What causes tractor rollovers?

[Lstlk2hi]

Was stationed at Nakhon Phanom airbase in Thailand and learned that choppers do stay in air, mostly. Couple of newest tech, in 1975, (Apaches(?), Blackhawk(?) *I know they were NOT Blackbirds*, (below is an Aardvark trimmed for speed.))

came down to Almaden AFS (last duty site above San Jose, CA) to show off their new toys. Things those guys did blew our minds. They did figure 8s, vertically, taking turns upside/rightside. Amazing war bird flyers out of the Presidio in San Francisco. A few minutes after scheduled time felt more than heard a low throb and one slowly rose in front of us. But WAIT the 2nd one is doing same behind us. Good imitation of 2 hind pincer tactic. It helped a bit that the radome and ops center were on knife edge ridge. I'm sure the drivers would have come up with a different and just as skilled nod then laughter to US AF air-dales.
I'm with you on sphincter phactor, anything past 8 is front and rear anchors dropped, outriggers also if so equipped and then a bit of prayer that the slide b4 roll is true and I'll choose right moment in correct direction. So far in 60 years the worst was watching right track carry on as RD2 cranked left. Putting track back on wasn't too bad. Then slipped 1 inch blocks between ram end and track spreader. Avatar is how not to park MF and don't grade road uphill. Long walk back to get charged battery.

 

[bmg88201]

Gravity is what causes rollovers, lol

 

[Gator6x4]

Gravity is what causes rollovers, lol

Gravity is a constant. Operator error is what causes roll overs.

 

[Richard]

I have to cross a dam to get home. On the sides of the actual dam, are the hills that support the road. I look at those and though they are NOT at 45 degree angles, when you are driving in traffic, only able to glance at them they look like they are 45 degree....

I see they always keep them cut. To the point you can see the lines in the grass SIDEWAYS where the mower is going sideways verses up/down the slope.

Perplexed me for years because I always felt, and still do, the best way to cut something like that is up/down verses sideways.

Then....one day, I saw the answer.

It was a mower. It DID have a driver on it. It WAS going sideways. However on the uphill side, it had a long cantilever that kept it from rolling sideways.

I have no idea if that cantilever could swing to opposite side. Either way, I see turning around an issue. If the cantilever was fixed, then the hill could only be cut from say, left to right verses right to left, lest the cantilever now be downhill.

In 20+ years of living here I've only seen that once. Grass is still being mowed so I guess they do it when I'm obviously not around..... start it up, cut it and get done.

it is a pucker hill.

 

[JWR]

Maybe the govt could just make your tractor shut off it gets on a 12º slope. Whould you be happy then?

Dear Gawd! Don't suggest it...

 

[ponytug]

I have to cross a dam to get home. On the sides of the actual dam, are the hills that support the road. I look at those and though they are NOT at 45 degree angles, when you are driving in traffic, only able to glance at them they look like they are 45 degree....

I see they always keep them cut. To the point you can see the lines in the grass SIDEWAYS where the mower is going sideways verses up/down the slope.

Perplexed me for years because I always felt, and still do, the best way to cut something like that is up/down verses sideways.

Then....one day, I saw the answer.

It was a mower. It DID have a driver on it. It WAS going sideways. However on the uphill side, it had a long cantilever that kept it from rolling sideways.

I have no idea if that cantilever could swing to opposite side. Either way, I see turning around an issue. If the cantilever was fixed, then the hill could only be cut from say, left to right verses right to left, lest the cantilever now be downhill.

In 20+ years of living here I've only seen that once. Grass is still being mowed so I guess they do it when I'm obviously not around..... start it up, cut it and get done.

it is a pucker hill.

Power-Trac, an American tractor company, manufactures a tractor and mower designed to mow 45 degree slopes, and often bought and used by folks maintaining dams. The operator's seat has an automatic tilt to keep the operator vertical.

TSM Class

Compact Tractors, Slope Mowers, Articulated Tractors, Tractor Attachments, Trailer Packages

www.power-trac.com

If you have to be on a slope, I think that it is worth considering if a tractor built for slopes can work for you.

I have lost two neighbors and known a third who died in rollovers. For all of them, the rollover altered the course of their entire families' lives. When I was younger, I nearly dropped a tractor into a ravine by missing a gear shift. The memory has stuck with me...and why I own, and use a Power-Trac on our rather hilly ranch.

Stay safe.

All the best,

Peter

 

[JWR]

Any machine that they claim will handle 45 degree slopes is spouting BULL. For starters it will slide sideways on almost any practical vegetated or soil surface long before it gets up to 45 degrees. Designed for very steep slopes? Sure. 45 degree slopes ? Bull.

 

[scootr]

What causes tractor rollovers?​

Same thing that causes Gun Violence. It's the operator.
It's not the tractor and it's not the gun, people.

 

[jwmorris]

Always operator error. Every industrial accident can be traced back to human error.

I would go as far as saying every accident involving a human, could be traced back to human error.

 

[Lstlk2hi]

While stationed at Almaden AFS near San Jose, CA 2 new Apaches and their pilots came down to show the 'airmen' who knew their stuff. It was AWESOME. The came in slow and low with one on each side of the ridge ops was sited. Then went into a show. We, all base residents and folks on shift were griping a little about late birds. Then felt a low throb through feet, then heard it and here are 2 matt black choppers with our group as their focal point. I'd just returned from NKP Thailand and it was now late August 1975. My fear of helicopters hadn't fully taken hold then and I watched the show w/o freaking. The US Army pilots did things that somewhat defied what was seen. During planned vertical figure 8s they went inverted at the top and continued on upside down. Some years later Med-Fly spraying was contracted out and used 6 spray choppers low, slow and noisy. My girlfriend would wake up to me trying to dig through concrete slab with heating coils using fingers. A few years after that my youngest sister hit a road embankment leaving our ranch, slid upside down for a good 150' and life flight was called in. They had a problem due to size of clearing. He made it down with some help and got her to the hospital. The final 'chopper' thing for me was watching large Firefighter whirlybirds taking off from a field near one of the houses with guys legs hanging out the door. The shovels and other things they were carrying morphed in my mind and I had to get off the ranch. Only to meet a frantic lady at the bottom gate who wasn't aware her husband had barreled in while practicing aerial maneuvers. The next door neighbor was a sole source heavy lifter rocket fuel manufacturer. They left a lot of ammonium perchlorate, Methyl Ethyl Ketone and Trichlorethylene in their soil, our soil and in our cattle/fishing lake. Damnable rocket scientists from Connecticut because they knew containing their poisons was not effective.