"I have a friend" who's tractor caught fire yesterday

[pdubdo]

"I have a friend" who was mowing through chest high grass yesterday, began smelling smoke and thought maybe old stalks were wrapped around the cutter or something, then saw smoke and a few small flames coming from the engine compartment down by my..I mean his left foot. Was mowing through a back pasture with no water nearby, fire extinguisher, or anything. Jumped out and took my shirt off, shoved it down into the compartment and smothered the small flames. Looked like old grass or a small rats nest had caught fire back there. Put it out and looks like it melted a little of the out covering of some of the wires, but everything still works. Another newbie mistake--this morning bought two small fire extinguishers for both the tractor and the ATV

 

[dieselbeef]

my burned..it made me happy

 

[M.Magis]

Glad everything's okay. Wish mine would catch fire. Instead it just breaks down and keeps draining the farm account.

 

[Putangitangi]

Lucky catch! Here our insurance companies will no longer cover tractor fires if they can prove the likelihood they started in any kind or bird or animal nest. We all have stickers reading "stop and pop", stop the tractor, pop the bonnet so the birds don't think it's a nice place to start nest-building.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

The man who rolls hay for us had his 100 HP Kubota catch fire from a bird's nest. Insurance paid up but nearly as much as he had hoped.

Glad you, er I mean your friend, had a happier ending.

 

[Nesikep]

I had my wisconsin engine on my baler start spitting embers out... revved the pizz out of it and cleared most of the burning crap out.. all I had with me to douse it was a can of beer.. it worked, but then I had to go get a refill... it's got a very small oil leak from the valve cover near the exhaust that accumulates chaff... I found in my cast the best thing to do is to keep it running and let it burn itself out.. under the hood of a tractor that's probably not a good option though.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

Glad it worked out okay. Thanks for the reminder to put the extinguisher back on the smaller tractor.

 

[greybeard]

Glad everything's okay. Wish mine would catch fire. Instead it just breaks down and keeps draining the farm account.

Wife tells her friends the same thing about me.......

 

[Black and Good]

This is a framer in Central KS that I've Turkey hunted on. This is a 2014 NH 180 hp tractor forgot the size. He was just driving it down the road pulling a feed wagon! Enjoy! B&G

 

[ClinchValley]

It just never hurts to look things over now and again.

 

[arkie1]

I've been known to tie the key to the dipstick. That way when I get a call asking where it is I can say "If you were checking the oil in that thing like you're supposed to you'd have found the key."

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

All of my tractors have fire extinguishers on board. Baler also has an extinguisher strapped to the front. Haven't needed them yet and I hope I never do.

 

[Nesikep]

This is a framer in Central KS that I've Turkey hunted on. This is a 2014 NH 180 hp tractor forgot the size. He was just driving it down the road pulling a feed wagon! Enjoy! B&G

Did they put the loader on after it burnt?

I'd buy that and fix it up again.. some new seals and it should be good.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

I'd buy that and fix it up again.. some new seals and it should be good.

I've fixed up one burned tractor and its still running good today (but wasn't burned that bad just a light cab fire). But from my experience and what I've been told if the tires completely burn off that means it got good and hot and you need to start worrying about the metal castings and such.

 

[Nesikep]

The tranny we put on our IH684 came from a burnt unit.. it was cooked good, scrubbed what was left of the paint off, repainted it inside and out, and put the guts from the one with the broken casing inside.. haven't had any issues.. To me it really doesn't look like the metal got all that hot.. all 4 tires would have burnt if that was the case.. and inside the rear wheel weights there's still paint, as well as on the trnasmission.. It might cost $25,000 to fix up, but you got a pretty new tractor for that when you're done

 

[Nesikep]

Before


After

image hosting

Cost $3500 total, and 2 months of work puttering around on it

 

[pdubdo]

thanks for the posts and pics! Went back to look it over more thoroughly and found a small possum still living in my tractor. Had really nested in good so I'm glad more didn't burn! Now see my next post...how to keep critters from living in my tractor?