Oooooops...........damn.

[Captain Kilowatt]

Being an only child of two working parents and living outside of town definitely had its disadvantages, but it also had its advantages such as learning how to do things for yourself using whatever resources were available at the time which lead to good life-skills. That came in handy today. While mowing the roll bar caught a guy wire on my 45 foot irrigation pipe mast holding up the far end of my inverted L antenna. I did this once before and just slightly bent the mast and I was able to reinforce it with a piece of angle iron. Not today however. It broke the pipe about three quarters of the way around right at the top most mounting hole meaning the only thing holding it was shear luck. I brought Johnnie over, that is my name for my recently purchased John Deere 1025R tractor with mower and loader, and managed to use ratcheting straps to bind it to the bucket. I then knocked out the bolts holding it to the base and released one set of guy wires and lower the loader bucket to set it down on the ground. It was pretty sketchy going but all worked out in the end. I had to baby the hydraulics and not make any sudden moves or I could have snapped the mast easily. I wanted to get it down before any wind picked up as it would have surely fallen with any amount of wind at all. Now I just need to trim the bottom end and drill it and mount it again. I think I may use Johnnie to put it up again as it went better than I thought taking it down. It sure beats raising it by hand. That is a LOT of leverage and weight to deal with plus it jiggles like a bowl of jello making it hard to handle once the arms get shaking.


Waiting for a sneeze to take it down.

Success!. It is down in one piece.

Finally down. You can see the piece that broke off the very bottom.

Binder straps around the bucket. It broke off right at the top bolt hole leaving no support just luck holding it!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Got it back up today better than ever. I had to shorten the mast by three feet but added twelve. It now stands 54 feet to the top. I put it all together and put the bottom bolt in and then raised it using a ratchet strap and the tractor loader. It was a lesson in hydraulics and how to baby them. LOL Imagine standing up 42 feet of three inch irrigation pipe and 12 feet of 4x4 post all from one end.

 

[Slowmover]

Imagine no tractor.

Never heard anyone happy to see it leave with new owner (unlike a boat)

Glad it worked so well.

A bourbon for the driver and cetane boost for The Beast

.

 

[secret squirrel]

Glad everything worked out for you and its up and functional.

 

[S&W357]

Impressive indeed. Great ending to a bad story.

 

[Rwb]

next time pull pins on rollguard when mowing near guy wires.they coulda flipped you as well as breaking mast. glad all came out ok

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

next time pull pins on rollguard when mowing near guy wires.they coulda flipped you as well as breaking mast. glad all came out ok

The roll bar was flipped DOWN in the position seen in the LAST photo and besides NO it would NOT have flipped the tractor. LOL. The guys are nylon rope and one slipped inside the top edge of the ROPS bar and wedged between the ROPS bar and the signal lights. The rope would have broken without me even knowing it until it came crashing down. It's not like the guys were 5/16 EHS. LOL

 

[Rwb]

The roll bar was flipped DOWN in the position seen in the LAST photo and besides NO it would NOT have flipped the tractor. LOL. The guys are nylon rope and one slipped inside the top edge of the ROPS bar and wedged between the ROPS bar and the signal lights. The rope would have broken without me even knowing it until it came crashing down. It's not like the guys were 5/16 EHS. LOL

ok thought it was up when it happened

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

ok thought it was up when it happened

No I never just mow with the ROPS bar up or with the loader attached. Too many trees I need to mow around and it is bad enough with it down. I used to have a 25hp Craftsman mower with snowblower attachment but it was getting up there in years. I wanted something that would mow, clear snow from the yard and be a bit more usefull in general so I bought the JD 1025R. Still trying to get used to the difference in size especially the height. It's amazing that both have 25hp and both have hydrostatic drive but they are worlds apart in power and torque.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

ok thought it was up when it happened

That picture with it up and the guy lines draped over it was when I was taking the mast down. I released the back set of guys and let them drape over the ROPS bar as I lowered the mast. I put it up to do that as I did not have any counterweight on the back and was not sure how stable it would have been sitting where it was, the ground is sloped a bit, and there was a LOT of leverage on the frontend plus the loader was at full height. If things went sideways, it might have upset things.

 

[Robb]

On the farm, we call them a 'Dear John'; because something always breaks on them without previous notice . . .

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

On the farm, we call them a 'Dear John'; because something always breaks on them without previous notice . . .

Always a nay sayer in the crowd. The sub-compact line cannot be too bad. The JD 1025R and the Kubota BX series make up over 80% of the sub-compact tractor sales. Wait...........? Weren't we talking about a broken and later repaired antenna mast?

 

[Rwb]

Always a nay sayer in the crowd. The sub-compact line cannot be too bad. The JD 1025R and the Kubota BX series make up over 80% of the sub-compact tractor sales. Wait...........? Weren't we talking about a broken and later repaired antenna mast?[/QUOTrider

Always a nay sayer in the crowd. The sub-compact line cannot be too bad. The JD 1025R and the Kubota BX series make up over 80% of the sub-compact tractor sales. Wait...........? Weren't we talking about a broken and later repaired antenna mast?

i prefer john deere. now back to your antenna.im glad its fixed n nobody was hurt

 

[Rwb]

No I never just mow with the ROPS bar up or with the loader attached. Too many trees I need to mow around and it is bad enough with it down. I used to have a 25hp Craftsman mower with snowblower attachment but it was getting up there in years. I wanted something that would mow, clear snow from the yard and be a bit more usefull in general so I bought the JD 1025R. Still trying to get used to the difference in size especially the height. It's amazing that both have 25hp and both have hydrostatic drive but they are worlds apart in power and torque.

we got several j.d.'s on the farm. best brand built.im ok with kubota but thats it.
does yours have a foreward pedal n a backwards pedal? where the more you push the faster it moves?

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

we got several j.d.'s on the farm. best brand built.im ok with kubota but thats it.
does yours have a foreward pedal n a backwards pedal? where the more you push the faster it moves?

Yes. The inside peddle is forward while the outside peddle is backwards. It seems much more intuitive and easier to use than the toe=forward and the heel=backwards of the Kubota.