operator killed trailering tractor

Soundguy · Jan 15, 2006

In Reddick florida yesterday, a 68 year old man was killed when his tractor rolled over and crushed him while he was trying to load it onto the trailer using improvised ramps made of wood planks. One plank broke.. tractor rolled. Family members got the tractor off of the man quickly and he was conscious but complaining of stomach pains. According to the story, by the time EMS arrived he was in distress, and eventually died.

( reddick is just a few miles north from where I live... )

Sad story... lets take a good lesson from it.. nuf said..

Soundguy

rk246 · Jan 15, 2006

So he was on the tractor? If so I am assuming no ROPS and no seat belt? I am just wondering if ROPS and a belt would have saved his life and let him walk away? Sad story, horrible to be the family that had to pull the tractor off of him, could you imagine your grandpa laying under the tractor yelling for help...

RoyJackson · Jan 15, 2006

That's a real shame...

"Family members got the tractor off of the man quickly "

I'm thinking this may have been a lawn tractor...600-800 lbs. No way could it have been a CUT...not if those folks could have moved it. Of course, 600-800 lbs is quite enough to crush a person.

JerryG · Jan 15, 2006

I don't know Roy. A friend and I once picked up the back end of a 8N so that a woman could pull her husband from under it. Just saying that it is amazing what a person can do sometimes.

Dargo · Jan 15, 2006

That's awful to hear. I was lucky, but I had an scare loading my first tractor. I'd had tractors before, but never had a trailer. I had a bumper pull 7000 pound trailer and a JD 870 tractor. My trailer had 4' long, pretty heavy, steel ramps. I put the ramps on the trailer and jumped on my tractor (not bothering to use the seat belt - I was only going 20', right?) and began up the ramps.

Apparently the truck and trailer were on a bit of an incline up my driveway. As the tractor mashed the end of the trailer to the ground while I drove up onto it, the trailer picked the rear tires of my pickup off of the ground. That sent everything in motion. The truck, trailer, tractor with me on it, began rolling down the driveway rather quickly. Not only was everything picking up speed, but going sideways off of the driveway towards a ditch. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

What do I do? Backup and let the pickup tires drop back to the ground and hope it stops, or go forward as fast as I can and try to put weight on the trailer tongue and get the pickup tires back on the ground?! In the split second, I mashed the foot throttle to the floor and moved as quickly as I could on up the trailer. I drove all the way to the front of the trailer and the pickup tires came back down with plenty of tongue weight, but I was already off of the driveway and in grass. I kept sliding, albeit slower. I was helpless to do anything else.

The trailer went into the ditch and jambed into the far side. My tractor, with me still on it, slid all the way to the end of the trailer and my back tires hit the far side incline of the ditch. The front tires of the tractor raised up about two feet before dropping back down. Holy crap did that scare me!!! I had to get another guy with a large tractor to get everything out of the ditch. I gladly listened to his lecture about putting jack stands or something under the rear of a trailer when loading a tractor.

I only mention this story for the same reason Soundguy mentioned his; to hopefully save one person a bad accident from making a mistake. I know I've used home made ramps before. How many of you guys have loaded your tractor onto a trailer without blocking the rear of the trailer from dropping down? I still see guys loading their tractor, or car for that matter, on a trailer and have the trailer lift the rear tires of their pickup off of the ground. It is only those rear tires that are keeping everything from rolling. If your ramps are not designed to keep the rear of your trailer from going down when you load your tractor, please carry some jackstands or some wood blocks to brace under the trailer when you load. Trust me, it's no fun when everything takes off and you can't do anything about it. I was very lucky. Unfortunately the fellow in FL wasn't. Be safe.

755inNY · Jan 15, 2006

Dargo,

The exact same thing happened to my neighbor with his new trailer. He had been loading equipment on trailers for years but this one had short "legs" on the fold down ramps. He immediately welded extensions on the ramps to limit the travel.

Jeff

ttowne66 · Jan 15, 2006

Dargo & 755inny

Same thing happened to me only I was heading down hill towards main road. I went on about a 100 ft ride before the truck jacknifed enough to slow and eventually stop the whole rig. My dad was running after the truck on the jacknifing side (lucky he didnt fall and get run over) What an experience! I can't believe that these trailers don't have warnings that state rear of trailer must be blocked to reduce or eliminate rear "squat" and opposing weight transfer to the tounge. We know how to do it safely now but what about the next guy???

Dargo · Jan 15, 2006

( I can't believe that these trailers don't have warnings that state rear of trailer must be blocked to reduce or eliminate rear "squat" and opposing weight transfer to the tounge. We know how to do it safely now but what about the next guy??? )

I honestly was clueless about that danger. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif I sure know now. I suppose in order to not call myself stupid, I will say that the accident you described doesn't only happen to stupid or unsafe people. In retrospect, I can see where I should have known better, but I just didn't think about it. Nobody told me to watch out for wild rides if I don't block the rear of the trailer when loading. Your idea of a warning label doesn't seem like a dumb idea to me.

NewToy · Jan 15, 2006

ttown, when you pulled onto the trailer it lifted the rear wheels of the tow vehicle off of the ground?

beenthere · Jan 15, 2006

( I can't believe that these trailers don't have warnings that state rear of trailer must be blocked to reduce or eliminate rear "squat" and opposing weight transfer to the tounge )

More warnings? Maybe we need to have mandatory classes and give out licenses to the multitude of newbie owners that often have no clue what they are dealing with. There wouldn't be space left on the tractor or the trailer if 'all' the warnings such as described would be placed on them. The result? no one would read them as there would be too many.

The explosion of CUTs out there in the hands of newbie's provides a lot of chances to win the Darwin awards. I'm sure I've done things that would qualify me as well. But more stickers? NOT going to solve the common sense calculations needed to avoid problems such as this.

The TBN helps a lot, as we can read about others' mistakes.

I think the title of this thread is not quite accurate, as the operator was killed as a result of making a mistake 'loading' his tractor. Some people cannot be protected from every mistake they are going to make, no matter how tragic it is.