Fire!!!

[CHEESE2009]

You ever have those peaceful moments, just riding the tractor without a care in the world... All of a sudden you smell something burning, you say, "That's normal, debris is cooking on the muffler". 1 seconds later, "Where is that smoke coming from, and I can't believe how fast it warmed up this morning!"... 2 seconds later, "Why is my sweater on fire?!". 3 seconds later, "Why is my tractor on fire?!". 4 seconds later, "****..." _____ First thing I did was try to stop the fire from reaching the gas tank using my shoes, with no luck I had to ring my customers doorbell twice, and bolt to the truck to get my coffee. I came back to the tractor, sipped my coffee, splashed the tractor with it - not so much luck. The entire time, I was eager to get home so I could take a piss - this was a golden (no pun intended) opportunity for me! ... I pissed the fire out. _____ My client never answered the door, and I have reason to believe he's a sadistic a-hole who wants me dead. I saw one of my clients nice neighbors; Me: Sorry to bother you, my tractor was just on fire - I put it out so everything is ok! Can you do me a favor and just watch me as I start it back up, I'll let you know if everything will be ok. Otherwise... yeah... " Lady: Oh.... Of course! _______ Happy Halloween! OH! The tractor works fine, the choke wire is a bit melted but she'll run! LOL

[Hedgemaster]

Lawn care business tips

Note to self: Buy fire extinguisher for truck.

[wandfsmall]

I hope your equipment is ok... did you figure out what caused the fire?

[Steve]

Holy Crap Scott! What a way to kick off Halloween!

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by wandfsmall

I hope your equipment is ok... did you figure out what caused the fire?

I had the bagger attachment on the tractor, but I disconnected the chute (2 parts) so that the debris would just fly behind me, without it filling up the bags... I wasn't in the mood to take the entire system apart and put it back together - I thought I was pretty smart

In short, the leaf clipping were in fact shooting behind me, but they would all fall onto the muffler in a nice big stack. The leaves clogged the engine, so that I suppose made matters worse.

I got lucky, I was worried that the tractor would blow up on me because the fire was pretty wild and I had no idea if it was eating into the gas tank. Luckily, it wasn't!

****

This could happen with any tractor, really fast too! I only did 1 stripe with the damn thing and that's all it took!

[wandfsmall]

Originally Posted by CHEESE2009

I had the bagger attachment on the tractor, but I disconnected the chute (2 parts) so that the debris would just fly behind me, without it filling up the bags... I wasn't in the mood to take the entire system apart and put it back together - I thought I was pretty smart

In short, the leaf clipping were in fact shooting behind me, but they would all fall onto the muffler in a nice big stack. The leaves clogged the engine, so that I suppose made matters worse.

I got lucky, I was worried that the tractor would blow up on me because the fire was pretty wild and I had no idea if it was eating into the gas tank. Luckily, it wasn't!

****

This could happen with any tractor, really fast too! I only did 1 stripe with the damn thing and that's all it took!

Most of the time I see fires they are caused by the low hanging mufflers on consumer equipment that was driven into a pile of leaves. But this year I have seen a few fuel pumps that leaked that could cause a fire if not noticed.

[Steve]

Scott do you have any pictures of the damage or to show us how it happened, so it can be avoided in the future?