Who would have thought

BayouMan · Oct 6, 2009

Well folks,
I haven't posted in this section before, but I had an incident that could have had a very dire outcome.

I was at our hunting lease a few weeks back. We planted food plots, graded trails, put in a bridge and various other projects over 2 1/2 days. On our last day, I thought we were done with projects around 2:00 pm that Saturday. One guy reminded me that we still had a culvert to install in a wash. I was tired and ready to load up and go home, but we had the equipment, materials and people to get the task done.

We had a 24" Dia pipe, about 12' long, by 1/4" wall, to use as a culvert. It had a hole cut very near to the end to allow us to hook a chain to the end. I then proceeded to drag the pipe to where we were going to install it. I drug it behind my 2640 JD with BB attached. I have a hook welded on my BB and this was handy for this task. After dragging the pipe though our graveled camp site, I started down the logging trail that slopes gently down. I was in 5th gear at a fast idle dragging the pipe. When I hit the dirt trail, I noticed that my tractor started to lug down. I instinctively hit the clutch and turned around to see what the problem was. WELL, as I turned around, I was greeted with that piece of pipe coming up into the air and watched that pipe come up from the tail end and go vertical, then come on towards the back of my tractor. It crashed into the top of my canopy and then rolled off to the side.

I felt as though everything was happening in slow motion, but I couldn't move. I watched that pipe hit about 18'' above my head and about 12" back. The attached pictures tell the story. Another 1/2" or so, and I wouldn't be here to tell you about it.

These two photos show the tractor and BB.

These two show the damage.

BayouMan · Oct 6, 2009

I have reviewed this incident in my head for several days now, and I have come up with the following observations:

1. Just because I have been around and using tractors for nearly 50 years, I got complacent.
2. I was tired and was in a hurry to get the install done.
3. I used a 3/8" chain with about 6' of chain between the BB attach point and the pipe.
4. I was traveling way too fast.

The 6' of chain allowed the leading edge of the pipe to dig into the ground as I was pulling it. When I left the graveled area and hit the dirt trail, there was a dip in the road. This allowed the leading end of the pipe to dig into the ground about 10". The attach point on the pipe started out on the side, but ended up pulling from the top side of the pipe. As the bottom edge of the pipe dug in, my momentum just pulled the pipe up into the air.

I can't tell you how many pipes, culverts, logs etc, that I have pulled over the years, but I can tell you that things can happen in a blink of an eye.

Glad to be able to talk about it.

Mike

MossRoad · Oct 6, 2009

Yikes! Pretty scary thought. So the pipe leading edge just dug in and it pole vaulted right up and over since the chain was on top of the leading edge? Makes you think. I've heard stories of logs doing that, but only stories. Nice of you to document the outcome in pictures. Glad you weren't injured.

MarkV · Oct 6, 2009

Now that is scaarryyyy! From the photo angle it looks like your canopy saved you. If it were not there do you think the ROPS would have caught it before it caught you?

MarkV

dave1949 · Oct 6, 2009

Thanks for reminding us Murphy's Law never takes a day off. I am sure we all get complacent now and then or just tired and not thinking like you said.

Glad you weren't injured.

Dave.

Treemonkey1000 · Oct 6, 2009

That was a close call. Glad you are here to teach us about the "what if" factor. In hindsight would you have chained the culvert on top of the BB?

BayouMan · Oct 6, 2009

Mossroad,
Yeah, you described what happened very well. As I said in my review, had I close coupled the pipe with about 2' of chain and lifted the leading edge off the ground, all would have been well.

BayouMan · Oct 6, 2009

MarkV,
Looking at where the canopy bent, I have surmised that the pipe would have missed the rops and would have hit me at the junction of my neck and right shoulder. Wouldn't have been pretty. I'll try to take a picture from another angle to show what I mean.

Mike

BayouMan · Oct 6, 2009

Treemonkey,
As I commented in a previous post, if I had used about 2' of chain between the end of the pipe and BB, I would have been fine. By having about 6', it allowed the pipe to dig in.

The sad part is, I had my forks on my loader. I could have used them to haul the pipe to the back, but I was concerned that it would have rolled off on the steep grade I had to go down near the wash. In hind sight, the worst case scenario there would have been, the pipe rolls off the front forks, rolls down the hill, reload the pipe and then place it in the wash.

Mike