MountainWoods
New member
One of the reasons I signed up for an account on these forums was to ask how to do something; but I went ahead and did it before I ever got around to asking the question!
John Deere has some ergonomic issues (such as no seatbelt extenders for us heftier farmers, but that's a different issue).
Having to step up 19 inches from ground to the one step below the operator platform is hard on folks like me that have back issues. A day of tractor work (on my 4120) can be painful after a lot of these large steps getting on and off.
Some C channel from a friend of mine, some expanded metal (I already had from other projects) for a non-skid surface, some chain and cable clamps, and I have a swinging step -- only 11 inches from ground to its surface.
The wheels are in line with the steps, so John Deere didn't omit a second step to avoid hitting something front-on, because the wheel would have already hit it. So I guess they were concerned about turning into something and mangling a lower step. This is why I chose to make a swinging step. If I turn into something, the step will just be bounced away or over it.
When I'm satisfied with using it for a while, I'm going to paint the step and the chain links, except the quick links at the top that connect it to the JD step. You can guess which color I'll paint it. For me, I found that if I use the ball and pad part of my right foot to step on the swinging step, then I can quickly get my left foot up to the JD step, and so on.
Oh, about the seat belt issue. I've tried custom seatbelt suppliers and they all say the same thing: We can't match your John Deere seatbelt. Wonderful! So I simply bolted on a seatbelt set from somewhere (don't remember where, it was so long ago, probably O'Reilly). But it doesn't retract, and I don't like having to have 2 complete seatbelts for the operator. Just a few inches of seatbelt extender would work, until I work off the need for it.
John Deere has some ergonomic issues (such as no seatbelt extenders for us heftier farmers, but that's a different issue).
Having to step up 19 inches from ground to the one step below the operator platform is hard on folks like me that have back issues. A day of tractor work (on my 4120) can be painful after a lot of these large steps getting on and off.
Some C channel from a friend of mine, some expanded metal (I already had from other projects) for a non-skid surface, some chain and cable clamps, and I have a swinging step -- only 11 inches from ground to its surface.
The wheels are in line with the steps, so John Deere didn't omit a second step to avoid hitting something front-on, because the wheel would have already hit it. So I guess they were concerned about turning into something and mangling a lower step. This is why I chose to make a swinging step. If I turn into something, the step will just be bounced away or over it.
When I'm satisfied with using it for a while, I'm going to paint the step and the chain links, except the quick links at the top that connect it to the JD step. You can guess which color I'll paint it. For me, I found that if I use the ball and pad part of my right foot to step on the swinging step, then I can quickly get my left foot up to the JD step, and so on.
Oh, about the seat belt issue. I've tried custom seatbelt suppliers and they all say the same thing: We can't match your John Deere seatbelt. Wonderful! So I simply bolted on a seatbelt set from somewhere (don't remember where, it was so long ago, probably O'Reilly). But it doesn't retract, and I don't like having to have 2 complete seatbelts for the operator. Just a few inches of seatbelt extender would work, until I work off the need for it.
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