Quote Originally Posted by Erik Loza View Post
I was there when we got the first "new" Hammer machines back in 2004. The technician kept trying to start one and thought it was a lemon because nothing was happening. I think someone from the factory had to tell him, "You need to push and HOLD". We all had a pretty good laugh about that.

Erik
I have sympathy for the guy.

Earlier this summer I discovered that a tractor I have owned for several years has a start interlock on the PTO lever. I left the tractor idling and by mistake did not disengage the PTO running the brush chopper. Spent the next 45 minutes working on the fence, then came back and tractor wouldn't start. I am embarrassed to say that I spent another 45 minutes checking battery connections, and every other starter switch-related thing I could think of, before I traced one wire back toward where the only place it could possibly be going was ... the PTO lever.

I'm sure a PTO interlock has been standard equipment on tractors for decades, but honestly, but I've only owned "legacy" machines, and when I've used other modern machines, never foolishly left the PTO engaged when turning off the tractor. At least I didn't get a service technician out to "fix" it, so it was a 45 minute, not a $150 mistake.