Went to shred a small ranch that I've been doing for more than 3 years now...

Got there with my pickup, roaded my tractor and shredder over and started shredding. Once while shredding I heard a "bump...bump".... I looked at my rear tires and saw nothing. (A deer antler stuck in the rear tire will make that sound.) Since it stopped, I kept going. Everything went fine. Parked the tractor for the day and looked at the tires... Nothing visible. All good.

Grabbed my stuff and started for my pickup and about laid a log, right there!

Seems the cattle had gathered around my pickup at some point, and evidently one of them saw it's reflection on the passenger side and decided to fight it. Dents and scratches on both passenger side doors from horns... Truck only has 3k miles on it. Still smells new...

If I'd seen which one, I'd be eating ribeye as we speak.

Next morning I called my ins. agent and told him. He said I had $50 deductible comprehensive. Just go get it fixed and tell them who to pay. OK I feel a bit better now.

Took it to the Ford Dealer body shop. $2330 in damage. They have to replace the rear door completely. Oh well. I'm only out $50.

Go out to that ranch and finish the job... (I parked pickup in a pen and shut it in. ) Tractor has two flats on right side! Damn! I look up under the fender on top, and sure enough there's a deer antler broke off, sticking up. Rear tire had that hole the antler was in, and another about 6 inches from it. Plugged both holes, and they held. PITA to air up that much tire, and try to push a wad of plugs into a hole.

Got done shredding the place and got down from tractor to leave and do my usual walk around. RF tire on the inside has oil all over it! Damn again!

Got my tractor mechanic out there and it was the wheel bearing and bushings alright, but taking the hub cover off, the internal bolts were all loose. WTF? He said it wasn't the first time he's seen that problem. I'll be calling Case on this BS in the morning. About a $700 fix.

I didn't make enough money to cover the extracurricular expenses on this one!

A bad day indeed Barry. Maybe it's days like that, that make the good days better?

Indeed!

Been bleeding money all summer. Especially since the hurricane though.

Waaaay too many days like that in farming.

Damn Barry! Hate to hear that on your new truck! As for the tractor tires and wheel bearings, it seems we spend as much time on fixing flats and tractors as we do farming! It really sucks some days, but it sure beats the hell out of digging ditches.

If it weren't for bad luck...................

Hang in there buddy.

Question Barry.......our power co-op recently did a bunch of tree removal and shredding under the power lines around my place. The shredder was on tracks...kinda like a mini excavator. Is there a reason for running a rig with tires as opposed to tracks.
I know nothing about shredders other than what I've watched from my deck while sipping a cold one so I hope this isn't a dumb question.

That sounds like the kind of luck I usually have. Had a neighbor once that had a bull see his reflection on his pickup, and butted the truck, putting a huge dent in it. I have some thorn trees here, Honey Locusts, and have several flats a years because of them. Right now, I've got a seal leaking around the PTO of my big tractor, and a seal leaking around the front wheel on my little one. I'll try and fix the little tractor myself, but will take the big tractor to the repair shop when I get time. It's always something.

Not sure, Charlie.

May be similar to this machine:



They can use it to mow rights of way, or cut tree limbs that are close to the easements.

They use these down here along county roads to cut the brush that hangs over fences and stuff like that.

I had hydraulic fluid coming from around my PTO early this season...

Kinda pissed me off because I had less than 1000 hrs on it.

We got into it, and it was just the O ring outside the actual seal before the bearing. $2 fix. O ring was worn, and had a flat surface where the PTO shaft had worn it down. (Parked the tractor on a fairly sharp downhill to get the hydraulic fluid away from the PTO... Didn't lose any fluid that way.

Yea.....that looks similar to what they had. Seems like that might be a way to avoid flats.
It was pretty manuverable. I watched him climb a couple of pretty steep banks with it.

There's a place close to here that does the foam filled tires. I had them put a new one on my shredder (Have 6 on it, but one was wearing badly)

They can fill my tractor tires with foam, but that stuff makes the tires and wheels HEAVY...

They are flat proof, but in this sandy country down here, when it gets wet, they will sink your tractor to the bottom. I have heard they also ride about as good as a horse drawn wagon... no give to them..

I am going to switch tires next year though. I have the 8 plys that came with the tractor. The new ones are going to be 14 plys.