stupid question....

David

David

Active Member
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.
 
My seatbelt keeps me tight to my seat. If I’m bush hogging hilly/bumpy terrain it helps me not push so much with my legs.

Also, I’d never try to jump away from the tractor if it was rolling. I’d stay buckled in and let the roll bar do it’s work before exiting .
 
In my personal 70 years, I have known 4 people that have died in tractor accidents. 2 of these were very experienced farmers, 2 were weekend farmers. One was due to trying to push over a huge dead tree and it came crashing down on him. One was due to getting tangled up with a PTO shaft. The other two were roll-overs before ROPS were mandatory. In comparison, I have not know a single person to die in an auto accident and only one that was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident. Mathematically it seems to me that you are far more likely to get serious injury or die on a tractor than in a car or on a cycle. I wear my seatbelt on the tractor because I feel less tired as HB stated. I hate seatbelts whether in a car or on the tractor, but I still wear them. If not for your own protection, then think of your wife and those great kids you have.
 
Started wearing a seatbelt about 5 yrs ago after almost tipping over the tractor with a heavy load of manure in the FEL and it raised to high while making a turn. Scared the bejeevies out of me. Never thought much about it before then. Now it's like auto-pilot when I start the tractor. I also wear ear plugs. Accidents are just that...you never see them coming until it's too late. Strap in!
 
My 2012 New Holland has a shorter wheel base than your John Deere, and the first time I drove it on a bumpy dirt road, it was like riding a bucking bronco ....... I don't drive fast either, but I go a lot slower now, with a seat belt on.
 
There’s a saying used in my motorcycle racing days of “dress for the crash”. Odds are you aren’t going to outjump a tractor rollover and you might have used up a couple of your lives already outjumping the atv.
Now with that said I hate those belts especially when doing work requiring on off hopping. And like Triple the times mine raised a wheel was not when expected. Be safe.


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The seat belt keeps your butt in the seat in case of a rollover. Jumping from the machine tends to put you in a position for the machine to end up on top of you. Lots of people "think" they will have time to jump clear. However that seldom happens....and you end up with a couple thousand pounds on top of you. Especially with a narrow front machine - like many old school 3 wheeled ATV's they are fairly unstable by design.... Hilly ground can quickly find you in a bad spot or with a load on either the front or back can quickly turn things ugly as well. Speed for the most part isn't what will kill you with a tractor. A shift in center of gravity or loss of traction on a grade and the machine on top of you is what will kill you.

ROPS is to keep the tractor from rolling over and simply limit it to being laid on it's side. TEh ROPS and tractor frame will form the 2 short legs of a triangle and you staying in the seat puts you in the center of the triangle....safe and sound for the most part.

Please fasten your seat belt, put your seat and tray table in the upright and locked positions and keep your extremities inside the vehicle at all times....Otherwise assume crash position...put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye!
 
Our old tractor doesn't have any of what you guys are talking about; I'm sure glad I don't have to deal with hills. It isn't a compact tractor though, and it weighs a ton (actually quite a few tons) with the filled rear tires.
 
I think the most dangerous use of a tractor is using the bucket to push things over. Close second is being around the PTO. If you’re on flat ground and always driving slow, chances are you’ll never get in trouble but, I have hit a few woodchuck holes that will almost throw you from the tractor. I do know one thing the dealer told me when I got my first tractor with a seat belt. If your going to wear the seat belt make sure that the ROPS is up. Never wear the belt if it’s folded down. For obvious reasons.
 
Buckly said:
I think the most dangerous use of a tractor is using the bucket to push things over. Close second is being around the PTO. If you’re on flat ground and always driving slow, chances are you’ll never get in trouble but, I have hit a few woodchuck holes that will almost throw you from the tractor. I do know one thing the dealer told me when I got my first tractor with a seat belt. If your going to wear the seat belt make sure that the ROPS is up. Never wear the belt if it’s folded down. For obvious reasons.
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Mine is fixed....my wife insisted on it. She knew it would not be used properly otherwise.... She knows me all to well. The scariest thing I have seen is when you have a loader full of material and your in a hurry and you start swinging that weight around....you get it up in the air and your asking for trouble. Oh, and don't try to turn around or travel across a hill side - up and down.....not across! That can make your butt pucker as well!
 
only time I have almost tipped was when the ROPS clipped a large tree branch. Scary because I didn't know what was causing the front eND to climb off the ground.
 
Well, I'm gonna be the lone dissenter I guess. I never wear mine. My cab is enclosed though, and that would keep me from being thrown out I guess, but not thrown around in case of a roll-over. The difference may be though, that I have operated heavy equipment all of my life, for a living, and I've already made most of the mistakes that get people hurt, and I don't take chances anymore. If I push on a tree, it's gonna be a little one, I have a backhoe for the medium ones and a chain saw for the big ones:). If it's dead, and too big, I just let Mother Nature melt it down untill I can handle it. I keep my bucket close to the ground empty or loaded and I stay off of any sidehill steeper than a 3:1. I learned most of this and lots of other stuff the hard way and I have the scars to prove it !:D
 
Drycreek said:
Well, I'm gonna be the lone dissenter I guess. I never wear mine. My cab is enclosed though, and that would keep me from being thrown out I guess, but not thrown around in case of a roll-over. The difference may be though, that I have operated heavy equipment all of my life, for a living, and I've already made most of the mistakes that get people hurt, and I don't take chances anymore. If I push on a tree, it's gonna be a little one, I have a backhoe for the medium ones and a chain saw for the big ones:). If it's dead, and too big, I just let Mother Nature melt it down untill I can handle it. I keep my bucket close to the ground empty or loaded and I stay off of any sidehill steeper than a 3:1. I learned most of this and lots of other stuff the hard way and I have the scars to prove it !:D
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Well you best stay out of WV. My bedroom has more slope than that. LOL. And I did fail to say, I only wear my seatbelt half the time to be honest. But like my kids, do as I say, not as I do!
 
I Brushhog commercially and a lot of what I do is what others won’t do. I Brushhog 1 place 3 times a year that killed the previous owner because he was going across the hillside and ran over a stump with his wheel and started him on a side roll so he tried to jump and got mashed by the ROP. Buckle up...
 
If for some reason you can't have your ROPS up then don't wear seatbelt but you are should always wear the seat belt when the ROPS is up.And thinking you will stay in a cab is like thinking you will stay in the car when you roll,I'm not willing to bet my live on it.I worked a wreck where the guy was killed and there were comments online that it was his choice to not wear a seat belt. His wife strongly disagreed with this.
 
The bigger the equipment the bigger the disaster will be when something goes wrong. While seatbelts are a valuable safety feature, slowing down and thinking about what could go wrong also has great value.
If you have a reckless person who always wears a seatbelt, and a very careful person who might not always wear one, my money is on the careful person for longevity.
 
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.
 
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