Sooner or later, it was going to happen.

[RonMar]

That is why you don't drag things with the FEL. The first pic shows the loader bucket about half way up. Even if the chain/cable was run under the bucket, that is still way to high. With the moment arm(point where Chain/cable applies force to the bucket) out past the front of the tractor, it takes very little bucket lift and turn angle to apply enough side force at the top of the loader arms to pull the tractor over. You could do the same thing dragging from the toplink while making a turn. Basically the top of the tractor stops, and the wheels pull the bottom of the tractor right out from under it untill the critical angle(CG past point where downhill tire is touching the ground) is reached and over she goes.

Don't feel bad, I am sure a lot of people here, myself included have had this or very nearly this happen to them. The only thing that saved me from a rollover was that I had my hand on the loader control lever and I mashed it all the way forward quickly as she started to tip. This bought me enough time to get the cluch mashed all the way to the floor and release the pull force. I was VERY lucky. Even with the backhoe in place, I can still reach the drawbar framework to hook a drag chain onto, and WON't drag anything from anyplace else.
Thanks for sharing. Very glad you are OK...

 

[JSUnlimited]

Mega Me: Sorry to see this situation, but happy to know you are OK! You must have had a firm grip on your beer to avoid a spill! I'm curious about the title, did you suspect this might happen?

Do you mind if I take a guess as to what happened? Looks like the tree you cut down, fell across the creek. (as you said). I'm guessing you chained the butt to one of your bucket hooks and started backing up.

However there is a slight rise in the ground and the tree butt kept snagging, so you simply raised the bucket as you backed up, lifting the butt a little.

Then, either you started turning on purpose, (or without noticing it) the tractor slowly got turned just enough (to put you on an angle to the pull) as you kept raising the bucket and the tree kept "lurching" ahead. The tree's final "lurch" pulled the "high" bucket (on sort of a sideways angle) and over she went!! Down with a bang! Pretty scary moment!!

Please let me know if this is a "fairly" accurate guess. Right or wrong I enjoy "trying" to figure things out from pictures. THINKING BACK, to the moment,...(as it began to tip),... do you think "dropping-the-bucket-fast" would have avoided the roll? (Dropping the bucket would have "let-go" what was pulling you over, AND set the weight back on the rear wheels and back-hoe). Providing my guess is correct?

THANK YOU for sharing this. Could save someone else serious injury or worse! THANK YOU as well for the "Services-Rendered" in your daily (nightly) work!!!! Good Man!!
Hope your tractor will be ok without toooo much work!!
CHEERS,
. . tug

PS: you might want to take a peek at "The Big Flip" (similar to yours). It was at the bottom of page 1 of this Thread. Might be page 2 by now? May be some help to you, Good luck!

Tugboat,

You are a very intuiative intuitive person! This is pretty much what happened!

The good news is that myself and the tractor are all in fine shape! No damage sustained to the tractor what so ever.....not even a scratch! It did leak out a majority of the engine oil and about a gallon or so of hydro fluid. Since I had a screw up earlier in the week when I powerwashed it with the hydro fill cap gone, I needed to change the fluid and filters anyways. Fortunately I was able to get the ground cleaned up before there was an issue of oil/fuel getting into the pond.

I changed the engine and hydro oil and filters. This time I REPLACED the fill plug! I messed around the other night and racked up a fews hours on it and everything is fine! My leg is a bit sore still. And....just kidding about the beer but I definately had a few then a few more afterwards! Maybe if I had one or two before working this would not have had happened?

I'm at work now, but when I get home in the morning I'll put up a few more pics of the "recovery" process.

Please guys be careful and just slow down and take time to think of what you are doing or are going to do. BTW, I have had this machine since it was brand new and now have 650 hours or so all of which were put on by myself. I was just was in a hurry/too comfortable and made a dumb move....could have been worse. I said to myself I said, "Self, don't do that again."

Oh yeah, someone asked about the title to this post. I have had numerous close calls before while doing things and this time I guess I got a little too comfortable while pushing the edge.

 

[tugboat-2]

Mega Me : Just got back from your other post, . . GOOD GRIEF man, you have certainly "HAD" your share of Luck,..unfortunately,..ALL BAD !! What the heck did you do to annoy the Man Upstairs to that extent???? You must have been a b-a-a-d,...b-a-a-a-d,... boy !!! I sure hope he's done with the punishment!!!

You must normally look after that tractor as even on its "side", it looks great!! I wanted to THANK YOU for the reply because I feel there are generally "lessons" to be learned from the mistakes of ourselves and others.

In the other thread, you mentioned the tractor didn't get a scatch and your leg is recovering etc. What happened with the leg? Did you have the belt on?

Anyway, I am so glad you AND the tractor survived what "could" have been a nasty situation. Oh, and thanks for the compliment,....great photos also!

I sincerely wish you some very "GOOD" Luck for a change!!!
. . tug

 

[blacknblue]

Except for the grace of God, there go I ! I certainly bet the hairs raised on the neck with this one...650 hours is a testament to all of us newbies...in order to work a tractor without a mishap you have to be all of the following:

1. A Strongman, similar to Arnold..."it's not a tumor"
2. A Physicist... in the realms of Einstein or Hawking
3. A Panther, or similar animal whose senses are so keenly acute you make your living off of them...
4.21 or less
5. Move at a speed slower than the checkout lines at Walmart on a Saturday afternoon.
6. Luckier than.....nope, luck does not count in tractoring...

We all pray to learn and heed the advice and experience of all those who go before us, and count ourselves fortunate to possibly have that beer and tell the story... here is a saludo to all those having gone before us whose story was told in a local newspaper WITHOUT their input...Nostrovia.....

 

[JSUnlimited]

Mega Me : Just got back from your other post, . . GOOD GRIEF man, you have certainly "HAD" your share of Luck,..unfortunately,..ALL BAD !! What the heck did you do to annoy the Man Upstairs to that extent???? You must have been a b-a-a-d,...b-a-a-a-d,... boy !!! I sure hope he's done with the punishment!!!

You must normally look after that tractor as even on its "side", it looks great!! I wanted to THANK YOU for the reply because I feel there are generally "lessons" to be learned from the mistakes of ourselves and others.

In the other thread, you mentioned the tractor didn't get a scatch and your leg is recovering etc. What happened with the leg? Did you have the belt on?

Anyway, I am so glad you AND the tractor survived what "could" have been a nasty situation. Oh, and thanks for the compliment,....great photos also!

I sincerely wish you some very "GOOD" Luck for a change!!!
. . tug

I did not have my seatbelt on. For some odd reason I managed to bruise the heck out of my left thigh/calf., which whould have been on the uphill side. Might have been the steering wheel or the ground as I came on over?

This is a pic of my step-son getting ready to say to me, "You just wait until momma gets home!"

 

[Double Orange]

Glad you and the tractor are O.K.


I'm curious about that yellow strap. Is that a chain with a cover? Or is it some kind of shock cord?

 

[JSUnlimited]

My mother happened to be mowing and witnessed the incident, which in turn she called for my step-father. Joe is a vietnam vet who was a operator of the infamous "rome plow". He was more than happy to come over the hill and help out.

(pics are obviously not in order)

 

[Double Orange]

Joe is a vietnam vet who was a operator of the infamous "rome plow". He was more than happy to come over the hill and help out.

(pics are obviously not in order)

I noticed your dads tags DV Disabled Veteren.

Tell Joe I said

WELCOME HOME!

He'll understand.
Frank
USMC

 

[JSUnlimited]

Pulling it over. We figured that if the ROPS was strong enough to hold it from rolling over, it would be strong enough to pull it back over. We were trying to avoid causing any damage that had not happened yet!

 

[JSUnlimited]

Things are getting back to normal.