?ÿ
Imagine this setting in five feet of rapidly flowing creek water.?ÿ Just for fun, pretend that you are the owner.
The call came in about 1:00 p.m. Friday.?ÿ The mechanic had been working on the massive hydraulic system that controls a little bit of everything on this beast and decided to take it out for a test run.?ÿ Less than a mile later he was approaching a low water crossing on a county road that he discovered had water flowing about two feet deep over the road surface.?ÿ He stepped in on the clutch and shifted into neutral to stop to further evaluate what to do...????????????.nothing happened.?ÿ?ÿ Suddenly he had no brakes and no steering.?ÿ Downhill is where he was headed with no way to do anything but go along for the ride.?ÿ The two right front wheels caught the gentle road ditch and pulled the tractor away from the road bed.?ÿ A few seconds later everything went flying (if that thing can fly) off the creek bank into roughly five feet of water before it came to a stop.?ÿ It was running fine, so he hopped out of the cab and swam/crawled the short distance to the creek bank.?ÿ Doing that was a bit of a miracle based on the velocity of the stream.?ÿ Later, with the help of his 80 year-old father and his dozer and one of his own big tractors, they were able to pull it from the creek.?ÿ Danged tough to drag it somewhere when the back half has no interest in following the front half.?ÿ Articulated steering can be a bitch when its not working.
