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All y'all that skid with a farm tractor!!

Started by ADfields, July 21, 2003, 09:23:29 PM

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ADfields

I been real busy this summer and am still looking at a HUGE to-do list before snow!   But something at one of my neighbor's yesterday made me stop and take note.   He was skidding logs up to a landing with his farm tractor and now he is dead!!! :'(   The tractor went over backward on him on a creek bank and he is now in no need of logs to saw.   I just wanted to remind everyone to be safe and be sure you make it back home to the people that love youevery night!   Cutting corners just AIN'T worth it, do it right, do it safe!!!!!!!!!!!!! :P
Andy

Hear is all the fame a guy gets for this kind of thing.
http://www.adn.com/alaska_ap/story/3498918p-3530191c.html

Tom

How unfortunate and what a waste of human life.

Thanks for thinking of us.

chet

A needless and trajic loss of life. Andy do you know if his tractor flipped because of the incline or because of hitching above the rear axle.
Another needless lose of life happened here in the U.P. of Michigan this week. This acident was the result of chain saw injuries.
Be carefull guys and girls!   Please................ be carefull!
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

ADfields

The word is he had a draw bar on a 3 point hitch (without power down) pulling up a 4 foot tall creek bank and the log hung up on him.
Andy

chet

Neither of my two tractors have power down. But I will NEVER pull from the drawbar without stay bars to keep the drawbar from riding up.
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

WoodChucker

ADfields, sorry to hear about your neighbor, it sure makes you stop and think how easy it is to have an accident. I'm kind of new to tractors myself and I really enjoy using them, but I have to admit they scare me a little at times. But I guess thats a good thing because it keeps me on my toes and I don't take many chances if it can be helped.  

BTW, what is a "power down?" and is a "stay bar" that thing that looks kind of like a shock absorber? Sorry! :)

R.T.  
If a Husband & Wife are alone in the forrest fighting and no one is around to hear them, is he still wrong anyway?

Frank_Pender

Andy, it always good to be on the cautious side.  Sorry to hear of your neighbors tragedy.  We lost a young man in this area a few weeks ago due to careless with a combine rolling over him.  A pure waste of a fine young fella.    :'(

  The power down is when the hydraulic for the draw arms holds them in place without haveing to hook up the stabelizing bars to hold them in place.  (If I recall correctly)
Frank Pender

solidwoods

ADfields
Very sorry to hear about the loss, it does help others to pass on safety knowledge.
If possible, I tractor skid (Massey 150) driving the tractor in reverse.  I chain the log with the tip off the ground to the front of my tractor, and drive it in low reverse.  You pay for it in steering,traction, and neck pain, but for non extreme areas it is prety safe.
JIM
Ret. US Army
Kasco II B Band mill
Woodworking since 83
I mill & kiln dry lumber, build custom furniture, artworks, flooring, etc.
If you mill, you'll be interested in some of my work in one way or another.
We ship from our showroom.
N. Central TN.

Bibbyman

There is a good size creek meandering in and out of our farm.  One day I looked down and there was a backhoe working in the creek just above where my line went through.  As the land on that border had been broken up into smaller lots,  I didn't know any of my "neighbors" on that side.  So I went down to say Hi and see what was going on. (and would it effect me)  

Got down there to find one man running the backhoe building and entrance to the creek by knocking down the bank and filling in with gravel.  Another was watching and directing.  The one watching had a bandage around his head and scabs where the bandage didn't cover and a cast on one forearm and wrist.  

In the length of the conversation, he told that he'd been down in the creek a week or so earlier picking up rocks for a flowerbed or something.  He was using a Ford 8N or some equivalent with a platform on the back.  He was doing fine until he started up the bank and the tractor tipped backwards.  The platform kept it from going completely backwards but fell over on it's side - throwing him off and nearly penning him under.  He pointed to his head saying "That's how I got this."  "And did you brake you wrist too?" I asked.  "No." he said, "I did that a couple of days ago with a skill saw." :o
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Wudman

A few more gottchas from personal experience.  I've been involved with the family farm my entire life and would consider myself to be pretty well trained on using equipment....but that does not mean that things can't happen.  

My brother in law was taking a tractor and disk from our farm over to another that we lease.  A narrow woods path connects the two farms.  Cutting a turn a hair too short, the disc hung a small maple sapling and pulled it forward.  It struck him in the back and drove his body forward into the steering wheel.  The rim of the steering wheel collapsed down to the hub.  Luckily, he was not seriously hurt, but this could have been a fatal accident.

I was doing some bush hogging for a neighbor around one of his house trailer rental lots.  As I was in fairly tight quarters, I was watching the cutter more closely than where I was headed.  I didn't see a clothes line in front of me.  It caught me across the center of the chest.  The tractor had a high back seat and I was pinned against it and pushed back at such an angle that I could not get my foot to the clutch petal.  Luckily, the clothes line was a plastic coated cotton line and it broke about the time that I was getting in serious trouble.  If it had been a wire line, it would have cut me in half.

I also watched one of my uncles roll a 140 Farmall down a bank one day.  When I saw the wheels pointed skyward, I was afraid he was going to be under it.  When I got to him, he had been thrown clear and only sustained minor injuries.

Another potential pitfall is an exposed PTO shaft.  One of our hired hands got the scare of his life one day, when he got a frayed pants leg hung in a shaft.  We had an old New Holland feed mill that was powered by a farm tractor.  The mill was running and he walked up behind the tractor and reached up to get something out of the fender mounted tool box.  He was wearing a pair of khaki type work pants that had a hole about mid thigh.  The PTO shaft grabbed the loose fabric and ripped the pants leg off......he was standing there with half of a pair of pants, but he was still standing.

I guess the important thing is to always think.  There are things out there that will kill you in a heartbeat.  We tend to be pretty cognizant of rollover type accidents, but there is an array of other things that can kill you.  If using an open cab farm tractor in the woods, the danger of falling debris from above is probably higher than a potential rollover.  Everybody be safe.

Wudman


"You may tear down statues and burn buildings but you can't kill the spirit of patriots and when they've had enough this madness will end."
Charlie Daniels
July 4, 2020 (2 days before his death)

Percy

Hey AD Fields.
Sorry to hear about your neigbour. :'(  I am lucky as I get my logs delivered by a self loader log truck so I dont have to skid much. If I do have to, I use the Bobcat(when it comes to skidding logs,its as useless as a third extra  arsehole  on a starving wolf) but it has a rollover canopy/cab so its a tad safer than a tractor.
GOLDEN RULE : The guy with the gold, makes the rules.

Bibbyman

Reminds me of a couple of close calls of my neighbor's featured on this thread  "Log Delivery".

A couple of years ago,  he and his son were retrieving sycamore that had fallen into the creek.  The son was trying to drag the trimmed and butted off the stump tree out of the creek but it had got bound behind something. Mr. L took a chainsaw and attempted to cut the top off below where it was bound.  Obviously it was under more strain than either figured as it whipped around and broke one leg between the knee and ankle.  That put him up for most of the winter.

When he was hauling us logs last summer,  he came in with one load telling he just about didn't make it.  He had cut a dead red elm and it just stood on the stump.  He couldn't push it over by hand and didn't have a wedge.  So he thought he could just use the loader on the tractor to nudge it over.  He gave the tree a little nudge but instead of hinging over,  it broke off the stump and came back over the tractor.  He's for sure in his 60's but he was spry enough to dive off the tractor on the left side.  The tree came down on the steering wheel and smashed it,  then continued it's way down between the seat and left wheel.  He had to scramble under the tractor to continue his escape.  Problem was,  the tractor was still moving though just creeping along.  He managed to exit under the right side but then he couldn't get it out of gear as the tree had smashed against the shifter.  He could not get to the clutch pedal as it was under the tree.  For some reason he couldn't get to the ignition switch (may not have had one).  It finally creeped up against another stump and killed itself.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

OneWithWood

Skidding logs is dangerous business and not just for tractor skidders.  When I was first beginning to pull logs out of the ravines with my JD 450 crawler I got a real lesson in the affect of a heavy load being pulled up an incline.  I was pulling an 18' white oak log.  I had winched it in as far as it would go so the butt was off the ground but just barely off.  I put the crawler in low and upped the Rs to get a good start at the incline.  About half way up the log snagged an old stump that I had not seen.  The crawler started to do a back flip and pirouet.  The front end was well off the ground and I feel that if I would not have hit the winch release immediately it would have gone over.  It took a few minutes for me to start breathing again and quit shaking. :o
Now when I have a heavy load and a steep incline I pay out the winch cable as I crawl up the slope.  When I get to a relatively level spot I winch the logs up to me.  It leaves a groove in the ground sometimes but it is easier to smooth out the grooves than it would be to turn the crawler back over.  
That reminds me, I still need to rig a seat belt on the beast.  The ROPS would help but not if I get thrown!
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

jimbo

   hu   power down ? i dont think i know of any tractor that has that on them exept 140 whitch is not the big  maby some one could help me out on that one    thanks
                                                        jimbo

hawby

I don't know if this is what you meant by, "power down"' but with our JDs they have a draft control that if you pull with the 3 point and hit a snag, it will continue to automatically lift the three point. That puts the leverage way to high on the back of the tractor... and over it goes. Watched my dad walk the 4020 the full length of a tractor pull with the front end all the way up. When he got to the end... the drawbar height was too high. They almost disqualified him. But the # 2 guy wanted to know if his Case was the better... needless to say. Dad shut off the draft control, kept the front end down and WALKED all over that Case.

Have lost two friends to Ford 8Ns flipping on FLAT ground. I wouldn't tow a rollin' car with one. Neighbor rolled his without anything hooked to it. Great lawnmowers though.

As for me, I have rolled a MF 4x4 compact tractor with a brushog on it. The downhill tire dug into soft ground, the brushhog swung hard, an over I went prayin', " Kill me, don't maim me!" Only drove a bolt into my leg.

Then two weeks ago, I took my new Bobcat over. I had to remove a walnut tree in my yard. It had more weight in the opposite direction I needed to take it. I placed the bucket up against it, cut through and sure nuff, it stood straight up. So, I gave a push on it with the 'cat. Well the soft bark and gotten 'nuff of a bite on the bucket, it wouldn't let go. Course DanG tree went perpendicular to where I had faced it.... needless to say, I took a hard right.. BANG. I believe in ROPS, seatbelts, and the mercy of my Lord. Nothing broke, not even the glass. I had to get the neoghbor with his backhoe to upright it.

Needless to say, I am even more cautious when doing anything with tractors or power equipment. I am sorry that this elder logman died... alas, he will not be the last one to do so.

hawby
Hawby

Missin' loggin', but luvin' the steady check...

ADfields

By power down I mean the 3 point arms push down on the implement.   On most of the older tractors the 3 point just floats when you put it down so it can ride up freely over things and all that makes the implement dig is gravity and angle to the ground.   So with no power down in skidding you may as well just loop a chain over the axle but with it you can force a lower pull to hold down the front some more.

hawby
All the equipment I have ran over the years is shocking but I have never ran a Bobcat till last week.   I rented one to dig a basement and clear a fence line and driveway at a new cabin I'm building.   I got right good with that little thing after a couple hours but on the 2nd day I was stacking dirt from the basement and it tipped back just a bit, I spooked and jumped a bit :-/ bumped the joystick the wrong way. ::)   We did a one wheel spin like we had a pink to-to on and flopped backward then down on the left side. ::)   I jacked it up with a hi-lift then pulled it on it's all 4's with my truck and all was well but the rest of the time I cut back the RPM's a bunch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)   Could have made a buck if I had it on tape but I did not even tell the wife. ;)   Today I drove past the place that rented it next and the thing was on it's side in the middle of a flat clearing with nothing around, I'm gonna ask the guy how he did it when I see him over there next. :D
Andy

Fla._Deadheader

Andy, maybe it's jist tarred???  :D :D :D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

johncinquo

Ken you got new toys already and are breaking them before you get enough work done?!  Well figgers.  Glad to hear your alright and having fun.  You let me know when you need a BIG saw on one of those and I will come down and visit you.  Gotta come down and see your new toys and kiln.
Forgot why I started this and had to come back.  Sounds like a lot of the problem with pulling logs like this is that the log catches.  What about a skidder sled.  I have seen the old farmers and amish haul rocks with sleds.  I took an old snowmobile that is made of steel, john deere model, and cut everything off (any excuse to use the torch) and have attached a chain across it.  I set the sled next to a log on its side, strap it to the log, and then roll the log into the sled.  I pull this with my dodge pickup around through the woods.  I am leaving a lot less trench, and the logs pull so much easier than simply dragging them across the ground.  JB
To be one, Ask one
Masons and Shriners

Neil_B

Father in law built his own canopy on his MF. Saved his life. He was skidding out a log with the chain choked about 6 - 8 feet from the butt cause that was where he could put the chain under. Didn't notice that the butt had hit a stump and it was actually pulling the top back up in the air and right over top of the tractor. Put a good dent in the canopy and I'm sure he had to change his underwear when he got home.

Another episode he had was with the front loader. Picked a log up and was manuevering around with it up in the air. Darn thing rolled off the back of the bucket and took out the exhaust but again hit the posts for the canopy and stopped it from landing on his lap.

I'm pretty sure he has a horseshoe hidden somewhere in him. ???
Timberwolf / TimberPro sawmill, Woodmizer edger, both with Kubota diesels. '92 Massey Ferguson 50H backhoe, '92 Ford F450 with 14' dump/ flatbed and of course an '88 GMC 3500 pickup.

hawby

John,

Yes I put it right to the test first thing. Didn't break nothin', 'cept my pride  :-[  Been my month, I guess. Yesterday, I was workin' on our new stairs to the basement and I went ladder surfin'. :o :o :o I managed to stay on the rungs, but what a stop  :-/ I was SO SORE this morning... Lucky I didn't break an ankle  8)

Also, speakin' of luck... I towed my new 1984 Ford 700 home today. Just for girns, I put it in 3rd on the road and the engine cranked right over... "hmmmmnnn", I said. Mechanic guy had told the owner that it would skid the tires. (Wonder if the parkin' brake was set  ;)) So's I hook up the battery charger for a spell.......... Puttttttttttt, bang,  whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr runs like a champ!!!!!!!  8) 8) 8) 8) 8) No knockin', no bangin', just purrin'!!!!!! I's so happy !!!!!!

Still gotta go pickup my parts truck in Columbus though ??? Not quite sure how, but it's got lotsa goodies on it.

How's your Summer goin?

hawby
Hawby

Missin' loggin', but luvin' the steady check...

carhartted

Scary stuff indeed.

When I heard on the news that someone in Palmer had died while skidding logs one the first things in my mind was wondering you, Andy, knew the guy.

Here's to making sawdust.

dail_h

   Been around Fords 7140sall my life.They sure will go over backwards.Backfliped a JD 60 one day.Was moving to another farm,disc behind pickup,was a dirt road,hardly  no ditch front wheels crossed no problem,back wheels coasted down (chug chug) ,hit bottomand OH BOY PUTT PUTT !!!!she'uz on her back kickin,I'm standing beside it in need of clean clothing  Believe me the phrase scared 55itless is completely wrong
World Champion Wildcat Sorter,1999 2002 2004 2005
      Volume Discount At ER
Singing The Song Of Circle Again

ADfields

I knew of him but don't think I ever met him, but it's a very small town as you know.
Andy

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