Vehicle Story

So I was looking through my notes, thinking there were a few topics I could expand on.  One of them was vehicle stories.  Actually, I think I may have a lot of these...  I was thinking, Well I could just remember my first car and go from there, but then Duh, I had cars before I had a license.  And then, duh, I grew up on a farm, I was driving before I had cars or anything.  I've been driving in some form or another since probably around 7 or 8 years old...

So...  Let's see what are some of the first things I can remember...

Well, now what would be the first vehicles?  3-wheeler?  4-wheeler?  Bobcat?  Truck?  Hmm...  Let's see...  I remember at least one 3-wheeler...  I don't know if I was really driving it though.  If so, I can't say I remember much more than it existing.  Seems like it was a "Big Red" (pretty much any ATV's we've had have all been Honda's).  4-wheelers...  Well, almost all of the ones I remember have been 4wd and I've certainly gotten them stuck in the snow real well plenty of times, but nothing hugely interesting that I recall...  I do recall a really steep hill one time I was a little afraid of flipping, maybe a couple jumps one time that were kinda scary, but not as bad as I thought...  I think I partially rolled one once(maybe twice).  But the adrenaline was pumping well enough that I just rolled it right back up by hand without issue (they're not that light)...  Probably the most interesting thing I ever did was to my uncle's 4-wheeler.  I had gotten used to go-kart engines where you just filled the oil up to the top of the filler hole.  Well...  I tried doing that with his 4-wheeler and after I got about 6 quarts in there (here's a hint I know now-most cars don't use 6 quarts, let alone a 4-wheeler engine that's about 1/8th the size) I finally looked down at the side where you check how full it is and sure enough it was full.  Drove it for a bit and it smoked and ran quite badly.  I guess I didn't kill it too badly but it certainly wasn't good for it.  Luckily I didn't drive it that far.
That reminded me of go-karts.  I had forgotten about those...  Doesn't seem like there was too terribly much excitement with those either.  I think the most interesting parts were when I didn't check the oil in one (I think this was before I overfilled the 4-wheeler) and ran it dry and killed the engine.  And then one time I think I was trying to oil the chain and what not and I oiled the clutch.  It didn't move too well that way.  (:  Oh, and they had these friction brakes where basically just pushed the pedal to push this piece of metal against the tread of the tire.  Well, the problem was that the metal piece wasn't QUITE long enough so that if you pushed hard enough it just pushed INTO the tire and flipped itself underneath...  I think I had a mini-bike or two at one point...  Don't remember too much exciting about those either...  Borrowed Granny's moped a couple times...  I think the only interesting thing was it not having enough power to drive me up our hill and I probably didn't help it any just holding it and trying to get it to go the whole way...
Bobcat?(Skidsteer loader)...  Hmm, nothing terribly interesting comes to mind with that either...

Well, OK, that pretty much all seemed pretty boring...

Umm, OK, well probably the first road-legal vehicle I drove was a pickup truck.  This was before I could reach the pedals.  Dad used to take me out in the field when they needed to pick up hay or strawbales laying in the field.  He would just put it in 1st gear (which was really slow) and then get out and have me steer around to the bales and they would toss them in as I went past.  Then he would hop back in at the end and take over.  That was kinda cool.

Oh, and tractors, I think I have a couple interesting stories there...
Let's see...  I recall driving one of the big articulated tractors and the oil pressure gauge was reading REALLY low.  I asked Dad about it and he said not to worry.  (Our tractors seemed to rarely have working gauges).  However, while discing the field or whatever I was doing, it started slowing down and acting like it was having a much harder time getting through the field.  SO what do I do?  Give her all the fuel I can!  Well, that started going a little faster and making a lot more noise, but still slowing down and then it STOPPED.  Permanently.  Oops.  Apparently there was anti-freeze in the oil and the oil gauge was correct.  That was the last time that engine ever turned.  Had to find another one for the tractor.

The other good one that comes to mind was that growing up on tractors, I never quite thought about the physics involved.  Whenever I drove from the farm to a field, I just went at full speed as the tractors only went maybe 20mph max and so I could just drive full speed around turns and things.  Well.....  At one time, I had two big wagons full of hay bales hooked behind.  You know, the ones that are like 20-30 feet high?  Well, that's about the first time I found out about some of the physics involved.  I was just cruising along and then right during/after a turn I was like "Man, this tractor sure seems to be pulling harder"...  I leaned out and stuck my head out so I could see around the first wagon...  The second was on it's side....  Oh, I just about died there.  "Oh Shi*" was all I could think or say...  Repeatedly...  I think in a couple minutes my uncle came by and had me go home and I think I found Dad and said "please don't yell at me, but I tipped one of the wagons over" and I think I just went inside and more or less reated the story to Mom.  I wasn't thinking it at the time, but what seems amazing to me now is that Dad apparently went and took care of it with my uncle and I don't think I heard anything more of it.  That would be the sort of occasion where I would expect at least a little swearing from Dad.  More at the situation than at me, but I would still expect it...  I considered it a real big screwup...

Umm...  Otherwise "Pre-MY-car" screwups?  Umm...  Well, I borrowed dad's little dirt bike a lot and went around to interesting locations, got it stuck a few times, pretty much burnt out the clutch one time...
Oh, again with the lack of "Physics thinking/understanding" I took a truck too fast around a corner and put it up on two wheels.  That was kinda scary...  And when I first started driving Mom's car I went too fast around a corner they had put gravel on and spun it out into the field.  No real damage other than a bent fender, but still a bit unexpected.  (:


OK so with a couple exceptions I guess that's pretty lame and little more than a summary of vehicles I'm recalling at the moment that more or less sums up my world before my own vehicles...

Oh well, hopefully the next one will be a bit more entertaining...  (: