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Funniest Tractor Memory

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Glenn F.

12-28-2004 18:57:43

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What's your funniest tractor memory? I think mine would date back to the fall of '65. It was November and we were still chopping corn. It was the wettest year on record. The '51 DC Case got very good traction. On this particular day it was popping wheelies while attempting to pull the chopper and wagon. My uncle who weighs in at about 250 lbs. thought he would solve that problem by sitting atop the radiator as Dad drove the tractor. Dad throttled 'er up and enguaged the hand clutch. Uncle was promptly thrown from the radiator head first into the mud. It was a ride he will never forget as well as a visual that makes me chuckle to this day.

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Bill(Wis)

12-29-2004 20:47:32

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

My friend Wardy was pulling a trailer plow with an old MH. His father had installed a spring trip hitch on the plow the day before to allow auto-disconnect of the plow if it hit a rock. He forgot to buy the clip for the trip rope so the rope would disconnect from the tractor as well. Wardy just tied the rope to the tractor seat the same as always and started plowing. Plow hit rock, disconnected from tractor, tractor kept going, rope pulled tractor seat down about two feet and then broke, propelling Wardy over the steering wheel and onto the hood of the tractor. We all thought that was pretty funny.

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John *.?-!.* cub owner

12-30-2004 21:00:26

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Bill(Wis), 12-29-2004 20:47:32

If you want something interesting grab hold of the trip rope and pull it to raise the plow just as it hits a rock and breaks away. A good grip on the steering wheel was all that kept me from going off backwards.

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Bill(Wis)

01-01-2005 04:50:19

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to John *.?-!.* cub owner, 12-30-2004 21:00:26

Yes, it takes a second or two to react to that type of thing. We used to see a quite a few one armed farmers who thought it was safe to poke a cornstalk into a jammed up picker. When the rolls caught the stalk they were holding they couldn't let go quick enough to keep from getting pulled in.

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Gene Davis (GA)

12-29-2004 20:08:29

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

When I was a boy,my father ran a JD dealership shop. I had always heard farmers talk about taking their foot and nudging the flywheel of an "H" john Deere to crank it when they were ready to start itback after they shut it down for lunch. Didn't believe it so I climbed on the "H" my father had just been working on. Of course I didn't look to see if it was out of gear or anything else that was safety concerned. That stuff was for other folks!! I took my left foot and just kicked the flywheel, and lo it did crank up aand was in gear! All I could think to do was to holler WHOA!! Luckily my father had stepped away from it and as slow as an "H" runs in 1st gear he was able to grab the clutch lever and stop it. I didn't sit down for a while after that paddling and didn't dare try that again!!

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Bill(Wis)

12-29-2004 19:46:55

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

And then there was the time my uncle Leo was working on the silo filler with the Fordson F idling nearby (they were hard to start when hot-so let them idle). Tractor jumped into gear (they did that) and headed straight for the silo. It hit the silo head on and climbed up the side of the silo and then flipped over backward (they did that too), caught on fire and burned which was pretty amazing considering they were all steel. The funny part was that he had always boasted about buying that tractor just prior to Ford making the purchase of fenders mandatory to prevent back flips. He saved $35 by getting one without the fenders.

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john d

12-29-2004 17:31:34

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

The day my Dad hooked the tractor muffler on the clothesline....just after Mom had filled about half of it with laundry.....

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Bill(Wis)

12-29-2004 16:55:26

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

Glenn: Are you looking for material to write a book of short stories? Threshing time was always practical joke time: grease on the steering wheels, seats bolted on backward, every other spark plug wire pulled (worked especially good on the 6 cyl Olivers & MHs), Old Fritz showing up late on his 1936 JD A trike with the compression petcocks open sucking on a beer bottle pretending he was too drunk to notice the PSSST, PSSST, PSSST. (Fritz was never drunk but was a pretty good actor). Figuring Frank finally traded his Fordson F in on a new 48N and was proud of it. Never used over half throttle. Threshing time at his place - when he would go to the barn to do some chores we would all take turns on his N doing full throttle doughnuts in his yard.

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Chances R

12-29-2004 10:46:05

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

I like to share a true story with you. About 1997 I took my 1918 Aultman Taylor 30-60 gas tractor over to the Vanderburgh County fair (Evansville IN). Two nineteen year old guys that I worked with brought there girl friends over to see my tractor. One of the two guys always acted like he was hot stuff. So I offered to let him start the tractor. I handed him the three foot long hand crank. I told him to wait until I had the tractor primed with gas. I went ahead and primed it then closed the pet cocks (compression releases). He placed the crank on the crank shaft and one it came up on compression he was basically doing chin ups with the crank. I then said to the other guy, why don�t you give it a shot. Yes you guessed it I reached down and opened up the pet cocks and He rolled it over and it started right up. You should have seen the facial expressions. I will never forget this.

my web site

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Farmall Don

12-29-2004 09:54:42

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

Not Really a tractor story:
A few years back (1999) my father-in-law (Elkhorn Denny on the JD post)& I were putting a cab on my 706 in his heated shop. We were putting on the rubber gaskets with him on one side of the tractor and me on the other and both standing on alum. three step platforms. Well Denny forgot he had the steps to the side and not behind him. He went to step off and fell backward with his rear end landing in an old tin garbage can. The can crushed around him and about 1/3 down so he was stuck like a turtle on it back. I ran around the machine to make sure he was alright and he was (just his ego bruised) and help him out of the can. Once I knew he was fine I started to laugh. If you could have seen his face as he was falling away from me. He was lucky the can was there. Maybe its one of those things that you had to be there?

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Tommy D.

12-29-2004 06:28:16

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

One VERY HOT August Sunday here in Ga. I stopped by and recruited my 2 cousins to go assist me to retrieve an old Ford tractor I had purchased from an old farmer near where they lived.
Upon getting there, cousin #1 promptly gets stung by a wasp who had (along with MANY others) made nests under the hood. Rear wheels were too wide for trailer, so we start towing it back to Cousin #2's house to move them in narrower. Cousin #1 is driving tractor, pulled by me, when he discovers another wasp nest under the seat (OUCH!). Then he realizes NO BRAKES, and almost rams my pickup before hiting a ditch and skinning up his arm on the dash.
Finally, back to Cousin #2's house. Cousin #1 has 3 wasp stings, a skinned up arm, black hands from the 40 year old steering wheel, and we are all covered with sweat from the midday sun.
After another hour or so of sweating, wheels are moved in and tractor is on my trailer. We are standing next to trailer when I look at cousin #1 in a very serious manner and say: "Well, ya'll ready to go get the other one?"
I will never forget how all 8 pints of blood rushed to his head at once, and a grin fell off his face to a somber scowl. We all burst out laughing and couldn't stop for several minutes....

Another non-tractor:
Father-In-Law and Uncle were walking back to truck after a morning of deer hunting when it started to rain. Both trotted the last few yards back to truck. Uncle on passenger side opened door, placed rifle on the seat, and sat down. F-I-L, got in a hurry, opened truck door, tossed in rifle where it promptly went off and shot a hole thru the floor and into the transmission! He looked at Uncle very seriously and said: "Dam! Did you see that deer run under the truck????"

Guess you had to be there, huh.....

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37 chief

12-29-2004 20:06:50

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Tommy D., 12-29-2004 06:28:16

I was with my fried in his dad's car,he was Loading a shot gun,leaning against the seat when it went off and blew a hole in the roof. That was the good part, the bad part was he had to tell his dad about the hole. Glad I wasen't around then. This was in the late 50's.

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Bill(Wis)

12-29-2004 21:00:12

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to 37 chief, 12-29-2004 20:06:50

My friend did exactly the same thing in about 1952. My friend Wardy (from above post) was with him. Neither of them could hear very well for a while. I believe it was a Winchester lever action shotgun with open hammer. Looked something like the 94 rifle. They blamed it on the shotgun. Patched the roof of the car (a 34 Plymouth coupe) and drove it for years after that. Pretty funny.

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John *.?-!.* cub owner

12-30-2004 20:57:58

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Bill(Wis), 12-29-2004 21:00:12

Winchester model 97 (pump) shotguns were real bad, when they became worn, to go off when you closed the slide. Used to have a hole in the floor of my bedroom as proof.

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Bill(Wis)

01-01-2005 04:59:15

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to John *.?-!.* cub owner, 12-30-2004 20:57:58

I'd bet that's what it was. I never owned one and my friend didn't have this one very long. He purchased it used and sold it shortly after blowing the hole in the roof. At any rate, they blamed it on the shotgun and we all said "sure, yeah, you bet".

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Mattl

12-29-2004 05:55:06

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, we were getting things put away around the farm to get ready to go on a mini-vacation (didn't happen very often)

Well, I offered to put the JD B in the machine shed. Bad idea. The machine shed had a stone wall foundation about two feet high that was kind of sloped. For whatever reason, I couldn't get my hand on the clutch in time, and the B proceded to climb right up the stone foundation wall, and the front wheels went out the back side of the shed.

Lots of jacking, cussing, and swearing, but if I remember correctly, we did leave for vacation on time.

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Mark - IN.

12-29-2004 05:37:46

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

Next to getting the plow stuck in clay, and having it stand straight up and stall after jumping off of it, which wasn't funny at the time, but sure was a site to stand back and look at, the best was the neighbor buddy when we were just kids.

Took the snowmobiles down to the lake, as always did, but the temps had been on the rise and the ice was thinning. The parents had warned about the ice, keep the snowmobiles off. My buddy didn't listen and did ok for a while, then the snowmobile went through and sank into about 20' of water, or so. Knowing his dad would kill him, he went home and sneaked the Deere out to ???, but I guess it made sense at the time, I guess. I was just a bystander at that point, and it didn't work too well. He went down the shore embankment on the Deere, crashing through the ice. At least it happened by shore and not way out. Now he had a problem, and had to tell his dad. When his dad arrived, threatening to kill him the whole way there if he was tellin' the truth, there was the Deere in water half way up to the rear axle, half the engine in the water, and the front end bashed in from pushing into the ice. Got the Deere out and got the living snot beat out of him. Got the snowmobile out later in the year.

Mark

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Keith A

12-29-2004 04:56:09

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

It was my high school days, I had baled hay for farmers and my mom would take jobs on the phone while i was gone baling. I had one Particular farmer that took a liking to me (yeah you Phil)and he offered me work at his farm instead of all the baling. He had 2 tractors a Massey F 175 with a loader , and the one i fell in love with a older John Deere 4020, It was on this John Deere, that he had instructed me to spread , "honey" on the fields, with a quite large honey wagon. In the instructions, he made a statement something aout makning sure that i kept the wind to my face! As all who read these memories you can attest to the fact you just can"t tell a high school aged kid anything he doesn"t already know, and if it"s not about a girl , the attention span on any instructons are very short. WELL, i was very proud of how i was handling that 4020 and the fan of "honey" from the back of the tanker , was perfect, i was near the end of the field, and had to slow to go to another row to return to the other end of the field.It was at that point I dscovered the meaning of "keep the wind at my face," that perfect fan of "honey" was now even with the tractor, and in less time than it took to open my mouth in disbelief, i found myself "painted" if you would, with the same "honey", that i had in my mouth, from dropping my jaw as i seen it coming. On my return Phil, seen me and , well not much had to e said, he knew , and I was totally covered with "proof" of the lack of attention, when it came to paying attention to instructions. I"m 46 years old now , and go to shows with 2 antique tractors, and love to use them in plow days and the like. Those days on the farm were some of the best days of my life, with many memories to this day. Thanks Phil, and Carol

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Kens640

12-28-2004 20:49:37

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

Well a memory I had & it wasn't funny then . My Dad used other peoples farm land since we only had a small plot . There was 11 kids so we grew what we ate . Anyhow I was only around 10 yrs old & Dad let me drive the 3 mile stretch to the land we used . I was hauling a trailer loaded with equipment we needed on the back of our Ford 600 series & Dad stood on the tie rod the whole time . Well we got to the entrance of the field & I eased off the throttle & my Dad said turn here . So I did but the dummy didn't hold on . He fell off & I ran over him from foot to shoulder . I jumped off to help , but forgot to shut the tractor down . It started to roll down thru the field & I had to run & catch it . Dad actually had the rear tire treads on his skin . No broken body parts but if he could've I would've gotten a beating for sure . He never stood on the tie rod again .We were thankful & chuckled about years later . And also I used drag race other school buddies on their Dads tractor until Dad found out . Not a good day then . Ken C

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Davis In SC

12-28-2004 20:37:57

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

I was about 14, helping my Dad fence in the farm he inherited from his Dad... I tried to go down a hill on the 8N (Slick tires & fall leaves on the ground) Everytime I tried to back up, I went further down the hill. Finally, I ended up with the nose against the fence we had just finished. We had to cut & splice the new fence to get tractor out. Boy, was Dad mad !!! Years later we shared lots a laughs about it.

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Bill(Wis)

12-28-2004 20:24:12

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

2 stories come to mind. Emil was pulling a load of corn onto his barn floor with his 9N when he noticed that one of his overshoes needed some sort of adjustment. He reached down to do that and it took slightly longer than he anticipated. Tractor went out front door of barn which was a ten foot drop to the barnyard below. Emil ended up underneath a pile of corn, wagon and tractor. They got him out and after he dusted himself off, he said "now wasn't that something"!

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Specter

12-28-2004 19:47:22

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

Now, since I'm only fifteen, I don't have a lot of tractor memories yet. Still, I have a few. The funniest one in my recollection is when I was about oh, maybe 4 years old. Dad and I were feeding the cattle with our Massey Harris 44. Somehow, I ended up driving the tractor a little bit. There was no way I could control that tractor at that age. It went off the trail and into the snow. It was still trying to snort through a snowbank as high as the grill, while pulling a round bale of hay, before Dad rescued me. I still look back at that and laugh!

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So.IL.Farmer

12-28-2004 19:39:10

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to Glenn F., 12-28-2004 18:57:43

I remember one time back about,66 some of the neighbor were helping a sick elderly man get his hay up.We had finished baling the field which had a narrow and very steep hill to get down.My dad had taken one load of hay down behind the MH44.Bo was hooking his Super 88 to one of the other loads to take down the hill.George was suppose to pull the rake with his 8N,but instead he hooked to the half load of hay and started down the hill.The 8N couldnt hold back the load bouncing down the hill he went.At the bottom with a missing front wheel and all the hay.George climbed off his tractor light a cigerette and calmly said "I really need this."

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Harley

12-28-2004 20:53:25

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Re: Funniest Tractor Memory in reply to So.IL.Farmer, 12-28-2004 19:39:10

It's funny now to look back on most "accidents" but it's a wonder some of us made it this far. In about 1960 or so dad had an H with a way too big farmhand loader on it and was trying to rooster out an old foundation and was lifting the backend of the tractor off the ground a little and mom and I both decided he was being way too dangerous so he got off and told me if I knew so much to get after it. Well, I couldn't do anything but get on with it after that challenge was thrown down. I wasn't on that tractor 3 minutes till I had the darned thing on it's right side and the only thing that saved my sorry butt was that big old farmhand loader. It wasn't EVEN funny at the time, but we both look back on it now and laugh. Later, Harley

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