BX2200 Seat Belt Killing Me

[SCB]

Henro,
If my thottle sticks like junkmans and I am heading for a rock wall, I want to get off. See, I don't have an airbag. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously,
Twice I have jumped off when I felt it was going over. I have flat land so I don't worry about multiple rolls. Both times I looked to see the position I landed compared to the tractor position if it would have gone over and I was clear both times. I feel safer being able to get out of the seat. But, to each his own

 

[snowman]

I wear my seatbelt when mowing because it keeps me from bouncing around. It gets tight, but not so tight as to being uncomfortable.

I also put a cushion from a lawn chair on the seat to help soften the ride a bit.

I purchased what looks to be a more comfortable seat a few years ago. Was going to install it, but when I took the old seat off (B7500), I couldn't figure out how to install the new one (didn't have the same screw points, etc), so it sits gathering dust.

 

[art]

Here in Central NY through the years I've seen more people killed from rollbar tractors and NOT wearing the seat belt then going the other way. The load of the roll bar for the 3" wide that they are puts a lot more weight per sq inch then a tractor fender or hood and being jabbed by a shift or hydraulic lever ripping your chest and guts open as the tractor flips on and off you.

 

[Boondox]

On my L3010, the seat belt locks up all the time if I don't blow compressed air into the ratchet mechanism. It's frustrating, but it seems even a single pine needle is enough to give me problems.

Pete

 

[fishman]

The seatbelt on my 2910 is quite comfortable, but it may be an anomaly. The TC40D my dad owns is not an auto-retract, but a buckle. Unfortunately, the buckle is right where it digs in to my right side - very uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, I do wear my seatbelt 99.8% of the time on both machines.

 

[bikingdds]

I've never had any problems with the seatbelt on my BX, as I tend to be of a healthy weight. I feel much safer in my hilly yard with the seat belt on, especially when I was first learning to use the loader. As for being an adult who rides a bicycle with a helmet, if one live in an area where the steepest downhill gives a maximum speed of 59.5 mph, a helmet is definitely a requirement. Actually, I climb these big hills in the area on my bike with my helmet on, so that the seatbelt on the BX will fit better.

 

[jim_wilson]

I am a tractor newbie but I had an experience a few years ago with a Terramite that probably would have turned out a lot worse if had been wearing a seatbelt. I was digging out a foundation hole for an new entryway into my basement and I was trying to get a large rock out of the hole by capturing it between the backhoe bucket and the arm. To keep the rock captured I had the backhoe arm extended way out. As I tried to bring the rock up out of the hole the tractor started to lever into the hole. As soon as I felt the tractor start to tilt into the hole I jumped out of the seat and got off the tractor , and as soon as I did that the tractor sort of teeter tottered on the rear wheels/ stabilizers. I quickly reached over and dumped the rock back in the hole and the everthing was ok. I learned a quick lesson and the next time I tried to get the rock out I had the FEL full of rocks as a counterweight. Now in this instance I believe the fact that I got off the tractor fast was just the thing that kept the tractor from going in the hole. If I was seatbelted in and could not have gotten off fast enough it might have gone in.
I only tell this story to illustrate that I believe there are good and bad sides to wearing a seatbelt on a tractor. I am sure if I was running the tractor on the side of a hill and I rolled it without a seatbelt on, ROPS or no ROPS it would have been a different story. I have ridden motorcycles most of my life - and I always wear a helmet. I do this because I believe the benefits of wearing one far outweigh any drawbacks, and if there are any drawbacks besides getting your hair messy or something like that I don't know what they are. I have also been around race cars some in my life and would never race a car without a full harness because there are practically no drawbacks and there too many benefits to count. On my street car however I am frequently lazy and forget to put my belt on. It seems to me the benefits of many safety devices can vary greatly depending on the situation that you are in. And it sounds like the main argument that I am hearing about using or not using seatbelts on tractors is that there are situations where you might want to get off of the tractor quickly - and I agree with this. However you probably won't know what those situations are until you are in them so how do you know whether to wear or not wear a seatbelt? Well it sounds like what is really needed is a seatbelt you can get out of quickly - very quickly. These things exist - if you look at some race car type seatbelt setups some of them have a button that allows you to punch it and release the belt in an instant - much more quickly than you can the regular seatbelt. This would give you the benefit of the seatbelt as well as the ability to get out quickly if the situation arose. Race car type belts also do not have same type of inertia lock that passenger car belts have - and they are wider and hence more comfortable. So my suggestion would be to go to a good race car shop and try and find a lap harness with a good quick release and retrofit that to the tractor, you will be safer and probably more comfortable with the wider belt.

 

[brinet]

Tonight I realized something. If I mow in "turtle" (as my son calls it), the seatbelt doesn't tighten as much as when I mow in "rabbit" and is somewhat more bearable. This is unfortunate because I typically mow like a Nascar driver and therefore increase the likelihood of requiring the services of a seatbelt. I have no loader or backhoe and have installed two 50# weights on the front of the tractor to counterbalance the 3PH grass catcher. With the low profile of the BX and my lawn conditions, I can't imagine WHAT (other than the retaining wall) would tip this 1600# chunk of metal over.

I assume this this because I mow in straight paths from one end of the yard to the other and then return. My process to turn the tractor around is to turn hard left just at the edge of the lawn, then hit reverse hard while turning the wheel sharp to the right. This causes the entire front of the tractor to "slide" back around to line up with the next pass. I have even accidentally used this method on asphalt and other than having to increase my grip on the fender handle, it would have been quite impossible for the tractor to tip over. ( I ALWAYS ride with one hand on the wheel and the other on the "oh SHOOT" handle).

Obviously, with a loader (especially in the raised position) or working on a slope, the center of gravity could be great enough to tip the tractor over. I ALWAYS stop the tractor to buckle the seatbelt when working on a slope or with implements that are capable of tilting the tractor.

With that said, I would also like to include one situation where wearing the seatbelt would have been beneficial even though I was mowing on FLAT ground. I was in the middle of a long stretch of flat lawn (at full "rabbit") when all of a sudden I was thrown onto the hood of the tractor!!! I soon realized that the BLASTED ROPS had caught a LARGE tree limb. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif JEEPERS!!!

Now the obvious must be stated. The seatbelt's only job isn't just to keep you from getting crushed in the event of a tipover, but also from being thrown from the tractor and consequently trampled from the same machine that had previously given you so much enjoyment . (is that a word?)

 

[theboman]

When I go on the hill bush hogging or whatever up there I wear my seatbelt. When mowing yard I do not.

The seatbelt keeps you in the seat if the tractor rolls over and the ROPS keeps the tractor from crushing you. Without the seatbelt you could easily get crushed by the safety device the ROPS.

Mow slower... It's safer and a better cut.

The seatbelt is supposed to tighen up, if the belt kept getting longer don't you think that it's not working?

 

[Mahlon]

One point about tractor handling characteristics seems to be overlooked in discussions like this: because of the front axle pivot, a tractor handles like a three-wheeled vehicle, not a four-wheeled vehicle. It's a LOT easier to tip a three-wheeler than a four-wheeler (that's why you can't buy three-wheeled vehicles anymore). The tractor's lack of a resilient shock-absorbing suspension only makes the situation worse.

As theboman astutely pointed out, the purpose of a seat belt in a ROPS-equipped machine is to contain the operator within the ROPS "safe zone" in case of an accident.

Per SAE and OPEI standards, "Lawn and Garden" equipment aren't equipped with a ROPS for two reasons: their intended use, and their (relatively) light weight. I don't agree with this rationale, but there it is.