Tractor Safety
 

I'm going to post this here as it relates to tractors, but if it should be moved to general discussion, that would be fine.

I want to relay an incident that happened to me Easter Sunday in hopes that it might help prevent someone else having a similar experience.

I've been around and used various tractors and lawn mowers for 40 years. Loaded them on trailers, moved them around. A lot. In a hurried moment, I tried to put one of my cub cadets on my flatbed and rather than use the winch I installed last year for just this purpose, I decided to drive it up the ramps. Ramps I've used this way many times before. Seemed like an OK thing to do at the time. But I was in a hurry. It was getting dark.

The front of the tractor, at the top of the ramp, went airborne (bounced? Not sure) and then the entire tractor flipped over backwards with me in the seat. Left leg went through an opening in the left ramp (between the ramp's angle iron slats), keeping me in position while the tractor upended and came down on top of me.

I tried to push myself away but the tractor's steering wheel hit me in the left eye and pushed my eyeglasses into my eye socket, tearing most of my eyelids and breaking the bone structure under the eye socket. In the melee, I also tore a tendon in my right shoulder rotator cuff.

I'm home after a helicopter med flight from a rural hospital in eastern Virginia to a trauma center in Richmond and a 4 day hospital stay, two eye surgeries to repair the eye socket and eyelids, a splint on a broken ankle and a looming shoulder surgery in 4 to 5 weeks. They saved my eyesight, and everything else will heal eventually.

As bad as I'm banged up with lots of other scrapes and bruises, it could have been even worse. A 700 lb. piece of cast iron falling from basically 5 feet, could easily have killed me. So I thank God that wasn't the outcome.

I never really thought of this hobby as dangerous. But we all do stuff that is a bit sketchy--don't grab the safety glasses every single time you know you should be wearing them, don't wear a proper respirator painting, etc. Short cuts, a sense of urgency, hurried and hasty decisions, all combine to create an accident. Don't be complacent.

I just want everyone to be safe, use a winch, don't ride these little tractors up short or steep ramps. A few minutes waiting for the winch is such a little price to pay to avoid an accident.

I'll be back to normal in 3 or 4 months after the shoulder heals. Meanwhile, while recuperating, I may hang with you guys a bit.

The Good Lord was watching over you. I would be saying an extra prayer or 2.

It is too easy to leave your guard down (speaking from experience) and have an accident. Sawdustdad is a good reminder to all to be more careful.

A regular on another forum told over there of a flip over on a GT while mowing a ditch and a busted arm
Recently.

It always seems that events (accidents) happen when we are in a hurry.

A year ago I fell off a ladder while on a Job Site and injured my right ankle. I was in a hurry, taking a short cut. Nothing broken, but still paying the price.

Moral to the story...........SLOW DOWN. Think about what you are doing.


Speedy recovery Frank.


:ThumbsUp:

I have never used ramps to load a GT into a pickup bed,, that scares me every time I see someone do it,,

My dump trailer is so safe to load,, tractor moving has been worth EVERY cent I payed for it,,

I raise the bed, until the ramps are at the same angle as the bed,,
NO "hump" to drive over,,,

https://i.imgur.com/fQ2D5J2.jpg

Sorry to hear about your accident,,, it sounds like you have the right docs to fix you up again!! :bigthink:

Frank,

I am so sorry to hear of your injuries. I am hoping, and will say a prayer for your speedy and full recovery.

David

Sorry to hear of your accident, bad things happen in the blink of an eye, no matter how routine or how many times we've done something ! wish you well and a speedy recovery !:beerchug:

Glad to hear that you’ll be alright. It’s amazing how quick things can go wrong.

I witnessed pretty much the same thing happen to a guy loading a tractor into the back of a truck a few years ago and shared the story here. I’ll share it again below in hopes that it gives guys something to think about:




This morning my father and I headed out to a local restaurant for breakfast.

While we were eating, I looked out the window and noticed a man across the street backing up a pick up truck into the back yard of the house.

He got out and lowered the tailgate and placed some ramps on it, and then headed into a shed that was there.

This truck was a 2011 Silverado with about a 4" lift on it. It was parked in a level spot of the yard so the ramps were at a pretty steep angle.

He came out of the shed driving a Wheel Horse garden tractor with a mower deck on it.

I told my dad that there was no way that was going to make it up on the truck without getting hung up on the deck.

This man started driving up the ramps nice and slow and when the deck got to the tailgate it got hung up and stopped. I was glad to see him back down the ramps safely.

After this things went bad. He decided that on his second attempt he would go faster and force that deck over the hump. Again it got stuck. He pushed in the clutch and the tractor started to roll back down the ramps. He panicked and let the clutch back out and that tractor stood straight up and rolled over backwards down the ramps with the him on it. When it landed I saw him start to crawl out from under it and try to stand up.

We left the restaurant and headed across the street. By this time he was on his feet. I asked him if his was ok and he said he was, he was just a little shook up. After he calmed down we helped him flip the tractor back over on its wheels.

I explained to him that there was no way that tractor with the deck on was going to make it up the angle of those ramps. He would need to take the deck off or better yet back up to a bank on the other side of the yard to lessen the angle of the ramps.

He thanked us for the help and said that he was going to let the tractor sit a while for the oil to drain back down before starting it again. I was glad that he was not hurt and hoped that he learned a valuable lesson from this.

I know in our hobby that we load and unload tractors regularly from trucks and trailers. Please use caution and don't take anything for granted. Witnessing this really opened my eyes as to how quick and violent it is when the tractor flips over. Don't take chances and make sure you do things as safely as possible.

Good Lord Frank that sounds painful. Yes it could have been worse but that’s some pretty big injuries you sustained.

Question, I see a lot of guys use equipment trailers with those big fold down ramps that have the large gaps in them and try to load garden tractors with them. The small wheels fall in the gaps so they try to straddle the flat bars that connect them and it’s very dicey and unsafe. Does your trailer have that style of ramps? I have a friend that loads on them too and he stands beside the tractor and drives it up but this is still unsafe.

I always try to make the ramps as even as possible like john shows with his dump trailer but I know this can’t always be done. Seems the decks always like to hang any other way and it can go bad fast as stated above.

Thanks for sharing and this will help others and remind us all that we can’t be too safe. Hope you recover quickly sir.

I have the trailer's attached shorter equipment ramps with large gaps between the cross bars as well as a set of TSC 8 foot aluminum ramps that are arched. I switched to using the longer, arched ramps last year, as the angle is much less. But was in a hurry and didn't bother this time. I've used the equipment ramps many times without incident.

The tractor I was loading was my red, "148" with 10.50 ags on the back and 6 inch tri-ribs on front. No deck or attachments. Easily climbs the ramps, perhaps too quickly.

This is the trailer with the longer ramps in use, the shorter equipment ramps had been removed for this trip. These are the ramps I use with the winch, also visible in the photo. The winch can be moved to either side or the center of the trailer to load a tractor. The wire on the ground is the remote to operate the winch while steering a tractor up the ramps. As I should have done.

Get yourself well.

Even with your injuries, you still lucked out. Hopefully you heal quickly and well.

I've had shoulder surgeries so when you get closer, I can let you in on all the "fun" you'll have going thru the rehab after having a tendon reattached. You'll be sleeping in a recliner for about 6 weeks ( not supposed to move when sleeping / recovering ). We have a Berkliner brand sofa that reclines with extending footrest. That worked well for me.

Jeff

Hoping the shoulder surgery won't be so bad--supposed to be just stitching up the torn tendon. Its only partially torn and not pulled off the bone. Arthroscopic is what they are saying now, but still 6 weeks in a sling.

Glad you are able to talk about your incident to us, and to warn others to be safe.

I completely tore mine off the bone. Yours should be a quicker heal but follow EXACTLY what the surgeon and physical therapists tell you to do.

Best of luck

Tractor Safety
 

So glad You were not hurt any more than what You were. Hope how soon the pain leaves. Been through the Rotator Cuff surgery. Physical Therapy was rough on an old man. Hope every thing heals nicely and thanks for sharing your story. I know I get in a hurry and take too many chances. After reading your story, I will be more careful. Have a great day.
Bob

Sorry to hear this, I hope you get better quickly.

Wow! Glad you survived and are on the mend! thanks for sharing to help us all remember we are not invincible.

It could of been much worse, so glad it was not.
Thanks for telling others, so they might be more cautious.
and glad you survived to tell others.
May you heal fast with minimal pain.:beerchug:

Seems like Easter weekend can be a bad day for anyone working on the Cub Cadets. I was installing the sharpened blades on the mower deck when my wrench slipped and the back of thumb hit the blade. Six stitches at the Urgent Care..... That's nothing compared to you, Sawdust. Again, haste makes waste. If I had my thinking cap on, oh well! I hope you mend well.

I hate to hear about your injuries Frank, but when you look at what happened, then you realize just how lucky you are. I'm glad that you were not injured any worse than that and that you were able to get help quickly. The outcome could have been so much different. My trailer is only 6 inches off of the ground and I purchased it for that reason alone. Now, I have a cub that will not fit on my trailer, so I am faced with buying another trailer to haul it, but not wanting one that is high up. Your winch you installed was a wise move. You might even consider getting one with a remote control to it.

Thank you for sharing your story that will help others in the future who heed your warning! The Lord was certainly looking after you, while giving all of us a lesson in life. I try ask myself in those situations, what is the worst thing that could happen? That doesn't mean that I am always 100 % safe on everything, because I am not, but it has helped me become more proactive rather than reactive to those situations. SAFETY FIRST is always the page that stands out the most to me when I am looking at those older IH cub cadet manuals.

Wishing you a speedy recovery and hoping that many people read your warning, remembering to always be safe including wearing safety glasses when mowing to prevent ricocheting rocks, disengaging the blades when leaving the tractor, making sure family and pets are inside when mowing, etc.

Perhaps we need a "SAFETY FIRST" page in this forum for people to look over on occasion to remind them of such pitfalls.:bigthink:

Cub Cadet 123

Glad you are ok, Frank! Thoughts and prayers for you! :beerchug:

I don't see these in the hardware store much any but I bought a set of those aluminum ends for a 2- by plank and have busted a few. If I have a not too steep ditch near me I back my truck into it and reduce the angle as much as possible, but I've had to drive a GT up those ramps at times, have had the 2x10s snap on me about 1/2 way up before, wasn't fun. The last one that I snapped I was using the ramp as a bead breaker on a tractor rear (13.6-28) in the parking lot at a tractor show, we took the tire off, put it in the back of my son's flatbed and hauled it out to the parking lot to change the tube in it. We set the tire on a curb and set the plank on the tire Next to the bead and I drove my Dakota up on to the plank, and yeah it busted pretty easy. Set the 2 busted halves on the ground and the unbroken one on top of them, and drove the truck up there again and this time I broke the bead like I wanted to. Had to run to the lumber yard for a replacement so I could load my new Holland up and bring it home the next day from the show

Truly sorry to hear about your misfortune. Glad to hear you will seemingly recover to 100% in a short amount of time..

I do hope I waited long enough to ask the question that I think many others may have wanted to ask but didnt want to ask so close in time to the incident..

Where can we see the video of this??? :biggrin2:

JK, But really, a video is worth a million words and for the sake of tractor safety education I think we all need to see it.. :HeeHee:


Glad your okay.

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No video, thank goodness. But I keep replaying the event in my mind and shudder at the possible alternate outcomes.

After the tractor came to rest, I reached up and turned off the ignition, got my foot unstuck, walked 150 feet into the house, got a towel for my profusely bleeding face and a set of car keys. My wife was down the lane taking a walk, so I squeaked by the truck, grazing the telephone pedestal with the car, and went up the lane and met her. Jumped out and asked her to drive me to the emergency room about 3 miles away.

I walked into the emergency room, all on the broken ankle and they took me immediately. One look at my face and they called for a helicopter to med flight me to Richmond where they had begun to line up a facial plastic surgeon to put my eyelids back together. Lots of xrays and a CT scan of the head, and they splinted the ankle. Several hours of sewing got my eyeball covered.

The next day the eye trauma surgeon looked at me and scheduled me for immediate surgery to place an implant under the eye to replace the broken bone there and repair the severed tear duct on the lower eyelid.

Here's a picture of my eye about 12 hours after the eye surgery and today. Eyesight is back to normal except for some irritation due to the stent they put in my tear ducts to keep them open while everything heals. Will probably need additional surgery at some point to fix the asymmetry in the eyelids. (upper lid doesn't open as much as the other eye).

Shoulder surgery is scheduled for June 14. By that time I'll be out of this ankle cast.

Wow.. Your face is healing nicely. Easy to imagine how much worse it really could have been. I was ribbin ya about the video of course.

Glad to know your on the mend!

Yeah, I'm damn lucky. Had a super eye surgeon. Today is three weeks since the surgery.

I know you were just kidding about the video. I do have several CCTV cameras around the property, but none positioned to capture that stupid maneuver.

You're healing well, what a difference. Your surgeon did a great job.

Hope you keep healing well and have success when the shoulder surgery too.

Jeff