SeatBelts...

[RET]

Just had a jolting experience this weekend....
Was out spreading many yards of dirt with my BX/FEL. Had finished one pile and was looking ahead to where I was going next. While driving and looking ahead, I was lowering the FEL to a good travelling position. For one instant, I was not paying attention to the position of the bucket - instead of the bucket being lowered and curled up, I had inadvertantly lowered and partially dumped it - and the tooth bar was installed. I was travelling about 4 mph and went thru a dip in the yard and... you guessed it.... the tooth bar bit solidly into firm ground. The BX came to a stop in a nanosecond. I imagine I looked like one of those test dummies you see on TV.... my arms and legs flopped around for an instant and the belt felt as if it were going to cut me in half... but it kept me on the tractor.
There's no doubt in my mind that if I had not been wearing the belt that I would have been thrown over the hood of the tractor while leaving some precious body parts dangling off the steering wheel. Scared the %&*#$! outta me! I was already a firm believer in seatbelts.... now I'm a religous seatbelt fanatic!
Is savings a few seconds of inconvenience buckling up really worth it?
RET

 

[Soundguy]

Looking at the geometry of the rops, the front of the tractor, and the angle inbetween.. I wonder if a cannopy is going to adversely affect survival rates in a rollover situation.

I would hate to survive the initial rollover, only to be killed by the sheet metal canopy.... ironic I guess. Anyone had any info on this? ( I guess fops people needn't worry... )

Soundguy

 

[TonyC]

I know what you mean, Roger. I recently had a harrowing experience moving with a bucket full of dirt only I didn't have my belt on. Not only do you have the danger of being ejected but it made it extremely difficult for me to get the tractor back under control since I was desperately trying to stay in the seat. I'll never make that mistake again!

 

[Soundguy]

Here's a scary one, related to me by the owner of the construction company I work for. A few years ago, he has doing some clearing with an old cat D6-9U bull dozer ( large...heavy 4 tons or so.. 1960's era, with a 4pt protective structure, similar to ones seen today.. but with no seatbelt. He was bull dozing down a hill, clearing off topsoil and exposing limerock at a mine he owned ( remote area too... working on a sunday.. alone ). Anyway, while going down hill, his blade hit a buried rock..err.. boulder, large enough to stop the dozer in its tracks... ejected him out and he landed in front of the dozer unconsious. He woke up shortly later, with the dozer still running, the tracks had dug out the soft top soil and it had bottomed out on the undercarriage. Those machines use a decelerator pedal ,( and steering clutches ) not an accelerator pedal.. so it was running full tilt.

Makes ya shiver...

Soundguy