Three Point Stance

[Jag]

There is one I pulled this weekend. I was going to borrow my neighbor's HD 8 foot rear blade, weight about 750#. I unhooked it from his tractor and was using my FEL to pick it up with a short chain. His tractor was setting on a slight cross slope. I started to set the blade over to the down hill side. As I was going to hook it up to my tractor I had nothing attached to the rear of mine. Looking back on it, this was the first I had ever used the FEL with no counter weight. Just as I was moving the blade over to the side, the downhill front wheel rolled into a small hole. In a heartbeat(and the heartbeat was a big one) that small shift was enought to pick the uphill rear tire off the ground about 6 inches. At this point only one end of the blade was touching the ground. All three of us were just kind of tettering there, the tractor the blade and me. I did nothing fast. Very slowly I eased the FEL down till the blade was on the ground. If the front tire had been turned uphill just a little bite instead of down when it went into the hole the tractor would have fliped. Yes I was wearing my seatbelt even though I was getting on and off hooking up equitment. Why I am not sure, as I will not normally wear a belt when hooking up equipment. Maybe it was the slight side slope. Always think..... SAFETY

 

[Harv]

Wow, Jag!

I guess all's well that ends well. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Good thing tractor seats are washable, eh?

 

[TomG]

I've developed the habit of picking up a load and seeing how the steering feels before moving. Steering seems to be a pretty good test to see if the ballast is about right. I know I said the same thing in the ballast post, but I think the steering check is a real good habit to develop and worth repeating.

 

[glennmac]

If you are significantly overbalanced on one end of the tractor, it is safer, under center of gravity physics principles, to ascend and descend hills with the heavy end on the uphill side.