3033R ROPS %^*(*%$#!

[WinterDeere]

I have a 2025r and have the same problem. I usually leave mine in the head banging mode most of the time. I put a 5 gallon bucket in front of 5he door when I put the ROPS up. I should say most of the time since I bent stuff up the house once.

... yet one more reason to leave it down. I can’t claim I’ll always remember to get off the tractor and fold it at the end of a long hot day working outside.

Agreed zzvyb... I’m actually one of those engineers responsible for making similar safety considerations, it’s all about statistics, and limiting the company’s net liability cost. It’s not always about making the most sensible choice, it’s about making the choice that can be defended in court, or sometimes preventing a few very large but infrequently liabilities at expense of numerous smaller cases, based on how the numbers shake out.

Ironically, my shop did previously have taller doors, but since the shed where I usually keep the tractor has a low roof, I’m stuck at 7 feet there. Here’s where it’s at, now:

 

[Diggin It]

Seriously, if there is clearance below the rafters and lights, I'd be looking at modifying the door opening.

 

[WinterDeere]

Seriously, if there is clearance below the rafters and lights, I'd be looking at modifying the door opening.

I hear you, but there is not. Not even close. This ROPS is over 9 feet tall, and those rafters are only 8’-6”. Besides, I don’t normally keep the tractor in my shop, it’s normally in a shed where the roof rafter crosses the top corner of the door right at 7 feet. Besides, I have at least 50 trees in my yard with branches that would hit the ROPS in the up position, and lopping the branches off all of them is not an option. I am not really worried about rolling this machine, given what I do with it.

 

[CobyRupert]

Maybe swap the factory ROPS for a custom roll cage. Much lower height, better protection from those snapping branches. Cooler looking.
roll cage

 

[ovrszd]

The 'guys' are "thinking" that on this planet there are some pretty stupid imbeciles who have already tried to mow their lawns which have a 60 degree slope. They already know about tractors which have sunk one wheel into soft sand. They know that some moron will try to drive their 6' wide tractor onto a 5' wide trailer. Some of these noble tractor owners will be drunk when these events happen. The problem from the manufacturers viewpoint is not that the morons, imbeciles and normal brained users kill themselves, it's the grieving widows and children who now have to take care of the vegetables for the rest of their pathetic lives.

So, you design an anti-rollover restraint to keep the machine from tumbling onto it's top. Not even supernaturals can fix stupid [ look at how many of them exist ], so legal savvy design engineers, with knowledge of gravity, physics, soil mechanics and human nature have worked out tractor, truck, and lawn mower parts to minimize the troublesome statistics.

How many reports have there been just on this forum, where the operator ran their machine up on a telephone guy wire, or got too close to the edge of a pond, or could not figure out how to safely mow on a steep hill ? Even a few who didn't know the height of their garage door ? We ALL have to protect the stupid, the careless and the ignorant users of any and all machinery. Protect them from themselves, usually. The rush to "The Country" from the postage stamp lawns of "The City" has heightened this problem.

I'm surprised that we don't already have tractors which must have sensors on them to prevent grandfathers from riding their family members on tractor fenders, considering how many stories that appear every year about how grandpa ran over a kid with their rotary mower, slasher, brush hog, rototiller, or post hole digger.

My favorite one this year is the guy who lost his driver's license for DUI (repeat offender) and was heading the a liquor store on his lawn mower. You guessed it ....

Oh wait, that law might already be pending in California at the moment.

I contend the manufacturers don't care about the survival of the operators beyond not being held liable in court. A ROPS on a small machine is all about liability.

 

[ovrszd]

... yet one more reason to leave it down. I can’t claim I’ll always remember to get off the tractor and fold it at the end of a long hot day working outside.

Agreed zzvyb... I’m actually one of those engineers responsible for making similar safety considerations, it’s all about statistics, and limiting the company’s net liability cost. It’s not always about making the most sensible choice, it’s about making the choice that can be defended in court, or sometimes preventing a few very large but infrequently liabilities at expense of numerous smaller cases, based on how the numbers shake out.

I should have read down before posting, you explained it clearer than I.

 

[ovrszd]

In regards to folding ROPS. If the operator isn't going to place it back in the upright position every time it's not hitting something, might as well unbolt it and be done. A folded ROPS isn't worth hauling around.

 

[CobyRupert]

In regards to folding ROPS. If the operator isn't going to place it back in the upright position every time it's not hitting something, might as well unbolt it and be done. A folded ROPS isn't worth hauling around.

Meh...I'd rather be doubled over under the shortened height of a folded ROPS than flattened under the weight of the tractor lying on me.

...of course the chances that anybody would be wearing their seatbelt while having the ROPS folded are slim to none.... so maybe "might as well unbolt it and be done" is right.

 

[ruffdog]

In regards to folding ROPS. If the operator isn't going to place it back in the upright position every time it's not hitting something, might as well unbolt it and be done. A folded ROPS isn't worth hauling around.

Don't remove it. A folded rops does in fact add tremendous strength to the vertical rops supports as it ties them together. During a roll over. it would have to bend many tubes VS just the one on one side. Like the OP, there is little reason to need a rops in the vertical position because the land is flat. Low limbs are a endless obstacle. Now that I have a cabbed toolcat, I HAD to cut branches. I used my work platform and had the wife drive me around to do some trimming. It was well worth it and the property looks like a park.

 

[B8FISH]

Drill a small hole in the bracket that you can put a pin in so that it will be above the hydraulics when folded (on each side). It’s a pain if you’re trying to hook up something on the 3pt because it’s more in the way, but it’s out of head banging height. Also, hang something from the garage door at eye level as a reminder to check ROPS up/down position —tennis ball on a string.