Why is it that

[old]

One person can run a machine all day long and how no problems with it and then some one else use it and they can't get one round around a filed before it brakes down. I have a friend I work with all the time and I don't know what it is with him but every time he gets on something it seems to know who it is and it brakes down. I can use the same machine and not have any problems with it. Do these machines know the difference in the person that can jump off and fix it and the person that calls an says help?? I just don't understand. Guess thats why I'm always around when my friend is useing his machines
Hobby farm

 

[Anonymous-0]

i used to work for a guy like that. i think he could have broke a piece of paper.

 

[Anonymous-0]

i got a similiar problem with another farm i bought couple years ago, its about 5 miles away, not a bad drive to get a tractor over there. seems like every time i go there something breaks on something, get flats, hydrauic lines burst, break belts, dang near got hit by lightning twice over there, and snapped the tail wheel off my zero turn twice over there. then seems like if i mow, soon as i get the furthest point from the barn, i get caught in a downpour. that place has it in for me!!

 

[NC Wayne]

I have the oposite problem. I've had it happen many times that I get a call to come fix a machine and it's not broke when I get there. Talk about a mechanic nightmare trying to figure out what went wrong when there's nothing currently wrong. In answer to your question though I can usually tell the difference in a machine that one person runs all the time and one that different people run. Same machine, different styles of operation and for whatever reason the machine does seem to know the difference. One man can run a machine for along time with no problems but put someone else behind the controls and it's gonna break down. I see it all the time, I think it's an unwritten law.

 

[Howard H.]

For me versus the hired hands - I just knew when to baby something and I couldn't get them to care or remember the little tricks, for the most part.

For example, the old Peterbilt clutch would slip a little if you really got on it, so I always kept it a gear low and easy up the hill.

Always have the big disc raised up before you take off in the Versatile tractor, to be easier on the clutch...

If you ever get a Ford pickup stuck in the mud, just go get a tractor - it will blow out the power steering pump if you get to racing it too hard (ours were all standards)... etc...

HH

 

[Iowa_tire_guy]

A welder that I know says that farmer can break an anvil pulling it across a plowed field.

 

[Davis In SC]

Everything I ever lent out gets broken.. I think a machine or tool gets mad a being lent, so it breaks to protest.. LOL I finally quit lending things.. If a neighbor wants to borrow the tractor or skid steer, I just go do the job for them, if it is just a small job.. Easier and cheaper than fixing them after they get torn up.. People are always wanting to borrow a torque wrench.. Nope, but I will come torque it for them..

 

[Jeff Oliver]

My dad and I have an agreement because of that. I don't run the square baler and he doesn't run the roundbaler. I can get nin his tractor after he has baled 50-400 bales. Same field, same tractor/baler, same gear,RPM ,etc. and it just will not bale right. Won't tie, break shear bolts, whatever. Same for mine. I can not have a problem at all he gets in and something goes wrong.

Anyone who says that machinery isn't living or is dumb has never farmed with it... LOL!!!

 

[Mark - IN.]

He promised that he that he wouldn't tell anyone I did that. I should've known better. Well, tell him his repair weld broke the first time I bounced a hammer off of it and I want my money back.

 

[souNdguy]

Old.. i know what you mean.

I divide it into 2 groups.. those that are not 'compatible' with machines.. and those that run them sloppily.

1st example... my wife.. she ain't machine compatible.. I swear.. she could break a 500# anvil with a chicken feather...


and for the sloppy people...

One of the venue's i work in for my night job just had a new 50k$ lighting system upgrade.. it has a computerized board that talks to a 65k$ colortran dimmerpack that runs the lamps in a large 2 story, multi business building.

The building is open 7 days a week.. 8am to 11pm.

I work there 4 shifts per week.. I -never- have problems on it... I took the small training course the installer offered a few weeks ago after the updates were added. Non of the other technicians bothered to take the course ( and we were paid to take it if we wanted to!! ). 80% of the other tech's have to call me to have me talk them thru problems with it. IE.. ont he 3 days I don't work, and on the morning shifts when I'm not there on the 4 days I do work.. I get at least 1-2 calls for support.

Soundguy

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have a son like that. I have 4 older JD lawn tractors. If I have him mow, I have 4 tractors to fix. Myself, wife and daughter can mow all day no problems. Son is at college now, tractors are thrilled.

 

[farmerjohninpa]

this is no lie!! an old farmer i used to help when i was 12 to 19 years old had on of those old monster new holland balers with the dinosaur teeth that used to move up and down and shove the hay into the chamber. well it had a hand crank only,4 cylinder wisconsin engine on it. hot or cold,,sunshine or rain, wind or still,tuned-up or a year of running; this motor would not start, no matter how many times you cranked it, would not start until 3 magic words were said. the first time i used this baler i cranked it over at least 35 times while he sat there with a grin on his face, and then he told me the secret code; well i called it an S.O.B. and on the third crank it fired and no lie, with witnesses to be had many a time people of the local area came to see this baler do its thing and it never failed.i`ll never forget it caused i brung it to our farm to bale hay; our baler was down,, and when i got off the "M" that pulled it, my dad was there and as soon as i faced the motor and open the fuel valve on it i said "OK you S.O.B. lets go",,i felt pops hand smack me across the back of the head! i explained it to him , he believed none of it so i asked him to please start it and after 23 crank-overs he "talked" to it and on number 26 it started. he told me to go bale the field and take it back when done ,cause he was gonna repair our baler before we cut any more hay,,he didn`t want it back on the farm !

 

[old]

Yep and there teaching all his common since right out of him

 

[old]

Well on this what was bad is that this tractor has indepednet PTO and so does his other 2. All farmalls. Well first off he could not figure out that you have to move the PTO lever slowly into gear not just jam it in. I watched him hit the cluthc pedal 5 or 6 times and he still could not figure it out. He runs his 450 farmall all the time same set up and he knows it but why doesn't he understand it on this 340

 

[old]

Yep seen morethen once a friend brings me something they can't get to start and I mess with it 5 minutes and all I do is check gas, oil etc and it starts. Guess I scare the machines because they know if they don't run I'll take a wrench to them and they will

 

[Don-Wi]

My dad and I have that arrangement. I just mentioned the haybine yesterday. I've alomst got it fixed, I just gotta finishe fixing 2 of the 3 hardlines. 2 of the 3 burst (swing left & right), but the 3rd one (lift) isn't much better. I can run a tractor all day sometimes and as soon as he steps on it, he's having troubles. Othertimes he can run it all day and I'll have some troubles with it.

My mom used to run all the rental equipment and do quite a bit, but she musta lost her machine compatibility. A few years ago she bent one of the arms for the wheel rake (don't ask me how- I just don't know).

I think that's about the last time she's done anything except maybe pull the baler around once in a great while with me on back. Now she plays in the garden and in her new kitchen.

Donovan from Wisconsin

 

[Aaron Ford]

Gotta plead guilty here.

My brother was driving up a WV country road in his old reliable truck and I was riding in the passenger seat. He had to pause for the cause and while he was out of the truck, it started to drift. I reached over and put the tip of my toe on the brake.... And promptly blew out the left rear brake line. Who knew?

Aaron

 

[Farmall MD]

You got that right old, college does seem to take that away from people. Doug N

 

[Oldmax]

I have a brother-n-law that don't look before putting tractor or brain in gear ,neaver repairs or does normal maintance on anything . Will go to help him mow he will spend 2 hours getting tractor started battery down " dead ". needs new cables has last 3 years . Him knowing for two weeks I was coming . Have just started taking my tractor & brush hog & always have good start on him when he gets to field .

 

[CJ3b_jeep]

Guy in my office is the same with computers. For the very same reason as stated above, I don't let anyone run my tractor, there are too many little things you need to know about her, such as how to push the clutch, how to start it and run it up a bit to get the oil pressure where it should be, how to enguage the pto ad the fact that it turns tighter to the right than the left and that the three point lift needs to be handled just right.

 

[Anonymous-0]

My brother-in-law is the same. Actually ended up in a legal battle after my Dad passed away. Brother-in-law wanted to buy Dad's farm, but Dad had stipulated in his will not to sell to him because he would just wreck the place.

 

[Pair-a-dice farms]

You are 100% correct there. A smart kid going into college will be dumb as a rock when he comes back to the farm. But they can be revived.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I helped out a cousin who was farming our north place and he needed the grain truck driven to the south place, no problem right. Well I babied it all the way over there as they hauled fertilizer in it and I figuerd a brake line would be rusty, It was, but it didn't break until I made the last stop where he wanted it. Then that same summer I needed to fill in an old hog wallow and he let me use his old kubota with the bucket. I only got 2 bucket loads in the wallow when it blew one of the hoses. That was fun! Brakes were shot and no steering. Somehow I got it back to the shed. They were very hard on equipment and would never maintain anything until it really needed it. That was a few years back, but 2 weeks ago he let me run his pride and joy 1930 farmall regular back to his farm. That one he maintains and no problems that time.

 

[old]

Ya dumb in some ways and smart in others to bad the trade off isn't for the better most of the time
Hobby farm

 

[rrlund]

A guy was talking in the dealership one day about just that. Had three sons and swore the one was just unlucky. Said he knew the boy wasn't hard on things,but if anything was ever going to break it happened when he was running it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Sounds very familiar, and part of the reason why I prefer not to own a Ford vehicle anymore. Don't know why, but I can sit in a Ford (new, used, wornout or otherwise) and something will break on it. I know people that can run them in the ground and never have a problem or breakdown. I'll go to move it on the yard or get into it for a ride somewhere and something will go wrong with it before the engine is shut back down.

Jim