Almost Lost Everything

FBH44

Well-known Member
Just went out to the barn, it is 1:00 am here, to check on the Farmall, almost all ready for the Christmas parades. Opened the barn door, the smell of gasoline overpowering. Luckily did not turn on any lights yet or spark anything. . Mice had chewed the rubber gas lines, in many places, had pools of gas everywhere. Wife and I rolled the tractor out the barn door and downhill a ways. Feel very lucky. Maybe I'm stupid for using rubber gas lines. Could have lost barn, several tractors, all tools, compressors, etc etc etc.
If you have rubber gas lines, you might check them, all the way from tank to carb.
Best of luck. Happy Merry Christmas.
 
unbelievable what those little monsters can do. Got one that's found a way into my Subaru & chewing the devil out of everything. Mousetraps but it won't take cheese, peanut butter, meat or seeds. Leaves for a while, then comes back when I least suspect it. Park in different places, finds the car. Can't find where its getting in at. Its an evil genius as far as I can tell. Wouldn't surprise me if it torched the car some night.
 
You might start cutting off the fuel at the tank when you are done using them. Rubber lines are good in that they flex with the movement of the tractor.
 
Like many other animals, mice like to follow their noses. Everywhere a mouse goes, it leaves a trail of urine, like the fabled trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, once their scent becomes dried in place, even washing will often leave enough trail to attract other mice to investigate.

I would try first washing the machinery with soap & water. Then try spraying different things to mask any remaining odor trail, such as ammonia or maybe even bear (pepper) spray.

We had never seen ANY sign of rats here until just the one time a few years ago, when one got locked in an outbuilding over winter. I had a 5-gal plastic gas can full, with the spout sticking up. The spout was sealed, but I'm sure gas could be smelled. Still, the rat (we presume) got awful hungry that winter and.....well, see for yourself!

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That may be one of the reasons these older tractors had hard lines on them originally ? That and cows pulling/chewing on them.
 
orchelns sells a mice poison for about 12 bucks. comes in a package like a block. you can break it off and put them under benchs, cabinets, etc where dogs or cats cant get to them. starting using it 3years ago. only mice I find are dead ones. i live in the country and I have a 35x60 unheated barn that some times in the winter I may not go in there for a week or so. decon also works but more expensive. glad you found it. that would have been terrible for sure.
 
I think the poison he is talking about is called ranick. I use the same stuff, works good. We have several rodents to contend with out here- packrats, sage rats, regular mice, and kangaroo rats. It's a never ending battle. Just keep your fuel shut off at the tank and you shouldn't have to worry about a major disaster.
 
I turn the gas off at the tank on all of mine. When I smell gas it usually because something was left on. 1/2 of mine leak without the mice. Your barn must be awfully airtight to worry about lights setting off a leakly gas line.
 
Had mice chewing on the wiring of an Odyssey van that mostly sits. After it was Krown rust sprayed, all the chewing stopped. I've seen the same result on another truck that doesn't get used much.
 
A guy at my church was draining the gas out of his N Ford in his garage last week. He stepped out for a minute while it drained and something ignited it, pretty much lost everything in the garage.
 
(quoted from post at 03:09:35 12/07/18) Just went out to the barn, it is 1:00 am here, to check on the Farmall,

Am I the only one wondering why he checks on his tractors during the night??
 
(quoted from post at 07:53:04 12/07/18) rustyfarmall, that Havoc is the best I've ever used but kind of salty. The last pail I got was over $50.00 and need to pick up another at Co-op only about 3 packets left.

Yes. It is kind of pricey, but it still cheaper than repairing the damage done by those nasty little critters. We used to have problems with mice getting into our house. I bought some outdoor bait stations, and filled them with Havoc. Haven't seen a mouse inside the house since.
 
ChasK _ I had to laugh at that.... I don't know why, I'm getting her all ready for the Christmas parades, and something said go check on the H. So I did.
 
Close call for sure!

That's one reason I don't like rubber fuel lines.

Not only do rodents like to chew them, old age and ethanol rot them, hose clamps work loose, and if there were ever a small fire, it would quickly escalate once the hose gave up.

Most of the old tractors use 5/16 steel line from the factory. Same as pre flared brake lines. The steel used in those lines is an alloy that makes them exceptionally easy to hand bend, even without a bender it can be carefully shaped without kinking.
 
NOPE will not install a rubber fuel line on a tractor . Had one guy want me to come put a rubber line on his 560 gas many years back along with a inline filter . I told him no i would not do that but i would build him a steel line and clean his tank out and install a new sediment bowl . He did not want that and was in a hurry to get the PICKER mounted . Well he found someone else to do as he wanted . At some point in time while picking some fodder caught fire and the fuel line started to burn and the plastic fuel filter melted and he was not able top put out the fire and the fire dept was only min. away , well buy the time they got there she was really cooking the field was on fire then the tires blew then the fuel tank let go all as the fire dept stood back as there first question was GAD OR DIESEL . and when the word Gas was said all they said was stand back . Then once it went BOOM then they worked on getting the fire out.
 
Think you need to address the rodent problem I have had mice and rats chew a lot of things but never a fuel line.Plus its a good idea to cut the gas off on gas tractor anyway,I've seen
carbs start to leak and run gas in the air cleaner and all over. Near me years ago a guy I knew had someone try to steal his tractor they were going to drive it away only got as far as the gas in the carb would go as he had turned the gas off.
 

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