Ballast Roll over

[ovrszd]

I agree. Of all the things that caused his accident, and yes many things working in concert caused the event, the one thing that was the largest contributing factor was traveling and turning with the loaded bucket up high. If you want to turn your tractor over, I know of no other way to do it faster than load a bucket and keep it high and start moving and turning. Add a little speed and a little off camber ground under the front tires, and it is practically guaranteed. Mission accomplished.

James I agree with low load. That's very important to me.

In this case I have to say the #1 cause was running the right front tire up on an obstacle that caused the front axle to max out the oscillator. If he hadn't done that he could have drove to wherever with the load high and not had a problem. He's described his area as flatter than Kansas.

If he had the load low the tractor would have probably spun the right rear tire and stopped forward movement rather than flopping on it's side. But can't say for sure.

If you have a heavy load in the bucket of an FEL and dangle a front tire the tractor will most certainly want to tip over.

 

[k0ua]

James I agree with low load. That's very important to me.

In this case I have to say the #1 cause was running the right front tire up on an obstacle that caused the front axle to max out the oscillator. If he hadn't done that he could have drove to wherever with the load high and not had a problem. He's described his area as flatter than Kansas.

If he had the load low the tractor would have probably spun the right rear tire and stopped forward movement rather than flopping on it's side. But can't say for sure.

If you have a heavy load in the bucket of an FEL and dangle a front tire the tractor will most certainly want to tip over.

Yep, recipe for disaster.

 

[John0829]

Friend sold his big dozer and the buyer came with a tilt n load to haul it away.
Well a tracked dozer does not like to climb on a metal ramp so they used the T/L retrieval winch to help it climb the ramp.
Wrong move!
The winch was too slow and the dozer made it 1/2 way and slid off to the side and flipped.
Buddy was not belted in (no belt) but very lucky in than as the dozer flipped he remained in the space of the ROP cage.
The retrieval and reloading process called for major equipment as U might guess.

But then he is the typical accident type person looking for a place to occur.
You know the type, evert thing is 'Good enough'.
LOL, whenever he 'played' with his dozer I would leave as I don't like the site of blood and broken bones.

This one was not a good ending. It wasn't a friend but a guy I knew back in the 70's and had worked with at times, had to load a dozer to move it to another work site on frosty fall morning. The lowboy was coated with frost and as they were loading it the machine slipped to one side, the operator that was loading it stopped and refused to continue until things could be stabilized. Long story short, the other one being his macho self jumped on going to get it loaded, it was the last thing he did. As soon as he stepped onto the growser/track of the machine it came the rest of the way off the lowboy and the ROPS canopy cut him in half. They literally took half of him away that morning and then later in the afternoon the other half when they got the machine uprighted. Something NO ONE should ever see.

 

[TheMan419]

Well she is back from the dealer. Of course during the course of their repairs they found other things that needed to be done. However they came in way UNDER estimate. Original estimate was for about $4500.00.

In addition to the original estimate they found several grease zirks on the loader not taking grease. They cleaned and/or replased ALL zirks. Originally only slated to fix a leak in one side of the front axel. On closer inspection found that both sides were leaking. Fixed both sides. The valve stems on the tires were not correct ones for adding Rim Guard. So they had to replace the valve stems. The tire shop they use for that also does Rim Guard. They did the valve change AND added Rim Guard for $6.00 LESS than dealership was going to charge for just the Rim Guard.

The total bill was just under $3500, even with the extra work.

So the moral of the story is unless you like the possibility of death AND spending lots of money repairing your tractor be really really cautious when you are doing loader work. Make sure you have tons of ballast on the rear end.

Stay safe out there folks! (from both the Covid AND your tractor)

 

[ovrszd]

Thanks for the follow up. Glad it all worked out for you!!!

 

[MossRoad]

Well she is back from the dealer. Of course during the course of their repairs they found other things that needed to be done. However they came in way UNDER estimate. Original estimate was for about $4500.00.

In addition to the original estimate they found several grease zirks on the loader not taking grease. They cleaned and/or replased ALL zirks. Originally only slated to fix a leak in one side of the front axel. On closer inspection found that both sides were leaking. Fixed both sides. The valve stems on the tires were not correct ones for adding Rim Guard. So they had to replace the valve stems. The tire shop they use for that also does Rim Guard. They did the valve change AND added Rim Guard for $6.00 LESS than dealership was going to charge for just the Rim Guard.

The total bill was just under $3500, even with the extra work.

So the moral of the story is unless you like the possibility of death AND spending lots of money repairing your tractor be really really cautious when you are doing loader work. Make sure you have tons of ballast on the rear end.

Stay safe out there folks! (from both the Covid AND your tractor)

:thumbsup:

 

[Peter 315]

Nice............:dance1:

 

[Professor Marvel]

Never travel with your bucket up. I learned that the hard way about 40 years ago. I was moving manure with hay in it and it was blowing in my face so I raised it up so it blew over my head. I hit a bump and the tractor started rolling over sideways. I fell out and my leg somehow jammed the up/down lever.(didn't have joystick) and it forced the bucket down and straigtened the tractor up. I didn't know why it straightened itself up but it jammed the loader down and stalled the tractor. i had to figure out what had happened. i took it as a sign and lesson and now never travel with the bucket up, full or empty.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Thanks for the update

 

[Fallon]

Never travel with your bucket up. I learned that the hard way about 40 years ago. I was moving manure with hay in it and it was blowing in my face so I raised it up so it blew over my head. I hit a bump and the tractor started rolling over sideways. I fell out and my leg somehow jammed the up/down lever.(didn't have joystick) and it forced the bucket down and straigtened the tractor up. I didn't know why it straightened itself up but it jammed the loader down and stalled the tractor. i had to figure out what had happened. i took it as a sign and lesson and now never travel with the bucket up, full or empty.

The front axle is on a pivot, the rear axle is solid. All the stability of a tractor comes from that solid rear axle. If the rear ever comes off the ground, you are balancing on the 1 pivot pin holding the front axle on. So the tractor will start to fall to one side or the other. Jamming the bucket down provides stability & drops the rear down. So you now have the bucket & rear tires keeping the machine from falling over.