ROPS Customization

   / ROPS Customization
  • Thread Starter
#11  
ccsial said:
First question. How flat is your land? I have no need of a ROPS since I have rolling hills. In 34 years I have never been anywhere close to tipping. For me, I would just leave it down. My 1910 does not even have a ROPS.

If you need the ROPS, now that's different of course.
Good question. I have about 300 acres of which I only mow and brush hog about 60-70 acres a year --- mostly flat but a couple of fairly steep hills. I have the R4 tires (lower COG) filled with beet juice (four wheels) and the wheels are on the widest setting, all of which minimizes risk of over turning. This property has been in the family for over 100 years and there has never been an accident, however, one never knows, especially about ground hog holes from year to year. If it weren't for the ground hog holes/mounds I wouldn't be concerned.
I have a welder, but I would get a professional welder/fabricator to do the job if I decide to have it done.
 
   / ROPS Customization #12  
How is the barn door and the opening constructed? Why not make the opening taller?
 
   / ROPS Customization
  • Thread Starter
#13  
2manyrocks said:
How is the barn door and the opening constructed? Why not make the opening taller?
Actually the door height could be enlarged up to 8-1/2 ft which would do the trick. I have a quote from a contractor of about $2200 for each door or $4400 for both smaller doors. That's a lot of money for a retired guy living on pension and social security. Might be able to offset cost a little by selling the old 3 year old doors.
But, I wanted to explore modifying the ROPS as a less expensive option.
 
   / ROPS Customization #14  
ccsial said:
First question. How flat is your land? I have no need of a ROPS since I have rolling hills. In 34 years I have never been anywhere close to tipping. For me, I would just leave it down. My 1910 does not even have a ROPS.

If you need the ROPS, now that's different of course.

Good answer. Many people make it every day without wearing a seatbelt Many don't . Care to play a little Russian Roulette ??
 
   / ROPS Customization #15  
How about a "high load detector" like ones used at many burger drivethru. Just a wind chime type pipe would do.
 
   / ROPS Customization #16  
Unless you drive through the doors at a high rate of speed, you could probably get along just fine by installing a sacrificial piece of frame material over the doors. When you hit it, unless you have the cruise engaged or something, you will probably use the brake and your vocabulary to stop very quickly before you do any major damage. When you get too many dents, replace the trim.

I have a few pairs of dents in the frame over my garage door, but nothing deeper than 1/4 inch or so. If you're worried about destroying the door opening, reinforce it with some roughsawn hardwood on the inside. The door I have dents over is an 18 foot wide garage door in a pine rough opening with no special reinforcement, just the usual header. It has suffered no structural damage from my idiocy, just cosmetic stuff.
 
   / ROPS Customization #17  
rpoage said:
A line drawn from the top of the ROPS to the front of the tractor forms the protection area. This line needs to be several inches above your head for good protection. In general since ROPS are in back of the head and the hood is lower this means the ROPS will have to be significantly higher to protect the driver.

According to at least one manufacturer, when they started making
tractors with more slope to the hood, they had to raise the ROPS
bar height. Compare the older Kioti DK hood to the newer CK hood.

For me and my CK, the ROPS is plenty tall, even after removing 8"
of height from it. But I am a shorter person. If you are well over
6-ft tall, the line drawn betw top of ROPS and top of grille guard will
intersect your head.
 
   / ROPS Customization #18  
I cut out part of my fixed rops, but only about 2-3 inches. What was I going to do, not put it in the garage? It stays at the weekend place. I have about 1/2" clearance with the R1 tires, a little more when I put the turfs on.

I thought I remeber a while back someone saying the taller rops were so the operator would not bang his head when using a BH. If you don't use a bh then what's the harm.
 

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   / ROPS Customization #19  
Smaller tractors have a proportionally taller ROPS than their larger cousins. This is because they have the same size operators while being shorter in length. The shorter length means the angle of the protection line between the ROPS and the front of the tractor is steeper for small tractors than for large machines, hence a proportionally higher ROPS is needed to gain enough clearance for head protection.
 
   / ROPS Customization
  • Thread Starter
#20  
There are a lot of good responses to my question. I'm currently in Raleigh, NC for a couple of weeks and will try some of the ideas given here when I get back to Central PA (home) next week. Many thanks to all for taking the time to answer. I will let you know what I wound up doing to alleviate the problem.
 
 
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