Shorter ROPS?

[Ranchofla]

If you can weld any sort of decent I would not give it a second thought. Cut it, put a sleeve inside bevel it up nice and leave like an 1/8th of an inch gap so your weld goes down to the sleeve, a sanding wheel to clean it up nice and some paint. You can only tell where mine is cut when the sun shines the right way on the joint or you really look for it. That being said I took out five inches just below the curve at the top making sure I left enough strait stuff for the sleeve. With that little bit of leverage on the joint it would have to be a pretty bad accident to make it fail. In which case I'm pretty sure that would be the least of my worries.

Why not just cut it off the bottom so there is no welding just a couple of holes to drill.

Rancho who is going to measure his ROPS tonight...

 

[BKBoiss]

John Deere mounts with brackets welded to the bottom of the ROPS that bolt to the tractor. Either way there is welding involved. I used to just leave it folded because it was a royal pain to flip up and down. The holes for the pins didn't line up properly so when I cut it down I straitened it out and now it works good either way. My problem with running with it down is it just kind of gives you something else to crush yourself with as its only neck high.

 

[tulenutn2o]

I have built many a race car in my day and would say, if the liability bothers you for resale, build your own bar. Then if you want to sell, swap them out. Just a thought.

 

[milkman636]

There is a legal concept known as disclosure that may apply in these hypothetical modified ROPS transactions. I would think that if the seller discloses a ROPS modification prior to the sale, and the buyer acknowledges it and proceeds with purchasing the tractor, there should be no liability to the seller for the purchaser's unsafe use of the tractor or any injuries that may result. Nor would a seller be liable for reselling a used tractor that he bought without knowing the ROPS had been previously modified.

I think the fear mongers are making mountains out of molehills in these threads. I am not recommending a redesign of a ROPS, only saying that the liability issue may be way overstated.

 

[Msamt]

This is the point, thanks for pointing it out. The DK is one piece ROPS, so no welding. 4-5" off can't matter.
I think.

 

[milkman636]

One of the purposes of the ROPS is to prevent a complete rollover. The higher it is, the greater the momentum that will be required to lever the bottom of the tractor up over the top of the tractor. If it does get to that point, the ROPS needs to be strong enough to support the full weight of the tractor, its ballast, and implement at whatever angle it's hitting. Frankly, I question whether that piece of hinged tube steel is strong enough to do that as it came from the factory, but I hope I never learn the true answer to that question.

The important point to me is that having it upright would make it more likely that my tractor would come to rest on its side rather than upside down if something bad happens.