Pulling with the Drawbar

RoyJackson · Jan 10, 2015

pat32rf said:
And the ability to lift your toe off the HST pedal and thus stop all motion will do more for you safety-wise than trying to find a clutch in a hurry while your front wheels start to climb ...

If you think hitting the clutch in a hurry is difficult...probably best you don't have a manual transmission...
From personal experience, it takes a fraction of a second to depress that clutch...not longer then it takes to lift your foot off the HST pedal. Plus, in a panic situation, it's just as probable that you'd depress the HST pedal rather then lift off.

However, as others wrote...the most important thing isn't the type of transmission, it's knowing how to rig a tow safely...and to go slow!

gladehound · Jan 10, 2015

A tractor can't flip over backwards quickly if you are going SLOW! I've had my front end off the ground more times than I can count and it has never been an exciting or scary event. The front comes up very slowly and I can take my time and decide when and how quickly or slowly to bring it back down. If you're going to push the limits, go slow.

Walkin Horse · Jan 10, 2015

If you use a cross draw bar, and say your skidding a big log. Can you run the chain over the cross drawbar and then hook to the pulling drawbar. Then raise the hitch enough for the log butt to clear the ground. Is this effective or a waste of time.

s219 · Jan 10, 2015

Walkin Horse said:
If you use a cross draw bar, and say your skidding a big log. Can you run the chain over the cross drawbar and then hook to the pulling drawbar. Then raise the hitch enough for the log butt to clear the ground. Is this effective or a waste of time.

For large logs, I use one chain to my skid plate (on 3-pt hitch) to lift the log. Then use another short chain to the drawbar for pulling.

For small logs, I only use the one chain with the skid plate.

Xfaxman · Jan 10, 2015

RoyJackson · Jan 10, 2015

Nice pictures...seen them before, but a reminder is always a good idea.

Now, a ROPS can prevent a full back roll over...but it you're not belted in, the odds are you'll be thrown off the tractor and, very likely, into the danger zone behind the tractor.

RedNeckRacin · Jan 11, 2015

I'm with Roy on this one. If you think a hst is faster, stay off the manual transmission. The larger farm tractors don't have hst and pull much larger loads. If you aren't sure how something is going to pull, START SLOW. I have ran thousand's of hours and have never flipped a tractor over backwards. Several times I recall the front end coming up but I was generally expecting it to because I was expecting a hard pull.

Mace Canute · Jan 11, 2015

RedNeckRacin said:
I'm with Roy on this one. If you think a hst is faster, stay off the manual transmission. The larger farm tractors don't have hst and pull much larger loads. If you aren't sure how something is going to pull, START SLOW. I have ran thousand's of hours and have never flipped a tractor over backwards. Several times I recall the front end coming up but I was generally expecting it to because I was expecting a hard pull.

I think you have hit on a significant cause of many rear rollover...people are expecting the load to come with them instead of remaining stationary therefore they are taken by surprise when the rollover starts and precious reaction time is eaten up. Unless you know for a fact that the tractor will spin out or the load will come with you, expect it to roll over backwards.

CobyRupert · Jan 11, 2015

If the pull point on the tractor is below the tractor's rear axle, the tractor cannot flip over backwards. (Unless maybe, the cable snaps right when the front end has reached its peak height).

The danger is if the pull point on the tractor is above the rear axle. Then it is possible for tractor to flip over backwards. Determining this height gets a little more complicated with a 3pth hitch implement, then it's a matter of the pulling point in relation to the link arm height and whether the load is causes pull on the top link (bad) or puts it into compression (good).

xtn · Jan 11, 2015

CobyRupert said:
If the pull point on the tractor is below the tractor's rear axle, the tractor cannot flip over backwards. (Unless maybe, the cable snaps right when the front end has reached its peak height).

The danger is if the pull point on the tractor is above the rear axle. Then it is possible for tractor to flip over backwards. Determining this height gets a little more complicated with a 3pth hitch implement, then it's a matter of the pulling point in relation to the link arm height and whether the load is causes pull on the top link (bad) or puts it into compression (good).

If you're suggesting that the geometry of having the draw bar connection below the rear axle - all by itself - precludes a rear rollover, you are wrong. There are other geometric possibilities that come into play, but what you state isn't automatically true.

xtn