Scary incident at Lowes

[BrentD]

Last Saturday I went to a nearby Lowes with my parents to help them pick out a new riding mower for the yard at their country cabin. Ended up picking out one of the 21hp Husqvarna's with the hydrostatic drives. We were in my dad's 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 so the mower was going to have to be loaded in the truck bed. We asked before we checked out if that would be OK and were told no problem. We pull up to the front by the mowers, they bring out their ramps and set them on our tail-gate and I was thinking to myself "those ramps look awfully steep and not very sturdy." The store guy gets on the mower, drives it around and heads up the ramps. Right as the front wheels reach the tailgate, the mower stalls. Not enough gas in the tank and it the steep angle of the ramps starved the engine. Since he was relatively flat, he waits a second, restarts the engine, and SLAMS the hydrostatic drive pedal down. I guess he must have been used to a clutch because he just put way too much pressure on that pedal. Of course, the rear wheels spun the ramps out from under the mower and the whole mower goes strait to the ground and nearly over backwards.

Fortunately my dad and another Lowe's employee were standing close enough to grab the mower before it went completely over backwards. The back of the mower and the back of the seat took the brunt of the fall and the driver wasn't even bruised, even though he said he was shaken up pretty bad. They drove the mower that fell back around the side of the building and got us another one, this time using the correct ramps that had straps that connected to the bumper of the truck, and they pushed the mower up the ramps rather than driving it.

 

[two_bit_score]

Did you get a video?

 

[Patches]

Why; do you wanna' sue

 

[Scooby074]

it happens all too fast. i gave up on plank style ramps several years ago.

now all i use is a 3fold aluminum ramp, that has ratcchet straps to fasten it to the truck.

its saved my bacon at least once. this year my plow on my four wheeler hung up on my bed as i was loading. if the ramp wasnt fastened, i whould have kicked out my ramp for sure.

heres what i got, around $300 on sale, but how much does a broken back or leg cost?

FULTON PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS TRI-FOLD ALUMINUM LOADING RAMP from Utility Vehicle / Side by Side

 

[RoyJackson]

WOW!! That sure is a scary anecdote!! Even a lawn tractor is heavy enough to kill a person if it back flips.

I always thought it was safer to back up ramps...isn't that the correct way to do it?

 

[jesnic]

I don't put anything I have to ride into the truck, into my truck bed. I was unloading my Polaris 700 Sportsman about 6 years ago and used the aluminum ramps, even strapped em to the bed. As I was backing off, right at the bottom of the ramp, the engine braking engaged and slowed the machine enough to flip me over backwards with the machine on top of me. I shattered all the lumbar supports in my spine. I was out of commision for about a month. To this day, I still have back trouble and pains. The shattered bones are still in my back, just tied up in the muscle. I now load and unload on a trailer ONLY.

 

[Thomas]

Dang..cat lives.

 

[ditzel]

I've been to that show before. about ten years ago, had fancy $200 aluminum ramps, went to load my shiny new polaris sportsman 500 in the back of my ford ranger. Gave it a little gas, as soon as the front wheels went from ramp to tailgate out flew the ramps, down came the frame of the quad onto the tailgage and put a nice bow in it and scared the crap out of me.
Lesson learned was to always ratchet tie the ramps to the rear bumper of the truck

 

[deepNdirt]

I have a clear picture of what the event might have looked like,
YouTube - LAWN MOWER ACCIDENT

 

[BrentD]

it happens all too fast. i gave up on plank style ramps several years ago.

The ramps they were using were solid aluminum ramps with a pretty good arc to the last 3 or 4 feet so they would be level with the bed after a certain point. At the point the guy hit the power, the mower itself was actually sitting pretty close to perfectly level. If he had eased the pedal down instead of stomping it, he probably would have made it without incident.

And the really stupid thing was they halfway acted like they expected us to take the mower that fell. We had to ask for a different one. And just out of curiosity we stopped by Lowes again this weekend and the mnower that fell off the truck bed was back in their line of "new" mowers. The scratches on the back and the slightly bent "hitch" were a dead giveaway.