your closest call.....

I've been restoring old tractors and playing with them for over 25 yrs. I've always maintained that loading and unloading tractors is probably the single most dangerous action at tractor shows and the like.
I personally saw my life flash before my eyes one day while helping a buddy retrieve an old WC Allis. It ran, barely, on a lawnmower gas tank hanging by a wire from the hood. Only one of the handbrakes was free and it steered like the gearbox was full of sand. I was backing it up the ramps on his gooseneck trailer, when it died, and began to roll forward. I had already turned the wheels somewhat to angle it on the trailer so I couldn't just "ride it back down." I grabbed the brakes, but of course, only one worked, slewing the tractor to the left. The front wheels went off the trailer and the whole thing started to go over the edge. I managed to break the other brake loose, and barely got it stopped before it tumbled. (Anyone who has ever sat on a WC knows how hard it is to jump off of it.)
I'll never drive on onto a tall trailer again. If it doesn't have a winch, I won't have anything to do with it.
What have been your close calls while LOADING OR UNLOADING?

I have to say that going over the side with any wheel is inexcusable. I say that because your trailer should have permanent or detachable side rails. They only need to be 4" high but double that is even better.

They do wonders for lowering your blood pressure and eliminating any "pucker factor". If you are an adrenalin junkee, disregard my advice.

I bought an old diesel that hadn't run in a lot of years. We put a new battery in it, put the cables to my truck as well, spun 'er over and hit 'er with ether and it finally started. I failed to check the clutch and brakes for movement etc..I put it in gear and let out the clutch, the tractor began moving toward the end wall of the shed..I pushed the clutch in and nothing happened, I stepped on the brake pedals and nothing happened..By now I was standing on the brake pedals and I could envision the tractor going out the end of the building and the upper deck coming down on me..by this point the guys were yelling whoa whoa! I finally stomped the clutch two or three times and it finally released and I was only a few weet from the end wall..if I had put it in reverse I would have smashed the front off my new pick up...I now never start a tractor without pushing in the clutch and releasing it and the same with the brake pedals..And I know where the fuel shut off is too.

I've never had any close calls, but backing my M off a big trailer was about the scariest thing I've ever done when it was delivered to my farm.

I was changing a tire on my Super M. It was filled with fluid, didn"t know it, really landed hard when I took it off, lucky it didn"t hit me. I had a Saturn fall on my chest 2 years ago, jack slipped. A bolt went through my cheek. Yelled for help, spitting blood. Neighbor heard me, jacked the car back up.I tore my shoulder trying to push the car off me. Had the shoulder operated on last year, better now. He has life time snow removal by me for his driveway now. Steve

I have never had a real close call, but one thing that always raised the pucker factor for me is, when operating a bulldozer (I have not for many years) although I knew the center of gravity was forward, it always felt like it was going to go over backwards when climbing straight up a ditch bank or other slope, right before it would flop over forward.

Harold H

I was moving a gravity wagon for my grandfather with around 10,000 lbs of dry fertilizer it with a Farmall M to a field we rented 3 miles from the farm. The M has a narrow front end, loader, loaded tires and weights. Everything was going OK until I got to the road where the field was. The road was paved with a gradual decline so I put it in 4th gear. Big mistake. 4th gear couldn't hold it back and with both feet pressing on the smoking brakes it kept going faster and backfiring in protest. I knew the road got even steeper near the end followed by a swim in Canandaigua Lake if the cross traffic didn't get me first. Fortunately, when I got to the field the road leveled off just enough so I could slow down and hit the driveway faster than I normally would. Now I use a big tractor if moving around that much weight. If I couldn't slow down I decided to jump and steer the tractor towards the ditch. I'm glad I didn't because I own the tractor now.

Larry

I have two trailers to transport with, a 7k car hauler with a tilt bed and a 14k, 20+5 gooseneck. I've never had a problem getting anything on or off the car hauler.

The gooseneck is another story. I had it built with three flipover ramps. (I've watched guys wranglin' narrow fronts on and off over two ramps and that's not for me, thanks!). The tractors climb well over the rungs in the ramps, but if the boards on the beavertail are at all wet, the rest of the trip up can get interesting, and the tractor can take on a pretty good yawl, enough that I've had to back down and take several stabs to get up onto the deck. My feet never leave the pedals, and I've managed to avoid any close calls.

It's better since Fawteen contributed some expanded metal to screw down to the boards on the beavertail, but even they can be a little slick when wet. It hasn't been enough of a problem to warrant buying and rigging a winch, but I keep a couple of comealongs in the chain box against the day that I can't drive 'em on. Worse comes to worst, I carry enough chain and strap that I can unhitch, chock the trailer, and pull anything aboard (especially something that isn't running, steering, or stopping right) with the truck.

We will not go into the close calls in great detai , But over the past 50 years, listen to me ya would think i am getting to be and old duffer .we have had the EXPERIENCE of unwanted side unloads , ramps kicking off and tractors standing up in the air and turning side ways old cable shoves going off the other side of the trailer sideways while trying to side load and tun on the trailer deck with ice on it . While backing in to and oil field lease road having a culvet pipe colapes on you leaving the trailer down on the frame and a dozer setting on a trailer at a 30degree angle and now way of getting anything inft.of the tractor to help pull or nothing behind the trailer to push and have to get the dozer off the trailer before anything could happen and while doing so have it slide off sideways down into a deep ditch and almost go all the way over with you setting in the seat That was was like slow motion when it happeded and i thought that i handled that rather well when it was all over with
. Or how about loading a dozer over the back of and oilfield Float trailer and the top of the deck sat over 5 feet off the ground with NO RAMPS or dock and the only thing between you and the almighty was one little 5/8th winch cable hooked to the tow hook on the belly pan

I hear, laddie, you were nearly kilt by a flying can one time during a load...

Oh, Dave. You've done it now. By falling back to the vernacular, you've stumbled into an ambiguity, perhaps even a pun that has me ROFL.

In the first, it was actually unloading, but little matter. In the second, one needs to be careful when one finds oneself clad in this manner while surrounded by Talers. Long story.

One of my neighbors came by one day and asked if I could move a 12x60 house trailer from another neighbors place to his. It was only about ¼ mile away and only another 1/8 mile to move it.
It got the Case 1030D out and drove it to the location, backed in and hooked up.
The day was warm and sunny but we had had rain the previous two days and his drive was muddy and soft. He had more work to do on the site he was going to permanently place the trailer so I pulled into his driveway far enough to get safely off the road and stopped.
His 26 year old son got a cement block and a bottle jack and placed them under one of the angle braces on the tongue of the trailer and lifted the trailer free of the ball on the tractor drawbar. I noticed that he did not lower the trailers screw jack that was built into the tongue. I was standing at the rear of the tractor talking with the father as the son went under the front of the trailer with more cement blocks. Just as I started to ask him if he had blocked the rear wheels the front of the trailer started moving towards the side of the tongue that the boy was under. I moved as fast as I could to grab his ankles and pull him free but it was too late. The trailer rolled the bottled jack over and came down on him.
I was already moving to reset the jack as I heard him scream between his teeth, “get the jack, get the jack”.
I got the jack reset and the father had the boy by the legs and pulled him out as soon as he could.
We was breathing but dazed and in pain.
We were only about 4 miles from a hospital so we loaded him in their pickup and headed away.
After they left the seriousness of it all set in and I guess I just stood still for awhile. Then I blocked the rear wheels of the trailer and made sure the jack was secure and got on my tractor and went home. I looked under the trailer and saw what saved the boys life. When the trailer came down two of the cement blocks had broken and the pieces had formed a pyramid like brace under one of the metal beams. If that had not happened he would have been crushed.
Around dark I was out in the yard and the father drove in and said the boy would be alright. He had cracked ribs and muscle bruises but would be ok.
When that boy got under that trailer I remember thinking that he had not blocked the rear wheels but the father was talking to me and I let the thought go by.
In aviation I have learned to take my time and make sure all items are checked.
Why I let the blocked wheels slide by I do not know but it will never happen again. Never.
Dell

You're a braver man than I am!

Ping

Pong...and a likely story at that, laddie! Gots to put away this Scotman talk and get to bed! Kiddies are going to run me ragged next three days.

Not a trailer close call, but almost put Dad's 460 in the ditch in front of their house. We were leaving that day to come home from vacation, but we wanted to move his round bales from the hay field to a small field close to the house before we left. Had to run down the road for about 1/4 mile, had it in 5th gear and didn't slow down soon enough. Didn't allow for the added momentum with the 6x6 bale on the fast hitch carrier and almost slid into a 6' deep ditch before getting it whoaed down to turn in the narrow driveway. Was old enough to know better by then, but got in a hurry.

Loading only bothered me the first few times, we were hauling the td-8 with the lowbed and threw a couple blocks behind it instead of using ramps. I've even coasted the SM off my friend's gooseneck with a dead battery, and coast started it once I got on flat ground.

A cousin was backing our old Ford backhoe off a trailer one day, and couldn't figure out why the back tires weren't going down the ramp. He had it sitting on the back bucket, the front end was too light to stay on the deck without the bucket on the ground, being driven by the front wheels.