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oh crap moment

Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭

my riding mower chewed up a drive pully and a belt I think a stick got wedged under the deck( my wire was on so I am blaming her as normal 😁 ) but our grass needed mowed around the house and waiting on parts even three days was not going to be a good thing

so while I was my grand kids 1st BD party yesterday I borrowed my youngest sons JD zero turn .. did I mention I have never even been on one much less used one 🙄

but that never stopped me before so to be safe to start out I avoided and close contact with the cars and trucks and any thing I could crash into. I was kind of getting the hang of it but a long way from being good on it and it was Acquard at least for this old fellow then out of the blue "wack " DRT OH crap now waht .. I had ran over a garden hose and it wrapped its self auld the blades like a huge snake going for dinner .. he had the deck set very low and on my rider I just run over the garden hoses no problem . how embarrassing 😐️ out comes my case pocket knife and 1/2 dozen + cuts later the hose is in tiny pieces and many profanity words send toward space and I was back mowing . not as bad as it could have been but still I messed up hate to say it but 1st time in well at least days 😲

Comments

  • love2shootlove2shoot Member Posts: 553 ✭✭✭

    First time on a ZT can interesting.

  • brier-49brier-49 Member Posts: 7,023 ✭✭✭✭

    I've feel your pain having done the same in the past

  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 13,733 ✭✭✭✭

    Yeah, it's best to do a visual check for debris and 'stuff' before mounting the machine.

    I've never run a ZT mower but 'ASSume' it's somewhat similar to driving a skid loader which can be a challenge for beginners.

    Finding 'stuff' with equipment is often aggravating AND expensive. Son, Grandson, and I were out walking a soybean field Friday evening and lo & behold, there's a bit of rusty metal showing amongst the baby soybeans. Kicked it-didn't move. Pulled on the end a bit-still didn't loosen. Both of the boys got hold of it and HOLY CRAP, it's a buggy axle buried in the dirt. Long ago, buggy axles were quite often used as fence braces and when I was a kid, there had been a fence right through that spot.

    I have no idea how much it would have cost if that 5' long steel axle had gone into the combine. Apparently, it had been covered by a bulldozer 50 years ago when the fence was pushed out and Mother Nature had brought it back to the surface for us to find one way or another. MN is a tough old beach.

  • JimmyJackJimmyJack Member Posts: 5,385 ✭✭✭✭

    Kids catch on in minutes, let them do it.

  • BrookwoodBrookwood Member, Moderator Posts: 13,278 ******

    I had a similar experience hitting a small exposed piece of black landscape fabric with my lawn tractor. I said a small piece but after the blade hit it, that fabric turned into a pull the table cloth off the table magic trick!! Also uprooted all of my wife's entire plot of day lilies!


    It took me a couple hours to cut that stuff out of the mower deck! 😫

  • William81William81 Member Posts: 24,585 ✭✭✭✭

    I have been looking ZT and will likely get one the next time I change mowers. My good buddy has one, he managed to run it into his pond the first time out. He had caught on since then !!🙂

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭

    Driving it was a bit odd but with half hour or so I was doing OK but to get it down to where it's fluid motion not so much

    I have driven skid loader many times but the mower being such a short wheelbase reacts a lot faster

    Doubt if I buy one but was interesting and they are faster at mowing the same areas I do with my cub cadet riding mower

    I knew the hose was there but the deck was set lower and it got me well the garden hose

  • dunbarboyzdunbarboyz Member Posts: 2,126 ✭✭✭✭

    Hide the hose the hose. Nothing happened.

  • GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,704 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2022

    ZT are interesting and have to learn the quirks, like mine loves to slide into ditches and I SWEAR, that would not happen again. The hose is like running over 50 dollar bill hoping you won't catch" it. That's on you.

  • buddybbuddyb Member Posts: 5,234 ✭✭✭✭

    I bought a hose at the NAPA store in 1985.It had a warranty that if anything ever happen to it,even ran over with a mower,they would replace it free.I still have that hose and it works fine.

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭

    normally if I cut one its nothing a new joint repair kit would not fix. with that said having one in a dozen + pieces after being ran thru a large blender and a pock knife to cut away the carnage . the mower had the hose twisted and mangled around all three blades .. worst garden hose accident I have ever seen 😁


    I have one ditch line along the highway I avoid it did not trust my skill as a fist timer now 40 years ago I would have taken it as a challenge but I just dont heal up and recover as fast 😲

  • OkieOkie Member Posts: 991 ✭✭✭

    Mom and Dad had a person that mowed their place with a ZT in their later years.


    I noticed TV antenna pole hit hard and about to fall, electrical disconnects ripped loose from mounting, electrical conduits that were coming down poles smashed.

    I just repaired the stuff and did not complain. I did not want to do their mowing with a push mower at 150 miles trip one way.


    I did ask who they have hired doing their mowing and they replied a really nice lady and she gets done fast with that mower she has, it just zips everywhere and can turn on a dime.

  • chmechme Member Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭✭

    That's the problem with cheap garden hose- they skimp on the lawnmower repellent.

  • grdad45grdad45 Member Posts: 5,304 ✭✭✭✭

    The first time my wife drove our new ZT, she sideswiped the well house, turning it 90* to the left! I told her she almost cost us $13K! That well is 300 ft deep, and if the pump ended up in the bottom, it could get really expensive! She has learned how to run it now.

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