Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Breaking equipment, your stories

I am a bit bored, so I thought it would be fun to start a thread lamenting about breaking our nice toys we use to maintain our property and what we have done to resolve it.

To bring a quick one over from the Product Sources forum I did to my nice shiny new Bobcat Compact CT2040 with a front loader. As part of the kit I got rubber-grain filled tires (it is a slurry of recycled tires and sealant fluid) and a 3rd function hydraulic on the FEL for using snow plows and grapples, and a medium duty brush hog.

I am clearing a knot of grapevines, thorn-apples, grey dogwood, and sumac all tied together covering about 2 acres of area. For southerners imagine Kudzu and a dense stand of pine with a bunch of thorny hardwoods well hidden to poke you at every opportunity.

The way to do this is to raise up the bucket, drive in a little, and yank everything down and mash it. Then back up, drop the bucket level and shove. Rinse, repeat until you have made a 10ft tall hedgehog to roll off for burning. Sumac is relatively soft and when dead, quite brittle. Usually it is easy to slice off with the bucket if not pull the entire weak stump up. Well, it got revenge and I sliced a 4" diameter stump off at a long angle where it became a 2 foot long sword. When I drove over it forward, it laid down under the bucket, and the front axle. I couldn't see it. Once the tip passed the axle as I pulled forward... it popped up behind the axil. When I backed up, I proceeded to remove all my plastic fan blades and poke a nice hole in the radiator. Off to the repair shop! It needed it's 50-hour maintenance anyhow, but I don't think warranty covers this one.

Two weeks earlier, I did the same thing, though the stump in that case pushed in the dome on the oil filter. This in turn threw a high oil-pressure flag and the engine shut down. It would not start. Had to get the travelling tech to come out as I could not find anything wrong. Turns out I should have checked the fuse box as the fail-safe is to blow a fuse when that alarm goes off, forcing you to service it. Fuse box. Duh.

Anyhow, what's your story?

I finally got motivated to fix the box blade that I wrecked while cleaning out my pond.
New OEM parts and the shipping to get them here was going to run past $275, which seemed a bit steep to me.
Instead I decided to buy some steel and build a new hitch from scratch. Spent maybe
$75 if the cost of welding wire/rods, shield gas, and electricity to run the welders is included.
This new hitch should be much more durable than the original.

Rusto I stopped drinking over 29 years ago, and while I can still do some stupid shxx, it doesn't happen as often. lol! I wish I would of stopped smoking sooner. About a week after I bought my first brand new truck I had a coal fall of my cigarette and burn a hole in the seat.

Squid, I have multiple mail order things that I haven’t received. Guess they haven’t been shipped from China.