Hot Dexta! Baby can take the HEAT!
Every page needs a story.

Friday afternoon, took off early giving the job only eight hours versus the normal twelve. It was a sunny spring April day, eight days without rain. I had brush-piles to burn. As I entered my drive-way, I saw a package on the porch, stopped and picked it up. My new steering wheel had arrived. My old wheel had the plastic worn and broken off, and was a mere metal spoked wheel. I took the few minutes to put it on my Dexta I call "Baby.".

It was due to rain the next day, I had 17 brush piles to burn, from small ones, to four or five as large as a house stacked high with a loader. I had the 7' root-rake on the Dexta, and front-loader with pallet forks. After a change of clothes and the gallon of customary ice-water, I took to the task. Using a self-igniting propane torch, I put five into flames. As the afternoon progressed, I had a dozen or so still in flames, all given the torch.

All the piles had a berm of soil pushed up around them to prevent wildfires, as I had cleared 5 of 8 acres, and the remaining three were a fire hazzard, and the acres cleared, well that was 17 piles of fire hazzard.

About 6PM, I was root raking near a fire, trying to get any debris removed, in case the fire burned under the berm during the night, it would have not humous or leaves to travel thru to burn the neighborhood. Now the story begins.

I had the root rake mounted to push backwards, and there was this one pile way back about 25 yards from the woodline, and it posed my only concern for the night. I had root-raked, and hand-picked, and oh-by-the-way, this was a big pile, one of them that burns and you see red and white fire. Pured heat, red coals, and white embers. The heat was suffocating. I was attempting to make a pass and low range reverse was too damn slow, and the fire was too damn hot, so I put "Baby" in high range and made a couple of rearward sweeps. Each drive by was a blistering sunburn, followed by a swig of that ice water. I had removed every-other spring-tooth from the root rake and I wasn't picking up much each sweep. After a swigg of water, and dusk approaching, I decided to sweep just once more.

I drove a little close this time to the heap of flaming embers, and as I was was getting way from the heat, the hair on the left arm shriveled in a stink of fine ash. Hello! I was too close. A quick throttle up, and an unforseen root, set "Baby" into a tractionless tire spin, Forward nothing, rearward nothing, I jumped off the right side away from the fire and tried to throw chunks under my tires, and hand-press the brakes to get traction just on that tire, it was 6:17PM and in 30 seconds with no avail, I ran 500 yards to the shed and fired up my tiny compact diesel Ford 1100, threw a chain on the attached bushhog, and went 10th-gear full-throttle, with the front end bouncing, front tires spinning in 4WD, through my pasture, towards the fire, flames billowing 15 feet into the air. I was relieved to hear the sweet patient idle of the Perkins diesel and amazed to see no tires in flames or peeling blue paint.

With a chain to the Baby's loader, and hooked on the bushhog, I put the Dexta in gear, by reaching over pressing the clutch by hand, and shifting the lever, while on the ground, shielded by the tractor. As I jumped back on and yanked the chain, it was 6:22PM. The Dexta rose out of its axle deep holes forward and purred away from the flames, unsteered. I neutraled-jumped off, disconnected the chain, and caught the amazingly hot blue tractor and surveyed the damage. By this time, the flames were down and there was just of pile of embers white and red.

No body damage, no damaged paint, left-rear tires fine, left front tire hot, smelly, and scaled with heat damage. I'd find out the next day the tube was melted to the inside tire and it was effectively tubeless. What's this?

The new plastic steering wheel was melted. These new plastic parts cannot stand the fire like the old solid iron tractors made of steel parts can.

I had 1st degree burns, those (blisters that rise) on both biceps from just putting the tractor in gear, and of course no hair on my arms. The Dexta damage was one tire, one tube and a steering wheel. The steering wheel is still in use, waiting on the new--new one to arrive. Seems they are sold out and back-ordered on steering wheels. HMMMmm ! ??