tree pined down my neighbor on his tractor

[Anonymous Poster]

Well, I got one of those stories that go in this column.Yesterday I got a frantic call from my neighbors wife saying her husband,who is appox.65,was trapped on his tractor by a fallen tree.I rushed over there and found him as she said.He was trying to clear some pine trees off his property,when one or two got hung up together and woundn't fall,so he gets his tractor and tries to use his front end loader in someway I'm still not sure, to push them down,well they fall right on his tractor with him on it and a limb hit him in the back and pins him down with his face to the steering wheel.I start cutting the limbs out of the way, much help comes and we get him out with just bruises.He has got a yanmor tractor without a rollbar,good tractor,but if he had a roll bar,in this instance anyways,the trees wood have hit it and not pined him.He is lucky,those pine trees often have dead limb stubs on them and if a stub had hit him in the back like the limb did,that might have been it.He was more mad than hurt because many people saw him in this predicament.We all do stupid things from time to time,but you never know when that last stupid time might be your last time. RICHARD GAUTHIER

 

[bmac]

Glad he walked away with only bruises (body and ego). I'm sure whatever he was doing seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I am glad the gentleman is ok........and it sounds like he has is lucky to have a good neighbor as well. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A variation on that tree-limb-tractor accident is one that has happened REPEATEDLY in California where they historically used crawlers for working orchards. Guy is discing orchard with crawler.....guy encounters low hanging limb......guy gets off tractor to untangle limb from tractor radiator guard or air cleaner stack or exhaust pipe.......guy manages to free the limb.....limb snaps back and hits hand clutch......clutch snaps back into overcenter "engaged" position.......tractor moves forward and pins guy against tree....guy gets to hear engine governor open wider when tractor feels him and tree in front of it....guy gets squished. The mistake was leaving the transmission in forward gear and relying on the disengaged clutch to keep tractor from moving. This grim scenario has been repeated over and over. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[frank_f15]

excellent point. my tractor is hydro and ANY TIME I GET OFF i put the lever in netural, have this fear of me getting off and the tractor taking off.

 

[Rick Jay]

Frank,

I agree. I put it in neutral anytime I leave the operator's seat.

My other concern is that when I try to get back on the tractor, if I should slip or lose my balance, I might accidently step on the hydro pedal. With it in neutral, no big deal. If it was in gear, than the tractor would move, further upsetting my desire to achieve a stable position.

And, I guess if you have kids, although young ones shouldn't be anywhere near the tractor when operating, if they try to "climb up" on the hydro-pedal side, they might engage the hydro. Don't wish to think of the consequences on that one.

~Rick

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color="blue"> I agree. I put it in neutral anytime I leave the operator's seat. </font>

I'm torn between doing that and keeping the HST in gear.

To date I have kept mine in gear with the brake set. My thinking is if the break would release, the hst would hold position or drift slowly...

In neutral, if the brake would release, the tractor could drift at whatever speed the slope dictated.

I am really up in the air as to which method to follow. If it were a gear tractor, there would only be one way to do it with the engine running!

But is is a hst...and in the end I am more comfortable leaving it in gear with the brake set.

I have worked a couple decades in heavy industry, so I am pretty safety conscious and have made this decision with my eyes open and after trying to maximize the probability [at least in my own mind] that if the worst case happens, I will be in the best shape to survive it...

If my property were flat I might think differently. But mostly it is sloped here, to one degree or another.

 

[Jeff396]

I'm with you Henro, I also leave the tractor in gear when leaving the seat. I too have slopes and I don't have a huge amount of trust in that emergency brake set up. In addition, I also never get on or off on the side with the hydro pedal. This isn't something I have to make an effort to remember, I feel much more comfortable getting on and off on the left side.

Jeff

 

[Taylortractornut]

A deacon at church wanted me to put a culvert in on his propery and wanted a few timbers set on his bridge so i told him that id do it. He got down there with his 165 MF and was box blading, i filled the ditch so we could cross and work on the bridge first till the culvert showed. He had a few snags growng out of the bank of the ditch he wanted movfed i told him id take my backhow with the cab and tak care of them. This guy is cheap, he told me that itd cost too much for me to do it and i said it wont take any longer that id charge by the hour if he was wasting time pullin the trees with the blade. First tree i pulled out good second he chanined to the blade and took off and had it not been for the rold bars the fron of the hood wouldnt have been the only thing destroyed. I told him that the cost of life was wiorth more than the hoe work bu still he kept on. One day i figure we ll hear baout him in the funny papers.

 

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( , I might accidently step on the hydro pedal. With it in neutral, no big deal. If it was in gear, than the tractor would )</font>

I always have that thought when I get on or off one of my tractors.. what if I slip and hit the shifter and kick it into gear. Once i accidentally stepped on the foot throttle and jazzed the engine.. that alone tells me that one day I might 'jazz' the shifter.

On my yanmar, I always slipped the hi-low range leve into the middle and then shifter out of gear, and set brake... that way tractor couldn't roll but if shifter got kicked in, the tranny is between ranges.. sam on my NH 1920... stick in N, range selector between settings of 1-2-3-4.. brakes locked.

Afraid the 8n and NAA don't have thos nice safety options.. and their operator platform makes you either swing your leg over or maneuver it begind the shifter to get on or off the tractor...

Soundguy