First week in use NEW machinery dramas??

[Pilatus]

Over the years what are the worst breakages you have had on brand new machines within their first week or so of use.
I ask the above as main drive belt broke on the brand new combine at the small estate where my wife is secretary ,on the second day of use this season. Trouble was it cut through the main wiring harness when it disintegrated!!!!
I heard last year of a brand new combine catching on fire and burnt out as it was on the road going to cut its first field!!
I have not named makes of combine as they were not the same.
So just interested to know what maddening dramas you have had with brand new kit.

 

[Bury the Trash]

First time out with a new lawnmower and the Mrs hit the manhole corner on the lawn and bent the crankshaft

 

[Kevtherev]

Brand new McConnell hedgecutter in 2005 I met a car on a lane reversed in gateway to let them past set of rails went straight across the oil tank taking stickers and paint off.
It was 3 days old I could of cried

 

[Magnificent Earwig]

Engine failure on a new combine after less than 15 hours, crankshaft apparently although it was kept hush hush by MF. Thankfully the dealer hadn’t sold our trade in so that was back to us whilst they shipped and fitted a new valmet engine.

 

[JeepJeep]

Not Machinery... Brand new 3 day in Service bus..fancy piece of kit , leathered & Wi-Fi etc.. Newly passed driver... Prize cock knew everything. Proudly presents a Traffic light cluster on return to the yard. Red Amber Green the casing all of it. Said he'd knocked it on the way through. Demolished Screen & A Pillar.

 

[Bloders]

First time out with a new lawnmower and the Mrs hit the manhole corner on the lawn and bent the crankshaft

happened to us.
Took me 3 months to get the correct crank imported from USA (at half cost of UK supplY0

 

[Dave W]

Saw a baler in copart few years ago burnt out.
it was first one in country of new model. head honchos from Uk and Europe in the field to watch maiden voyage. Supposedly a tight bearing caught fire. Never made a bale!

 

[tepapa]

New post knocker with prototype slew. Delivered from 2.5 hrs away Worked fine on the flat but wouldn't hold on a slope. So we put four straining posts in and it went back on the lorry to be modified.

 

[Chae1]

I once had the back door twist off the back of a new baler. Welds failed where it pivots.

They just sent me another baler.

 

[Tim G]

Back in '99 we had a new (ex demo) John deere 2256 combine. On the second day of using it the driver and I sat in the pick up having a bit of our flasks before making a start, I got in the tractor, he got in the combine. He then backed up the combine before pulling forward and turning into the bit we'd opened up the previous day. Trouble is, he backed straight up the bonnet of the pick up we'd just got out of, the straw chopper hood pinged up and the latch that held it caught the a pillar of the pick up and dragged it up the field with him.
He left a couple of years later and I got the job of driving the combine. Every time the chopper hood had to come up or down I cursed that day as it was always a bugger to move.

 

[Gerbert]

Not Machinery... Brand new 3 day in Service bus..fancy piece of kit , leathered & Wi-Fi etc.. Newly passed driver... Prize cock knew everything. Proudly presents a Traffic light cluster on return to the yard. Red Amber Green the casing all of it. Said he'd knocked it on the way through. Demolished Screen & A Pillar.

I caught the A pillar of an almost new service van with an industrial forklift. Bossman had a breakdown of some sorts in the field, dealership came down, bossman hopped in the van and told the mechanic to drive to the field, going alongside the lorry I was loading. I drove around the lorry and we met on the corner. Another 20 cm further would have landed the forklift tine through the window in the bossmans lap...
The forklift gets priority in the yard, bossman knew he was in the wrong but hey, that could've ended alot worse. About €10k damage which, all thing considered, wasn't to bad.

 

[dave6470]

Was carting silage for friend in the late 1990s the had just got a new jcb shovel first load of grass shovel driver his father backed into trailer and took out the rad
Then managed to put it on its side on clamp the next day

 

[Clive]

I had the gearbox fall out of a 1115 Fastrac first week of use - it hadn’t been torqued up so everything was finger tight

 

[benny6910]

I heard a story about a new ford tractor being delivered to a farm in harvest nobody about so left it in the grain store, 3 weeks passed and farmer rung dealer to see where his new tractor was they said it had been delivered so they all presumed it had been stolen. They didn’t find it till they emptied the grain store in winter time.

 

[Pilatus]

Over the years what are the worst breakages you have had on brand new machines within their first week or so of use.
I ask the above as main drive belt broke on the brand new combine at the small estate where my wife is secretary ,on the second day of use this season. Trouble was it cut through the main wiring harness when it disintegrated!!!!
I heard last year of a brand new combine catching on fire and burnt out as it was on the road going to cut its first field!!
I have not named makes of combine as they were not the same.
So just interested to know what maddening dramas you have had with brand new kit.

My wife tells me the now up and running yield meter is reading bushels per acre!

 

[Will 1594]

I heard a story about a new ford tractor being delivered to a farm in harvest nobody about so left it in the grain store, 3 weeks passed and farmer rung dealer to see where his new tractor was they said it had been delivered so they all presumed it had been stolen. They didn’t find it till they emptied the grain store in winter time.

Feathstones ,at shiptonthorpe , was there not more than one , big sam tells the story about it

 

[Willie adie]

When working in the wood one day, me and a workmate were working above a farm, saw a local trailer manufacturer with a brand new trailer, arrive in to the close, we saw the driver get out wonder around then stand at cab, presumably on the phone to get a hold of someone, after 10-15 mins, and still no one about, he then took off the straps, climbed back in cab and then jerked forward, the new trailer flew off the leaf of lorry, and skipped along the close to a stand still against a wall,
The driver never looked back and continued on his way.

 

[icanshootwell]

First time out with a new lawnmower and the Mrs hit the manhole corner on the lawn and bent the crankshaft

Who mows the lawn now?

 

[Willie adie]

Who mows the lawn now?

Sounds to me like a tactical. Move to not do it

 

[Kevtherev]

Brand new JF 900 in 2000 second farm I went to centre of first field electric fence metal peg straight up it.