Had John Deere 5010 Standing Straight Up!

[ksmmoto]

Reading all these stories about flipping tractors over reminded me of when I worked on my grandparents dairy farm in the mid 70's. Their largest tractor was a JD 5010 like in the photo and they had a eight bottom JD plow.

I used to do a lot of their plowing and two or three times I had it stand up on the rear wheels when I hit a clay spot. Never happened often at all, couldn't really anticipate. The worse time it stood almost straight up before I could hit the clutch pedal. In about one second all I could see was sky! I slapped the clutch hard and man did it slam down. About a 14,000 pound tractor.

Never happened again to me after that, just a once in a million thing. Might not have gone over as the three point plow would stop it, maybe? Talk about seat pucker!

Anyway, I have always respected all kinds of equipment, their power can turn on you fast so be careful.

ksmmoto

 

[Cliff_Johns]

You know it seems to me that there should be an engineering solution to this. When the angle of the attachement to the tractor becomes too acute, it comes apart. When the tractor stands on end, it would decouple from the plow and thus drop on it's own without driver intervention. Failsafes are usually not that hard to design once you know the problem you're trying to solve.

Still, it's lucky your around to talk about this story. I wonder what the turning radius of the 5010 is if you can pop a wheely, then use the brakes to rotate the tractor, then drop the front end back down. Would be interesting to watch some stunt driver do something like that.

Cliff

 

[GaryM]

Cliff, funny you should mention stunts. As soon as I read the title, I was thinking of the motorcycle guys who do wheelstands and such for a long distance on the hiway.

How about seeing who can go the farthest on a tractor with the front end at a greater than 45 degree angle? With no weight on the back. That would be cheating. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Boomerang1]

If the implement was unhooked with tractor in air, it would flip instantly. I saw my friends race car flip when the wheelie bars broke when he launched off the line.

 

[DaMadman]

Used to have that happen a LOT on the little Garden Tractors 20-22 HP while plowing. Not as much of a concern on something as small as a garden tractor but it'll still pucker your butt when that front end lifts up unexpectedly /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Then once it happens you then have to try to make it do it again /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[GeneD14]

That sounds like it would get all of the evil spirits out of you in a hurry. I'm glad to hear that you were able to get it back under control.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If the implement was unhooked with tractor in air, it would flip instantly. I saw my friends race car flip when the wheelie bars broke when he launched off the line. )</font>

I would guess that's because he was accelerating, not decellerating as you would be in this situation. Also, the wheelie bar is meant to keep the car from flipping, and here we're talking about disconnecting something that is causing the flip. I don't see how the two situations are similar.

Cliff

 

[Defective]

The problem with this logic is: When the implement is unhooked, the load on the tractor is suddenly gone. At this point, the drive wheels are free to accelerate. I've done wheelies in my truck while trying to pull with it. The chain breaks or comes loose and the front pops up for a look around.

 

[ksmmoto]

Thinking about it tonight I would say that having the implement come unhitched would be bad. As I recall, when I hit the clay spot, the tractor pulls hard quick and started to spin as well as wheelie. I slid forward on the seat when it first hit because of the drop in speed. If the plow was unhitched it would snap right over backwards very fast.

I have operated many other tractors and the 5010 was the worst for pulling wheelies in clay spots with the plow. It was because it didn't stall easy and it had massive single tires that didn't spin. I know the picture I posted shows duels, but most 5010's had the huge single rear tires, almost as wide as the duels.

ksmmoto

 

[Oldtimermich]

I had done that once with a JD 4230 while plowing first time ground. When she started to lift, I feathered the hyd lever and rode a wheelie for nearly a hundred feet. Was cool at the time, but the farm owner told me to keep the tractor on all four wheels. Had to laugh since he needed to show me how it was done. Well new dirt being turned over for the first time with small trees and all.....after his three wheelies he just told me to be carefull and not to break the front axle.