Did something dumb today.

[Southside]

So apparently a photo of the event exists! At least part of it. Here is the defeated Doc Holiday and his conquerer Kristina, I am at the end of my rope just out of the picture.   
 

 

[WV Sawmiller]

   You know if you take your backhoe and dig a pit and put the cow's feed in a bucket at the bottom so she goes down there to feed  Doc Holiday may be able to consummate the act with Big Nose Kate and you can get your boot back. Hey, it works with big tall mares and short donkeys for mule raising.  

[Walnut Beast]

That’s awesome. Cute little guy

[samandothers]

Southside, 
I did not laugh too hard.  The trip back to the boot must have been kinda anti climatic after the pull through the cow pie. 

[samandothers]

My dumb thing fortunately did not cause blood letting or injury!  I should have known better though. 

So recently I had hydraulic hoses made for my grapple.  The old ones were cracking, and I had a leak near the cylinder and decided time to replace the hoses.  I installed the new ones and used it for the first time under load yesterday, Friday.  I was moving some stumps and brush piles.  Near the end of my task the grapple would not close.  I pulled the tractor in the barn to get out of the sun.  I tried to operate the grapple and saw hydraulic fluid spraying, but the grapple did not budge.

After determining the line that failed I disconnected the line coupling from the tractor and removed the grapple from the tractor via the quick attach.  With the tractor out of the way I thought this will be simple.  I removed the piece of fire hose protecting the lines and the cover over the cylinder so I could unscrew the hose.  Well as I mentioned the grapple would not close.  However, when you unscrew the connector from the cylinder thus allowing the fluid to escape, which is under the pressure from the weight of the gripping claw, it does!  I had a nice hydraulic fluid shower.   Shorts, boots, legs, and lower part of my shirt were soaked.  Dumb!  Off to the nearby creek with some Dawn soap to get most of the mess off.  Bagged the clothes for the trip home.  We were in Va. and home is Charlotte NC area currently.

To help end the day right on the way home it rained most of the way.  We reached the 485 loop around Charlotte and had a flat on driver rear of the truck.  This was about 9 pm in the rain with the 3 lanes of traffic and I pulled over just of the end of a merging ramp.  The actual tire changing was not bad, but it took much longer than necessary to get the tire to drop from under the truck.  The tub that helps guide the rod end to couple with the mechanism that lowers the tire had come loose.  So up under the rear of the truck I go.  Did I mention the rain?   I manipulated the tube finally into position so I could get the rod on the lowering mechanism and lowered the tire.  Mean while my loving bride was freaking out over the rain, dark, traffic whizzing by and merging.  Freaking out may be strong, she was genuinely concerned for my well-being.

All good now! made it home and had a nice warm shower. Sitting here visiting the forum with adult beverage in hand. 

[WDH]

Chris Jim,

The clothesline behind Ms Kristina needs to be re-hung. 

[Nebraska]

That's just short cow fence.

[firefighter ontheside]

That's just short cow fence.

For short cows........

[firefighter ontheside]

The roped bull reminds me of the dumb thing I did a few weeks ago.  I wanted to set up some temporary fencing so that I could have my goats do some brush clearing.  I decided to get some orange construction fencing and some t posts.  I put it up and connected to some of my other existing fences.  Well the goats are smart enough to know where they should try to escape, but not smart enough to not get stuck in the fence.  I heard them calling frantically and knew something was wrong.  I found them both caught in the fencing.  If you've ever caught a northern pike on a big lure with treble hooks and then used a net to boat the fish, you know how the fish will roll up in the net and get all the hooks hopelessly tangled in the net.  Well, that's what goats with big horns are like in the orange fence.  I haven't tried it again.  I will, but with more thought.

 

[EOTE]

After determining the line that failed I disconnected the line coupling from the tractor and removed the grapple from the tractor via the quick attach.  With the tractor out of the way I thought this will be simple.  I removed the piece of fire hose protecting the lines and the cover over the cylinder so I could unscrew the hose.  Well as I mentioned the grapple would not close.  However, when you unscrew the connector from the cylinder thus allowing the fluid to escape, which is under the pressure from the weight of the gripping claw, it does!  I had a nice hydraulic fluid shower.   Shorts, boots, legs, and lower part of my shirt were soaked.  Dumb!  Off to the nearby creek with some Dawn soap to get most of the mess off.  Bagged the clothes for the trip home.  We were in Va. and home is Charlotte NC area currently.

That's as funny as my hydraulic hose failure years ago as a diesel mechanic...The owner of the ag equipment shop asked me to demonstrate the new Kubota 25 hp tractor and loader to a customer.  He is standing there in his beautiful western suit and boots and explaining all the features to the customer while I am operating the loader.  One of the hoses burst on the loader and you guessed it...my boss in his nice suit was drenched in oil.  The customer thought it was a hoot and laughed his as_ off!  I think he ended up buying the tractor too (after the hose was replaced).

[richhiway]

You can change tires a lot faster if you throw a battery powered impact in your tool kit. I picked up the ryobi and it came with a handy little air compressor for $99.00. Came in handy for me! Treat those hydraulic lines like a poisonous snake. They can inject oil thru your skin and if that oil is hot burn the heck out of you.
Everyone take care.
 

 

[samandothers]

EOTE,
At least my clothes were work shorts and shirt!  I had to snicker at myself for not being up wind of the fitting.  IF there happens to be a next time I hope I remember this experience.

richhiway,
Fortunately I had a good cross style wrench in the truck that worked well, and the nuts were not overly tight.  My biggest issue and time waster was trying to get the spare out from under the truck.  I will take a look at the tube that goes over the raising and lowering mechanism to what is up with it.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

Fortunately I had a good cross style wrench in the truck that worked well, and the nuts were not overly tight.  My biggest issue and time waster was trying to get the spare out from under the truck.  I will take a look at the tube that goes over the raising and lowering mechanism to what is up with it.  

It's best to practice lowering that spare the driveway once in a while.

I have an F350 and went to rotate tires couldnt get the spare down. Extension rod and adapter just wouldnt grab anything.  Squirted quite a bit of PB blaster down the tube.  Shone a light in there looked like a rubber bushing thought maybe something in there went bad.

I was sort of fuzzy mentally about what was supposed to be in the tube, and had had enough,  so cut the cable to get the spare off.  Then pulled off the plastic tube. Some stuff fell out but didnt take notice since it was raining rust on me anyway, so proceeded to undo the winch to have a look at it.

Lying there on the ground I slowly  started getting that feeling I was about to learn something.  This feeling turned into the realization that the acorn under my head sort of looked like the rubber  I saw when I shone the flashlight down the tube.  Picked it up and sure enough it was soaked with PB blaster. DANG if a chipmunk hadn't stored his goodies down that tube.

I guess cutting off the winch cable qualifies as dumb, but it wasnt today. Hope that's ok. 

[Texas Ranger]

Seems like I really haven't had a day if I did nothing wrong.

[samandothers]

Luckily while on side of the road I was able to shine a light down in the tube to see well  enough that the end of the tube was moving.  I continued to fiddle with it until the rod end engaged the drive.
I looked today after a trip to the tire shop and found where the tube connected to the wench over the square drive head had come loose and was free to move around.  The end had two plastic snaps that engage the wench.  I don't have much confidence it will remain snapped.  Hopefully next time I'll remember how to over come the issue.  If it had been full of rodent dinner I would have had an issue!
I shared with both my kids what happened and gave them a heads up to have a good headlamp in their vehicle so they can be hands free and not rely on a cell phone flashlight.  Also suggested they do a trial run on their trucks.

Not sure why the crazy font... when I cut or paste some stuff this occasionally happens.

[Nebraska]

I wonder how many of us have gotten mad at a spare and just cut the cable off so we could get going. I've been there.

[GAB]

I wonder how many of us have gotten mad at a spare and just cut the cable off so we could get going. I've been there.

So have I.  A 2003 silverado.
GAB

[Nebraska]

2001 Suburban, 06 Yukon. I should check my pickup 2011, and see if it's working. Haven't needed it yet....

[Walnut Beast]

I wonder how many of us have gotten mad at a spare and just cut the cable off so we could get going. I've been there.

So have I.  A 2003 silverado.
GAB

😂😂 Yep! 2001 suburban blew a tire several years ago and had to cut the spare tire cable (Dewalt oscillating tool with carbide cutter worked pretty good) 😂

[Banjo picker]

Guys at MDOT cut one off our pickups, because they didn’t know there was a little key gizmo that had to go on the end of the jack rod.  It was in the glove box in a plastic bag.  Tim