Another tractor backing accident

[ragkar]

Last Sunday, a fellow that I know had his farm tractor back over him. No one knows exactly how it happened as he's in a coma with very bad injuries. The best theorizing is that he left his engine idling when he went to the rear of the tractor to adjust something. The tractor slipped into gear and rolled over him and he's a big fellow.

 

[RoyJackson]

I'm having a hard time believing his tractor "slipped into gear". I'd guess the parking brake wasn't in good shape and the machine drifted...running over him.

 

[ragkar]

Someone should wake him from his coma and ask him.

 

[Bird]

It's a bit unusual, although not unheard of, for vehicles to "slip into gear." I guess before I'd have an opnion about that, I'd first want to know what make and model the tractor was, what transmission it had, and what kind of condition it was in.

But regardless of how and what happened, let's just hope he recovers, whether he's able to tell us later what went wrong or not.

 

[N80]

Slipping into gear seems like a stretch to me too. I guess if you have a bowling ball for a gear shift knob and a transmission that is worn and sloppy.....

But, as Bird said, we just don't know anough about the incident to even guess about what happened.

But if we're speculating, he may have reached up to raise or lower the 3pt hitch and grabbed a forward/reverse lever. On my tractor those two levers are on opposite sides of the driver, but who knows what type of tractor it was.

 

[Soundguy]

Ditto... a tractor slipping into gear.. it's a real stretch... I can't imagine using a tranny that sloppy that it jiggled out of N and actually caught a gear.. reverse no less.

Now.. what i can see are the old hand clutch models.. I've seen PLENTY of people pull up, leave in gear, push the hand clutch forward (detent) hop off, open a gate, hop on, and pull the clutch back in... now.. on those.. the detents DO get week, and there IS spring pressure to keep the clutch engaged.. thus the clutch could be pulled back in by idling vibrations. My JD-B has that hand clutch and i can tell you that if i push it forward but don't get it all the way to the detent, it pops back a few seconds after i release it.

Now I can for sure see that happening.. etc.. would love to know the details of this story, and equipment used.. etc.. Off hand i can think of JD, early ji-case tractors, some allis chalmers, and even fords with hand clutches, or axle clutches to provide live pto... all these would have the same net effect if the tractor was in gear and the hand clutch popped out.. etc..

I could even see a weird stretch like a machine with a 'ground speed only' pto being jacket up and allowed to run as stationary to run something off a belt or pto, and have a stand give out and then start going.. etc.. ??

( in a 3rd world country I've seen trucks / tractors using a bare rim on one side and a flat belt to drive belt equipment, ( water pump ) having the rear jacket up.... )

Soundguy

 

[MikesTractor]

In the 50's and 60's, Ford offered an automatic type transmission, called a Select-O-Speed, as an option on their tractors. These transmissions were well known for jumping out of park and into gear if they were left running. These transmissions were very dangerous. We always advised our customers to never get off these tractors while they were running.

 

[Soundguy]

Hmmm...As i recall they didn't 'jump' out of park and have the selector swing into gear.. they merely creeped on their own, while still in park.

Considering the shifter cable controls valves and servo's I gues you could have a valve falure that would be similar to jumping into gear.. but aside from creeping along.. I've never -ever- heard of an sos jumping into gear.

Soundguy

 

[madpogue]

Those Ford engineers must've moved onto the automotive division. Remember the mid '70s Fords (cars, that is) that would spontaneously shift out of Park? Their "workaround" was to admonish people to set the parking brake. They forgot that they actually designed some cars with an "auto-off" parking brake that would disenage itself as soon as you shifted out of Park or Neutral.