Forgot the tractor was running

Olliejunkie

Well-known Member
Years ago had a friend come pick up some off quality hay. I wasnt around in the morning so he went ahead and started loading. I passed him on the way down to the field. He said I figured you were close by because your tractors down there running. Well the day before I hopped off the tractor and went to roll some bales while it cooled down a bit then off to the house. I was working long hours and putting up hay in the evening. Poor old 3010 sat there idling all night. Anybody care to share something stupid you did?
 
My neighbor did something similar one day during wheat harvest a few years back. Saturday morning I was working around the place and heard an engine running. I noticed his semi parked in
the field just north of our house and went to investigate. It was setting there chugging away as it obviously had been all night as the windows were dripping with condensation from the AC
being on full blast. When I called him his response was something like "Hmmm, I guess we forgot about that one last night". Although running a semi all night is common practice at a
truck stop it usually isn't done when setting unoccupied in a wheat field.
 
I gassed up on the way home from work one day and made another stop to pick something up. Got home and took the something to the garage with the intent of going back to the truck but went to the house instead. Found it running the nest morning.
 
Worked night shift as a mechanic for the power company. Went out just before quitting time one night,and smelled something hot. Started
walking around the parked cars, and a Dodge Omni was setting there running. The catalytic converter had gotten so hot, it melted the shift
cable housing, melted the floor mats to the floor. A few more minutes, and I'm sure it would have torched the fuel tank.
 
I've done that....Pull in a parking lot, and for some reason, which I can't remember, I left the pick-up truck running. We worked all day. Come time to go home, I realize the truck was still running. It idled the entire day.
 
I must of left the running lights on the
semi on one night because it was dead the
next morning when I went to haul beans off
at 3 am. I jumped it with my pick up and
forgot to shut of the truck. I found it
running at high idle( I set the rpm up
with the tuner when jumping) the next day
when I went to get it so I could fuel the
combine. It probably ran 30 hours just
setting in the barn.
 
Yup, moved my dozer to my shop once and left it idleing to charge the battery some, loaded up another piece of equipment and went
to a job. Woke up about 3:00AM and realized I never shut the dozer off, got up drove to the shop to shut it off.
 


When I was at university my roommate and I both worked at the dining hall and had to be there early. There was a stretch one winter when we had to get creative to get our cars started in the morning because it was going down to 20 below every night. I fixed up a light bulb with a reflector and an old blanket. My roommate left his idling all night, except that it didn't. He called for a service truck and boost and got his wiring harness melted. He traded the car.
 
Back when I was doing a lot
of custom harvesting I had a
trailer to haul the combine.
Was going to a job and a
wheel bearing went out on the
trailer so I pulled into a
restaurant parking lot and
called Dad to come help. By
the time he got there it was
raining. I asked if I could
leave it there til I got it
fixed and they said ok. So we
went home. Kept raining for a
couple days so I never went
back. 2 days later they
called and asked if I knew
the truck was running. Nope I
didn't know. Ran for over 2
full days.
 
Old Neighbor left his tractor running. After a few
hours I went to investigate. He had slipped on the
snow and couldn't get up. When I found him he was
almost frozen to death. I asked where is your cell
phone? Answer, left it on the night stand.
 
50 years ago Dad and I had rented ground
all over the township. We needed to pick
a little ear corn quite a ways from home
and there was a tractor there so I put
the picker behind tbe pickup. Our old dog
did not ride around with us but for
unknown reasons he hopped up in the truck
that day so I took him along. Had a rough
trip, almost had a head on collision but
swerved off the road and struck a
mailbox. Tore a snout 1/2 off. When I
got there I had to remove the snout. Put
it in the truck and took off back home. After that it rained for two days and the dog was no where to be
found. Family was pretty upset about it. 3 days later I went back to install the
snout and the dog was laying beside the
picker, after that you couldn't get him
in a car or pick up with a pry bar! I guess that the dog was along TOTALLY left me after the near miss shows how a traumatised mind works?
 
A guy ask me if it hurt his pickup to run all night long. Went shopping got home took things in the house and left door open and pickup running. Said nope as long as it had oil pressure.
 
I did that with my ugly dorF truck. I unhooked the trailer and pulled the truck up in front of the shed and let it run with plans of parking it in front of the house for the night. Took the binders out of the bed and put them on the trailer out in the yard. Rather than go out to move the truck I went in the house. The next morning I went out to head up to the factory and the truck was still running.
 
Depends on the truck. If its fuel injected sitting at an idle doesn't "hurt" it any. A carbed truck is probably going to get some gas washing down the cylinder walls.
 
I had a Datsun truck when I was in school.
Drove in one day and went to classes.
Roughly 7 hours later I was ready to leave
and couldn't find my keys. I backtracked
every class but couldn't find them. I
finally decided to check the trail back to
the truck. I eventually found them still
in the door lock. I had gotten out, locked
the door, and walked away leaving them
hanging in the door lock. I guess nobody
wanted a Dstsun pickup.
 
I guess you could say I left a tractor
running by accident but I was still in it.
Long day at work and a long night in the
field. I put the tractor away and was
letting it cool down and I fell asleep. I
have no idea how long it was. I've
actually done that a couple times.
 
I was fighting wasps in the barn nothing worked so after cutting grass with the Farmall A I decided to leave it run for a while to kill the wasps. A week later when I went to cut the grass the tractor was out of gas then I remembered I didn't turn it off. Since it has a mag no problem. No more wasps in the barn. I have no idea how long the tractor ran. Bill
 
Neighbor brought a 3020 over for me to rewire. Wiring was all melted. He said he was cutting hay to chop when he had to stop to go do evening milking. That night a bad thunderstorm blew in and brought a couple inches of rain. So he knew he would have to wait a day to cut hay again. When he got to the field he found his 3020 diesel idling with all the wiring melted. He thought it must have taken a lightning strike. He claimed it was a day and a half it sat there and idled. He did say he thought he heard an engine running in the distance the next day when he went to milk first thing in the Am. After that he always made sure he put everything in park when leaving a tractor set. Al
 
oh yea pull truck to shop door phone rang inside my shop business, never could get back from phone, finally around 2pm I quit phone ,customer came in said hey rick you know your truck still running. he went out put it where it usually sets and shut it off ,
 
Way back before the turn of the century may buddy and i were plowing on a friday afternoon , we were both young back then and singal , be both had dates lined up for the evening but he and i wanted to get in a few acres before the dates . My date was for 9:30 when my girl friend got off work and his was at around 10 that evening . He and i ran Farmall 450 Diesels and if ya wanted to not crack a head you allowed them ample cool down time . I left the field at around 8 and left the farm around 8:30 after getting mine cooled down and backed into the shed and shut down . Next morning around 9 i was back out to the farm to get back to plowing and when i got out of my car i could hear a 450 idling and figured that my buddy was already there , NOT . I get to the shed and black smoke was BILLOWING out of the shed dead birds everywhere and his 450 still running and NO MIKEY . I pulled his out of the shed and let it clear out before i started mine . After the air cleared out i went back in and got mine up and running and was at the luunch stand feeding mine when he pulls in still half asleep red eyed and not moving to welland comes up to me and say oh thanks for getting mine going did you check the oil ?? Ah no you never shut it off lastnight and all them birds that USe to roost in the shed are now all dead . And i get oh crap i forgot to shut her down i was running late and was going to get a shower and changed then shut it down . Well look at it this way it's warmed up and almost ready to go ya just need to feed it and check the oil.
 
A guy at work did that a few years ago. Left his truck idling for almost two weeks, well at least he discovered it 2 weeks later. He was our tug engineer, drove his Ford Powerstroke Diesel pickup to work one dark early winter morning, then left it on while he did something at the shop, then forgot about his running truck when he went on board our tug for the buoy run. That is at the n beginning of winter where you go out on the river with a tugboat and barge and then pick the navigation buoys off the river and take them back to the shop for the winter. Anyway, he comes back with a load of buoys almost 2 weeks later, at midnight Christmas Eve, and finds his truck deader than a doornail with snow melted all around it, and not the faintest spark of life when he turned the key (which was already in it). One can imagine the resultant language, except he was a Christian. I'll bet, though, in the darkness of a midnight Christmas Eve, he may have come to an understanding with the Lord and then let off a few choice words before calling Triple A for a jump start. The truck was parked in a gated area behind a building so no one noticed it. It ran the tank out of fuel and then quit, and then the key left on for the remainder of the 2 weeks. Was a nightmare to start then.
 
My wife came in from parking the car and said thewe is something trying to get out of the garage. I had left my small compressor running for two days. It took
5 hours for it to bleed off enough to restart, and it only takes 4 minutes for it to refill. She gave me the "Eye" Jim
 
I was stationed at Cecil field Fl and working night shift. I went to get the towmotor filled and was driving down the flight line of another squadron. When I went
behind one of their A7s I noticed it was running. There was no one around and the canopy was closed. I went to their ops and told them they better get down there and
shut off their plane and put the covers on their intakes.
 
I left a GMC truck 6.5 diesel in the field once, meaning to pick it up later that day. 2 days went by before I had a change to go get.To my surprise the thing was running when I got there, the fuel gauge showed empty. I drove it home and it ran out of fuel right in front of the fuel bulk tank.
When I filled up and tried to bleed the air the starter would not turn over and upon investigating why I found both the starter mounting bolts had vibrated out and the starter was hanging on the cable underneath..
 
About 20 years ago, my employer (this is in MN) hired a manager from Texas. He had never been in a cold climate. Part of his compensation was the company furnished a car for his personal and business use. He left it run all day while at work so it was warm inside at day's end. Not sure how it was done at his "home". He didn't last long as our manager mostly because he didn't manage.
 
years ago picked a guy up at the normal meeting place. 8hours later when we got back it was still running. good n warm inside the car though. 30 degrees outside. we had a good laugh about it.
 
Had a hunting pal from Dallas. We were to meet in the Dakotas to hunt. He got to Dallas airport running late, left his suburban idling at the curb while he got his 2 dogs(crated) and guns (cased) checked into the flight. He just barely made the flight. We were in So. Dakota later that day, when his wife called to say that the police had towed his still running suburban to the impound lot at DFW.
 

Friend of mine met his wife after work on a Friday night @ WalMart. They decided to get something to eat after shopping. Went home after dark. Next morning, my friend goes to his garage and notices his truck is missing. He calls the local sheriff and reports his truck stolen. Come Monday, the sheriff s department calls to say they had located his stolen truck @ the local WalMart and wants to know if he would come inspect it to see if anything is missing from the truck. That s when it hit him. He d left it there and ridden in his wife s vehicle to dinner and home that Friday night.
 

Our last house I hooked the outdoor grill up to natural gas, one fall day I looked out the window and saw heat waves rising above it....wife had used it 2 days earlier and forgot to turn it off....downside to not using propane LOL! Went to Winnipeg to pick up a tractor one January, -40 most of the trip, Dodge diesel never got shut off for 3 days!
 
On a recent vacation, I rented a car. It had the new-style key system- if you keep the key in your pocket, you start and stop it with the push button on the dash. At one stop of the vacation, I came back to the car
to find I'd left it running (locked) for an hour. With a conventional key that has to go in the ignition switch, I would have remembered to turn it off.
 
(quoted from post at 22:05:23 10/08/19) On a recent vacation, I rented a car. It had the new-style key system- if you keep the key in your pocket, you start and stop it with the push button on the dash. At one stop of the vacation, I came back to the car
to find I'd left it running (locked) for an hour. With a conventional key that has to go in the ignition switch, I would have remembered to turn it off.
got one of those button start dodges.
Can't even turn the engine off no matter what if it ain't in park.
Also near impossible to feather the window open or close with the engine running ,..its all the way up or down in the blink of an eye
 

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