dropped woodsplitter from FEL

jimmyj · Mar 17, 2009

Was unloading a wood splitter from the back of my pickup yesterday. The splitter is home made and is too wide for the box so I had to take the wheels off. It's a big heavy splitter.

Anyhow, I was lifting it with chains, using 3 chains in a triangle to keep everything level and stable. My plan was to just lift it barely over the bed of the truck and then slowly back away. My wife had a rope on one of the ends so it would not swing around.

So, at the critical point one of the chains falls off! Now the woodsplitter crashes down bashing off the edge of the truck box and swings and spins wildly (wife let go of the rope of course as she should have). The splitter whacks the front brush bar on the tractor hard. I lowered it to the ground right away and it bumps the tractor another couple of times on the way down.

Long story short, I broke the exhaust manifold off the woodsplitter and the brush guard saved my bacon by protecting the front end of my brand new tractor!

Yikes.

Lesson learned, have the proper grab hooks on your chains and doublecheck before you lift! I went quickly instead of smartly.

JB4310 · Mar 17, 2009

Good that nobody got hurt.

That's one of those situations where your real mad at first but after realize that it could have been worse, so you pick up the pieces and go on.
Like you said, lesson learned.

JB.

3RRL · Mar 17, 2009

Yep, chalk that up to experience and glad no one was hurt.
Using any kind of hooks, especially grab hooks, it's important to make sure they are engaged properly as the tension mounts on the chain. I've seen some guys who leave a lot of slack in the grab hook chain thinking it will eventually tighten up and grab. With chain, that doesn't always happen and the hook could fall off the link before the slack is out of it.

dmccarty · Mar 17, 2009

Can you use this as an excuse to get pallet forks?

I should have bought pallet forks with the tractor. Not years later.

I used the forks to unload the wood splitter we bought. And then used the forks to help assemble the wood splitter. Last XMAS is build a bench to hold the wood splitter and again used the forks to help with the project and move the whole assembly to from where I built it to where it was needed.

Getting close to having time to post pictures of the project.

Later,
Dan

jimmyj · Mar 28, 2009

dmccarty said:
Can you use this as an excuse to get pallet forks?

Ha ha

They are on the way. You are my kind a fella!

Slatecreek · Apr 1, 2009

Glad nobody was hurt, that could have gotten ugly quick. Can never be too careful when lifting something awkward such as a woodsplitter. The forks, with the woodsplitter secured to a heavy duty pallet should increase the safety factor.

rdbrumfield · Apr 9, 2009

Something I have learned when dealing with an odd size piece is to just pick enough to free it and drive the pickup from underneath. Keeps the object lifted low as possible and eliminates the chance of swinging around.