Walking under a FEL

[boustany]

No. Never.
I was working the backhoe on my old Case 580C one day when a hydraulic hose went. The hoe was fully 'up'. It dropped pretty much the same as if you had cut the stings on a puppet. There was no warning, just 'boom' and it hit the ground. If anybody would have been underneath they would have been squished.

I think propping up the loader is the only way. In fact, working under the loader was the only way you could get to open the engine compartment on the 580C, so they had a special gizmo to reduce the number of squishees.

 

[beenthere]

A bigger fear with the loader up in the air is someone, or something, touching the loader controls and catching someone under or too close to the bucket or loader arms. Still, the FEL should be on the ground when not being used. Extra concern should be given when man-lift platforms are made for the FEL and used "up in the air". Some CUT's have a lock-out on the loader control, but it doesn't prevent a hose breaking (which must be pretty rare when that happens) and the FEL dropping quickly. Avoid the risk if possible. (But some would just sue if they take the risk and lose, which I think is wrong).

 

[Gfranklin]

I also had a hose on my backhoe fail. It was up in the air about 6 feet when it failed and it coming down was the very definition of instant. Nothing slow about it at all. Later I determined it had been pinched due to improper assembly a year earlier. I never walked under my bucket again.

Greg

 

[Taylortractornut]

Being around heavy machinery since i was in diapers ive seen alot of folks injured and killed by suspended buckets. I just fixed a loader on a Kubota tractor for an auction it killed a man a few months ago. The packing had blown on the cylinders causing a rapid decent. Last year on a job i was operating a 250 Komatsu loader hauling explosives to the blast technician the was working on a ledge when i raised the boom a laborer walk under the bucket and a sheet of dirt that had frozen to the bucket overnight hit him. He had a bad concusion. Another incident on the same job was a migrant worker had walked under the bucket of the 66E Komatsu track loader a freind was operating in confined spaces having to raise the loader over the the walls of the structure inorder to have enough room to turn. the worker walked under the bucket and a tooth fell off. He was lucky he can still walk givin the 25 pound tooth fell 10 feet.
My brothers boss is an accident investigater and theyve got a case where a loader with a single lift cylinder had a failure in the ram whilst a mechanic was under it. His words ten seconds earlier was ill be under it only a second.