Pull from the front or the rear?

   / Pull from the front or the rear? #32  
Pulling from the front of a tractor that does not a designed front pulling point is a good way to break a tractor. The front axle can be yanked off or the engine block break.

Always pull from a fixed draw bar mounted below the axle (not on the 3pt) and don't yank.
 
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   / Pull from the front or the rear? #33  
The way I was shown was there's the draw bar under the tractor's rear axle, sometimes also called a swinging drawbar. Then there's the drawbar with the multiple holes in it that goes between the 3pt lift arms called the 3pt drawbar, or spreader drawbar. I was told to not pull from that 3pt drawbar, only the drawbar under the axle.

Anywho, let's be careful out there....
 
   / Pull from the front or the rear? #34  
The forces would be extreme. But you don't need vector analysis to imagine the scenario where the rear axle can't move forward (due to the drawbar chained to an immovable object) and a mechanical driveline continues to send torque to the rear axle that has perfect traction. If nothing breaks then rotating the tractor up and over backward is inevitable. I suppose if the drawbar extended out beyond the tires and didn't bend then the rotation would end when the weight of the tractor rested on the tip of the drawbar so the tires lost traction.

Vector analysis may help you here, actually.

Given perfect traction, and the drawbar attached to the immoveable object, as the tractor attempts to climb, the drawbar would dip down, which would require an increase in the distance between the drawbar and the immoveable object. Assuming a perfect non-deforming (no stretch) attachment - a chain made of adamantium or unobtanium or somesuch - this distance can't increase, so the tractor can't climb.

Something, somewhere, has to break - either traction (tires spin), tires (tear?), chain (breaks or stretches), object (starts to move), axle, transmission, engine (breaks or stalls).
 
   / Pull from the front or the rear? #35  
Vector analysis may help you here, actually.

This says it well:
View attachment Tractor Overturn Hazards 202[1].pdf

They do cite an example of a tractor flipping backwards by a load on the drawbar, and that is if tractor is travelling fast, or uphill, and the load suddenly digs in, but then releases (like a log being skidded that hits a rock) the upward momentum of the front of the tractor raising may carry the front of the tractor past the "natural" angle that the front would otherwise lift to and the tractor could flip.

Professional pulling tractors (at tractor pulls) often have wheelie bars.

I think it's nearly impossible to flip a normal tractor over backwards by pulling from the drawbar under the axle (under 99% of conditions).
 
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   / Pull from the front or the rear? #36  
   / Pull from the front or the rear? #38  
Vector analysis may help you here, actually.

Given perfect traction, and the drawbar attached to the immoveable object, as the tractor attempts to climb, the drawbar would dip down, which would require an increase in the distance between the drawbar and the immoveable object. Assuming a perfect non-deforming (no stretch) attachment - a chain made of adamantium or unobtanium or somesuch - this distance can't increase, so the tractor can't climb.

Something, somewhere, has to break - either traction (tires spin), tires (tear?), chain (breaks or stretches), object (starts to move), axle, transmission, engine (breaks or stalls).
I like your analysis. It seems the most accurate of anything in this thread.

Let's introduce a real world factor. There has to be a weak point somewhere, if not a stall: as the drawbar is forced lower, the nose of a trailer also goes lower and the trailer is dragged forward slightly because its traction is the weak point. That could rotate the tractor to the point where its weight rests on the drawbar and the tractor loses traction, assuming that the drawbar extends beyond the tires to act as a wheelie bar.


I'm still visualizing this in terms of the situation described above, my friend's father was crushed by a small crawler that walked over backward when it couldn't budge a heavy trailer.

Come to think of it I saw this almost happen when I was a little kid. A baby crawler going up steep terrain and suddenly the nose lifted to 45 degrees. The operator got the clutch in, in time. The adults around me all went white in the face to a degree that really spooked me.
 
   / Pull from the front or the rear? #39  
Vector analysis may help you here, actually.

Given perfect traction, and the drawbar attached to the immoveable object, as the tractor attempts to climb, the drawbar would dip down, which would require an increase in the distance between the drawbar and the immoveable object. Assuming a perfect non-deforming (no stretch) attachment - a chain made of adamantium or unobtanium or somesuch - this distance can't increase, so the tractor can't climb.

Something, somewhere, has to break - either traction (tires spin), tires (tear?), chain (breaks or stretches), object (starts to move), axle, transmission, engine (breaks or stalls).

There are a fair number of dead tractor drivers that would dispute your theoretical wandering if they could.
 
   / Pull from the front or the rear? #40  
The very best answer, call a tow truck, that's what they are designed for. No risk to you or your tractor.

There is nothing to prevent the 3pt and drawbar from rising up and putting the forces above the rear axle under the right circumstances. If you try to pull from the front you will lose a lot of tractive effort from the rear wheels.

Joe
First, the 3 PH is different from the drawbar. A true drawbar is attached to the belly of the tractor and only swings from side to side (on some models but not all). They cant be raised up or down and can never cause the tractor to flip over. With lots of traction like with dual rear tires, one may get enough traction to raise the front wheels a bit but as the front comes up, the drawbar gets lower and this tends to lessen traction to the point that the front wheels will go back down (been there done that a lot with my Dads 9000 Ford tractor with dual rear wheels).
If you use the drawbar (not a bar placed in the 3 PH) then there is no way for it to raise up since it is hard attached to the underbelly of the tractor. Folks using an old tractor like and 8N Ford and others that didn't have a fixed drawbar and instead used a bar attached to the 3 PH lift arms could indeed raise the CL of pull above the axles and cause a flip over backward in extreme cases.

You really don't have any attachment point at the front of a tractor that is designed to pull from. A FEL may have bucket hooks for lifting but the FEL is designed for some pushing but not a lot of pulling. Don't take a chance of damaging your tractor by hooking a chain to the FEL or around the front axle of your tractor. Besides the possible damage, you have very little traction backing up with your tractor.
 

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