Another Tractor Tragedy

[LOOPHOLE]

Saw in paper today, man from Mich killed while operating a post hole auger. 56 years old/ Sometimes I wonder if its carelessness or just bad luck. Maybe they are the same thing.

 

[Rara Avis]

Gladwin County man killed in tractor accident
10/14/2007, 10:56 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press

GLADWIN, Mich. (AP) Authorities say a 56-year-old man was killed when his clothing got caught in the tractor he was operating on his northern Michigan property.

The Gladwin County sheriff's department says that the man was using the tractor's post hole digger when his clothing got caught in the rotating shaft.

The Bay City Times and the Midland Daily News report it happened Saturday in Buckeye Township, about 125 miles north-northwest of Detroit.


PTOs and Loose clothing...

 

[JerryG]

PTOs and Loose clothing...

You got that right. When I was a kid there was a barber that lives here that got his glove caught on the PTO where it attaches to the gear box. He is up in years still having neck problems. If someone hadn't been close enough to hear him, he would have been dead. That is why all PTO shafts should have proper safety shields in place. His shields were gone. I know when I worked at a dealership I had more than one customer tell me that when I was repairing their PTO to leave the cover off if it was easier. I never left any off.

 

[rgood]

I have a question about the shields on a posthole digger that are above the auger - They are above the AUGER (rotating blade) - Aren't you going to get grabbed by the auger before you get grabbed by the shaft coming out of the gear box???? If you are that close, aren't you a gonner due to the auger???

 

[Rara Avis]

I have a question about the shields on a posthole digger that are above the auger - They are above the AUGER (rotating blade) - Aren't you going to get grabbed by the auger before you get grabbed by the shaft coming out of the gear box???? If you are that close, aren't you a gonner due to the auger???

RGood...You are right there is no shield on the auger itself...I assumed the shaft that got him was the PTO, but what if he were pushing on the gearbox for whatever reason, the auger connection might caught his sleeve...

 

[TC29-dude]

I am stumped as to how this could happen. Common sense tells me to stay the heck away from the PTO. Does it reach out and grab folks?

 

[SnowRidge]

People sometimes have a helper 'guide' the auger, a very dangerous practice. It sounds like the tractor operator may have dismounted and tried it himself, but there really isn't enough information available to say exactly what happened.

However, I will now mount my soapbox and state that in my opinion, a whole lot of deaths and injuries could have been avoided if we had a decent PTO shaft safety shield. The current 'metric' PTO shields are junk, with plastic eyes for the anti spin chains that break if you look at them, and they are a pain in the rear to deal with. People take them off because of their poor design. If the design were better, we would see more people using them, and fewer deaths and injuries.

/soapbox

 

[Renze]

I am stumped as to how this could happen.
Does it reach out and grab folks?

you hit the nail on the head

 

[bjcsc]

People sometimes have a helper 'guide' the auger...

No, what they do is in hard ground they hang from the top tube to put weight on it so it will bite into the ground faster. They are inches away from the auger. Very stupid, but very common. I bet that's what he did...

 

[AlanB]

No disrespect to the injured man, but the "computer crowd" that makes up TBN is considerably more safety oriented then the redneck crowd of farmers and such I generally run around with.

I was helping in assembling a new PHD on the back of a new tractor, and the guy doing it said, MAN, this is a great PHD (howse) They built this shield so big over the gearbox so I have a firm place to stand on.....................

He was not kidding.

 

[jbrumberg]

Getting too comfortable with one's power equipment can result in very unpleasant outcomes Jay

 

[teg]

I am NOT recommending this... just stating what I had to do the last time I was at my "farm" and needing to dig some holes. I had to do what I did *to be safe*. My L2800's PTO doesn't cut off and dragging the posthole digger over the ground while it was running was tearing things up...

So I found out if I push the clutch in and set the pin to hold the clutch in the "ON" position... and set the parking brake, then I get off the tractor and grasp the PHD auger and spin it back and forth until the cams for the pto disconnected. Needless to say the 15 minute job turned into a couple of hours... unfortunately, it was not all seat time.

Finally, after contacting Kubota... I am to spray WD-40 on the cable?!!?! I'm heading up this wk/ed to see if that will fix the problem...

 

[Rara Avis]

I am NOT recommending this... just stating what I had to do the last time I was at my "farm" and needing to dig some holes. I had to do what I did *to be safe*. My L2800's PTO doesn't cut off and dragging the posthole digger over the ground while it was running was tearing things up...

So I found out if I push the clutch in and set the pin to hold the clutch in the "ON" position... and set the parking brake, then I get off the tractor and grasp the PHD auger and spin it back and forth until the cams for the pto disconnected. Needless to say the 15 minute job turned into a couple of hours... unfortunately, it was not all seat time.

Finally, after contacting Kubota... I am to spray WD-40 on the cable?!!?! I'm heading up this wk/ed to see that that might help

SHUT THE MOTOR OFF...

 

[teg]

I'll try that next time... Hopefully the oil will fix the pto problem and that will not be an issue. I'm sure it sounds worse then it really was, I felt totally safe.

 

[Rara Avis]

I felt totally safe.

As a Farmedic...I have responded to many farm accidents...and that is one line I have heard more than once from the victims who could talk...

Be safe out there...we want to be able to kid you for a long time to come...