Seatbelt / ROPS Using Tractor on Lake (frozen)?

getut · Jan 11, 2005

If I knew I was gonna lose my tractor in icy water, I think I would have my wife knock me out and push me in with it.

I don't have anything to worry about though. The most icy water we see around here fits in a cup. Man I wish we would have some snow.

755inNY · Jan 11, 2005

Keeney,

Those small airplanes probably weigh less than your 4100. Typical 2 place is 1600lbs or less gross weight (plane, people and fuel).

I think if I was concerned about whether I should have my seat belt on or off is a good indication to stay off the ice!

Currmudgeon · Jan 12, 2005

( you deserve some kind of cute safety award! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )

A f(r)iend got an award once, for losing his hard hat.

It blew off his head and was run over by a D-7, squashing it into a pancake. Some wisearse at the junkyard took a polaroid and sent it to State OSHA, with a description of how it had saved his life.

A month later, some suits from State showed up with a plaque for my f(r)iend.

Any fool could have seen that any impact that squashed the helmet that flat would have squashed the head inside it but ...

Soundguy · Jan 12, 2005

( Any fool could have seen that any impact that squashed the helmet that flat would have squashed the head inside it but ... )

That kind of (non) thinking is pervasive...

Reminds me of an article I was reading in a firearms magazine a few years ago. It was about the 'new' level IIIA bullit proof vests, and some balistic tests.. of interesting note, the add bragged about being able to stop the .50 ActionExpress round ( desert eagle .50AE or AMT Automag V .50AE..very large handguns... ).. but there was a small asterisk and footnote. When you got out the magnifiers to read it.. it mentioned that though the vest prevented penetration of the .50ae round, that the concussive force was probably sufficient to kill the average human subject wearing the vest, as the chest cavity and heart were crushed....
/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif go figure...

Soundguy

markct · Jan 17, 2005

if the ice is thick enough i wouldnt worry about driving on it, theres places up north where they drive loaded 18 wheelers over the ice when conditions are right, as well as some islands that they log with large 10 wheeler trucks, most of them tho do go with the advice of no seatbelt and doors unlocked and ready to open fast. i wouldnt wear my seatbelt on the ice with a tractor, as ya said they only reason a rollover would happen is if ya were going thru in which case ya wouldnt want the seatbelt on, of course unless ya find a lake with a hill in it, which around here we call that a waterfall and i wouldnt be taking my tractor on one of them. a friend used to take his D4 cat out on the ice at times to clear the snow off, thats a heavy machine but atleast the weight is spread out

keeney · Jan 18, 2005

"if the ice is thick enough"

That "if" is of course the big question. Should probably be more like an "IF". or an " IF ". /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Egon · Jan 18, 2005

Well folks; up here in the frozen north ice roads are one of the mainstays to supply remote areas that have no year round road access.

The ice is checked for thickness and if insuficient water is pumped out to make it thicker.

If you go through the ice chances are slim to non that you will be able to extract yourself before hypothermia sets in.

Egon

Bird · Jan 18, 2005

( chances are slim to non )

Egon, the first time I went out fishing in my brother's boat in Alaska, like a dummy, I asked him if he had enough life jackets on the boat for all of us. He told me I didn't need one and explained why. He later said they don't have life jackets in Alaska; only body markers.

thcri · Jan 18, 2005

Maybe you should ask these guys in the picture attached.

I know my brother in law dropped dad's Ford 861 in a few years ago. Thought the ice was 6 or more inches thick but there was this one spot that wasn't and that is all it took to drop in.

murph

keeney · Jan 19, 2005

I have been fully immersed in 32-degree water a few (painful) times in my life. Once as a kid, in early winter, some of use went through some ice riding our bikes across a frozen pond. It was shallow enough so we could wade/crawl out. We ran all the way home, crying the whole way about how cold we were.

Another time as an adolescent, I became involved in a stupid male-bonding pissing contest over who could stay in the water the longest, crouching neck-deep in a lake on a spring day (maybe 45 degree air temp) the day after the ice melted. I think the winning time (not me) was less than a minute.

Most recently as an adult, a few seasons ago, extracting my dock and boat lift from the lake late in the season. Wading in waist-deep water, I had to duck my head under the water to attach a strap near the bottom of the boat lift. I immediately went back in the house, shivering the whole 200 feet, took a hot shower, and put on dry clothes before I even thought about connecting the other end of the strap.

Next spring before I put the equipment back in the water, I added wheels and provisions to attach the line without getting wet.

I have also witnessed people putting their snowmobiles into open ice water, and other stupid things near or in icy water. If you can climb out or be assisted out of the water quickly enough, its definitly survivable. Alone, in deep water without anything to help climb out, or without any nearby ice to climb out on, yes, I would agree - death by hypothermia-induced drowning in a matter of minutes.

If you are talking about salt-water, it gets even colder before it freezes. I would imagine that what you would need to survive a boating accident in arctic salt water would be a dry survival suit, and you would have to have it already on when you hit the water.

- Rick