Had an attack of the 'stupids'!

[sheppard]

Yesterday I discovered I had not hooked up my trailer properly from the day before.

Backed my large mower off the trailer at my first account and 'Wham! Scrape!" the thing bucked up like a see-saw and scratched the hell out of my tail gate.

Since the safety chaines were still on it did not go up as far as it should have, but it bucked back and wedged itself underneath my bumper.

Since it was on the ground & at an awkward angle I could not lift it and disconnect the safety chains to pull up and rehitch it.

Saw my Jungle Jack in my cage and thought "Hmmm"( got a case of the smarts by now)... jacked up the trailer, diconnected it w/o any problem and hitched it the right way.

Don't know how many people saw when they drove by but there is little doubt the Jungle Jack saved my 46 y/o bottom.

Seem like a case of the stupids hits me everynow and then. Anyone else notice this phenomenon?

Cordially,
Sheppard

[HLC]

Sheppard,
I have NEVER done anything like that! What were you thinking................j/k

[scott's turf]

Got a good one for you. Last year we were doing a job and I needed to run back to my house to get a tool to fix something. I quickly jumped in the truck and sped off. When I got home I noticed that the tailgail on the truck was down. This is a bad thing in my case because the trailer tounge jack post sticks up pretty high. Well I closed the tailgate and I had a nice have moon contour to the tailgate. Ooops. Good thing I did it and not one of my workers.

[Toroguy]

I ran over a pheasant, but later saved an earthworm while blowing a driveway...a sort of "Karma return policy".

It is good the story had a nice ending, but had to scare the turds out of ya. I check my connection everytime I start to put the truck in drive, its almost like "did I leave the oven on?" as your pulling away...well I do double check. After reading this post I will be even more paranoid about the connection, I'll be checking it at every stop light.:)

Good luck

[Pro-Cut Lawns]

Yep...just last night I had a case of the stupids. Went to cross a ditch on a property on my Z like Ive done a hundred times before. Shut off the blades, raise the deck, but this time instead of going in at an angle, I drove straight down in it and the cage on back bottomed out on me as I came out the other side. Had to hook the truck to it to pull it out.

Last year, a buddy was telling me he pulled up at a red light and the guy in the lane next to him yelled at him, and asked him if the gate was supposed to be down on his trailer. He had driven about 5 blocks on the busiest street in town with his gate down. I wish I could have seen that one.

[Russo]

That's nothing.

Last night I told my girlfriend (fiance) that all I could think about all day long was my mower and how I couldn't wait to get home to play with it.

Do not try this at home. Very stupid.

[AielLandscaping]

got one along the same lines, my wife and i were having a argument and she said "if you had to choose between me and madison (our daughter) and doing lawns you'd go do lawns" ... never respond with "well maybe... yeah your probably right about that"

[swn]

Landscaper and AielLandscaping - that's funny. I get some of that same stuff from my wife. My 17 month old's favorite word is "lawnmower." He pushes his toy mower around the house nonstop. Between me and him - she is probably sick of hearing about them.

I have a case of the stupid's hourly I think. Yesterday, we pulled out of a drive and 5 seconds later, Bang. The gate on my trailor slammed down. Worker put it up, I was standing there but never latched it. He had a weedeater in one hand and a blower in the other. Don't know how he thought I would latch while I was busy taking a drink of water! Anyway they ran back, put it up and waved to the lady behind us.

[musselman]

I was mowing sevral churches one day and in a huge hurry, I pull into the parking lot too fast go around a sharp corner and the rear wheel on my 16 ft trailer hit the corner (curb and gutter) and I blow a tire. I mark it up too stupid and fix the tire while my help starts mowing...BTW i dint have a spare so I run and buy a new tire......anyways we jump in the truck and now im in a even bigger hurry as I fly into the next parking lot go around the corner to fast a did the exact same thing to the brand new tire this all happened about an hours time...one $65 tire 1 hour, the tire guy had a good day and almost had to fire the help for teasing me the rest of the season.

[Mykster]

Hey Sheppard, the same exact thing happened to me a few yrs. ago. Borrowed my Dads' garden tractor and aslo used his 4x8 trailer. The only difference between our mishaps was that I dissconected from the trailer and parked my truck. Put the gate down, got on and started her up and out I came....SLAM!!!!! Scared the SH*T outta me. Felt like a Jack*ss. The first thing i did was look around to make sure nobody saw me.

Stupidity creeps up on us every now and again.

[sheppard]

I'm convinced a 'stupid' bug flies around the country and looks for unsuspecting L.C.O.'s. They spot us at our least attentivenes and sting us in the head.

With in seconds we are reeling with the venom of the stupid bug.

I just hope he never strikes when I have my chain saw running.

Cordially,
Sheppard

[Dennis E.]

Nothing to be ashamed of. I've had my share.I did the same thing as you before. At our age we can blame it on CRS! I'm sure you know what it means.:D ;) :angel:

[scott's turf]

Just remembered a recent stupid. I had two broken mowers which should have been able to fix in about 5 min and it ended up taking 3 hrs. The first mower was running fine all day and then suddenly would not start. I check all the swithes, the plugs, the air filter, everything and still could not solve the problem. Then on the way home I stopped the truck, looked at the blade engagement switch and noticed that the terminal had partially come of. Plugged it in and it was fixed. The next mower had been sitting all winter. I started it up. Idled great but when I went to mow with it it started sputtering and would die. Again I checked everyhting. This mower cause much more fustration then the first. Finally at 9 pm I started it up and tilted the mower back to see if it would sputter out. Because of my very poor lighting and my crouched position I could see blue sparks coming from a disconected nuetral switch I had bypassed years before becuase I was too lazy to get a new switch. Well the tape had conme off of the connection and the terminals were grounding out on the chassis creating the sparks. I taped it up and the problem was fixed. That was fun.

[ADMowing]

Laid a backpack blower between the trailer and truck after I was done using it. Got a drink of water and we loaded up everything else and started to leave. Ran over the backpack blower with the trailer!!!

NEVER lived it down!!!

[Bob Minney]

Driving off with the ramp down-seems like I need to do this every few years. First thought is always- Where are they dumping gravel?
Takes about 5 seconds to figure it out.
Worst is doing it in front of a customer:blush:

[TLS]

Mines similar to ADMowing's,

Had my Backpack blower out to fuel up. Set it up on my trailer tounge tool box to do so. Got in truck and pulled out of my driveway onto the state highway, and saw in my mirror my blower skipping across the 2 lane road!!!

Backed right back into my driveway, and I scurried over to the ditch and grabbed it real quick! Cant believe nobody was coming as this was the morning rush! It had a few scratches but started right up!

This was about 5 years ago, its still running today (sold it to a friend)!

[lawnworker]

Shepperd years ago I did that to. I was had drove all the way to the job and the tongue weight held the trailer down. It was not tell I backed my walkbehind down the ramp and heard a scboom noise as my tounge went way up in the air that i to realized i had left it unhooked. Missed the tail gate by a hair. I dont see how, I was lucky that day. I also backed over a blower and a weed trimmer before. The blower was unusable the weed trimmer faired better.

[CSRA Landscaping]

I just spent all day at my apartments and made attempt #8 at fixing a busted sprinkler line at a gas station of mine. #9 is on Wed. morning. :rolleyes:


PS - I did have the trailer (7x16 enclosed Haulmark) jump off of the truck in the middle of a busy road once. Whoops.

[KDJ]

Well, I have never had a attack of the stupid!!!

I only have occasional BRAIN FARTS

[GreenQuest Lawn]

It was late on a Friday and I had a flat on the mower, I found the piece of steel in the tire, removed it, plugged it, jumped back on the mower and headed back to mow.



A few minutes later The tire was flat AGAIN. Pulled it back and was looking for what HAD to be another piece of metal.






Turns out in my rush I had set the piece of metal on the ground and run right back over it again.:rolleyes:

[anythinglawns]

I forgot to strap down one of my push mowers a couple of years ago. I go through an intersection look in the mirror and see my mower rolling down the road behind me. It rolled a little way then wiped out. as it rolled about 5 times. I turn around as quickly as I can to get back to it as I am afraid someone will hit it. By the time I get back a guy has his trunk open and is running with mower in his hands. I chased him down, and got the mower back with no problems. He said he thought someone had just left it there in the intersection. (Yea right, he watched it come off) 3 new wheels and beating the handle with a hammer got it going again.

[TFL]

i have done the same thing sheppard it makes you just want to hook back up and go home for the day because it will probably be a long day.

[2 man crew]

I got a good one and I should not even tell it, it's so stupid.

I was pulling my trailer out of the garage one morning. I forgot my cell phone so I put the truck in park and went back in to get it. I got back in the truck, pushed the garage remote and started to pull out of the driveway. My gate hooked the bottom two panels on the door and I was on the gas. I ended up half way down the driveway with my new mangled garage door hanging off the trailer.

[Harvestman]

I was mowing by my self once when I got my z stuck in a wet ditch. So I unhooked the trailer pulled the truck over tied a strap to the mower worked great. Parked the truck back in the drive about 20 feet in front of the trailer and finished the lawn. Upon finishing I looked at the trailer and thought I'll put the z on and then hook up the truck to the trailer Big mistake the trailer pulled a wheeley and headed down the drive (slight angle) Blam right into the truck. Boy that on sure puckered my hiney.

[AielLandscaping]

two more stupids....

bought a new truck on a friday, then saturday i put a pair of hand pruners in my back pocket, forgot about it, jumped in the truck and tried to turn to face the steering wheel and couldn't move... dang stuck the seat with the pruners...

went to a potential customers house to do an estimate, made a great first impression, closed the deal, went to leave... walking by the truck i saw my keys hanging in the ignition and the doors locked.... had to get help from the customer to break into my truck... so much for the good first impression... they decided to hire someone else...

[proline32]

Last year while doing a job, I was in a hurry and as I was getting ready to leave I forgot that I had my husky trimmer on the ground next to the truck ........ well, I got in and started the truck and backed out right over my precious trimmer! needless to say It needed a new handle but it woks just fine. I make sure all my tools are IN the truck.

[little green guy]

Last year I was at the garage doind maintenance on the mowers and i had my smaller 14' tandem trailer hooked to my truck on a little bit of an incline. I had my lazer and one of my walkbehinds on the trailer. Well, we took the rider off and then I discoented the trailer because I had to run out somewhere to get a part or something. I came back and parked my truck on an angle in front of the trialer. Then I went to take the walkbehind off the trailer but I never ckocked the wheels, as i'm taking the mower off the tonge lifts up and the trailer started rolling into the side of my truck. it ended up putting a 2' long gash in my passenger side door :( The worst part about it was that I did it my self and had nobody ro blame.

[AVRECON]

Lets see, where to start , where to start?
Ok, Walk behind mower fell off the back of a trailer going over a train track that was on an incline. Busy two lane road, that wuzzzzzz fun. Ummmmmm we had a push mower fall off the back of the pick-up, and was run over by the trailer. Have done many times the ole drive on or off the trailer without the tounge being attached. Have had a trailer come OFF! the ball going down a two lane highway. I had to pull off the road and chase it not once but twice!!! Always use the proper ball for your tounge, LOL!!!!! I have a cube van that many times we forgot to close the rollup door. You can always tell by the way folks pass you and just stare, with that "you are a dumba$$" look on their face. Have tried to drive a 1000lbs. mower up into the same cube van without putting the jackstands under the aluminum ramps, a couple of times, LOL!!!! Hell, I gotta bunch of'em. I'll give sombody else a chance now though, LOL!!!!:D

[motodude]

Talk about painfull. One afternoon while working on a house, a guy came buy asking if I had seen two honda mowers. Aparently he left his trailer gate down and they rolled out. Don't know if he ever found them.

[ADMowing]

Another one..... we got our 61" ZT stuck in a ditch in the back of a customers house. Thought we'd be smart and bring the truck in to the backyard to pull it out. Got the truck stuck too! We called family -- towing services... etc... No one could help us right then -- we live in a small town. Anyway, to beat it all it was thundering! We tried using the customers door mats. My partner did -- until I told him to put them back! We found some boards and rocked and rocked that truck until we got it out. Talk about saying some BIG prayers! We had to fill in and sod a big area in the customer's backyard, but she was so good about it. She is still a customer of ours 2 years later, but she doesn't want us to mow the ditchline anymore! We weedeat it! Just grateful to get the big Dodge Ram out of Dodge! We then used the same boards to get the mower out of the ditch. Would have been nice if we thought of that FIRST!

On the backpack blower we ran over... we replaced some parts and its still running today -- 3 years later! Cost = $50.00 and lots of embarassment!

[little green guy]

I forgot to mentchen, I also had a trailer come of the truck while we where driving, it hit a car in the oppisite lane head on and totaled the car and trailer...and uh... that was a big stupid :eek:

[Mykster]

Was out mowing on one of my accts. (1acre) and my mower just crapped out on me with only 10 min. into the job. This was also on a weekend so I didn't have my backup with me. The lady insisted that I use her Craftsmen rider. Well her mower started to run out of gas, got to my trailer and had no gas in my cans. Thought to myself "this couldn't get any worse. So I grabbed one of her cans and filled up. It started to smoke and sputter and then quit. Come to find out that I just put Kerosene in the tank. Had to go home, get my floor jack, jack up the back end, dissconnect the fuel line and drain over night. One bad day.