stupid question....

bigbluetruck said:
buckdeer1 has it right, with a ROPS wearing the seatbelt is better, without the ROPS its better to not wear it. The thought is that if the tractor rolls over with the ROPS the seatbelt keeps you in place and lets the ROPS do its job. Without the ROPS you have a much better chance of being pinned and its better to hopefully be thrown free.

We farm some pretty hilly stuff. One of our fields has 17-30% slopes and has elevation differences from top to bottom of about 80ft. That's why after the Farmall Ms and similar sized machines there weren't many tricycle front tractors, the wide fronts were just so much more stable.

But IMO the older tractors like the 3020 and such are so much more stable than the newer compact type tractors its not even funny, the most scared Ive ever been running a tractor is on a compact tractor with a loader.
Click to expand...
You are right, the newer tractor models have a higher center of gravity and will roll easier than some of the wider and lower older tractors like the 3020. If you are on a slope lifting heavy with an FEL you should be prepared to instantly lower the bucket to the ground at the first hint of instability, this maneuver has saved me more than once.
 
To add to what Mennoniteman said, I'd put my money on the careful person. Still though, being careful doesn't always avoid problems if you are just learning the ins and outs of tractors. We all should wear seat belts with the ROPS up as mentioned but new guys especially. The amount of near misses a new guy or at least this guy experienced when new to tractoring was quite a few. They occurred when I was doing stupid stuff that didn't seem like a big deal at the time. Brush hogging blind on new ground not previously walked with every inch scouted out was one stupid thing that gave me a near miss when one wheel on the tractor climbed up an unseen boulder. Another was pushing a full length downed tree off of my tractor road without cutting it into chunks first. It curved like a bow as I tried to force it between two live trees and slid off of the bucket and just missed me with a force powerful enough to easily have ended my life. It was stupid doing either but it also was inexperience. I mostly but not always wear the seat belt but there is a list of nevers which include brush hogging blind and not forcing trees off the tractor roads and a few other maneuvers that I just don't do anymore.

As mentioned PTO shafts are something to absolutely stay way from when a tractor is running; a young person in this area died tragically a few weeks ago from getting tangled in a PTO shaft, such an unnecessary and sad loss. Tractors are so-so dangerous. The first funeral I remember ever attending was for a classmate in eighth grade. Brian was riding a tractor being towed on a trailer when the tractor broke loose and rolled on him as he fell into a roadside brook. Rops were not the norm then and maybe not even yet invented. A ROPS might have saved him.
 
Chainsaw said:
To add to what Mennoniteman said, I'd put my money on the careful person. Still though, being careful doesn't always avoid problems if you are just learning the ins and outs of tractors. We all should wear seat belts with the ROPS up as mentioned but new guys especially. The amount of near misses a new guy or at least this guy experienced when new to tractoring was quite a few. They occurred when I was doing stupid stuff that didn't seem like a big deal at the time. Brush hogging blind on new ground not previously walked with every inch scouted out was one stupid thing that gave me a near miss when one wheel on the tractor climbed up an unseen boulder. Another was pushing a full length downed tree off of my tractor road without cutting it into chunks first. It curved like a bow as I tried to force it between two live trees and slid off of the bucket and just missed me with a force powerful enough to easily have ended my life. It was stupid doing either but it also was inexperience. I mostly but not always wear the seat belt but there is a list of nevers which include brush hogging blind and not forcing trees off the tractor roads and a few other maneuvers that I just don't do anymore.

As mentioned PTO shafts are something to absolutely stay way from when a tractor is running; a young person in this area died tragically a few weeks ago from getting tangled in a PTO shaft, such an unnecessary and sad loss. Tractors are so-so dangerous. The first funeral I remember ever attending was for a classmate in eighth grade. Brian was riding a tractor being towed on a trailer when the tractor broke loose and rolled on him as he fell into a roadside brook. Rops were not the norm then and maybe not even yet invented. A ROPS might have saved him.
Click to expand...
I agree. Tractors are dangerous. Tractors with no roll bar are twice as dangerous.Tractors with a FEL and no roll bar are three times as dangerous. Tractors with a FEL and no roll bar on a slope are quadruple times as dangerous. And tractors with a FEL and no roll bar on a slope in the woods with a pto attachment with no guard should be outlawed.
 
Mennoniteman said:
I agree. Tractors are dangerous. Tractors with no roll bar are twice as dangerous.Tractors with a FEL and no roll bar are three times as dangerous. Tractors with a FEL and no roll bar on a slope are quadruple times as dangerous. And tractors with a FEL and no roll bar on a slope in the woods with a pto attachment with no guard should be outlawed.
Click to expand...

That’s a lot of danger there ! I’m glad you weren’t watching me mow my pond dam today !:) I did have a guard on my pto though !:D
 
As for wearing the belt, one ofmy best friends dad, bush hogging with his old tractor at age of 80. No rops or belt obviously , fell, off the tractor and the hog ran over him. Finding his decapitated , mutilated body days later gave my buddy nightmares for years.
On the PTO deal, I watched a youtube from a guy who has hundreds of how to with tractor videos on there. He was hooking up his bushhog while the tractor was running. While the odds are nothing would happen, 2 things, I don't get near that pto unless tractor is off, and I don't want to even be up in the bowels of the linkage, trapped while tractor is running and has potential to kick in gear. My dad always said, if it has a motor, sooner or later it will jump up and bite you. Chit happens when you least expect.
 
David said:
why wear a seat belt on a tractor? I have a narrow front JD 3020 with a roll bar. I never drive fast, probably max speed of 8-10 mph. my farm is however quite "hilly".

speed is the leading cause of death in automobile and tractor accidents but driving a car vs. a tractor is a different ball game.

I may be an idiot, but I want to jump off the tractor quickly if it's tipping over, I have successfully jumped off a 4 wheeler twice while it was rolling. if I was buckled in I would have been hurt badly.

feel free to tell me how stupid I am.
Click to expand...

Wow.
You are probably smarter than your post, but.... wow.
Wear seat belt on tractors with roll bars, tractors without roll bars you don't wear seatbelts.
The space in the seat is a safe space with a roll bar. You want to be held within that safe space during a roll-over. Without a roll bar, you do need to be thrown away from the tractor or jump from the seat.

There's a lot more to a tractor roll over than speed alone.
Making down-hill turns are dangerous. Up-hill turns are safer.
Groundhog holes can appear in a day.
Wet spots can cause a tractor wheel to sink on one side and cause a roll-over.
Implements can get caught on a hidden stump or rock and cause a tractor to do something erratic.
Side-to-side momentum or rocking, timed with hitting a small hump or low spot can cause a roll over even at slow speed.
Ground bees can make the operator panic and do something he wouldn't normally do which could cause a roll over.
Unstable loads can shift and cause a roll over.
And a sudden issue with the health of the operator can cause fainting or some other incompacity.
There are probably a dozen other reasons why a tractor may roll that isn't related to speed.
If you have a roll bar, why the hell would you want to not wear a belt?
 
Buckly said:
I have hit a few woodchuck holes that will almost throw you from the tractor.
Click to expand...
My neighbor was an old-time farmer that spent thousands of hour on his Farmall tricycles on our hilly terrain. The guy knew what he was doing, very experienced and careful.
He hit a woodchuck hole while tedding hay and rolled his Farmall M (~5,000 pounds) over on himself and was pinned underneath. He was pinned at his butt, and at his crushed leg, but his head and torso were undamaged. It took rescue teams over an hour to lift that machine off him with air bags and cribbing.
When I looked across the street onto that hillside and saw the tractor upside down and rescue teams converging on him, I just knew someone was dead. But he survived. Had to be the hand of God that kept him from being crushed to death.
 
A kingpin broke on my dad's tractor while he had a bucket full of dirt. Quick reactions to drop the bucket before it went over probably saved him. Sometimes being careful and cautious isn't enough as things break and unknowns happen. Got to start safe and be very aware at all times.
 
This thread came to mind several times today as I was mowing. I just graduated up to a little larger tractor but the biggest change was the FEL. For several years now I’ve been used to my turning radius and now have to re-learn that. I banged a couple saplings with the bucket early on but I think I’m getting the hang of it now. I trimmed a bunch of limbs about daylight this morning (the only time I can do manual labor in the summer) and I had my forks on to move them to my brush pile. The forks are more in the way than the bucket, but being anxious to mow, I didn’t swap out. As I was manipulating the limbs and a couple small trees in and out of the rest of the trees, on a side hill no less, I’m wondering if I’ll wind up as an example of what not to do on my favorite forum.

It was probably the Southern Rock channel on Pandora (on my Bluetooth headphones) that saved me !:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top