mentally , Physically or Mechanically breaking down ?,yes I know ,.,.The topic is about the latter , But . in either situation i survived them all with a little help from friends ,. but mostly inside grit. just pizn,,,,and laughing at it all in spite of myself..

yeah thats' scarey,.. btdt, Massey 300 loaded , sidewall blew out of what i thought was a perfectly good drive tire aired up to specs, nearly busted the windsheld of the truck . happened in the dark , fall harvest 1997 .

We had moved a Byrd 18x40 centrifuge, we were still receiving product in to run while we were moving it. Got it moved and re-installed, filled it up with oil and started working on about 36 hours of back logged product (animal blood) about 8-9 hours into the run it stopped, I don't mean something broke and it coasted down stopped or threw the drive belt off and coasted stop or the motor overloads tripped stopped I mean from 3600 RPMs to zero RPM in less time than you can say "This isn't good". Seems when we moved it the brass base on one of the sight glasses cracked and the leak was big enough that 8-9 hours of run time was the exact amount of time it took to run out of oil, heat up and then the bearings seize. Another real bad one was I was the mechanic for a golf course and we were running 2 Roseman Hydro-gang mowers, A Roseman Hydro gang?-picture a 3xxx series Ford tractor with 7 hydraulically driven 36" reel mowers mounted all over the tractor, a hydraulic pump hanging off the PTO and kind of nestled in between 2 15 gallon oil tanks mounted on the back behind the seat and between the rear wheels. Yes it's as bad as it sounds, do you know hot oil KILLS grass? Do you know golf courses are particularity and inordinately fond of grass? As you can imagine this thing was wholesale leaks on the hoof! Betcha you can see where this is going, one of our turf students hooked one of the reel assemblies on a tree and broke it loose, drug it for about 100 yards making a dandy little furrow right down the right side of the fairway, but wait .....it gets better! The reel unit eventually breaks entirely off so instead of a furrow we start spraying hot hydraulic oil out on the fairway. In answer to your next question, it took about 3/8 to 1/2 of a mile travel to pump all 30 gallons of that hot oil out and onto the fairway (couple of passes). Our young hero finally realizes there is something wrong when the all the reels stop turning (out of oil) and looks back and sees he's running a 6 gang instead of a 7 gang unit. It took me the better part of a day to weld up the hanger and suspension frame for the mower, replace the broken hydraulic lines to the reel, fill the hydraulic system back up and get all the lines bleed out, even at that he bent the lift cylinder for that wing so I ordered a replacement and we had to use it with an outboard reel in the permanent "down" position for a week or so. Or there was the time we were baling hay at home, my youngest brother decided he'd be cool and whip up behind the baler, cut the tractor sharp and drop off the wagon right behind the baler so we didn't have to back up, unfortunately he got a little close to the baler and one of the lugs on the tractor tire hooked something on the baler and flipped it over, I don't mean flipped on the side I mean totally upside down with the knotters in the dirt, and yes the baler was still hooked to the tractor, we were lucky the PTO wasn't running, my dad got a little excited about that one. He used to get pretty excited about stuff like that, boy I wish I could hear another one of his rants about us "busting up all the equipment trying to run it fast like the neighbors", unfortunately he's been gone 7 years last week, still miss him.

friend of mine had a 750 massey that had a self oiling chain device,YOU KNOW The Type ,. It was actually the drain line for the oil pan that had been wired back ,but somehow got loose and got to clikin the hose drain nut on the chain just right ,til everything happened in a matter of minutes one night . You already know the end o f the story . heartbreak.

Heavy snowfall after a January thaw, ground was not frozen back yet. Plowing along the edge of our raised driveway, I got too far off the south side and the truck started to slip towards the field. I tried to horse it back up as I continued forward, but very soon came to the first electric pole up the drive and had to stop forward momentum. Trying to back out just slid me further down the slope. As I rocked it, I slid even more.

Thought I'd be smart and stop there, walked up and got my oldest son and the 2630 loader tractor. He gave it his best in the truck as I pulled from the tractor, but we made negative progress.

By now the truck was leaning at a pretty severe angle toward the passenger side. I got really smart and finally called the local tow truck. He winched me out in no time. As I drove towards the house, I noted an especially loud new clunking sound from under the truck, and had no reverse motion. Crap- called the local tranny shop, they said drop it off tomorrow.

Drove it there. They called the next day, yep, burned up the transmission, possibly starved it for fluid on the hillside. Rebuild in a couple more days. The called a few days later, good news, tranny is like new, bad news, that loud knock is from the engine.

Super Crap! Called a friend from church, does mechanic work at home. Priced out a GM crate motor reasonable. Drove it over that Friday, agreed to work for him in his shop to cut the cost of labor, would start Monday.

Saturday was Winterfest celebration at my high school alma mater. Fun day includes silent auction, full slate of basketball games, and even alumni sporting events. Of course, I play in the Alumni basketball game and rupture my Achilles tendon. Surgery for Tuesday, crutches for 6 weeks, boot for six more, absolutely no help for the guy with the truck, he hires another guy to help him at my expense.

Seemed pretty bad at the time, but almost funny now. Still driving that 89 Chevy, too.

Had the end of a ball of twine get wrapped around a shaft on the baler a couple of years ago. Broke all kinds of things before I caught it.

yep , Hate it when that happens..rolling cornstalks with a n holland 850 is challenging enuf,durn string somehow got happy with one of the devils corn stalks and lead into the front shaft under a square shield..if i noticed it ,would have stopped and tried cutting the string . but nope, i ended up setting the baler on fire ,and the field too, i ejected the bale near the road ,and went back with the tractor running down a 100 foot fire track ,had the fire all but out on a hot dry day . Then devils breath brought up a firm wind and blew the sparks into the next windrow and thats when the real fun began with the fire dept.

yep , Hate it when that happens..rolling cornstalks with a n holland 850 is challenging enuf,durn string somehow got happy with one of the devils corn stalks and lead into the front shaft wrapping under a square shield..if i noticed it ,would have stopped and tried cutting the string . but nope, i ended up setting the baler on fire ,and the field too, i ejected the bale near the road ,and went back with the tractor running down a 100 foot fire track ,had the fire all but out on a hot dry day . Then devils breath brought up a firm wind and blew the sparks into the next windrow and thats when the real fun began with the fire dept.

When I was in my late teens I was swathing with a Versitile 400. One on the axles on the drive wheels broke and dropped me so fast I didn?t know what happened. At least until I tried to drive straight again.

That reminds me of the time i dropt the front wheels off of a tricycle front 800 Case raking hay in 6th gear ,..we just got the 800 and i loved the way it handled ,but it had this annoying clunk -clunk sound ever now and then from the front ???

was running corn with 1680 combine, ground was a little soft and I wanted to see if I could run all day. so got out and everything was going good so call my son to bring truck out with fuel and I had a tank full dumped that and top off fuel tank . finished that field and moved to next and open that field up and was running to the back side little more half mile from road and the combine shut off, all gages lite up funny go out to see what happened and saw a fire under sheet metal. grabbed my fire ext and tried to get fire out and I flashed back up. in the end found out number 5 rod went out side of the block and knock off fuel filters and electric fuel pump was spraying fuel and the fuel tank expand and broke welds on straps that hold tank and it add more fuel to the fire. by the time fire dept got there the back half was engulfed. and the key was off in the cab, covering on wire burn off and the wire to the pump found another wire that was hot, this was one with the dt466 motor.

I was ploughing old hay ground with a JD "R" pulling a 24" single bottom. I came to the end of the Field, plough was out of the ground, turned headed south sank plough in until the black smoke belched from the muffler.
Shifted up into 3 rd and was making the old Girl work! Suddenly the Tractor stopped moving, with the Engine picking up the RPM's. Nothing obvious. Hooked onto the old Girl and stared pulling her to the shop. Suddenly the rear Left axel with tire and rim past me......broken axel.

Bob...

Nervous.

Got into a heck of a wreck with our MF's---Tee

Wisbaker, you should get an agent for your writing. A publisher will write you a big check for an advance.

Two from when I was driving over-the-road. First was Mr. Goodwrench, repair shop forman always scolded me for letting my truck idle too much. Then one day I'm running north bound on Mannheim Road in NW Chicago, water is a foot deep next to curb in right lane, I get to my delivery stop, pull into the parking lot, drive around to back lot where the dock was, large cardboard sheet covered the storm drain and water was about 1-1/2 ft deep right where I had to park my tractor. Water was just touching the bottom edge of the rear drive axle hubs. Twice while we were unloading my 45 ft trailer with 45,000# of groceries I heard it raining in torents on the trailer roof. Tractor had an air starter, when I was ready to leave, hit starter button, engine spun almost a complete ferolution and instantly stopped rocking the cab. First impulse is hit the starter again. Might as well, damage already done. Two loose intake manifold bolts in the inside of the V, 903 Cummins, V filled with water and leaked into 2 cylinders, hydro-locked engine, bent two conn rods, the load knocking was crankshaft counterweights hitting wrist pin bosses. Mr Goodwrench had my drive 25 miles back down Mannhiem to 79th St then east to Western. I never ran over 1400-1500 the whole way. Took them a month to rebuild the two bad holes. If I'd let it idle it never would have happened.

About a year or two later I'm driving an old S2200 IH, shiny but very tired 290 Cummins, Cousin passed me, chatted on CB a minute and ran off and left me. Temp guage started creeping up, pulled off into small gas station, borrowed a bucket and slowly added 2-3 gallons of water, refilling bucket and the old girl Screeches, Hey took me 5 minutes to get that much water into the radiator! The screeching ended in dead silence! It wouldn't turn over with the starter. I call Mr. Goodwrench, between him and Dispatcher they were fine with me spending the night in that almost abandoned gas station for the night. Had to call my wife to come get me almost 2 hours later. Mr Goodwrench and his helper got their truck back, they started pulling the 290 to drop in a 6-71 but never got that done.

The companies total lack of maintenance caught up with them and they closed their doors.

Hauling grain with a 160 hp tractor with around 5500 hours and pulling 900 bushels of grain. I throttled down first, then shifted down and heard severe grinding coming from under my feet in the cab of the tractor. I couldn't just stop there at all. I unloaded the grain at the elevator, limped home with no more noise, and parked the tractor. The repair shop came out with a truck and loaded up the tractor. A week later I attended "the viewing." The entire rear end tub had been removed from the tractor with not a single part left inside. I saw the shafts and gears on a table and on the floor in the shop. I would not have been surprised to see something like this in a tractor with 10,000 hours, but this was hard to comprehend. I know the prior owner did use it to haul all his grain to the elevator, and I had heard this type of use could be rough on these transmissions. I now understand how, why, and I tend to operate this a little differently as a result of this experience. A few years later, the engine was completely rebuilt/overhauled. We discovered some more misuse/abuse by the prior owner once again. I have a lot of money stuck into that tractor, but it will outlast me!

I was running the 7720 a few years ago and the final drive under the operators seat broke letting the drive wheel bend back under the stairs. Luckily the platform kept the machine from doing a total nose dive. No noise ahead of time at all that I noticed over the engine and cylinder noises. I was just glad I wasn't going down the road at the time..lol! Bob