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Tractor seat belt usage if tractor rolls

P

Prawn Farmer

Member
Has anyone personally had a tractor roll over or rear-over backwards with them on it? Did you jump clear, stay on the tractor, have ROPs, have seat belt on?
 
I put a non ROPS tractor in the ditch when I was younger, jumped off the upper fender. I am delinquent now, have ROPS and do not wear seat belt.
 
For several years I did the investigations for manufactures over a three state area. I can tell you wearing a seat belt IF the unit has a rops is just a no brainer. You might get a broken limb or a knot on the head but will sure have a better chance coming out alive.
 
Had a customer get killed on a compact utility tractor the second day he had the tractor. He had ROPs and his seat belt on but he upset the tractor on a side hill right by a tree. The tree went in front of the roll guard. Killed him instantly.

So ROPS and a seat belt greatly increase your chances of no injury but do not guaranty it.
 
As a teenager I tipped a C Allis Chalmers on its side, going over a gravel pile in first gear. Just stepped off to the side as it slowly went over. Shut it off while the fan was spewing gravel, tightened up the battery caps and walked to the house. Ummmm, I...I...tipped ...the tractor....
 
While I was bushhogging this afternoon, JD Seller, actually, you are the person that kinda' got me thinking about this from your post a couple of weeks or so ago about mowing on steep banks. In addition to my annual August corn/soybean fields perimeters, I have 5 ponds to mow the dams on. I use a canopy ROPS equipped 2630 with a Bush-Hog 2610 batwing. I have 5 weights hanging on the front and the rears are full of calcium cloride. The tractor's previous owner changed out the seat with a generic type so it has no seat belts. Think I might look into replacing them in the very near future.
 
If you operate a tractor within REASON on steep slopes, and hitch properly below the C/L of the rear axle, a backwards flip ain't gonna happen.

Better to learn how to avoid that scenario than to hope to survive it!!!
 
I just shake my head when I see someone who should know better doing something absent minded. We passed a farm near me a couple weeks ago where a gentleman probably in his 70's was mowing a ditch with a medium size early 90's JD on a side hill. It was a slight grade that normally wouldn't be a problem to sidehill, except he had the loader clear to the top of its travel! Looked at my kids and told them never to do that. Did not read about him in the paper,so I guess it came out ok.
 
As a teenager I tipped a IH H on its side. Trying to put a log on truck with loader. It sent me flying. Learned a lesson on center of gravity the hard way. Lucky the tractor's back wheel landed on a log to keep the tractor off me.
 
I have a little kubota tractor with ROPS and I was doing some dirt work and had a load of dirt in the bucket when I ran one wheel in a hole I didn't know was there and turned the tractor over on it's side. Had it not been for the ROPS it would have rolled completely over. I had my seat belt on so I rode it down without injury.
 
Backwards flip, no, but a tractor can sure start to slide sideways and tip. I would think tractors with 3-point mowers would be more prone than a tractor pulling a batwing?
 
That's exactly where my line of thought was while mowing yesterday. Seems like there is a higher percentage of us older guys that get our names in the paper for things like that, in spite of years of experience.I have seen at least 3 incidents in the paper this year and all were seniors. Once heard that wisdom is something you get a minute after you need it.
 
The guys that mow the road right of way wear seatbelts. They flop one over occasionally.
 
A couple things I remember dad saying: When driving on a slope of a hill drive slow, it only takes a rock on one side and a hole on the other to tip. And....Always keep the loader low to the ground.
 
I had an uncle with Model H and Farmhand stacker/loader. They tipped it regularly- built-in roll cage!
 
I spent many years using a JD 4640 and a 15 ft batwing mowing some of the worst, steep roadsides in the county. It had axle mount dual hubs. I always took the duals off as I liked the cleaner look. Ten front suitecase weights up front too. The dual hubs came in handy one day when I got in a slushy part of a ditch bottom and it sent me to one side. Hit the diff lock and rode the side of the ditch out until it got better and went back to all 4s. I remember nearly having to change my shorts that day, but that was truly the worst "close call" I had. I really liked using the larger tractor for vantage point to see, the weight, cab for safety and I wasn't the target for all the gravel the road commissioner scraped off the road into the ditch during the winter, plus the power in the event I had to get out of trouble. Seat belt and flashers were on before I left the yard. At times I wish I had a 5 point harness instead of a lap belt. Thank you Lord for technology, but thank you Lord for a father who loved me enough to teach me how to use it correctly.
 
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