mmranch
Gold Member
I've made a number of modifications to my tractor over the years. One of them was to modify the brake to make it extra safe. Our property is in the mountains and nothing is flat. All of my tasks are pretty treacherous and must be done with safety in mind. After using the tractor for a couple of years, I decided I really didn't like the way the parking brake was setup to work.
The parking brake works fine but the design is that you press the brakes down and then press the parking brake pedal which locks the brakes down against the floor. To disengage the parking brake... you press the brake pedals down again, which removes the parking brake.
That's great... unless something magical happens that makes the parking brake become unlocked. For example... magic, or entering the tight confines of the cab with big boots on and accidentally hitting the brake pedal while not seated in the tractor yet, or while chainsawing a tree branch... said branch falls through the open door of the tractor and smacks the brake pedals, etc. Basically, it wasn't safe enough for my liking.
So I modified the brake pedals with a bracket bolted to the cab firewall and a pin which goes through the bracket and brake pedals to lock the pedals down to the floor. So basically, the parking brake is ON and the pedals are locked down to the floor with the pin. There is no movement of the pedals possible when the pin is in place. I never leave the tractor without that pin in place.
In addition, if the backhoe is on the tractor I use it to block downhill movement. If the chipper is on the tractor I put it down to slow downhill movement (probably need to weld some spikes on the bottom of the chipper to make this more effective).
The parking brake works fine but the design is that you press the brakes down and then press the parking brake pedal which locks the brakes down against the floor. To disengage the parking brake... you press the brake pedals down again, which removes the parking brake.
That's great... unless something magical happens that makes the parking brake become unlocked. For example... magic, or entering the tight confines of the cab with big boots on and accidentally hitting the brake pedal while not seated in the tractor yet, or while chainsawing a tree branch... said branch falls through the open door of the tractor and smacks the brake pedals, etc. Basically, it wasn't safe enough for my liking.
So I modified the brake pedals with a bracket bolted to the cab firewall and a pin which goes through the bracket and brake pedals to lock the pedals down to the floor. So basically, the parking brake is ON and the pedals are locked down to the floor with the pin. There is no movement of the pedals possible when the pin is in place. I never leave the tractor without that pin in place.
In addition, if the backhoe is on the tractor I use it to block downhill movement. If the chipper is on the tractor I put it down to slow downhill movement (probably need to weld some spikes on the bottom of the chipper to make this more effective).
