Almost put her on her side last week.

[Chuck K.]

I guess its better to share such a near miss then not, if it some how possibly prevents someone from making the same mistakes its worth any brow beating I might receive..

I have been more than impressed with the M59s FEL abilities, with the B/H on I have never felt any instability only a early warning or rear tire spin letting me know the rear was getting light.

Well the other day I was trying to clean up and organize after the brick layers left. I had a full pallet of blocks that where in a tight spot that needed to me moved. I had moved the ~2,700# pallets several times with no problem. This time though I swung the B/H to its stop on right hand side to give me a little more manuvering room. I had to pick the pallet of blocks up and over other pallets full of blocks, about 4.5' high. I began backing up and I guess the Left rear tire slightly crept up the sand pile behind me and as if I where in slow motion I started going over on my R/H side.

At first I thought it was the lingering affects of a recent vertigo attack playin tricks with my balance, then when I realized I was fixing to turn over I drop the load as fast as I could, it cracked the pallet but suprisingly the saran wrap kept the blocks from spilling.



After changing my drawers and regaining some composure I began to look things over thats when I found the R/F tire was real low, only had about 30 PSIG in it, that combined with the B/H swung to right and me climbing slightly onto the sandpile behind me almost lead to a potenially serious accident..

Sorry bout this being so long winded.
Chuck.

 

[MotorSeven]

Wow, a near flip with a BH hanging off the back?

& me with a mere box blade and loaded tires as balast for all those monster logs I fork......yikes......

ES

 

[Reg]

Congrats on getting away with it, your fast and correct response to lower the load quickly almost certainly made the difference.

When circumstances conspire...
1) You knew you had an off center heavy rear load.
2) You were in tight quarters - and knew that too
3) You had a low pressure tire
4) You knew about the sand pile behind you
5) You were lifting ~2700 lbs over 4 ft. - no, you were CARRYING ! it.
{Maybe over 5ft to the C of G if you were trying to clear 4 ft 6 in.}

I don't do this very often; but it is something worth figuring from your front track what angle of lean it takes to get the load's center of mass outside the front track at each 1 ft interval above the ground.
The answer is typically "not much" and there are a couple of 1ft intervals that will probably surprise you.

CARRY LOW still works for me (-:
===================================================
Yeah, good stuff that plastic wrap.
It can REALLY hold a load together despite a shattered pallet and broken banding.
FILM STRENGTH !

 

[gumshu]

Nice machine!

 

[brin]

The lesson I have learned about using the FEL , among others is always remember if one of your rear wheels goes over a rock, a branch , a mound of dirt or sand or anything then your whole center of gravity is thrown off and tipping over is a real possibility unless you are going slow and have your bucket real low. I never raise my load in the bucket more than I absolutely have to and if it is neccessary to raise it high I think about how the tractor is positioned, where I am going and what is around me. So far in 30 yrs. of useing track and tractor tired loaders no problems ( Knock on wood ) but I am mindful that there are Old loader operators and there are Bold loader operators but there are no Old and Bold loader operators...LOL...gald you reacted so fast and are fine.