Can anyone post some pictures of hills
- Thread starter suttles
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I have a hill that gives me a little rush when I mow it side to side. I actually have had the rear of the tractor slip down the hill a bit when mowing it wet.( I pull a 60" LandPride finish mower.) I got curious about the angle and broke down and bought the tilt meter. It showed a 17-19 degree slope, that's about my limit. Would loading the rears help keep it planted a bit better?
John
John
Tried to get this posted a while back but could not find the file. However, here it is and it just goes to show that hills don't have to be very large to put a tractor on its side. Probably . . . no, definitely the most embarassing thing I have ever done on or to a tractor. Did find out the the ROP works pretty well.
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Superduper
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Duke4AZ said:
I did notice when viewing the image that the front loader looks to be in the up position. Did the tip occur with the loader up and was it filled? I imagine that the center of gravity is raised quite a bit with the loader up and with it filled; it is almost suicide to traverse any slope with a load in a raised bucket.
daTeacha
Veteran Member
From the tire tracks it looks like you were driving along the top of that little ridge and then that big nasty looking rock jumped up out of the ground and flung you sideways. 
There is no track at the base of the rise to indicate that you were driving along with one side high and one low. -- What happened?
There is no track at the base of the rise to indicate that you were driving along with one side high and one low. -- What happened?Superduper, yes the bucket was at the position you see in the photo. Probably a bit higher than it should have been, but not loaded. Just hanging out.
Dateacha, no, the rock was civil. What happened is that I was in fact, as you observed, driving along the ridge in an effort to get some additional compaction. This was not the first time I had been up there and had pretty much been up and over the ridge from all points of the compass. The difference this time was that I had change the contour of the front face . . . where the tractor ended up in the picture . . . earlier in the day and had made it contour in just a bit deeper and slightly steeper than previously so the top of the mound was not as wide. I had also . . . which is obvious by the outcome . . . not packed the front face as thoroughly as was really needed. As a result, I drove up on the ridge, parallel with the big nice rock and instead of going right on over the other side, which did not need additional compacting, I adjusted my return course just slightly, but enough to put my left rear tire in the soft stuff. Once the tire sank I was in trouble. I was not going stright forward because I could not get traction. Turning either up hill or down hill exaserbated the situation even more. Obviously backing up did not work either, as is evident by the rather poor position you see Nellie in. In looking at the picture again, I wonder if lowering the box may have made the difference. I was usually pretty careful about such things and being an accomplished 4WD operator I understand the physics, but I was pretty green on this machine at the time and did not recognize that the bucket was as high as it was.
Certainly this event did some major calibration in the area of pucker factor sensitivity.
One other issue I would like an opinion on, one that I am still struggling with. That is the use of a seat belt, and I realize this may spark some serious conversations but I am not certain that having it on was the right thing to do or perhaps I did not react correctly while wearing it.
What happened was that the tractor went over pretty slowly. When it became obvious that I had lost her, I started to step off the tractor. It was a motion, something like coming off a horse when it goes down on its side. Not that I have done that often but a time or two. So, I started to step down and clear of the tractor but ended up getting hung up by the seat belt. Now I cannot immagine the tractor manufacturer putting a seat belt on a piece of equipment if it was not intended for use. At the same time, I am not convinced that had I tried to stay in the seat that I may not have been seriously injured.
Perhaps the difference here is that it was such a slow roll and I had the instinct and time to react. Had it been on a side hill mowing at a good rate and wound up in a dynamic roll situation, the circustances may have been completely different and the seat belt may not have prevented injury but may have prevented death.
I suppose there are probably as many opinions on this subject as there are butts in tractor seats, but I would be interested in getting some other points of view.
Dateacha, no, the rock was civil. What happened is that I was in fact, as you observed, driving along the ridge in an effort to get some additional compaction. This was not the first time I had been up there and had pretty much been up and over the ridge from all points of the compass. The difference this time was that I had change the contour of the front face . . . where the tractor ended up in the picture . . . earlier in the day and had made it contour in just a bit deeper and slightly steeper than previously so the top of the mound was not as wide. I had also . . . which is obvious by the outcome . . . not packed the front face as thoroughly as was really needed. As a result, I drove up on the ridge, parallel with the big nice rock and instead of going right on over the other side, which did not need additional compacting, I adjusted my return course just slightly, but enough to put my left rear tire in the soft stuff. Once the tire sank I was in trouble. I was not going stright forward because I could not get traction. Turning either up hill or down hill exaserbated the situation even more. Obviously backing up did not work either, as is evident by the rather poor position you see Nellie in. In looking at the picture again, I wonder if lowering the box may have made the difference. I was usually pretty careful about such things and being an accomplished 4WD operator I understand the physics, but I was pretty green on this machine at the time and did not recognize that the bucket was as high as it was.
Certainly this event did some major calibration in the area of pucker factor sensitivity.
One other issue I would like an opinion on, one that I am still struggling with. That is the use of a seat belt, and I realize this may spark some serious conversations but I am not certain that having it on was the right thing to do or perhaps I did not react correctly while wearing it.
What happened was that the tractor went over pretty slowly. When it became obvious that I had lost her, I started to step off the tractor. It was a motion, something like coming off a horse when it goes down on its side. Not that I have done that often but a time or two. So, I started to step down and clear of the tractor but ended up getting hung up by the seat belt. Now I cannot immagine the tractor manufacturer putting a seat belt on a piece of equipment if it was not intended for use. At the same time, I am not convinced that had I tried to stay in the seat that I may not have been seriously injured.
Perhaps the difference here is that it was such a slow roll and I had the instinct and time to react. Had it been on a side hill mowing at a good rate and wound up in a dynamic roll situation, the circustances may have been completely different and the seat belt may not have prevented injury but may have prevented death.
I suppose there are probably as many opinions on this subject as there are butts in tractor seats, but I would be interested in getting some other points of view.
Superduper
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Duke4AZ said:
Duke, the seatbelt is provided for your safety and with the ROPS up, you must wear the seatbelt otherwise during an actual rollover (not just a tip) you could get thrown and the tractor and roll bar could roll right over you. Roll overs are the number 1 cause of death in tractor operation and many, if not most could have been prevented with a ROPS. The seatbelt is an integral part of the "system" of the ROPS. No one wants to get injured but clearly, your life is more important. On the other hand, when operating the tractor with the ROPS down, you should not be wearing the seatbelt because it will prevent you from jumping (or even being thrown) clear of the tractor.
With the loader operated in the up position, even without a load, the center of gravity shifts quite substantially. If your goal was merely to compact the soil by driving over it, positioning the loader and box blade as low as practical to do the job would probably have prevented the tip. My JD3120 looks similar in size, shape to your tractor and I have operated it slowly in slopes clearly greater than this.
I'm not an expert in either matter, but these are my takes....
Good logic on the ROP/Belt combination. I was also looking at the tractor today and considering this whole subject. There are two hand loops on the fenders that I guess are there to occupy your arms so you can support yourself during a rollover.
dirtworksequip
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Always wear your seatbelt. If I am moving my tractor 3 feet I buckle up,because you just cannot anticipate an accident. Your butt is almost always going to be better off straped in.
daTeacha
Veteran Member
Now you've got me thinking -- are any tractor seat belts inertia type? An inertia belt may not tighten in a slow roll, which could allow the operator to get caught under something painful in a tip over that didn't put the tractor on it's head like a full rollover would. How many of us wear the things cinched down as tightly as they should be? Is a loose belt on a tractor going to cause more problems than it prevents?