One mistake that could have been my last

[Rice Rider]

After reading several pages of the safety forum, I thought I would throw in my newbie story. About a year ago when my tractor arrived, I was anxious to get some work done on it right away. Although most of my property is sloped, there were some good slightly level areas that looked good to clear for our shed, fire pit, etc. I was amazed at how much power the tractor had for pushing dead wood and debris around. At this point I was only using the FEL as a dozer and was not really lifting anything. I had cut down some smaller trees around four to six inches and was pushing several of them into a pile. One of those trees was long enough to get hung up on a larger tree that was still standing on my side as I was pushing, and then got hung up on another tree, this time along the leading edge. When the tree I was pushing caught the second hang up, a bind occurred and the tractor bogged down a bit so I looked down, saw the bind and thought what a pain it was going to be to get off in the brambles and either cut the tree or try to pull it out from between the two trees that were holding it in place. Instead of getting off, I figured that the tree would just break in two if I backed up and gave it some more throttle. When I did this, the tree did not break. I had not backed up again and the tree was now loaded like a sling shot. I lifted the FEL figuring that might help and that was all it took for the tree to instantly come over the FEL across the hood and hit the steering wheel saving my rear end from having the tree hitting me square in the chest and crushing me against the seat. It also hit the throttle and pushed it all the way on so before I shut it off, it was pushing the tractor against the tree at full tilt. It bent the steering column and pushed it away from the instrument panel. I was alone in the middle of the woods with no cell pone on me at the time. After a few explicatives and feeling very lucky and stupid at the same time, I just sat there and thought how easy it would be to die on this tractor. This simple newbie mistake could have killed me.

 

[n8wrl]

WOW. That IS scary.

My Newb story is similar to another poster thanking his lucky starts for ROPS. I was pulling some saplings out with a chain. Without thinking about how tall they were or the leverage involved, I tied the chain to about six or eight and drove off - slow, steady pressure. The saplings bent a bit, bent a bit more, and then suddenly popped out of the ground brining the tops down horizontally at an alarming rate to where they smacked the top of my canopy and ROPS. They were about 10' taller than my chain was long.

 

[NSBound]

After reading several pages of the safety forum, I thought I would throw in my newbie story....... and the tree was now loaded like a sling shot. I was alone in the middle of the woods with no cell pone on me at the time. After a few explicatives and feeling very lucky and stupid at the same time, I just sat there and thought how easy it would be to die on this tractor. This simple newbie mistake could have killed me.

All I can say is....WHEW! You were lucky! Shows to go how quick things can happen.

 

[Bird]

They were about 10' taller than my chain was long.

I've wondered if I was the only one who ever did that. I was 13 or 14 years old when I was using our little 1940 John Deere L to pull dead trees to a pile for a big weiner roast for a church group. I had pulled several small ones, but there was a big dead oak tree still standing in the pasture. I hooked my chain to it and tried to pull it down, but the little tractor just spun its wheels, so I pulled a really dumb kid stunt. I backed up to the tree, took off at full throttle, with my foot poised over the clutch, so when I hit the end of the chain, I also hit the clutch so I wouldn't kill the engine. And that big oak tree came down right beside my left tire. Two feet to the right would have destroyed both me and the tractor.

 

[Thomas]

Yikes..darn glad your still w/us.

Most scary for me when Farmall H broke traction,trying to hold back almost trailer cord of wood going down slope..whew what a ride out.

 

[Charles]

Ahh stories... Ill add my own brush with death and trees.

Trees when put under force, blown down in a storm, pinned between something ect. are sneaky. You as a person, can not see stress, strain, bending force, or weight. The only thing you can see is deflection or the amount that something is bent, that does not ever give you an accurate picture of the force involved. I once cut a tree that was blown over in a storm that had a root ball attached. When I cut the trunk of the tree, the root ball rolled back into its origional positon. That woulda been fine, except that I was standing on the root ball. I looked at that before I cut the tree, but I never thought it would roll back the way it did. When it rolled back, the portion of the tree that was attached to the ball came and hit me SO hard it threw me clear of the ball. (imagine stepping on a garden rake how the handle comes up) It was a decent sized tree, the ball was taller then me (6') when it was on its side. It hurt to breathe for a days after. The chainsaw was thrown clear too, and still running on the ground.

Charlie

 

[The Haymaker]

I'd say you got away with it learning from your mistake, until someone got you on film with your pickup the next day........

 

[Taylortractornut]

Ive been clearing land with a dozer since I was a 14 so has my brother and dad. Weve all seen and experienced some of the bad that comes with clearing. My dad had his head busted open when a falling root ball pulled his TD20 over and dropped him. My brother had to work up to dark one evening for his boss and had an oak tree in the bucket of his PC300 about to swing around and place it into a brush pile. He had it balanced and it rolled and one limb entered the cab and hit his crowd lever. It started pulling the limb into the cab and as this happened other limbs started to com into the cab . He tried to reach the igniton but a 300 is fast and when he scrambled out he pulled up the safety lever and it disengaged the controls.
I had a 30 foot pine pole about 5 inches at the base and it had binded. I was having to push up hill to clear a small area to turn a scraper around for stripping topsoil on a blind corner. I wasnt getting much traction so I was pushing smaller piles up to a main pile and then I got the pine tree binded up. I didnt know it was holding down a 3 inch tree was bound up in my path. Theres a small gap between the tras and the boderdy ot the dozer. About time I raised the blade to spill and accumulated dirt and seperate the brush that 3 incher sprung into that gap and pinned my shin to the battery box panel. I almost fainted it hurt so bad.
Alway be careful when clearing. or in the woods in general. Theres alway too much to watch and you can always see a springloaded tree.

 

[PILOON]

When I had my HD11 bulldozer I was making driveway accesses to our new road.
Typically I would raise the blade high and bull the trees over forewards and then with blade against the rootball push them out of the way off into the bush.

Well a few maple saplings (maybe 3-4 inches or so) got kinda tangled up so I took the chainsaw to cut them to shorter lengths to be more managable.

I kinda stooped and cut upwards and heard a sudden CRACK and that sapling swung out like Babe Rooth going for a home run.

I swear that that sapling brushed my hair as it flew past!

Got back on the dozer with wery shakey legs I'll tell you.

Very hard to guesstimate the built up energy or the path a bent limb can take.

So be careful out there!

 

[tallyho8]

After Katrina I had a 50' cedar tree laying across my driveway. I started cutting off the top 30' to clear my drive. This section was about 5' off the ground so I found I could cut it easiest if I stood on the trunk of the tree while cutting.

When I was just about through the trunk something told me to get off the tree and finish cutting it from the ground. I got down and touched the chainsaw to the trunk, heard a huge CRACK, and the top broke off and the base of the tree sprung upright from the root tension like a slingshot. If I had been standing on the trunk it would have thrown me over the house.