Roll Overs

[RoyJackson]

We read a lot about tractor safety. We all (most of us, anyway) have experienced a "pucker factor"...and that seems to include folks with a lot more hours then I have.

Now, has anyone on TBN actually rolled their machines or any machine (not including cars or trucks...lawn tractors would be OK, though)?

Just curious...

 

[Mark_in_NH]

This wasn't a personal experiance for me, but it sure hit close to home. approx. 1.5 yrs ago. The 15 yr. old Son of a Good Friend and highschool chum was using his grandparents lawn tractor to pull his snowmachine out of the shed to work on it.
Nobody seems to know what happend and most likely never will. His grandparents found him dead, underneath the turned over tractor. Rescue personal said that even if they had been there when it happend, they could not have saved him. The crushing injury was to swift and severe.
That was a funeral that I really did not like having to attend. It was a very teary one all around.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Roy:
Not personally, but a friend rolled our 2240 John Deere with bucket. He had been using it in a hollow, smoothing where a new pipe had been run. He then went up a steep path, heading toward a horse barn. Unbeknownst to him, one of the horse fanciers had decided that since the manure spreader was broken, and a manure pile unacceptable, the appropriate way to dispose of the stall muck was to dump it over the hill. Add a little rain, and we had a stretch of path that you couldn't even stand on, let alone negotiate with a tractor. When the 2240 started to slide and turn, the operator departed safely over the uphill tire, and the tractor turned over on its side. The ROPS caught it, so if he had had his belt on properly and ridden it down, he probably wouldn't have been hurt, but he now uses the incident as an argument not to use the belt.
No one was hurt in the turnover; nor was anyone hurt during the process of righting the tractor, letting the fluids drain back over night, and then driving it off the hill. You've never seen as careful a group of people as we were after the rollover.
Nothing was said to the horse fancier. We merely changed the terminology. The manure pile is now a compost heap, and therefore acceptable. And that particular path is not likely to be used again by a tractor. It shouldn't have been, even before the manure made it a snowboard chute.

 

[Harv]

I can only add to the "had a friend" stories.

A buddy of mine (a downright genius/physicist) was taking his relatively new Bobcat (one of the larger models) up a dirt road on his property. Not too steep of a grade, but it skirted the side of a hill which dropped down maybe a vertical 20 feet. Although not his first trip up there, he discovered this time that that the shoulder was soft and the tractor was heavy. He said it started in slow motion -- he had plenty of time to think about what was about to happen, ran through all the possibilites in his mind, and had no choice but to ride it out. After one and a quarter revolutions, he lay at the bottom of the hill, Bobcat on its side, and thought, "that wasn't so bad".

He was totally uninjured and the Bobcat suffered only minor damage. The hardest part was getting a tow truck into position to pull it upright again. I gotta say that I'm favorably impressed with the Bobcat's cage, restraint system and its durability. Them's is tough machines.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

When I was around 13 I rolled a rear engine lawnmower over backwords onto me. Put me in the hospital for a couple days and screwed up my back pretty good, I still have problems with it and being in my 20's feel like I am in my 50's. I stopped the rider on a hill facing up to move a glass beer bottle someone decided to toss there and popped the clutch when I took back off and that was all she wrote. Best thing about it was my dad was cooking steaks for my sisters birthday at the time and ended up leaving them on the grill while they were attending to me. My sister still hasn't forgave me for that one./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I learned a lesson that day though and have never had a close call since. All lawnmowers should have a rops on them no matter how stupid they look. Take care and be safe no matter what you are using.

 

[EdKing]

Lets see, lawn tractors, to numerous to count. I have flipped them sideways, and "wheelied" them over as well. Just jump off and wait for tractor to stop moving, then shut it down if it already hasn't, and flip it back over. I have rolled my atv a few times. Much harder to right as it ways a lot more than any of my lawn tractors. I even rolled a self propeled DitchWitch twice when I rented it. Once when the bridge I was driving it over broke as I was 2/3 the way across, and once when driving it up to the cistern. Had to get my friends wrecker to get it out of the creek when the bridge broke. Needless to say, I am very careful on my big tractor, a lot more weight, much more likely to injure me, and more likely to cause costly repairs. This being said, I have had it on 3 wheels twice. Once when trying to tip an old spring trough with the FEL, it was just too heavy and the back of the tractor started to lift. The second time when moving a Chevy 350 engine off of a trailer, one of the front tires sank in a soft spot and the rear wheel started lifting up. I quickly lowered the FEL and backed out of the soft spot. I have a TiltMeter on my tractor, and 15 degrees sideways tilt has enough pucker factor that I try to avoid it if possible.

 

[ewoss3]

Roy I think I'm the one your looking for. Last summer I rolled our Kubota L3010 with 17 hours on the meter. I was in our south field along the road ditch hogging 3-5' weeds(we just bought the property) . Some no good sorry Sob had dumped a pile of oil pipe into the ditch, I hit the pipe and in less than a second was laying on the left side(contact on the ROPS and tires). Luckily there was no damage and it was only about 75 degrees lean. I unbuckled(not easy when you are hanging) and had to walk back to get the dodge and winch the tractor back upright. Lessons learned
1. don't mow so fast
2. wear your seatbelt
3. keep your hands on the wheel
4. always drive with your thumbs on the ouside or face of the steering wheel

I have rolled my jeeps a few times(rock crawling) and always remebered lessons 2,3 and 4.

 

[s1120]

Well, when I was a kid, I roled over an old[real old] Homelite garden tractor. I was going a little to fast, and went around a corner[I am always a little ahead of the times, this was pre lawn mower racing./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif] We it roled over on top of me and kept running. Rear ag tire digging at my leg. Luckly I was OK. Flipped it up, limped home, and no long term effects.[At least not that I know./w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif] I did learn to respect motor powerd stuff though. Um, at least till that atv accadent/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[GregGG]

Let me start off by saying I am kinda new to the whole tractor experience and I am 23 years old. About three years ago in the winter of '99 my parents moved to a new house with five acres of heavily wooded property. I was working part time so I could use extra cash. I started helping out with brush clearing and landscaping. It has been an adventure and major learning experience. My dad got a Ariens GT17 hydro tractor with the house and we started putting it to use. Well I was real dumb (and still am) and I decided to remove a few small trees by digging out all the roots and yanking them out with a chain attached to the back of the tractor. Yeah, you can guess that on the third tree I missed a substantial root and the tractor rotated around the back axle. I, fortunatly, jumped clear and the tractor ended up upside down right next to me. This tractor ,btw, has no ROPS, so we had to bend the seat and steering wheel back into shape but it was largly undamaged. Later that summer of 2000 I cut down a dead tree and cut it into small logs. I dragged a few across the lawn, but the last one had to be removed via their driveway. Their driveway has a bit of a lip at the edge and when I was dragging it onto the driveway, the end of the log caught on the lip and once again the tractor rotated around the rear axle and flipped. VERY QUICKLY! I was not so fortunate as to get off of it this time, as it flipped onto me and pinned my hip underneath the steering wheel and my other leg under the seat. Of course the automatic shut off sensor on the seat was not functioning so it continued to run and sputter while it was on top of me, also battery acid was leeking on my shirt. My dad (who had a broken right wrist in a sling) was there talking to the neighbor (A woman in her 50's who appearently has a lot of adrenaline) Quickly rolled it enough to get me free. SCAREY!!!. I ended up with a slightly smashed finger, and a small bruise on my hip. Talk about guardian angels! Again all we had to do was bend the seat into shape and replace the broken steering wheel, amazing! Me and my dad figured that tractor to weigh at least 900 pounds with the antifreeze filled tires. I'm lucky it wasn't a larger tractor. Needless to say I am much, MUCH more carefull with that thing, but I still use it. Incedentally, we have now ordered a Magnatrac 6000 Diesel with loader and backhoe (AND ROPS), so I intend to remember my hard learned lesson with all equipment. SAFTEY OVER SPEED. Also, IT AIN'T WORTH DYIN' FOR.

 

[looch]

See "small rollover" earlier in this forum.