woodchuckc
Bronze Member
Not all tractor rollovers occur out in the field......
My neighbor (Danny) across the road was driving his Yanmar 2020D (no rollbar) with his rotary mower attached to the 3-point hitch down the blacktop paved road right in front of the house when he met an oncoming car. The road on his side only has a 3 foot grassy shoulder that drops off almost completely vertically about 12 feet down into a creek bed. To let the car pass, he moved over onto the shoulder, which was grown up enough to mask the place where a drainage culvert under the road had eroded the shoulder. The front wheel of the tractor dropped off into the eroded hole, and the rest of the tractor followed and rolled over on its way down. I was weedeating part of the creekbank about 150 yards away, and threw down the weedeater and ran over as fast as possible, dreading what I knew I would find. I got there just as Danny had crawled out from under the tractor - I stood there in disbelief for a moment and then started checking him over. All he had was a knot coming up on his jaw and a skinned elbow! This tractor had come down this 12 foot embankment, rolled all the way over on its way down, and was resting upside down on the hood and seat. I was stunned that he had survived, let alone not be seriously injured. All we could figure is that his body somehow got between the seat and the steering wheel, and when it hit the muddy creek bank bottom the ground was soft enough that he just made an impression in it and didn't get crushed.
Also pretty suprising was that all the damage it did to the tractor was break off the muffler and crush the sheet metal of the nose of the tractor. After we both calmed down a little bit, I went and got my tractor, hooked a chain to the Yanmar and turned it back over onto its wheels. I checked the oil to make sure it still had some in it, and it started right up. He didn't feel like getting back on it, so I drove it out of there and parked it in his shed for him.
I still get all knotted up inside when I think about it - I can only imagine his feelings! I doubt that there are very many people who can say that they survived a rollover on a tractor without a rollbar and only got a couple of bumps and bruises (and probably some soiled underware!) out of it.
Be careful out there!
My neighbor (Danny) across the road was driving his Yanmar 2020D (no rollbar) with his rotary mower attached to the 3-point hitch down the blacktop paved road right in front of the house when he met an oncoming car. The road on his side only has a 3 foot grassy shoulder that drops off almost completely vertically about 12 feet down into a creek bed. To let the car pass, he moved over onto the shoulder, which was grown up enough to mask the place where a drainage culvert under the road had eroded the shoulder. The front wheel of the tractor dropped off into the eroded hole, and the rest of the tractor followed and rolled over on its way down. I was weedeating part of the creekbank about 150 yards away, and threw down the weedeater and ran over as fast as possible, dreading what I knew I would find. I got there just as Danny had crawled out from under the tractor - I stood there in disbelief for a moment and then started checking him over. All he had was a knot coming up on his jaw and a skinned elbow! This tractor had come down this 12 foot embankment, rolled all the way over on its way down, and was resting upside down on the hood and seat. I was stunned that he had survived, let alone not be seriously injured. All we could figure is that his body somehow got between the seat and the steering wheel, and when it hit the muddy creek bank bottom the ground was soft enough that he just made an impression in it and didn't get crushed.
Also pretty suprising was that all the damage it did to the tractor was break off the muffler and crush the sheet metal of the nose of the tractor. After we both calmed down a little bit, I went and got my tractor, hooked a chain to the Yanmar and turned it back over onto its wheels. I checked the oil to make sure it still had some in it, and it started right up. He didn't feel like getting back on it, so I drove it out of there and parked it in his shed for him.
I still get all knotted up inside when I think about it - I can only imagine his feelings! I doubt that there are very many people who can say that they survived a rollover on a tractor without a rollbar and only got a couple of bumps and bruises (and probably some soiled underware!) out of it.
Be careful out there!
My Doge Ram slid down into the drainage ditch and the only way I didnt get any damage is because of the amount of snow in the culvert 
