Using bucket as work platform.

[patrick_g]

But let's admit that this thread reached its high point with Spyderlk's post #185.

Risk vs perceived gain does sort of sum it up!

Most folks can't accurately quantify the risk and their perception of gain is suspect as well.

Not to be a racist but... I note that most of the pictures depict folks who are typically thought of as holding human life cheaper than most Americans. If someone wants to emulate them AND I don't have to pay more taxes to cover their injury or loss then that is fine. I have often thought we could use a little more chlorine in the gene pool and letting ignorance of risk , a false sense of bravado, or misplaced imperatives regarding freedom of choice substitute for a dose of chlorine is just fine.

Pat

 

[davitk]

yep, and most of us hicks are to uneducumated to know them big words patrick is using, and we sertainly wouldn't be capable of any risk quantification if'n we had to use more'n our 9 fingures and 8 toes.

 

[Soundguy]

So taking a risk = stupid. Perhaps there are other ways to generalize stupid with higher accuracy.
larry

Yeah.. there are those.. like int he safety forum that believe that just doing something that has the capacity to be less safe than when done with all the possibly safety features available.. that the worst WILL happen.. and you are stupif for it.

I think it's probably safe to say that most of us here that have a loader.. have stood in that bucket to get to something... knowing we may be taking a 10' fall if the hyds pop.. heck.. I'm as likely to just step off the bucket / manlift platform as it is to just fail! Guess we all need fall restraint harnes's now to put the xmas lamps on our gutters!!!

soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

I think there is a modicum of difference in the risks we see fellow tbn'rs taking here and those neat pics we see of .. uh.. probably 3rd world countries with a truck propped up at a 45' angle with a single 2x4 with a guy laying under the truck welding up the gas tank support .. and standing in your loader bucket 8' off the ground to reach something...

soundguy

Risk vs perceived gain does sort of sum it up!

Most folks can't accurately quantify the risk and their perception of gain is suspect as well.

Not to be a racist but... I note that most of the pictures depict folks who are typically thought of as holding human life cheaper than most Americans. If someone wants to emulate them AND I don't have to pay more taxes to cover their injury or loss then that is fine. I have often thought we could use a little more chlorine in the gene pool and letting ignorance of risk , a false sense of bravado, or misplaced imperatives regarding freedom of choice substitute for a dose of chlorine is just fine.

Pat

 

[Soundguy]

One issue is reporting. I've been up on my loader dozens of times.. all successfully.. Idon't usually report in about it. However.. if I had had a hyds failure.. I'd be reportin in about it.. look at the statistics there.. it's look like I only had 1 instance of being inthe bucket.. and 1 instance of it failing.. that's bad odds. If you jump that up to double or triple digits to 1.. ain't so bad... Heck.. space shuttle is getting those odds when it goes up next..

as for falling and hurting ones self.. don't even have to be doing something exotic like climbing a ladder.. I knew a gal a few years back that her husband woke up at night and went to the kitchen to get a drink.. reached for the fridge , missed.. tripped.. fell, broke his leg, arm and elbow.. just from falling from a standing position.. he wasn't rickety either.. guy was about 5'8 and 165-175# maybee.. avarage build paramedics said good thing he wasn't standing on the counter.. with his luck.. mighta killed him!

soundguy

Yes, there are risks in everything. One of my friends who is (was) a fireman and was skilled in climbing ladders fell off one while painting a house breaking a leg, arm, ribs and a vertebrae. My neighbor in the next horse barn down the street fell off a ladder and is now paralyzed from the waist down. One of my best friends fell off a ladder and lost full use of his right hand and had to change occupations. All this within a period of 1 year.

I have many friends who have used a fel as a lift and none have ever been hurt. Perhaps people are more careful on a fel than a ladder as they know they are risky.

 

[dogtired]

This worked well for a recent project

View attachment 110737

When will we see the
" here hold my beer : pic ?

 

[AlanB]

Something I have wondered several times, and this seems an appropriate time to ask the question.

Trying to phrase this so I get direct actual responses.

A: who has had a loader suddenly "drop" fall or whatever on them or seen it first hand?

B: Who has had a loader hyd cylinder or hose fail?

They are two seperate questions, because I have had 2 loader hose failures on my tractor, and one on a bobcat, and at no time did my bucket "fall"

Many times when people talk about these hose failures you would think the bucket comes crashing out of the sky, but that has not been my experience, my belief is that when that line fails, it acts much like a shock absorber allowing metered release (albeit you are not metering it) of the fluid and allows for steady descent.

All three times I have seen a hydraulic failure, I have been able to continue operation of the bucket / loader becuase the pump was pumping more then the leak was leaking and I did not operate long enough to be out of fluid.

So, who here has actually witnessed the "hydraulic line blows, the bucket drops like a rock" scenario? Not asking if it is possible, just who has seen it.

Survey say's?

 

[Soundguy]

As you mentioned.. i've had leaks.. but not catastrophic ones.. in both cases.. gaskets or orings blew, reducing hyd capacity.. but the pump kept the load in the air... and shot oil out as you used the hyds.

soundguy

 

[Egon]

like a rock" scenario?

I have. Cat 988 loader.

D9H U blade.

 

[Soundguy]

That looked like a dangerous situation---the rops was not up.
C-YA RL

IG.. your pm must be turned off.. I tried to pm you.

soundguy

 

[AlanB]

I have. Cat 988 loader.

D9H U blade.

So it blew a line, and instantly dropped too the ground?

 

[InspectorGadget]

IG.. your pm must be turned off.. I tried to pm you.

soundguy

I thought I turned it on. I must not know how to get there. HELP
C-YA RL

 

[Soundguy]

It's in your user control panel.

soundguy

 

[InspectorGadget]

It's in your user control panel.

soundguy

I added you as a contact--try it now.
C-YA RL

 

[crashz]

While digging out a truck, I blew a bucket cylinder hose. I was working the little tractor hard, and the bucket curl let go. I don't remember it being a drop, as it was close to the ground, it just wouldn't respond. The hose actually completely seperated, so it pumped a good amount of fluid out. I saw the fluid stream and shut down the tractor.

So I suppose its perfectly possible that a hose could blow and either the bucket dumps you out or the boom lowers you. But from what I have seen it moves slow enough for the person to be able to react appropriately.

I won't fear a hydraulic failure but more importantly a tire failure. I was using forks and a palette to load 45' trailers with our equipment last fall when I must have hit a nail with the front right tire. I had raised the load and set the edge of the palette on the edge of the open trailer, climbed in and began unloading the palette. When I was done, I hopped back in the tractor, started it up and thankfully lifted before backing up. As I lifted the right tire gave way and the palette slid into the trailer wall. Had I backed up, I think it would have tipped over.

 

[GeneD14]

Here is a platform I used to clean my vinyl siding at my last house.

 

[Rara Avis]

Unnamed TBN members caught in the act of using their FEL as a work platform...

It could have occured in SC...I think the tractor is orange...

 

[N80]

Well, that's not me in THAT picture. But I am in SC, I do have an orange tractor and I do use my bucket as a work platform. Not often and with great caution and usually at pretty low levels.

Could not have built my tractor shed without it.

 

[Soundguy]

Nice lookin barn..

soundguy