I got so busy this week I forgot to relate to you all something that happened Thursday afternoon.
I was out in the east part of the county by our water supply reservoir. The state highway, while recently widened a bit, is still really hilly with accidents happening regularly...especially at the county road intersections. The private drives that empty out onto the highway can be really steep in someplaces.
I was coming back into town when I noticed up ahead about 200 yards a tandem axled trailer with a medium size JD tractor on it was backing down a drive. I immediately realized he wasn't going to stop at the end of his driveway...he just kept right on coming. And I had to shut it down to give him room. I was really surprised when I saw no truck attached to the trailer. And as I watched the trailer roll quickly and bounce across all three lanes I wondered if the tractor was going to stay on the trailer.
THEN I realized there was a guy sitting on the tractor. He had a hold of the wheel with his face planted deep between his elbows. He looked like a cat trying to stay on the wing of a jet airplane taking off.
The trailer made it to the other side of the highway, across a ditch and then buried its butt end into the dirt of the upslope. I and a couple of other cars had come to a stop and there was no serious high speed crashes. I was on the shoulder by the time he came to a stop. The driver and the tractor barely managed to stay on top of the trailer.
A couple of us drivers made it over to the ditch where the mess had come to rest. The old guy (about my age) was still on the tractor with a death grip on the wheel. He looked scared and dazed. Another driver that had made it up to him asked if he was alright. He just stared at us.
I climbed on the trailer, looked at him and asked, "You need us to call your wife to bring you a clean pair of britches?"
He finally looked at all of us and said, "Please don't tell my wife. She's getting her hair done and gets mad at me when I mess around with this stuff alone."
Me and the three other drivers that had stopped were all males. Apparently all four us were married men also. We realized the gravity of the situation. Somebody said let's get this thing back up the drive. Sure enough, if you looked up the drive there was the pickup at the top of the hill that the trailer had sort of been attached to. I don't know if he was loading or unloading the tractor, but the trailer had come loose and rolled down the steep drive. The fold-up screw stand at the tongue of the trailer was in pretty bad shape...so was some of the asphalt pavement where it had gouged a good lick as it all bounced across the highway.
The fella trotted back up the hill and backed his pickup down there. In a few minutes we had everything buttoned back up and he headed back up his steep driveway with the trailer and tractor in tow. He waved and thanked us all.
He didn't even ask us to promise not to tell his wife...we all knew better, and his secret was safe with us. 😉
Tweren't me. The only JD tractor I own at the moment doesn't fit on a trailer of any kind without taking off all four dual tires first.
Had it been me, you wouldn't have needed to ask if I needed a clean pair of britches. Your nose would have answered that question for you.
If you do stuff, you will experience such horrible events from time to time. It's guaranteed.
Was driving down a State highway one day with an empty bumper hitch stock trailer in tow..................until I hit the rough railroad crossing. Then, the trailer unhitched itself and eventually stopped when it met up with a large tree trunk in the front yard of a rural home. Fortunately, it veered to the right and left the roadway into the ditch and eventually the front yard. Had it gone left and I had been meeting another vehicle of any kind it would have been a catastrophe. Sometimes the only good luck you have is that the bad luck could have been worse.
Holy Cow, post: 446138, member: 50 wrote: Tweren't me. The only JD tractor I own at the moment doesn't fit on a trailer of any kind without taking off all four dual tires first.
Had it been me, you wouldn't have needed to ask if I needed a clean pair of britches. Your nose would have answered that question for you.
It was a smaller fairly new JD tractor with a brush blade on the back. All that pretty green paint was in pretty good shape but the mower hanging off the back got jammed up in the rails of the trailer pretty good. It might have been what kept the tractor from leaving the trailer. I was amazed it stayed on even though it wasn't chained down.
I bet he finds a flatter spot to mess with his stuff next time.
My Deere story goes back to 1975, when I worked on a local ranch for a time. I was driving a Model D tractor towing an old single-bottom plow from a piece of rented ground back to the home place about 12 miles away. The D's steering gear was pretty worn, so for the first 10 minutes or so I was focused on keeping the whole mess headed straight down the road. But I eventually settled into a rhythm of steering a fairly straight line, and decided to have a look back at the plow. Between the tractor and the plow there was a considerable mass in motion - and a noisy one at that - which explains why I neither felt nor heard the plow knocking flat every roadside paddle I'd passed in the mile or two since I'd started.
paden cash, post: 446137, member: 20 wrote:
I climbed on the trailer, looked at him and asked, "You need us to call your wife to bring you a clean pair of britches?"
Me and the three other drivers that had stopped were all males. Apparently all four us were married.
He didn't even ask us to promise not to tell his wife...we all knew better, and his secret was safe with us. 😉
"Sometimes the only good luck you have is that the bad luck could have been worse." ... and thank you Lord every time you've blessed me just enough to save my hide and those around me from my stupidity. Steve
Amen, Brother Steve. Amen.
Unc, You are what makes up the fabric of the good ol' American Society. "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet." 😎
And happy Birthday, I think yours is around this time of year.!!!
paden cash, post: 446137, member: 20 wrote: I don't know if he was loading or unloading the tractor, but the trailer had come loose and rolled down the steep drive.
Someone set the trailer on the ball and didn't latch it.
Been there and done that, but not on a hill.
James
paden cash, post: 446137, member: 20 wrote: The old guy (about my age) ...
Don't you hate it when you find yourself saying that?
FL/GA PLS., post: 446163, member: 379 wrote: Unc, You are what makes up the fabric of the good ol' American Society. "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet." 😎
And happy Birthday, I think yours is around this time of year.!!!
Thanks for the good wishes, back at ya.
Every time I see the word "Chevrolet" I am reminded of how Pops pronounced it. Every once in a while I hear another old codger use the same vernacular: "Shovel-Ay". Us kids just called them (still do) "Shivvys"
Chebbies
[MEDIA=youtube]TTA2buWlNyM[/MEDIA]
Developed initially for the 1969 Camaro Super Stock competition, it was only available through ??Central Office Production Order 9560.? A ZL1 Camaro was a legal, factory-built Super Stock/B drag car. With an aluminum 427 producing over 550 hp, Chevrolet Engineering execs originally thought the bottom-line cost would be very racer-affordable. But when the corporate bean-counters became involved, no cost breaks were given. The engine ($4,160) cost more than the base price of the V-8 Camaro ($2,727). With sales tax, license cost, and shipping, out-the- door was just over $7,000. The ZL1 engine internally was much like the iron-block 427 L88. But the ZL1 had open-chamber heads for better high-rpm power production, plus floating wrist pins and a few other minor updates. Original Camaro production: 69. All 69 ZL1 I.D. numbers went unknown until the early 1980s. All were then were published in Super Chevy via then editor and co-author Doug Marion?? thanks to Chevy??s legendary Product Promotion Department guru, Vince Piggins. Depending on who you believe, there were definitely two, and perhaps three, ZL1 Corvettes built and sold to the public.
Tom Adams, post: 446201, member: 7285 wrote: Don't you hate it when you find yourself saying that?
It takes me about twenty years before I will admit to doing something like that.
I was loading a tractor on a gooseneck trailer and forgot to latch to the ball. The front of the trailer popped up. I didn't want to back off of it and cause the hitch to come down hard on the bed of my truck. I killed the tractor with it holding the front of the trailer up and moved my truck out of the way. Let the jack down as far as I could and then backed off slowly. No damage and never told anyone for 20+ years.
James
FL/GA PLS., post: 446220, member: 379 wrote: [MEDIA=youtube]TTA2buWlNyM[/MEDIA]
Developed initially for the 1969 Camaro Super Stock competition, it was only available through ??Central Office Production Order 9560.? A ZL1 Camaro was a legal, factory-built Super Stock/B drag car. With an aluminum 427 producing over 550 hp, Chevrolet Engineering execs originally thought the bottom-line cost would be very racer-affordable. But when the corporate bean-counters became involved, no cost breaks were given. The engine ($4,160) cost more than the base price of the V-8 Camaro ($2,727). With sales tax, license cost, and shipping, out-the- door was just over $7,000. The ZL1 engine internally was much like the iron-block 427 L88. But the ZL1 had open-chamber heads for better high-rpm power production, plus floating wrist pins and a few other minor updates. Original Camaro production: 69. All 69 ZL1 I.D. numbers went unknown until the early 1980s. All were then were published in Super Chevy via then editor and co-author Doug Marion?? thanks to Chevy??s legendary Product Promotion Department guru, Vince Piggins. Depending on who you believe, there were definitely two, and perhaps three, ZL1 Corvettes built and sold to the public.
I wonder if that was the engine in the "Mako Shark" Corvettes in the early 1970's. I believe they were dual ignition though.
Andy
My brother in law had a late 60's L88 Corvette (I think '67?) that he bought new. That was the iron block 427 with three two barrel carbs - the famous "six-pack" - and a Hurst four on the floor. He sold it to buy his first house, all I ever saw of it was a picture... and that Hurst shifter, he broke it off racing someone lol.
Jim Frame, post: 446143, member: 10 wrote: But I eventually settled into a rhythm of steering a fairly straight line, and decided to have a look back at the plow. Between the tractor and the plow there was a considerable mass in motion - and a noisy one at that - which explains why I neither felt nor heard the plow knocking flat every roadside paddle I'd passed in the mile or two since I'd started.
That was good! 🙂
Drove an old Ford tractor .. once. Old guy I knew said he needed help getting his tractor from Humble to Porter. We get to his place and he says 'there's the clutch, that's the brake, and there's the gear shift. I'll follow you in the truck'. I think the gas was on the steering column but, it's been a couple of decades now.
It was his truck and tractor, so I guess he gets to choose.
Somehow I managed to get that tractor to his place in Porter without wiping anything out when he tells me 'I didn't need to take off in first gear'.
R.J. Schneider, post: 446384, member: 409 wrote: Old guy I knew said he needed help getting his tractor from Humble to Porter.
My junior and senior year of High School I would get out of school at noon and head toward Houston with a load of hay. We supplied about 6 feed stores with hay during the winter. One was in Humble, another was in Porter. Keep in mind FM 1960 was still a two lane highway back then.
JaRo, post: 446387, member: 292 wrote: One was in Humble, another was in Porter. Keep in mind FM 1960 was still a two lane highway back then.
Remember that well. My best friend and i would sneak out during the summer months at two or three in the morning and skateboard that blacktop at a dip by a gully. There would be maybe one tanker truck per hour coming out of Dayton or Liberty.
Found out the other day, the captain or commander of the Cajun Navy went to Humble High. Went to school with him and his brother. Don't think we were friends, Do remember one of my good friends wanting to beat his brother's @#$% for dating the girl he was dating.
