I’ve done so many dumb things with on tractors it’s hard to pick one.
Was half asleep going home from discing a field with a pickup type three point harrow on an old Ford and nearly flipped it backward in a creek crossing because I forgot to drop the disc before coming up the 30 degree ramp. Was well past 45 degrees before hitting the clutch.
Pulled a tree with a 100’ rope. All was good except it was a 120’ tree. Those involved debated the tree height v rope length for a bit and went ahead with it. I was on the tractor and had little confidence in the group’s swag. Pulled it, but as soon as the rope went slack as the tree came over, killed the engine as I jumped off in favor of shelter behind a nearby tree. Right fender and fender brace were mashing the right rear tire half flat, so had to take the fender off to drive it home. Also had to straighten the steering wheel to keep it from hitting the dash so it could be steered. That wasn’t the Kubota, either.
Worst one with the Kubota was widening a creek crossing shortly after I got it. Started out great. Flawless traction with 4WD, hydraulic and engine power to do some real digging, moving lots of dirt very quickly: really enjoying the performance of this new tractor. About 3/4 done. Had just picked up a very heaped bucket of wet mud, grass, and a couple bushes. Tractor was nose down with front wheels in the 6” deep creek and back wheels on the approach ramp I’d just dug out. Right front wheel broke through into liquid dirt the consistency of a runny milkshake. Right front was down to the axle, left rear was a few inches in the air. If I dumped the dirt to lighten the front end, all that mud would roll into the creek, so instead of dumping it like I should have, I decide to try out the diff lock. Diff lock sort of worked. Got the right rear spinning which got it back about 6” before it broke through into the same goop that swallowed the front. That tilted the whole tractor to the right about 30 degrees. Probably would have rolled, but the right rear wheel jammed against the dirt bank. That got the left rear back on the ground and got me to pause for a minute to think before I made it worse. Dumped the load out of the bucket. Curled the bucket to full dump, lifted the front of the tractor with the loader, and curled the bucket up while backing with diff lock engaged. That got it back maybe a foot but right side still buried. Repeated 3 or 4 times and it was free. Came back a couple weeks later when it was drier and finished it.
