bluehog
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2010
- Messages
- 89
- Tractor
- New Holland TC35D 2001
I know this is an old thread... but many of us who still have this style ebrake assembly can and will suffer from this hazard. I have/had the same ebrake failure that has been described here, I had a runaway tractor on a downhill slope.
My wife and I were hand loading large exposed & loose rock into the bucket for relocation on our NM lot. With the bucket partially full I moved the tractor to the next area. With my TC35D still running and pointing downhill with the bucket about a foot off the ground as to keep the already loaded rock inside, I set the securely engaged ebrake. I jumped off the left side of the tractor to assist in loading more rock. When my weight left the platform the ebrake completely disengaged! My wife was just about to step in front of the bucket when I screamed at her. I attempted to get back onto the moving tractor and missed my footing in the foot cradle and luckily grabbed the steering wheel in my failed attempt to jump on. Thanks to the power steering this turned the tractor to the left just enough to send it directly into a 6" diameter trunk Juniper tree about 25 feet away. It flattened the tree to the ground tearing out the roots and all, but it stopped it from going several hundred feet down the hill which who knows what would have happened! I cannot believe how fast this tractor took off once it was disengaged! I know it weighs over 8000# with the backhoe... but wholly crap it was moving!
Major lesson learned... I feel like a complete idiot having done this in my hurry to complete our project I jeopardized my and my wife's lives and the investment into our tractor. Things have not been the same since... which is a good thing! Safety first... it's just hard sometimes when you just have to do one little thing to force yourself to take every precaution.
So upon return from this adventure I took a serious look at the ebrake assembly. Which I will explain in the next post.
My wife and I were hand loading large exposed & loose rock into the bucket for relocation on our NM lot. With the bucket partially full I moved the tractor to the next area. With my TC35D still running and pointing downhill with the bucket about a foot off the ground as to keep the already loaded rock inside, I set the securely engaged ebrake. I jumped off the left side of the tractor to assist in loading more rock. When my weight left the platform the ebrake completely disengaged! My wife was just about to step in front of the bucket when I screamed at her. I attempted to get back onto the moving tractor and missed my footing in the foot cradle and luckily grabbed the steering wheel in my failed attempt to jump on. Thanks to the power steering this turned the tractor to the left just enough to send it directly into a 6" diameter trunk Juniper tree about 25 feet away. It flattened the tree to the ground tearing out the roots and all, but it stopped it from going several hundred feet down the hill which who knows what would have happened! I cannot believe how fast this tractor took off once it was disengaged! I know it weighs over 8000# with the backhoe... but wholly crap it was moving!
Major lesson learned... I feel like a complete idiot having done this in my hurry to complete our project I jeopardized my and my wife's lives and the investment into our tractor. Things have not been the same since... which is a good thing! Safety first... it's just hard sometimes when you just have to do one little thing to force yourself to take every precaution.
So upon return from this adventure I took a serious look at the ebrake assembly. Which I will explain in the next post.