What causes tractor rollovers?

[Lstlk2hi]

Was stationed at Nakhon Phanom airbase in Thailand and learned that choppers do stay in air, mostly. Couple of newest tech, in 1975, (Apaches(?), Blackhawk(?) *I know they were NOT Blackbirds*, (below is an Aardvark trimmed for speed.))

came down to Almaden AFS (last duty site above San Jose, CA) to show off their new toys. Things those guys did blew our minds. They did figure 8s, vertically, taking turns upside/rightside. Amazing war bird flyers out of the Presidio in San Francisco. A few minutes after scheduled time felt more than heard a low throb and one slowly rose in front of us. But WAIT the 2nd one is doing same behind us. Good imitation of 2 hind pincer tactic. It helped a bit that the radome and ops center were on knife edge ridge. I'm sure the drivers would have come up with a different and just as skilled nod then laughter to US AF air-dales.
I'm with you on sphincter phactor, anything past 8 is front and rear anchors dropped, outriggers also if so equipped and then a bit of prayer that the slide b4 roll is true and I'll choose right moment in correct direction. So far in 60 years the worst was watching right track carry on as RD2 cranked left. Putting track back on wasn't too bad. Then slipped 1 inch blocks between ram end and track spreader. Avatar is how not to park MF and don't grade road uphill. Long walk back to get charged battery.

 

[bmg88201]

Gravity is what causes rollovers, lol

 

[Gator6x4]

Gravity is what causes rollovers, lol

Gravity is a constant. Operator error is what causes roll overs.

 

[Richard]

I have to cross a dam to get home. On the sides of the actual dam, are the hills that support the road. I look at those and though they are NOT at 45 degree angles, when you are driving in traffic, only able to glance at them they look like they are 45 degree....

I see they always keep them cut. To the point you can see the lines in the grass SIDEWAYS where the mower is going sideways verses up/down the slope.

Perplexed me for years because I always felt, and still do, the best way to cut something like that is up/down verses sideways.

Then....one day, I saw the answer.

It was a mower. It DID have a driver on it. It WAS going sideways. However on the uphill side, it had a long cantilever that kept it from rolling sideways.

I have no idea if that cantilever could swing to opposite side. Either way, I see turning around an issue. If the cantilever was fixed, then the hill could only be cut from say, left to right verses right to left, lest the cantilever now be downhill.

In 20+ years of living here I've only seen that once. Grass is still being mowed so I guess they do it when I'm obviously not around..... start it up, cut it and get done.

it is a pucker hill.

 

[JWR]

Maybe the govt could just make your tractor shut off it gets on a 12º slope. Whould you be happy then?

Dear Gawd! Don't suggest it...

 

[ponytug]

I have to cross a dam to get home. On the sides of the actual dam, are the hills that support the road. I look at those and though they are NOT at 45 degree angles, when you are driving in traffic, only able to glance at them they look like they are 45 degree....

I see they always keep them cut. To the point you can see the lines in the grass SIDEWAYS where the mower is going sideways verses up/down the slope.

Perplexed me for years because I always felt, and still do, the best way to cut something like that is up/down verses sideways.

Then....one day, I saw the answer.

It was a mower. It DID have a driver on it. It WAS going sideways. However on the uphill side, it had a long cantilever that kept it from rolling sideways.

I have no idea if that cantilever could swing to opposite side. Either way, I see turning around an issue. If the cantilever was fixed, then the hill could only be cut from say, left to right verses right to left, lest the cantilever now be downhill.

In 20+ years of living here I've only seen that once. Grass is still being mowed so I guess they do it when I'm obviously not around..... start it up, cut it and get done.

it is a pucker hill.

Power-Trac, an American tractor company, manufactures a tractor and mower designed to mow 45 degree slopes, and often bought and used by folks maintaining dams. The operator's seat has an automatic tilt to keep the operator vertical.

TSM Class

Compact Tractors, Slope Mowers, Articulated Tractors, Tractor Attachments, Trailer Packages

www.power-trac.com

If you have to be on a slope, I think that it is worth considering if a tractor built for slopes can work for you.

I have lost two neighbors and known a third who died in rollovers. For all of them, the rollover altered the course of their entire families' lives. When I was younger, I nearly dropped a tractor into a ravine by missing a gear shift. The memory has stuck with me...and why I own, and use a Power-Trac on our rather hilly ranch.

Stay safe.

All the best,

Peter

 

[JWR]

Any machine that they claim will handle 45 degree slopes is spouting BULL. For starters it will slide sideways on almost any practical vegetated or soil surface long before it gets up to 45 degrees. Designed for very steep slopes? Sure. 45 degree slopes ? Bull.

 

[scootr]

What causes tractor rollovers?​

Same thing that causes Gun Violence. It's the operator.
It's not the tractor and it's not the gun, people.

 

[jwmorris]

Always operator error. Every industrial accident can be traced back to human error.

I would go as far as saying every accident involving a human, could be traced back to human error.

 

[Lstlk2hi]

While stationed at Almaden AFS near San Jose, CA 2 new Apaches and their pilots came down to show the 'airmen' who knew their stuff. It was AWESOME. The came in slow and low with one on each side of the ridge ops was sited. Then went into a show. We, all base residents and folks on shift were griping a little about late birds. Then felt a low throb through feet, then heard it and here are 2 matt black choppers with our group as their focal point. I'd just returned from NKP Thailand and it was now late August 1975. My fear of helicopters hadn't fully taken hold then and I watched the show w/o freaking. The US Army pilots did things that somewhat defied what was seen. During planned vertical figure 8s they went inverted at the top and continued on upside down. Some years later Med-Fly spraying was contracted out and used 6 spray choppers low, slow and noisy. My girlfriend would wake up to me trying to dig through concrete slab with heating coils using fingers. A few years after that my youngest sister hit a road embankment leaving our ranch, slid upside down for a good 150' and life flight was called in. They had a problem due to size of clearing. He made it down with some help and got her to the hospital. The final 'chopper' thing for me was watching large Firefighter whirlybirds taking off from a field near one of the houses with guys legs hanging out the door. The shovels and other things they were carrying morphed in my mind and I had to get off the ranch. Only to meet a frantic lady at the bottom gate who wasn't aware her husband had barreled in while practicing aerial maneuvers. The next door neighbor was a sole source heavy lifter rocket fuel manufacturer. They left a lot of ammonium perchlorate, Methyl Ethyl Ketone and Trichlorethylene in their soil, our soil and in our cattle/fishing lake. Damnable rocket scientists from Connecticut because they knew containing their poisons was not effective.

 

[Lstlk2hi]

I would go as far as saying every accident involving a human, could be traced back to human error.

Such as being in the wrong place at wrong time and watching Mt. Saint Helens blow? Accidents happen when outside of control danger occurs. Personally the worst way is if an orchard or disk pulling tracklayer (think D6) somehow stops and climbs the tracks until it overbalances and drops on its back. Next in line might be knocking down a power pole that puts live voltage on/in the tractor.

 

[Williy]

In the 70's some accidents were cause by reving up the engine
then popping the clutch to climb a hill front end shot over backwards and the driver was kaput! I could see low rpm's and
slowly let out the clutch to climb the hill the safe way. Any time
when the rpm's are over 2k never pop clutch as your tractor will
turn upside down in an instant. Some kids think they know it all!

willy

 

[jwmorris]

Such as being in the wrong place at wrong time and watching Mt. Saint Helens blow?

Only if you accidentally went there or slipped and fell. If you went there on purpose and it blew, it would just be a natural disaster. Not an accident.

 

[Lstlk2hi]

Only if you accidentally went there or slipped and fell. If you went there on purpose and it blew, it would just be a natural disaster. Not an accident.

Flew over it on way to Juneau, AK and it was lightly smoking. On the way back we couldn't see it because of cloud, ash, smoke but had seen a news clip before leaving Juneau after sisters wedding.

 

[kthompson]

I have use tractors for few years with boom mower. This past Friday I came as close as ever to a roll over on the side. I was using a rear 3pth flail mower with hyd offset. Mowing the side of rural road to the road ditch, as shallow as 18" up to about 30". Did not realize my mower was dragging in the ditch bank enough to slowly be pulling my tractor to the ditch. As I was realizing my tractor was drifting that way my right front tire dropped into the ditch and by the time I could stop my tractor the right rear wheel was sliding sideways into the ditch.

No problem I thought, put it in four wheel drive, lift mower and bring it in and back out. Only problem was the mower was both holding it up and helping it want to tip at the same time. So could not pull mower in and raise it clear of the ditch bank to back out. Ended fine with chaining to uphill lift arm and pulling to prevent it tipping on its side and enough pull to get it out the ditch.

What caused this? One I was mowing too fast for safety. I was almost home and just cutting the road shoulder so no problem...failure to realize my mower was pulling my tractor towards the ditch with dragging in the ditch. Speed kills.

Want to add something here. I worked for a mobile crane manufacture a few years ago. We tested ever machine we made with driving up a test slope for brakes, ability to lift the rated loads and tipping radius. We would fully tip test every machine on outriggers and rubber. We never had a safety issue for we always move SLOWLY with loads near the ground. As soon as the load touch the tipping motion stopped. Had it been done fast or with load high, the momentum would or could have continued the tipping of the crane.

Be careful out there.

 

[John0829]

Inattention to what we are doing will get or come close to getting everyone of us at some point, it's not a matter of if but when. That is why I it bothers me for people to be listening to music or whatever when operating a machine. It's a distraction pure and simple. One that I will not allow anyone operating a piece of machinery to do if it is my machine or working around me. I want full attention on the task at hand, no matter how boring or mind numbing it might be, not the next song on a play list.

 

[5030]

136 comments and it all distills down to an idiot behind the wheel.

 

[CliffordK]

The ones I've seen have large counterweights on one side, I'd say they mow in one direction to keep that side uphill.
Lots of JDs up this way, though maybe those are in N.H.

If the tractor has a boom mounted flail, then it will have a counterbalance on the other side. I.E. The ones mowing ditches, along fences, and mowing brush back away from the sides of the road.