I am speaking for myself only, and am not trying to tell you what to do. These are only my opinions, and worth exactly what you are paying for them.
As a rule, I dislike "safety" features on many products. I don't like the automatic sensor in my car that tells me when it's dark outside, and turns on the headlights for me. My little riding lawnmower shuts off if I ever hit a bumpy spot, or lean over to see if I'm going to clear an obstacle with the mower deck. "No-spill" CARB portable fuel cans spill many times the amount of fuel out for me than the "evil" ones with just a spout. I bought a new heating pad for a sports injury that shuts off every two hours-just as I was finally getting comfortable each time I fell asleep during the night.
However, I always wear a seatbelt when I drive, a helmet and excellent gear when I ride my motorcycles, and hearing protection whenever I operate the tractors. I think anyone who doesn't is making very poor choices. BUY AN OVERRUNNING CLUTCH! I thought they were a stupid waste of money on a "safety" feature that would make the cutter more difficult to use in hooking up. They aren't, at least with a mower.
Even ignoring the safety aspect, the usability improvement is worth every penny. Without the overrunning clutch, shifting between gears requires a lengthy stop (since the mower will drive the tractor at least 6 feet further than you want it to, while applying the brakes), placing the PTO into neutral. Back up, select your forward gear. Shift into gear on the PTO, then face a period of getting the cutter up to speed again before it will cut well. If you're trying to back under trees or into a corner, there's a significant amount of uncut material while the cutting blades get up to speed.
With the clutch, the mower stays spinning, freewheeling. Clutch in, select gear, back up, select new gear, lower cutter, drive away happily. The blades stay at speed, and there is no loss of effectiveness. Plus it's vastly quicker. Then, additionally, you don't have to mower powering the tractor forward while you hold the clutch in and frantically mash the brakes, trying to avoid hitting the fence/dog/house/new fruit tree/unseen metal pipe etc. And that is only better, safer and preferable.
Buy an overrunning clutch. It's worth twice what they charge. And I HATE spending money on add-ons.
I don't have a single machine with ROPS. They are probably smart to have. It's also probably not smart for me to do some of the other things I do, whether working around farm equipment on this little toy farm or hitting a big jump on my motorcycle. Instant death or maiming is possible every time I do either of those things. Flying small airplanes is as bad. I enjoy all of it. I've never been close to rolling any of my tractors, or flipping over backward.
A ROPS would make it impossible to do some of the tasks I need my machines for, like disking, mowing, and/or tilling around orchard trees, even if it folded. My property is also virtually table-flat. I recognize the dangers not having a protective system brings, and trade that against the usefulness of what I need the machine to do. If I had a different environment or job description for my tractors, I would pick one up. Having said that, I AM going to purchase the ROPS for my little Kubota
B6000. I envision selling it in the near future, and the system is only $148 through Kubota. The next owner can then do whatever he wants, and I have a clear conscience.
I didn't like PTO shields when I only had one operable tractor and would run 4 or 5 PTO different powered implements in a weekend. They made it harder for me to hook things up quickly, and, actually, tougher to hook up at all. I took mine off. Now that I don't hook up and unhook so many things all in a weekend, I can compromise on how I approach things. The PTO shield does keep things from being caught in the U-joint and output shaft. Getting wrapped up in the PTO shaft or drive would be a maiming that one would probably prefer to die in, rather than survive.
The effortless power any of these machines have (Even the tiny
B6000) would crush any of my bones and wrap me around the shaft with only horrific results, without causing too much of a fuss to the tractor. I haven't paid money for any, but I have only taken one of mine off, out of three.
I don't have an opinion about the clutch safety switch. They aren't enough of a nuisance for me to remove, and I don't see them as being an improvement to mine or others' safety, so I haven't put any on.
One thing unmentioned: I would build or buy (building would be super cheap and simple) a set of chain guards for the cutter if it doesn't have them already. I had a scary experience a couple weeks ago with mine. When I used to pitch playing baseball I could throw 94 mph on the radar gun. I ran over an 8 inch chain link fence splicing connector and the cutter hurled that thing seemingly twice as fast as my pitches would go at their fastest. I don't know where that steel tube of doom came from, and, actually, I still don't know where it went. (It sailed over into a vacant lot, thankfully.)
But there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that it would instantly kill someone were it to hit their head or neck, and would easily have the ability to cause
commotio cordis (stopping of the heart by blunt impact under certain conditions). A chain guard won't stop it entirely, but at least may suppress the fling from chest and head height to knees and below. I'm going to build something for mine.
Especially with kids, get them inside and away from the windows when you're running that mower. Same with any animals you like. I've only ever seen that one object get hurled like that, and it may never happen again, but once was enough. It would have been as lethal as a rifle bullet had it hit someone in the head.
I agree with rScotty about the ranking of safety features. Operator experience, intuition, attentiveness and attitude trump all the rest. Usually safety equipment is a crutch. Check out these guys:
transmission tower workers. Humor me and watch at least 2 1/2 minutes.
What some consider a normal day of work would petrify others. You're doing all the right things and asking all the right questions. It's good to have you here!
