I will let those who were involved post here to save their own skin, but were you guys aware that a towmotor will not float?

Palf70step (Bill) and I arrived just after 6:00pm on Thursday and pulled up to Ron's carport. We were greeted by Mrs. Ron. She told us that we had just missed the excitement. When we asked what happened, she directed us to the pond.
We drove down to the pond area to find Pickles, Ron, Ron's son, and a couple more folks tinkering on the yellow towmotor forklift, digging mud out of every crack & cranny.
Glancing over, we see the top 1/4 of David (Woodridge) sticking up out of the pond. Funny enough already, we had to ask what happened....and it went downhill from there......

The version I got was as follows:
The ones who arrived earlier then we did were helping Ron clean up in the back yard. Grass cutting, moving trucks, etc...
Well, they were using the forklift to do some of the moving. David pulled up to a truck cab to hook up and move it. Before he jumped off, he shut it down and pulled the E-brake on the forklift then hopped off to hook it up.
BEFORE he could hook it up, Ron got his attention to take a look at the riding mower. While David's back was turned, Ron started hollering "Towmotor...T..T..Towmotor!!!"
When David turned around, the towmotor was headed sideways. Then it decided to turn TOWARDS the pond. Before David could get to it, the towmotor drove itself directly into the pond and stood perfectly up on its hind-end.
Ron's tractor wasn't stout enought to yank it out, so the enlisted the help of the neighbor with an even bigger tractor.
Somehow they flipped the forklift over the other way, etc....but finally got it out.
This is when we found David in the pond, literally DIGGING for all the parts, tools, etc...that fell from the forklift.

NO ONE thought to get photos.

They hit it with the pressure washer, dried the cap & rotor, and tinkered for a few minutes and it fired right back up and went right back to work.

Hopefully someone who saw it happen can fill in the blurry spots.

Oh, and just so you know, the E-brake does NOT work on this forklift!!!!!!

Maybe it thought it was a boat ...................:)

From my vantage point on the Cub Cadet I saw it start to roll and started yelling forklift but it took off down the hill and I know that it won't run that fast under power. It went in rear end first and flipped over on the roll cage which is what saved the engine and other parts that don't need to get wet. My 46hp tractor wouldn't move it so we got the neighbor to bring his 50hp and we hooked both to it and flipped it but it fell over on the left side. We re hooked and stood it up but the neighbor got excited and couldn't find the clutch and pulled it on its right side. We tried to pull it back to stand up and just couldn't do it. So I got on the neighbors tractor and Woody took mine and by using the front end loader to lift on the mast and woody pulling we got it standing up on it's wheels. We tried with the 2 tractors and it was no go. I then sent for my other neighbor with his 110hp John Deere. When he got there we hooked all 3 tractors to the lift and it came out without any trouble at all. We then hooked my tractor to the lift and pulled it to where we could pressure wash it and get it running. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Towmotor... towboat... it's all the same, isn't it? :lol:

Ron, You know what I think, you need to do a re-inactment of this. And take pictures of it so we can all see. Kinda sounds like it might of had a little Keystone Cops type situation. :dohh:
I mean, after all, you invite us to your place for this wonderful get together and most of us miss a main part of the activities.:D
Maybe a poll should be taken on having you recreate and take pictures of what happened so we can all add our thoughts on what should have been done. :lol:
Oh, by the way, THANKS once again for the hospitality and the hard work you did to make us all welcome at your home. Hope you are sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying the fact we all appreciate very much what you did. :thumbs:

:flag:

I pleed the 5th.

Ron, You know what I think, you need to do a re-inactment of this. And take pictures of it so we can all see. Kinda sounds like it might of had a little Keystone Cops type situation. :dohh:
I mean, after all, you invite us to your place for this wonderful get together and most of us miss a main part of the activities.:D
Maybe a poll should be taken on having you recreate and take pictures of what happened so we can all add our thoughts on what should have been done. :lol:

I am going to have to agree...I understand in the panic of the situation the furthest thing on anyones mind was a camera. But a recreation would do the trick. :) My vote is in!

Ron, You know what I think, you need to do a re-inactment of this. And take pictures of it so we can all see. Kinda sounds like it might of had a little Keystone Cops type situation. :dohh:
I mean, after all, you invite us to your place for this wonderful get together and most of us miss a main part of the activities.:D
Maybe a poll should be taken on having you recreate and take pictures of what happened so we can all add our thoughts on what should have been done. :lol:
Oh, by the way, THANKS once again for the hospitality and the hard work you did to make us all welcome at your home. Hope you are sitting back, relaxing, and enjoying the fact we all appreciate very much what you did. :thumbs:

:flag:

to funny, I was thinkin the same thing

Hey Pickles, I thought you said you ran for the camera and snapped a few pics. Did I hear you wrong? Did anyone get pics? I heard about this story all weekend long! Crazy! Poor Ron just seemed beside himself after this. He figured the entire meet was headed "into the pond"! he he
:haha:
~jewels.

Man I would have loved to see David running after that thing. I always miss all the fun..

To quote Ron:
"It weren't nothin a couple hours and a couple tractors couldn't fix!"

To quote Ron:
"It weren't nothin a couple hours and a couple tractors couldn't fix!"

Try 5 hours and 3 tractors. But the forklift is fine and as far as I know no blood was spilled in the recovery or cleanup. It's all good.

Someone should mention that this was a loaner forklift,just don't mention it to the owner,I don't think Ron did.

Someone should mention that this was a loaner forklift,just don't mention it to the owner,I don't think Ron did.

The man that did the cooking (David McDaniel) owns the forklift. I told him what happened the first time I saw him (Friday). When I started the story he started laughing. The more I said the harder he laughed until he was hanging on to his truck to keep from falling. I'm damn glad it didn't get a flat tire during all this........But that's a different story.

i heard about this as soon as i got there, pics would be awsome.. btw tell david that was some GREAT cookin!!!

makes me wonder if there may be a market for inventing forklift floaties

sounds like a photoshop needs to be done to paint a better picture!

I can get you pics of the lift and the pond. But nothing you can come up with will beat the real thing.

IIDY?!?











(Is It Dry Yet?)

IIDY?!?











(Is It Dry Yet?)

Oh yeah. We had it running and moving trucks 5 hours after splash down. :lol:

Well we can all rest easy tonight as I took the forklift home. It can do all its running away and other tricks to them. :lol:

I will sleep better now. Every time I look at a forklift I shudder.

Everytime I look at a forklift I LOL! :)