Man dies after being trapped under rear tires of his tractor

[1Mech]

??? I have two tractors. Neither has an "emergency brake". If you get off the tractor you put the transmission in the Park position - no provision for any brake to be on when parked.

My old B414 International has a parking brake, similar to what was found in old trucks.

 

[scootr]

My Terex had a cable operating pull lever that locked one rear wheel. Not much...
The MX has a brake pedal lock. It is a manual cog and catch type that works pretty good but it's easy to forget so I added a flashing warning light in the dash and one near the step to get on the tractor.

 

[WinterDeere]

??? I have two tractors. Neither has an "emergency brake". If you get off the tractor you put the transmission in the Park position - no provision for any brake to be on when parked.

My old B414 International has a parking brake, similar to what was found in old trucks.

Interesting history on these terms. Before dual-reservoir brake master cylinders, it was required that all road vehicles have an “emergency brake”. There are requirements built into that term, that the brake must be able to stop the vehicle from a certain speed in a certain amount of time, I don’t recall the numbers now.

The idea was that, on these single-reservoir systems, any single brake line or piston seal failure could cause the entire system to depressurize, and you’d lose your brakes. I’d guess older members here can tell us how common this was.

Then when the safer dual-reservoir brake master cylinders became a thing, the requirements for the auxiliary brake were reduced from emergency stopping to just parking, and the name of these systems is “parking brake”.

Every tractor I’ve ever owned has had a parking or emergency brake, and to my recollection, they’ve all worked the same:

1. Press brake pedal as hard as you want.
2. Pull a lever or engage a stop that locks the brake on at that pressure.

On some of the oldest tractors I’ve owned, (Cub 123 and maybe the Bolens 1030), the parking brake was a stop lever on the pedal itself, so you’d adjust its tension by adjusting the pedal linkage. But all would work to keep the tractor from creeping, even if the HST center zero fell an little out of whack.

 

[scootr]

I had an old Pontiac that had brake failure and the emergency brake was really more of a slow down not stop brake. Of course it could have needed adjustment ?
Todays electronic park brakes are just that and can't be deployed while moving. I just realized most all of my vehicles have the old lever style E brake.

 

[WinterDeere]

Parking brakes are notoriously poorly-maintained on automatic transmission vehicles, just out of pure dis-use, especially those driven by someone who didn't first learn on manual. I think inspection places also don't often bother checking its operation, even though they should, and I've bought more than one used vehicle where the parking brake was completely rusted and non-functional.

I had just replaced the parking brake shoes (drum-in-disc) rig on my pickup, and set the initial drag a week or two before my last inspection. Of course everything "wore in" a bit, and needed re-adjustment after the first week or two, right when my inspection came up. I was pleasantly surprised to learn they actually checked that as part of their inspection, when the dealership called me to say my parking brake needed adjusting.

 

[Jstpssng]

Parking brakes are notoriously poorly-maintained on automatic transmission vehicles, just out of pure dis-use, especially those driven by someone who didn't first learn on manual

I believe that I posted here a few years ago, asking how many people used theirs. I have seen the parking pawl fail to engage, so set the brake anytime that I park on a hill.

Especially when I am out in my field with the truck parked uphill, and I'm using the tailgate as a work table.

 

[jyoutz]

My Terex had a cable operating pull lever that locked one rear wheel. Not much...
The MX has a brake pedal lock. It is a manual cog and catch type that works pretty good but it's easy to forget so I added a flashing warning light in the dash and one near the step to get on the tractor.

My MX has a parking brake warning light on the dash as a standard feature.

 

[scootr]

My MX has a parking brake warning light on the dash as a standard feature.

A dim light under a dust covered plastic lens was not enough for my old eyes.
Drive off with it on twice when the tractor was new to me. That's when I decided to put a bigger yellow flashing light on it...

 

[RayIN]

I worked with a few bad horses in my day. One I remember would bite at me when groomed. One day I saw him coming at my back side in the shadows and met his mouth with a hard bristled brush. I continued to set him up , and punish him like that until he was sure I had eyes in the back of my head.

I was at a buddy's barn one day, he was showing me a horse he just bought. as I approached the stall he said, careful he bites.
Just then the horse pinned back his ears and poked his head over the wall.
I quickly grabbed his nose and gave it a hard twist, and screamed.
That horse jumped back and went to the far side of the stall.
My buddy said, why'd you do that?
I said, the horse now thinks I bit his nose, he'll think it over before biting again.
A few months later my buddy told me he thinks I cured the horse of biting people.

We gotta think like a horse to train one.

Back to the topic. Today I tried to lift a log with my FEL forks. I was on a gentle hillside and the LR wheel began to lift off the ground. I lowered the FEL, backed out, and reminded myself to never do that again.
Things happen in a heartbeat.

 

[Gator6x4]

I was at a buddy's barn one day, he was showing me a horse he just bought. as I approached the stall he said, careful he bites.
Just then the horse pinned back his ears and poked his head over the wall.
I quickly grabbed his nose and gave it a hard twist, and screamed.
That horse jumped back and went to the far side of the stall.
My buddy said, why'd you do that?
I said, the horse now thinks I bit his nose, he'll think it over before biting again.
A few months later my buddy told me he thinks I cured the horse of biting people.

We gotta think like a horse to train one.

Back to the topic. Today I tried to lift a log with my FEL forks. I was on a gentle hillside and the LR wheel began to lift off the ground. I lowered the FEL, backed out, and reminded myself to never do that again.
Things happen in a heartbeat.

I have a ballast box i use when I think the item I am going to pick up exceeds 150 pounds. One will be surprised how quickly weight on the forks on a tractor will raise the rear wheels off the ground. Take pulling T-Post up for example. Hook a chain to one and start trying to lift and the rear wheels start trying to lift up and the post does not move.