Using bucket as work platform.

[Dusty]

I always try to hold onto the gutter with one hand so I can immediately arrest the ladder slipping sideways. This seems near foolproof iff the gutter isnt rickety and the ladder has good footing. Holding onto the gutter thru the ladder would be even better.
Larry

Or better yet, stand in the bucket while your wife operates the controls...

 

[patrick_g]

Larry, Interesting analysis but actuarial tables are not reporting data only from those prone to disaster in some way. We all are represented in the base numbers even if we never have a reportable incident of any kind. Of course your particular mix of activities and skills associated with those activities can tend to make you safer. Being good at doing something inherently dangerous might make you as safe as a less skilled or cautious person who doesn't do that activity as much. Or conversely a skilled person at a dangerous activity may have no more risk doing it a lot than a less skilled person doing it infrequently.

The tables we debate, in general, don't care how skilled you are, just if a particular result ocurred.

I suppose to a particular way of thinking the accident prone who perform the dangerous activities more often may seem over represented in the tables but I think not. It is realistic that those involved in more incidents be represented that way.

Finer granularity that would subdivide categories with respect to skill levels, experience, and so forth would be nice but aren't always available.

Some behaviors are, by their own inherent qualities, more dangerous. It is prudent to lower risk in general if practical. This doesn't mean living in a bomb shelter and having everything delivered through an airlock.

Farming/ranching is rated near the top of the heap in dangerous professions. I have examples in the form of myself and several neighbors. Some seem to always have more problems with just about everything while others seem to hardly ever have a problem resulting in a loss or injury, yet get things done in a timely manner.

Knowing when not to attempt something is sometimes a hard lesson to learn. Impatience and laziness can be killers.

An interesting observaion a friend recently made... He says, "you know why there are air bags?... Because too many folks don't put on seat belts even though good statistics show they reduce injury and save lives. The Government had to get paternalistic and wrap you in a safety cocoon because you are too dumb to take proactive measures for yourself like fastening a lap strap.

I still hear folks holding forth on how it is better to be thrown free of the accident than to be strapped in and how there might be a fire and your seatbelt might jam and you'd burn to death. The reality is not in agreement but these myths die hard.

Pat

 

[N80]

If they removed the seatbelts and replaced the airbag with an 8 inch steel spike pointed at the driver's chest you wouldn't need the seatbelts, the airbags...or even stop lights for that matter.

 

[TomKioti]

If they removed the seatbelts and replaced the airbag with an 8 inch steel spike pointed at the driver's chest you wouldn't need the seatbelts, the airbags...or even stop lights for that matter.

LOL...THAT was funny!

 

[SPYDERLK]

If they removed the seatbelts and replaced the airbag with an 8 inch steel spike pointed at the driver's chest you wouldn't need the seatbelts, the airbags...or even stop lights for that matter.

I would use a hacksaw or grinder.
Larry

 

[Dusty]

If they removed the seatbelts and replaced the airbag with an 8 inch steel spike pointed at the driver's chest you wouldn't need the seatbelts, the airbags...or even stop lights for that matter.

That is exactly what the old cars were like prior to 1967 with the introduction of the collapsible steering column.
Dusty

 

[patrick_g]

N80, And by extension you could see how some steel spikes surrounding the tractor seat would be way cheaper than a reliable ROPS.

Pat

 

[mike69440]

I figured I was really clever, (I am) and engineered a very nice manlift / workbench that fit securely in the bucket of my then brand new L-39. With the L-39 stabilizers and the interlock edge of my lift catching on the reversible edge of the bucket, the lift was very safe. The lift even had a chain to catch the bucket hook for redundancy. The L39 Hydraulics can be locked out on the joystick.

I used the lift to change second story windows. The lift would get my feet 9'8" off ground and at 6'-3" I could reach up to 17 plus feet.

All well and good.

I hate to paint. The then to be wife was putting a fresh coat of paint on her home prior to putting it on the market.

So what do we do?

The peak of her house was about 25' and the siding around the chimney even higher.

I had a digital picture of her on an industrial quality 16' folding multi- configuration extension ladder standing second step from the top, stepladder on the manlift at full height so she could get the last part of the darn chimney siding painted reaching God knows how far off the ground.

I accidentally erased the photo.

The ladder was tied off to the workbench part of the manlift and quite steady.

But all she had to do is slip, etc. and down she would have gone, feet 16' off the ground.

Foolish me for helping her get up there. It was my idea to use the ladder but just to get up another 2' or so as she still had the workbench of the manlift and the ladder to hold onto.

But she kept getting bolder and going higher.

Finally she called it quits after getting a little height fright and came down.

I'll take and get another photo posted of the manlift. It's neat.

My manlift is much safer and useful than a ladder or staging. But used the way we used it was just plain stupid! We are lucky idiots that she did not fall.

 

[N80]

Mike, I'm not sure I see anywhere in your post how you have figured how to prevent the bucket from dropping if the hydraulics fail. That is _the_ issue. And I'm sure you know that the 'lock' on the joystick only actually locks the joystick.

 

[mike69440]

Mike, I'm not sure I see anywhere in your post how you have figured how to prevent the bucket from dropping if the hydraulics fail. That is _the_ issue. And I'm sure you know that the 'lock' on the joystick only actually locks the joystick.

I acknowledge that danger, however I fear taking a dive off a ladder more than the hydraulic failure, as the hyraulic are more reialble than my balance.

Also the construction of my manlift would prevent the loader from droping as long as the mainlft was butted up against the side of a building, even if the bucket curl failed.

If I ever need to get over 13' on the manilift, I would build a a second tier platform with railing on the existing lift, or hire someone with insurance.

I also do not move the tractor with anyone up in the man lift.