Farmer killed

Heard on the news today that a south Saskatchewan fellow was killed when the chain that he was using to pull another tractor broke stricking him in the head. No details other than aged 68 years old and location were released.

makes me think twice about pulling trees down from 15 feet high. Also makes me think hard about using stretched chain.

Yes chains are very dangerous, must use them with much respect. This is why most people are switching to nylon straps around our area.

There was a very respected man here in Highland that was pulling some broken limbs out of one of his trees after a storm and one of the limbs fell on him and he didn't survive.

Our prayers are with these families.

Nylon straps are notorious killers.

Nylon straps like any form of pulling device can be killers BUT it is often because people try to use damaged stuff.

A little cut in a nylon strap; a few broken wires in a cable; or a stretched link in a chain; and all this stuff is just a accident waiting to happen.

I'm no physicist nor engineer; I'm an uneducated, barely literate, retired dirt farmer. However, I have used chains (we call 'em log chains, locally) thousands of times for almost 60 years. I understand the energy in a (stretched) cable, strap, rubber band, tree limb,etc, but I've never understood how a chain USED CORRECTLY has ANY energy beyond the force of gravity. Of all the hundreds we've broken over the years, they all simply fell to the ground in place. I understand that if there is slack in the chain and it is jerked, it can rebound if it breaks or comes unhitched. Anyone who uses a chain in such a fashion almost deserves the consequences. I know some folks will swear that their 'neighbor' was just pulling a 'stuck' tractor and the chain broke and all the energy it had somehow gathered up caused it to fly through the air, breaking out the rear cab window and killing the operator. I remain unconvinced..............

Can happen that way, but can't you drape like a heavy moving blanket or similar over the chain when in use to dampen the effect if it were to break ?

One really has to respect any kind of rigging like this, can't measure in quantity of force imposed when pulling something, so most times you have no idea, then add a chain or cable that is compromised, maybe you missed that, did not inspect it carefully for flaws, or you just grossly overload it, towed item is really stuck so you put it to 'er, something that gets good traction like a crawler, don't take much sometimes. Big time judgment call as to when enough is enough, go too far, could break, straighten a hook etc.


While on a job site grading residential home pads, some of the new inexperienced operators, decided to pull/unstuck a vibratory roller, they also decided to pull it through a wet/deep muck area, was shorter that way, then say using the road, which was dry. The result was that the roller acted like a boat anchor through that mud, the chain snapped, ( so did I ) and a piece of the chain link came off flying, hit the post on the R.O.P.S. on the D5 Cat I was operating, it left a nice indent on that upright. Not long after, one of the clowns involved in this was running his mouth at breaktime, and all these new inexperienced operators the company kind of desperately hired to get things moving to make up for lost inclement weather time had been doing some real stupid things on site. I told the guy how much I appreciated that flying chain link, it turned into a breaktime brawl, was great actually, really blew off some steam, nailed him good, that piece of link came off like a bullet, one should really exercise some care when it comes to rigging.

If the chain is wrapped around someting horizontal, like an axle, for instance, with the chain going over the top of the axle, wrapping around the axle and hooked to itself, if the hook breaks the chain will unwrap itself from the axle and fly up in the air. It will not just fall harmlessly to the ground. If the chain is horizontal to the ground when it is being pulled, and it breaks in the middle, then it will usually just slide harmlessly underneath the towing vehicle. BTDT many times pulling out stuck combines.

Last fall we had a chain embed itself in a truck grille because the young bucks hooked the rope to the tractor with a 5/16 chain and the tractor drawbar was lower than the truck. Two sins were commited there.Jim

A local farmer had a fairly flat farm for many years, and always had a log chain wrapped around the rear axle of his Farmall tractor. The hooks were always swinging side to side, as he drove around. Never had a problem.
Then, he sold the farm to a developer, and moved to a hilly piece of ground, several miles away, and took the tractor with him when they moved. One day, after several years there, he didn't come home for lunch, so his daughter went to find him. She did---with the tractor upside down and him clutching the steering wheel to his chest--stone dead! And, the logging chain wrapped around the axle and caught on one of the wheel spokes! It seems that the swinging chain and being on a slanted hill-side, the hook caught in the spoke, wrapped up, and pulled the tractor over backwards!
In an article i read here, you have less than 10 seconds to get your foot on the clutch to stop the action! It sez, by the time you realize what is happening, it is too late to stop it!

Seen two clowns I use to haul logs for hook a 518 cat skidder to a tangeld tag line on 98 link belt, did not take this child long to find a real big tree for cover. When that chain broke it sent the hook and one link back into the opt. cab, how they remain alive is unknowen to me.

I don't think it could happen that way, the axle has to be rotating in order for the pinion to climb the bull gear, resulting in a "wheelie'. Chaining the wheel to the chassis would be no different than standing on a brake. I might buy that, locking one wheel at a decent speed, throwing him sideways and over, but not over backwards.

You get use to just useing the chains when needed. But being safe with them sometimes is lost in many other thougths at time of use.
This info is just a good reminder to remember .. be safe out there with them.

This poor fellow should be a lesson to all of us. To take a moment and think about what we are doing. Instead of just thinking hurry,hurry,faster,faster.

I believe he meant the axle housing. If you wrap the chain over it and back under to itself. If it broke at the hook or anywhere under the axle it would unwind back over the top of the housing and fly up and back.

have a picture on my desk of a very good freind ,and lovely young lady,who was killed when she pulled out in front of a truck that was hauling a scraper.truck driver locked up brakes and trailer jacknifed, scraper broke the chains and laid right over on top of her 72 nova,broke every bone in her body.I respect what a chain can do when they give up,saw one go right through the back of a 2 ton truck once.

You're in luck... I am an engineer by profession... Farmer by birth...

A chain is nothing but a bunch of smaller rigid rubber bands intertwined. Each link, when pulled on deforms and stretches... such a small amount that you cannot visibly discern it... It also takes A LOT of of force to stretch it that small amount... A chain under tension to the point of yield has so much potential energy that it is literally a loaded gun. All it takes is for one of those links to be stressed such that it surpasses it's yield point and is pushed enough to rupture... All of those individual links under great stress and strain contract as the energy is released and that is why chains will come back at their anchor point many times... Wrapping a rag around em or throwing a blanket over them, is used to absorb energy should it be released suddenly during a failure of a link... Once that chain gets moving it has quite a bit of inertia and they act just like a whip...

When i was a young boy I saw my father take a binder handle between the eyes... He snapped it and she didn't quite cam over and he wasn't using a pipe like he should have been... came back and that ball at the end of the handle left a 22 stitch gash...knocked a 240 lb man out cold... Happened so fast I didn't even see the handle reach out and touch him and come back to rest... I was standing right there and saw the whole thing happen... Remember it clear as day... Thought he had had a heart attack until i saw all of the blood.