Look's like it's unanimous that not being able to run pto while tractor is in reverse is a stupid excuse for safty. Also look's like ROPS get's thumbs up. IMO ROPS probably saves more injuries by preventing operator being hit by low limbs than actual roll overs. I thank each of you for your opinions because I was begining to think I under appreciate some safty features. Being born on a farm and operating a tractor unsupervised by age 10,I'd like to share what i saw and heard about accidents. Pto driven rotory cutters (aka bush hogs) tied with corn hearvesters as most dangerous for resulting in serious injury and death. Thank goodness those "corn pickers" was replaced long ago by more effecient and safer hearvesters. The problem was they often jammed up with stalks and cobs and was near impossible to unjamb without starting and stopping machine while pulling on debris. Needless to say a fair number of people got caught up in them. Rotory cutters have been improved but remain the deadlyest implement in common use to day. The biggest improvement was actually tractors coming out with Live PTO. Hard to believe but until early 60s you couldn't stop most tractors until cutter stopped turning which took about 10 to 30 feet depending on gear and amount of grass at the moment. i hear you when you say pto covers can be a real pita but think twice before removing it. More than a few bodies or what was left have been discovered after operator got near shaft and it grabbed their clothing. A simple to build and install shield behind operator will reduce your odds of injury more than all the factory installed combined. All right-of-way mowing tractors without cabs have them. Eventhough you know there wasn't anything in your field when you mowed several times before, illeagal disposal of trash is always a possability. And you can expect to hit something every time you mow public road in front of your place. A piece of expanded metal mounted to ROPS could save you one day.
How safe would you like your tractor to be?
- Thread starter jaxs
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4570Man
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There’s a big difference in building something straight up dangerous and saddling something with a bunch of nuisance crap. Most equipment of yesteryear= straight up dangerous. Putting a neutral start switch on a HST tractor, no pto in reverse, borderline seat switch, most pto guards = nuisance crap.
The guard on my Kubota tilts up and I keep the PTO shaft greased with 00 grease. Hooking up implement shafts aren't that difficult for me. I even find that the ring type which most seem to hate goes on easier than pin type; I can switch the shafts back and forth between my winch and tiller. The only exeption is my old IH mower; that shaft is all iron including the sleeve and so heavy that it's difficult to work with one hand.
When I was growing up my parents came back from a motorcycle ride and told of seeing somebody out mowing while their kids rode on the bush hog. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to breed.
Sound's like the guard you have is on tractor,the type everyone is complaing about is on the shaft between tractor and implement. I agree that hoods which cover u-joints at both ends are safe enough and don't interfer with hooking and un-hooking. While I was on my stump earlier I should have suggested people fabricate some to replace sleeves when they fab a shield behind seat.
I totally agree and if it were legal it would only take a couple of neighbors a few minutes to fix a man so he couldn't breed but then what about Z-turn & lawn mower rides, drunks and druggies with kids in cars? If society was serious about holding people liable more attention should be paid to this instead of enabling knotheads and lawyers to become wealthy because knothead burned his tongue tasting tractor exhaust.When I was growing up my parents came back from a motorcycle ride and told of seeing somebody out mowing while their kids rode on the bush hog. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to breed.
You are right, and I didn't mean that part of my comment literally. It was just one of those things which make you scratch your head and go "Huh?!?" If parents would listen to those of us who have never raised kids the world would be a lot better(?) off.
MoKelly
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When I was growing up my parents came back from a motorcycle ride and told of seeing somebody out mowing while their kids rode on the bush hog. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to breed.
Did your parents wear helmets while riding?
MoKelly
Yes. They also never let me ride on the mowing deck of his bush hog when my father was running it. I think that fact scarred me for life... I really wanted to see what it was like while he was mowing the nearby ski slope.