Another tractor rollover death

The article is self-explanatory. The terrain doesn"t look very steep!
a144269.jpg
 
Very simple. Loader bucket full of material up high and probably moving to fast. The guy tries to turn and so yep flips in a heart beat. Sen it too many times. One always should keep the load only as high as needed to get where your going and then lift it up higher only to dump it and then only as high as needed to dump it
 
I made a copy of the picture and write up.

sent it to all my buddies with small tractors equipped with front end loaders.

They are wonderful tools and I would love to own a loader for my tractor, but they can be very dangerous.
 
Here too

DEADLY FARM ACCIDENT IN WASHINGTON CO.
February 4, 2014 - News -


One person is dead after a farm accident this
afternoon in eastern Washington County.
Washington County emergency responders were called
out shortly before 1pm to a farm at the 11,000
block of FM 2447, about two miles northeast of
Chappell Hill.

Someone had reported that a tractor had
overturned.

The operator was pronounced dead at the scene. He
has been identified as 55 year old Chappell Hill
resident John Whitaker.
 
I have a friend with one of those little Kabota tractors with a loader. It is 4 wheel drive. Around 16HP. He did not have a a week and he had laid it over on it side. He had filled the bucket with rocks and was driving it on a little bit of a hill side with the bucket up as high as it would go and it started to tip so he jumped off and let ti do its thing. He has since learned to keep the load down low till you have not choice but to lift if for dumping etc
 
These kinds of posts always kind of gall me.
We kill approximately 50,000 people per year on our nation's highways yet you rarely hear of one in the news.
Yet if a small plane crashes or a farmer is killed on a tractor it's all over the news.
All it serves is to make people scared of tractors and give the nanny staters more grist to demand we put Rops on every tractor on the planet.
I say the fellow died Quickly, doing something he enjoyed.
Nanny staters want us all to die safely, slowly and grimly in a hospital bed.
Guess which way I'd choose.
 
The bad thing is a lot of people have died through the years who were experienced operators too. Some were guys right after the got their first loader. We had a guy here, farmer, tight wad, using a regular bucket to handle round bales. Too cheap to buy a bale spear (even his widow admitted that). Got one up in the air and it rolled down the loader arms and crushed him in the seat.

Couple of years go my FIL rented a Bobcat and was having my BIL run it. Was fun to watch till he actually started trying to move dirt. I was off the porch real quick. Spent the next few hours running the darn thing. To this day my BIL still can't understand why you carry a load low.

Rick
 
judging by the photo im going to say the loader was the cause too, there is a incline there and it doesnt have to be much of one if your running with the loader bucket up, people dont understand you want it no higher than enough to clear the obstacles on the ground untill you get ready to dump
 
(quoted from post at 17:28:53 02/05/14) These kinds of posts always kind of gall me.
We kill approximately 50,000 people per year on our nation's highways yet you rarely hear of one in the news.
Yet if a small plane crashes or a farmer is killed on a tractor it's all over the news.
All it serves is to make people scared of tractors and give the nanny staters more grist to demand we put Rops on every tractor on the planet.
I say the fellow died Quickly, doing something he enjoyed.
Nanny staters want us all to die safely, slowly and grimly in a hospital bed.
Guess which way I'd choose.

It has the opposite affect on me. It just serves to remind me to be safe since I have an FEL on my 8N.

As I've said here before, you're only as safe as you are aware of your own safety.

I don't like to see these things reported either but they only strengthen my safety regimen. Anybody that doesn't stop and think when they here of something like this doesn't belong on a tractor anyway.
 
(quoted from post at 16:40:10 02/05/14) Shouldn't that tractor have had a ROPS?
Very sad.


Some guys take em off for what ever reason. Guy I know with a little Ford MFW took his off because at 6'3' he's bang his head on it sometimes. I didn't believe him at first till I ran it one while the ROPS were still on it. Another guy I know with a near new CaseIH compact took his off cause it kept snagging tree limbs when he was working on deer plots.

The first guy is now in the mid point of Alzheimer's so it sits in a shed. It will be there till he's dead. The other guy seldom has his where there is much danger of a roll over plus he takes the loader off when the loarder isn't needed.

Rick
 
The only reason to have my loader up further than to just clear the ground is the view in front. I have a lot of dirt road in the hills. When scraping the road right after a storm, I need to see in front of the tractor to keep the front tires out of the ruts.

The cross piece that connects the two big loader arms cuts off the view right in front of the tractor. I'm very cautious when I do have that bucket up in the air. It's just up enough so I can see the road under the bottom of the bucket.

But the truth is that most of the time when I need to see the road right in front of me, I'll just stand up. Some may have a problem with that but I consider it safer that having that bucket high off the ground. I might add that my rear tires are loaded and they also have the wheel weights on the insides of the rims so it has some extra weight holding it on the ground.
 
My neighbors new son-in-law borrowed his 445 Moline with a loader. Turned into his driveway with the loader up high and over turned it and he was killed. Didn't even have anything in the bucket. Also the neighbor who bought the 801 last summer that had the hydraulic manifold freeze and bust, is a tractor that was upset backward and broke the drivers back at his brother-in-laws place. Mangled the fenders and bent the steering wheel. The guy sold it real cheap just to get it off of the property. Front end loaders can be real dangerous if you aren't careful.
 



I've always had a fear/respect relationship with any power tool. weather it's a little drill, or a big tractor. you only have to be careless for half a second to be sorry.
 
I have been using front end loaders since I was about 18 and still using them (I'm over 60 now) they are no different than a forklift, keep the load low till you need it up, worked at HD for 4 years and they always had me do the top shelf forklifting - mainly common sense.
 
(quoted from post at 13:17:44 02/19/14) I have been using front end loaders since I was about 18 and still using them (I'm over 60 now) they are no different than a forklift, keep the load low till you need it up, worked at HD for 4 years and they always had me do the top shelf forklifting - mainly common sense.

problem there is common sense isn't so common.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 16:30:47 02/19/14)
(quoted from post at 13:17:44 02/19/14) I have been using front end loaders since I was about 18 and still using them (I'm over 60 now) they are no different than a forklift, keep the load low till you need it up, worked at HD for 4 years and they always had me do the top shelf forklifting - mainly common sense.

problem there is common sense isn't so common.

Rick

Want to guess what happens when you hit an overhead truss in the warehouse while removing a pallet load of grape juice (gallon glass bottles) off the top of a 10' high stack? Purple concrete forever ;-) You can easily guess at the vintage of that juice (and my age at the time) given it was packaged in glass containers. Common sense is not an innate trait that we are born with - it is learned and often the hard way....

TOH
 

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