Rops and fops are overrated!

   / Rops and fops are overrated! #11  
I can't say I didn't do something about as stupid when I got my first loader; thankfully, ROPS was up, and the other end bounced off the hood.
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #12  
That video has been photoshopped, that dark colored limb wasn’t there and then is. But old dead trees are widow makers for sure.
Don’t think it is photo shopped. If you concentrate on the limb bases, you can see the dark base from the beginning on, and watch it break loose as the limb breaks loose and begins to appear in view. And, that whole tree line is dead/dying Lombardi Poplars. Which were planted by the Soil Conservation Service, and CCCs through out the thirties, to get rid of the great unbroken expanses which caused the dust bowl.

Lifespan 50 to 80-years. So they have been dying out since the 80s, and folks left them standing. about twenty years ago, they decided to knock down what was left of them, along with the dead ones. And almost none of the farmers/ranchers planted any new windrows. They have no sense of history, of what and why from three and four generations ago. They can’t understand why the folks three, four, and five generations ago, planted all those trees that just use water.

We now have miles upon miles of unbroken fileds drying out in a drought. WE may get to see a new dust bowl.
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #13  
I don't think it was photoshopped either. I've had branches fall and hit my cab out of the blue running the bush hog along the fence lines. I've also had trees start falling and do a complete 180 when branches get caught up in the crowns. It also starts raining branches at that point.

I wouldn't consider pushing down trees without a FOPS. A hard hat and face screen is a must have when I'm falling trees.

Poplar trees are wicked for falling dead branches. Those look like they could be lombardy poplar.
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #14  
If you copy the video to your photos, expand the clip and look very carefully, the widow maker seems to come out of nowhere. Looks almost photoshopped.

Looks like top, just out of the picture at first.
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #15  
It does look a little odd, but the operator's movement sure looks legit. In any case.... dead wood is definitely dangerous!
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #16  
Had a guy get a broken neck a few years back. They decided to push over hazard trees in a campground with an excavator. Tree didn’t fall the direction it was pushed. Went sideways, and hit the cab of the truck he was in, and collapsed the roof onto him. He said he saw it coming, but still had the seat belt on, and couldn’t even duck.
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #18  
Larger video version:


Bruce
 
   / Rops and fops are overrated! #19  
I built my canopy for widow makers and limbs slapping me in the face while brushogging fence rows And pastures.
the top is 2x2 x1/4 angle frame with 1/8 steel plate top
 

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   / Rops and fops are overrated! #20  
You just need to be quicker off the tractor. If he'd been quicker and bailed to the left, he'd been just fine, assuming he hadn't already disabled the non-existent seat killswitch and get run over by the tractor.
 
 
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