Pond Boss
Posted By: liquidsquid Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/24/20 08:43 PM
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?
Posted By: Augie Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/24/20 09:30 PM
I cut down both fluid-filled rear tires and wrecked the hitch on my box blade when I was cleaning out my pond.

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Posted By: Quarter Acre Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/24/20 09:33 PM
Good thread idea Liquid and you've got an expensive toy...I'm envious, but not up to the repairs costs if I had one...

My implement of destruction has been a Ford 8N tractor for many years now. I must say that I am very impressed with it's durability, but, I too, have had to clear my fair share of thorns...thorny locust, hedge apple, briar, blackberry, and cat's briar. The first year on the place cost me one rear and two front tires. I weighed the costs of having the rear fixed yearly and opted to have all the tires solid filled with urethane ( I think that's what they use). I have not looked back. The only thing that stops the tractor now is when the thorns get ahold of me and I have to hit the clutch in a hurry to keep from being drug out of the seat.

It's been eight years now and I don't miss airin'em up or fluid all over the shop floor. I'm not sure it's paid for itself yet, but the convenience has been worth it all by itself.
Posted By: esshup Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/25/20 02:15 AM
Rainman (Rex) has a good one.... He was looking out the window of the backhoe, sat back upright and the main cylinder on the backhoe broke shattering the window where his head was a split second before..... This was last week.

I ran the brush hog over a stump and BROKE the main shaft in the gearbox. The slip clutch didn't slip.... Almost $1K in parts and I fixed it myself.
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/25/20 03:38 AM
Originally Posted by Quarter Acre
Good thread idea Liquid and you've got an expensive toy...I'm envious, but not up to the repairs costs if I had one...

When I was hunting for a new ride, I really wanted a pickup truck. Something in the Ford F150 class. But I discovered they were astronomically expensive! So instead, I opted for a Subaru Outback and a tractor with attachments and still have money left over compared to a truck payment.

The cool part of a tractor is they barely depreciate. It isn't like a car or a truck at all. When I was shopping, used tractors with a front-loader that wasn't a "mechanics dream" were only a few $K less than new. New is 0% interest, so the simple math of inflation vs. depreciation comes out not costing a penny if I were to sell it at value after 5 years of use. If I don't destroy it along the way,

I am afraid of the repair costs. Hoping for a easy fix on the radiator vs. a new one. The plan is to build a "forestry kit" onto the tractor to stop this from happening.

I just wish I bought a tractor 19 years ago. Then I wouldn't have to be dealing with 19 years of untamed growth today.
Posted By: jk96 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/25/20 05:11 AM
Somewhere in the dam I'm working on for a pond I'm building myself is a nice cordless sawzall and skillsaw I was using to cut my overflow pipe. Moved it to the side after cutting and apparently forgot about them and started moving more dirt.
Posted By: FishinRod Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/25/20 05:16 AM
Originally Posted by jk96
Somewhere in the dam I'm working on for a pond I'm building myself is a nice cordless sawzall and skillsaw I was using to cut my overflow pipe.

Dang, those are some expensive anti-seep collars. laugh
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 11/25/20 02:54 PM
Originally Posted by jk96
Somewhere in the dam I'm working on for a pond I'm building myself is a nice cordless sawzall and skillsaw I was using to cut my overflow pipe. Moved it to the side after cutting and apparently forgot about them and started moving more dirt.

That is so me! There is a smattering of tools out on my property, mostly sockets for dealing with chain saw de-railing. I left good hand pruners in the crook of trees and find them two years later. Now I have three hand pruners. I've nailed safety glasses with the mower a few times, and found my nice camera in a lawn chair after a few days of heavy rain.
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/03/20 09:06 PM
Ouch, $850. Cannot fix the aluminum radiator. I miss copper!
Posted By: FishinRod Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/03/20 09:57 PM
Dang, sorry about that crap sandwich.

Hopefully the new radiator will make your Bobcat twice as efficient at clearing your nasty brush! I am sure your machine has been plotting its revenge for quite some time.
Posted By: Dave Davidson1 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/04/20 11:09 AM
I do a lot of stupid things with equipment ONCE. Gets expensive replacing fiberglass stuff.
Posted By: RStringer Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/04/20 12:02 PM
The 1st week I got the Kubota I put a dent in it. I was drinking and playing on it (not a good idea). Was raking down the side a of tree taking some lower branches off. Got hold of a bigger one and had to bend it to the side a few times. Slipped off the bucket at one point and came back and dented the hood. It also swiped me across the face. Almost like it was telling me to get off the tractor and Bit@h slapped me for it. LOL
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/04/20 01:50 PM
When i was young and in my early 20's i was an ambulance attendent and i picked up or drug out from under two different tractor accident victums where the tractor turned over and trapped the driver under the tractor when working the farm fields. Tractors can be dangerous even without alcohol.
Posted By: Bobbss Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/04/20 04:27 PM
Originally Posted by RStringer
The 1st week I got the Kubota I put a dent in it. I was drinking and playing on it (not a good idea). Was raking down the side a of tree taking some lower branches off. Got hold of a bigger one and had to bend it to the side a few times. Slipped off the bucket at one point and came back and dented the hood. It also swiped me across the face. Almost like it was telling me to get off the tractor and Bit@h slapped me for it. LOL
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.
Posted By: RStringer Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/04/20 07:25 PM
Well that sucks bobbss. I never took up smoking. Iv did more than my fair share of stupid things for sure. Heres a pic of me and my sister when I was maybe 4-5 she was like 8 or 9. Dad bought this when I was little just sold it last year. I'm 44 now he used it almost everyday (he dug sewer lines).

Attached picture Screenshot_20201204-131028_Messages.jpg
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/07/20 08:43 PM
Speaking of doing dumb things to vehicles,

Years ago, fresh out of college, I bought a Dodge Neon Sport Coupe. That was a fun car to drive!

First day out: Timing belt broke. It took 3 weeks to get it back and fought tooth and nail on the lemon law. Repair worked out fine... but day after I got it back I drove up north to a friend's wedding at high rates of speed. All was good, car drove like it was on rails.

On the way to the wedding the next day I was behind the groom's mom, who was driving a big hunk of Detroit Steel. She stopped quick, I did not. Well, I did after I hit her at about 2mph. Talk about embarrassing.

I blew up the engine a year later and never did get the dent fixed. Apparently you cannot drive those little pieces of crap like they begged to be driven. High octane fuel was not their friend.
Posted By: gehajake Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/07/20 09:39 PM
My savings account would look a lot better if it weren't for the stupid stuff I have done with equipment over the years, and that's all I wanna say about that.
In my defense, a good bit of it was done by my employees, One of the luckier ones was when I was watching one of them from a little distance, was driving across an area where there was a fibre optic phone line was buried, the markings were not very obvious anymore but we weren't planing on doing any excavating in that area, he was just traveling to where the actual work site was, long story short, it was a little muddy and slick and the tracks started slipping a little on the wet ground, well the first thing he did was jam his bucket and teeth into the ground to push himself out of there with the loader bucket, I ran hollering and screaming bloody murder for him to stop, I just knew he was going to run a tooth thru a big fibre optic phone line, took me a little to get his attention and luckily had not hurt anything except it took several yrs off my life I do believe.
Posted By: Dave Davidson1 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/10/20 11:44 AM
Ya know, I don't do anywhere as many stupid things since I got older and quit saying "Hold my beer and watch this.".

About 15 years ago I was using my front end loader on a steep slope digging out some muck. When I raised the bucket, the whole tractor started tipping over forward. I jammed the bucket down and slowly dumped the mucky crap and backed out. And then there was the time that I got in the loader bucket and had my Wife raise me skyward to trim some dead limbs. Lost my balance and fell about 10 ft. As Forest Gump said "Shtoopid, just shtoopid.". I have now figured out that anything over your head can hurt or kill you.
Posted By: TGW1 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/10/20 12:00 PM
lessens learned. i did simular Dave. Picked up a full bucket of sand with no counter weight on the back of the tractor and did that on a sloap. Had all 3 wheels off the ground. Balancd on one front wheel for a second or two. Idiot!
Posted By: esshup Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/10/20 02:32 PM
Yes, you learn quickly about center of gravity and how that changes with loads in the FEL.

Just as long as nobody learns about that when they are moving and have the bucket raised high.......
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/13/20 04:16 PM
My soon went bucket-up full of cut wood head first down the dam face with me yelling and running down hill as fast as possible to try to stop him! OMG I panicked. Luckily those filled tires and having the brush hog on the back saved him, even though it was a bit wobbly. It is amazing how thick kids can be right after you had a stern discussion about the very things. Hoping my exceedingly spastic response was something he wont forget soon.

This was the same day I ruined the radiator. I have a sinking feeling my radiator was on that cargo ship that lost a bunch of shipping containers from a storm. Still not here :-(.
Posted By: Dave Davidson1 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/14/20 01:22 AM
Squid, I have multiple mail order things that I haven’t received. Guess they haven’t been shipped from China.
Posted By: SetterGuy Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/14/20 01:19 PM
LiquidSquid, there must be something wrong with those Bobcat radiators! I ran a branch through mine the first year I had it. Was feathering the field edges to improve habitat and was just pushing trees back into the woods that I had dropped into the field. I looked in front of me as I backed up, and sure enough I was leaving a trail of green antifreeze.
My CT225 (rears filled with beat juice) has been a great little tractor. Bought it as a leftover after Bobcat got out of the tractor business. Before they got back in to the tractor business. Ha
I also buried it in mud trying to cut a road across where my dam now sits. Had to call a neighbor to bring his big John Deere over and pull me out.. I was telling another neighbor later about the mishap, and he said “Ol Bill (who pulled me out) has been telling everyone that story!” It was a good laugh on how the city slicker from St Louis buried his tractor in the mud..
Last time I got stuck though. Been close a few times since. I’m getting better with it.
Posted By: Theo Gallus Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/15/20 02:04 PM
You guys make me glad I got all the big screwups worked out of my system 30 years ago on my FIL's equipment - with him there to show me how to fix them.
Posted By: Chris Steelman Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/16/20 12:30 AM
Not long after we bought our property my dad and I were driving back to the camper at the front of the property. He was in front driving the tractor and I was in the back in a Yahama Rhino. Not wanting to drive slow behind him I sped around into some tall grass not knowing there were some huge ruts left over from logging equipment. I hit the ruts and my head hit the ceiling and a generator in the bed flipped on its side and started spilling gas. We got the generator flipped back up and headed to camp. A little while later we fired up the generator so that we could run the AC in the camper. After that we headed down the road to get some lunch. On our way back we get a call from a family member that the rhino was completely engulfed in flames. We assume the spilled gas got on the generator engine and caught fire.
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 12/17/20 09:23 PM
Wow, Chris, that was a doozy! Outright complete destruction. Hopefully insurance covered it.

My guess my radiator is/was on this ship ;-)
https://weather.com/news/weather/vi...ontainers-on-cargo-ship?cm_ven=hp-slot-1
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/06/21 10:16 PM
I finally got my tractor back at mid January. They had to remove a radiator out of a new tractor into mine since I really needed the damned thing to plow. It took so long that by then I had saved up for a used plow on their lot, so got that delivered at the same time.

Glad I got that plow. We had a heavy snowfall overnight last week, about a foot. My little ATV was having none of that, but the tractor with front chains chewed through that and a good chunk of my gravel driveway in places where I screwed up.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother.
Posted By: esshup Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/07/21 04:53 PM
Originally Posted by liquidsquid
I finally got my tractor back at mid January. They had to remove a radiator out of a new tractor into mine since I really needed the damned thing to plow. It took so long that by then I had saved up for a used plow on their lot, so got that delivered at the same time.

Glad I got that plow. We had a heavy snowfall overnight last week, about a foot. My little ATV was having none of that, but the tractor with front chains chewed through that and a good chunk of my gravel driveway in places where I screwed up.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother.


I hate using a plow on a gravel drive. Seems more gravel ends up in the grass than on the drive. That's why I have a snowthrower that mounts on the garden tractor. It's small, only 42" wide, but I am patient, and it sure beats walking and pushing on handlebars.
Posted By: liquidsquid Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/09/21 07:41 PM
I have considered trading the plow in for a 3pt blower. Just had a bad experience with a less powerful tractor and blower in wet snow. The chute kept clogging and finally a rusty bar to the top of the blower (it was old) snapped off and dropped it into the driveway. I barely got out of the shed and 20ft up the driveway for an hours work.

Took the ATV and its County plow for a high-speed clearing maybe 15 minutes to do the whole thing. It did peel up a lot of gravel in that wet snow.
Posted By: esshup Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/10/21 12:17 AM
Originally Posted by liquidsquid
I have considered trading the plow in for a 3pt blower. Just had a bad experience with a less powerful tractor and blower in wet snow. The chute kept clogging and finally a rusty bar to the top of the blower (it was old) snapped off and dropped it into the driveway. I barely got out of the shed and 20ft up the driveway for an hours work.

Took the ATV and its County plow for a high-speed clearing maybe 15 minutes to do the whole thing. It did peel up a lot of gravel in that wet snow.

Way more expensive, but a front mounted hydraulic blower/thrower will be a lot easier on the neck and back.
Posted By: airborne3118 Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/10/21 03:42 AM
This was at my sisters property where Rex busted the cylinder. He is a lucky man.
Posted By: esshup Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/10/21 03:47 AM
Originally Posted by airborne3118
This was at my sisters property where Rex busted the cylinder. He is a lucky man.

I talked to Rex that night. He was still shaking.
Posted By: Augie Re: Breaking equipment, your stories - 02/10/21 06:05 PM
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.

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