ROPS Saves - How Rough is It

[EE_Bota]

I tense up in bad situations, but I can convince myself fairly easily that the ROPS and belt will protect. But, I am not convinced that lots of places where a tractor would flip, what you flip INTO/ONTO can still get you. So, now I get a bit anxious about what is around the tractor.

I have "swam" several times. That's what some river runners call it when you are not in the boat, but still running white water. I have had time speed and slow back and forth on some long long swims. I refer to those swims as "I swam for my life" swims.

 

[Mace Canute]

Here's another first hand experience from a fellow who rolled his machine and DIDN'T have his seat belt on. Crane Accidents

BTW, don't forget to check out the parent site also.

 

[Spanky100]

Here's another first hand experience from a fellow who rolled his machine and DIDN'T have his seat belt on. Crane Accidents

BTW, don't forget to check out the parent site also.

Mace

Thanks for a great site to learn from others. Doyle's experience while in 1988 is still valid today. He was good enough to write about his experience so others would be safer. What interested me is that he said now whenever he gets on a "wheeled vehicle" he uses his seatbelt. Does that indicate if it is a tracked vehicle he does not use the seatbelt or just that he does not tracked vehicles?

thanks

Wayne

 

[Don87]

Oh man, I know the feeling, I have left pieces of my hide on the pavement from motorcycle wrecks too.

Like you, in spite of the motorcycle crashes, I was never injured beyond the point to where a few stitches and a bit of R&R didn't fix me back up.

Age has caught up with me and I gave my Harley to my son this year, but I sure had fun.:thumbsup:

I was going around a curve, road was slighty wet, I was in the middle of the lane.

Next thing was that the bike was sliding sideways down the highway(thank god for the 'crash bars' they saved my legs), sparks in my face........then it happened....

Both tires caught the crack in the highway(that was hooved up), and the bike flipped sideways..........I was doing about 50.

As I was sliding down the road I thought........I gotta roll................I watched the bike fly over my head and land abouut 50 feet away from me.

I jumped up.......pushed the bike to the side of the road, then hobbled the 1/2 mile back into town to call my parents.
8 stitches later I was good to go.................Thank God I remembered the 'rolling technique that I had read in a magazine the week before.

The stitches didn't happen til the next day.

 

[Redneck in training]

My friend rolled his John Deer and he said the same thing that it was in slow motion. He didn't have a roll bar or seat belt. He said it was so slow he managed to step off and landed on his feet as it was rolling. It was in a spot he had mowed many times before so you never know when it might happen. I got hit by a loaded 18 wheeler while sitting at a red light several years ago and it seemed in slow motion also. I think your mind just can't comprehend what is happening so it just seems in slow motion. I didn't get a scratch but the old couple in another car wasn't so lucky.

The slow motion is adrenaline rush that speeds up you senses and you body in danger. I crashed a morotcyle, flew over steering bars and while flying over sidewalk I could count the sidewalk tiles like in slow motion. I slowly turned, landed on my feet and kept running until I stopped. No single scratch. What seem to happened in slow motion in fact hapened just in few seconds.

 

[ducks13]

One thing I observed while operating my new to me tractor when it pivoted weight off the LR wheel due to an off camber turn, a bucket too high, and letting off the hydro too fast (when I realized the bucket was too high) was that on open ground the ROPS will probably do fine, if there are trees, you have a good chance of being pinned between the ROPS and a tree. A roll cage would certainly be better.