GC parking brake popped out! Damage pics.

[rjmack]

i almost flipped mine over with about 5 hrs on it. learning to run the backhoe, at full throttle, in a dangerous situation is really not good practice. lucky for me there was no disaster, except the near heart attack when i realized the machine was going to teeter and stop, or teeter and go over (with me in the backhoe seat), and there was nothing on this earth i could do about it. good luck with your repairs... cheer up, if your going to use these things, some roadrash is inevitable anyways.:thumbsup:

btw, did you damage your mower?

you can't really tell how steep the hill is from the picture, i imagine these things will keep running even if they are upside down, given that the safety shutoff switch is bypassed with the seat spun around.

 

[irvingj]

Ouch, Wacky! Sorry to hear about/see your accident. Lesson for us all!

 

[Don87]

Well nobody got hurt. But who knows about the ones that did. This, I believe, is a safety issue that needs to be addressed. I am going to call the dealer Monday to see where they stand. And I am not looking forward to a long wait to get my machine back. You guys watch I won't see it for a month or 2!

Sorry to hear about your tractor.
And yes, it is a safety issue.....mine has come unlatched several times( 14 hours on it now ).
I live on a slope myself, and if I need to get off the tractor, I park sideways to the slope due to the parking brake situation.
I personally haven't told my dealer about it yet, but maybe that's where the mistake lies.....not enough people lodging complaints about the situation.
Another good tip may be to pass this thread along to your dealer and/or AGCO. Couldn't hurt.

Don

 

[Wacky]

Sorry to hear about your tractor.
And yes, it is a safety issue.....mine has come unlatched several times( 14 hours on it now ).
I live on a slope myself, and if I need to get off the tractor, I park sideways to the slope due to the parking brake situation.
I personally haven't told my dealer about it yet, but maybe that's where the mistake lies.....not enough people lodging complaints about the situation.
Another good tip may be to pass this thread along to your dealer and/or AGCO. Couldn't hurt.

Don

I am going to mention it to them, all I have are hills around here.

And yes the bucket was about 2-3" above the ground, just raised up to move forward, set the brake and got off to inspect the digging I just did and then went to get insecticide. The brake should hold if it was not moving all that time. As I came around the house I heard a loud click, then it started rolling. So if the weight of the tractor is too much to hold, there in lies the problem. I attached the picture of the grade I was on, the bucket did take a small chunk of turf too, and a small tree with it, you can see from the pic attached, but neither slowed it down. As for the FEL being down, if it was not attached, the tractor would have done the same thing, except, with a worse outcome. So FEL or not it should hold. Lesson learned, I will never trust it again. If the parking brake should not be used on inclines, it should be indicated so. If it holds the machine on the incline, then releases on its own, there is a problem.

 

[roger 4400]

Very very sorry for your tractor....I have a 1643 and in the book they say to put blocks behind the wheels if you are on a slope....I do not know for your owner,s book...it is shurely learning ( FOR ALL OF US) the hard way... good luck. It shows us never to trust a mechanism..no mather what it is..like people that carry kids in the bucket....imagine the hydraulic hose or the pump breaking at that moment....Your only consolation is that no one was injured. Have a nice day.

 

[tsteahr]

I am going to mention it to them, all I have are hills around here.

And yes the bucket was about 2-3" above the ground, just raised up to move forward, set the brake and got off to inspect the digging I just did and then went to get insecticide. The brake should hold if it was not moving all that time. As I came around the house I heard a loud click, then it started rolling. So if the weight of the tractor is too much to hold, there in lies the problem. I attached the picture of the grade I was on, the bucket did take a small chunk of turf too, and a small tree with it, you can see from the pic attached, but neither slowed it down. As for the FEL being down, if it was not attached, the tractor would have done the same thing, except, with a worse outcome. So FEL or not it should hold. Lesson learned, I will never trust it again. If the parking brake should not be used on inclines, it should be indicated so. If it holds the machine on the incline, then releases on its own, there is a problem.

That is really terrible. I would be very distraught if it happened to me.

That said, based on your description and and a experience I had, I believe I can speculate what happened. As you know, the parking brake is really a "latch" that holds the brake pedal down when you let your foot off the pedal. The latch is really a series of 6 or 7 teeth that engage a tab on the brake pedal and hold it in position. This latch is swung into position when you push the console thumb lever. The tip of each tooth on the latch is slightly rounded (to facilitate engagement I believe).

What happened to me once and what I speculate happened is you did not get the latch fully engaged. I think you may have engaged the latch enough to grab the pedal tab with perhaps the rounded portion of a tooth on the latch.

The loud click you heard was the pedal tab slipping off the rounded portion of the tooth and the brake pedal releasing.

This happened to me once but fortunately I was on the tractor. I have since become careful to be sure I have fully engaged a tooth of the latch. I make sure the thumb lever is fully pressed down when setting the brake. I also have observed that depending on the exact position of the foot pedal, the tip of the latch tooth can hit the pedal tab. I have to either press the pedal down slightly more or release it slightly to engage the latch. With experience I have learned how far the thumb lever should go down.

I don't mean to inflame the situation and I am not trying to criticize. I feel terrible about the accident. It is a good lesson for all. I just wanted to point out to be aware of getting the thumb lever fully depressed. It can be easy to miss if you aren't aware of it.

I hope you get your tractor back soon and all will be put right. All the best.

 

[ScottW]

And all the more sad for such a spanking brand new machine, especially since you've been so enthusiastic about getting and operating it. I'm a new owner of that machine too, and I've been using mine on slopes as well. Now I will be more careful about using the parking brake, and engaging it fully. On mine at least, the lever seems to go on and stay on only at a firm setting of the pedal. Good luck with recovering from this.

 

[onowino]

You're the one who said dig it in the ground. All I said was to lower the implements. Walking away from a tractor, with the FEL raised, is looking for trouble. I wouldn't let my kids in anywhere near it.

 

[rjmack]

i think part of the problem with the e-brake, is that it relies on the machine brake - which is not very good to begin with.

i have run into many situations where judicious application of one or the other of the hydrostatic pedals was required (on top of heavy brake application) to prevent the machine from rolling away.

 

[Inspector507]

I moved the tractor forward set the parking brake and lowered the bucket left it running

I thought he did lower the bucket