Don't drop bucket at full speed...

[clenhart]

According to the info on the e-mail, this happened because the loader bucket was lowered while moving at a good clip. I can't verify the authenticity as this was just one of those forwarded e-mails that I receive too many of, but looks and sounds plausible. I always wondered what would happen and hoped to never find out, but this goes beyond what I could have imagined. I guess the extra "weight in motion" from the trailer didn't help any...


edit... O.K. Sorry for the re-post. I missed it somehow, even after searching to check first...

 

[gordon21]

Old pix. This was on TBN a few months ago.

 

[RonR]

I don't know; I can't see how it happened any differently.

My guess is IF that trailer had not been hooked to the tractor, the tractor would have probably rolled forward over, causing more damage/injury.

Seems like it would take a fluke for the bucket to dig in enough to make that happen.

ron

 

[jmfox]

A while back I suggested wearing seat belt at all times. I was driving merrily along when suddenly the bucket dug in and everything came to a stop; including my nose within inches of the windshield.

jmf

 

[cp1969]

A friend of mine had a mid size John Deere tractor and had replaced the front bucket with a bale spike. For reasons no one will ever know, he either deliberately or accidentally dropped that bale spike into the gravel road he was driving on in top gear.

That spike dug in to the road, but the tractor kept trying to go forward. It turned into a bucking bronco with him inside. Don't know if he was knocked out initially, but someone came along and found this tractor bucking like crazy in the road with him inside. I do not know how they stopped it.

He did not survive. Another friend who works at the funeral home said she had never seen a body so badly damaged.

 

[Pooh_Bear]

My understanding of those pics was a hydraulic hose burst.
People were wondering if it would be covered under warranty.

Pooh Bear

 

[wushaw]

Traveling along at a good clip would be an understatment.
It look like to me the tractor had to be going more than 10 -15 mph to fold it like this.
There is something missing to this story.

 

[RonR]

Pooh Bear,

In the 70s as a kid I worked with a crew on a small bale mover, which looked like a truck, but was special made for bale handling. It had a snout to pick up the bales in the field, and a track to move them back on the bed. It worked slick, but I was ALWAYS worried about the steering.

The driver sat at the left front; the steering was totally hydraulic--there was no manual linkage to the wheels. I sweated every time we drove it, and it would go 40+ on the highway. If one of those steering hoses or the cylinder ever gave way, the wheels would turn all the way left or right. I cringed thinking if that were to happen at highway speed.

We drove it several years (then I went to college) and never had any incidents. Looking back, I don't know how they could sell the machines that way. Would be curious to look at some of the newer ones to see if they have a manual backup.

ron

 

[Zork]

Was he pulling the trailer? Did the trailer come unhooked at 60 mph, spring brakes on, and the tractor slide off? The tractor draw bar isn't bent, and there is a gouge where it appears that the trailer tongue was plowing all the way up to the bucket impact, that shouldn't have happened if it was connected to the draw bar, would it? If the bucket dropped at a fast speed wouldn't there have been a larger area where the road was scraped before the bucket took a bite? What probably happened is the usual thing- following to close to a Branson and couldn't stop quickly enough. Either way, my heart goes out to them.

 

[RalphVa]

He's lucky it was a heavy tractor. A lighter tractor may have ended up upside down, after having been tossed end over end from ramming whatever he hit as unmovable object with his FEL. With the heavy tractor, it apparently just ripped the FEL from its mechanism, and the tractor went over the FEL.

Ralph