I was happily out mowing tall weeds last weekend and was ¾ of
the way into the second day when things became exciting. My property is
located in the Sierra Nevada Foothills in California, which had tons of rain this winter
season. I think the weeds were visited by “Balco” as they seemed
to be on steroids this year and after every rain they grew like crazy. It
makes it hard when you are only there every other weekend as I live and work in
the Bay Area and own the property for retirement plans. Anyway, I was nearing
the top of one hill when the EGT-150 tractor popped out of gear and started to
roll backwards. I immediately turned off key thinking that the alltrax would
help slow me down, wrong as it was out of gear and had its own ideas of a fun
ride. I started gathering speed backwards and applied as much pressure to the
break as I could muster to no avail, as the break only seemed to be enjoying
the thrill of speed and had no intention of slowing things down. My neighbors
fence line was directly below me along with some of his cows who seemed to be
enjoying watching me careening towards them. I thought I had better get off this
thing before it was too late, so I jumped off and expected the tractor to run
over me in the process. I must have turned the wheel slightly while doing
this, as the tractor started turning and the mid mount mower deck caught the
ground stopping its movement. When I realized that I was still in this world I
examined the deck and found that the force had completely bent the right hand
roller mount under the deck. This deck was in great shape with heavy sheet
metal and no weak spots apparent. I managed to coax the tractor back into the
garage and spent the next hour straightening the deck out. I have nothing but
respect for these older tractors, as I can only imagine what would have
happened if I were on one of the current plastic jobs.
The saga continues,
Bob K
Robert
Kleinbrahm
Senior
Network Engineer
First
Republic Bank
San Francisco, CA. 94111
415 288-1478
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