Farmall Safety

Nowadays, most people do not use Farmall tractors as everyday work horses, but my farm still does. My Farmall M has been in constant farm use since 1941. There are various safety issues with this. I cannot allow employees to drive it as it does not comply with various Occupational Health and Safety laws in Victoria. In addition, many younger workers are frightened of it. It looks heavy and it is noisy (compared with new tractors). We have never had a serious injury or even a near miss with the Farmall, but I am very aware of the dangers of working with these machines. I never work on the motor under any circumstances when it is running. No one rides on the tractor with me. The children in the family are all told it is not a toy. We have a comprehensive first aid kit and we avoid working alone, especially at night. No doubt there are other things I could do. Any ideas for better safety arrangements with old tractors would be most welcome. Thanks.
SadFarmall

Adding fenders and roll protection along with a seat belt would go a long way toward making it safer. Clutch safety switch but that would require converting over to a starter relay of some type (did that on my M). Then about the only thing left would be some type of shielding that would prevent someone from sticking body parts into the cooling fan.

Pretty sure you could rig up something that would prevent it from starting in gear but that might get expensive.

Fenders will not hurt the looks but it may look kinda goofy with the other stuff.

Rick

I've always thought some sort of tethered kill switch would be a good idea. Like they have on jet-skis. Something clipped to your belt so if you were to ever fall off, it'd unplug and kill the engine.

Might stop too late to make a difference, but on the other hand - maybe not.

I've always felt the greatest danger on an M is falling off. Either by popping the clutch too fast in 5th gear - or driving in 5th and hitting a hole and getting launched out of the seat.

I've had my share of suprise moments where you really need to grab on tight to stay on.

Certainly wouldn't want to put a kid in that situation.

Ohter dangers are there, but are more avoidable.

I suppose you could just stay out of 5th gear, but that wouldn't last long.

(quoted from post at 05:49:03 04/26/12) Nowadays, most people do not use Farmall tractors as everyday work horses, but my farm still does. My Farmall M has been in constant farm use since 1941. There are various safety issues with this. I cannot allow employees to drive it as it does not comply with various Occupational Health and Safety laws in Victoria. In addition, many younger workers are frightened of it. It looks heavy and it is noisy (compared with new tractors). We have never had a serious injury or even a near miss with the Farmall, but I am very aware of the dangers of working with these machines. I never work on the motor under any circumstances when it is running. No one rides on the tractor with me. The children in the family are all told it is not a toy. We have a comprehensive first aid kit and we avoid working alone, especially at night. No doubt there are other things I could do. Any ideas for better safety arrangements with old tractors would be most welcome. Thanks.
SadFarmall

Click to expand...

Roll over protection and seat belts go hand in hand. You do not want one without the other, but a home made roll bar will not cut the mustard either. It needs to be built by a manufacturer who can give it the rating needed for such devices, and will stand behind it if it fails.

You can block out 5th gear on the H and M models with just one bolt. It was done on tractors that had skeleton wheels many times. Just remove the trans/rearend cover 3/8 bolt that is in front of the shifter and slightly to the left. Install a longer bolt and that's it!

First of all, let me say I am not against many of the government mandated safety features installed on equipment these days. There is a reason for it in most cases, but also in most cases it is a liabilty issue where lawyers can make a ton of money. It has taken away any "personal responsibility" from people and put it all on the government or business owners, including farmers. People can now do crazy things without thinking because "big brother" is looking out for them.
I think of the ladder manufacturer who sold a quality step ladder for about $19.95 before OSHA made him test everything, document it and put rating and safety stickers on it raising the price on that same ladder to $79.95 (or there abouts). What ever happened to "common sense" in this country (and probably Austrailia as well)???? Accidents can and do happen to careful people, but more are caused by carelessness or stupidity.

We have visitors sometimes who will help with baling hay or the
like. I feel safer having them drive the Massey 35 because it has
fenders and there is nothing much to fall off, but I have had people
drive the Farmall H occsionally. Baling hay in 1st gear is fairly safe,
at least on flat fields, and I am there on the wagon if they have a
problem.
Zach

interesting

I started driving an H in 1950 at age 12. I never considered it unsafe. In the years since then with various tractors I have never come close to an accident because of common sense. But, I can understand why people consider them unsafe compared to the new ones which are made "foolproof for fools".

I find it interesting that you cannot allow employees to use it. I would think it is ok, just because it was built before such safety devices came about and were made mandatory. Maybe Austraila won't "grandfather" things in.

I was always taught that the best safety feature was a careful operator. I believe it is true. Although, Speaking from my expirence at least, you'll still do stupid things once in a while. I believe myself to be a careful operator. I've been running farm machinery of all kinds since I was 12-13 years old, like many of us here. I've got plenty of expierence, and know better, but from time to time, I still catch myself doing something stupid. Very rarely, though. And, I've almost had accidents. Almost put the 4430 in the ditch once. The duals were hanging over by the time it finished turning. I didn't stand on the brake hard enough while plowing and the headland was quite short. Scary. I put a dent in my barn door last week while shifting the 806 while adjusting the clutch, TA dump valve, and trans brake. It was only sitting about a foot from the door, and I let the clutch out rapidly while it was mistakenly still in gear. Stupid. I wasn't being careful. It was more of a wake up call than anything else.

Point is, be careful. Accidents happen. That's why they're called accidents. Very, very few of us can say they've never had a close call. Just think, and respect the machinery, and you'll be fine.

I don't have many thoughts on making the old stuff comply with safety standards. With some ingenuity it could be done, though. I believe the cost would be impractical, however. It's a shame that safety features seem to be more important than proper training on how to use a piece of machinery. -Andy

I had an older friend working on his 18-foot harrow hooked to the tractor in the down position. He needed to raise it up so he stepped up to the platform and cranked the tractor from the ground. A younger man may have been able to get out of the way but the tractor had strong batteries and was in a low gear. It did crank and knocked him down and both gangs of the disk harrow rolled over him. He hung on for about 5 days in much pain and then died. He had farmed and ran tractors all his life but one stupid move and he was gone. I have cranked tractors in gear but at 15-years old I was quick enough to swing into the seat and get it stopped. Check, check again, and make doubly sure then proceed, sort of like at a stop sign. The govmet will of course make it impossible to start from the ground with seat switches and or other "failsafe" devices to make the tractors "idiot proof". Like others have said we need a good dose of common sense, not the protection of big brother.

I appreciate your position, but a hammer was made and still is with no safety devices either. Learning to use a hammer can lessen the chances of hurting oneself....however there will always be the individual that smacks his own thumb.

My ten year old has her own hammer, and operates all the other hammers on the property. She has been hammering with me since she was tiny. There are certain situations that I won't allow her to use a hammer, but general tasks...yes.

You can replace "hammer" with "tractor" if you like.

Stumpy

The thing that always amazes me, is the tractors with out the PTO shield installed. On my uncle's farm, we had 3H's & an M, one of the H's didn't have the PTO shield installed, & my uncle's oldest son got his pant leg caught, threw him down into the drawl bar, broke his right leg up high, & peeled the skin off his calf, all you could see was muscle. He was in traction in the hospital for 5 or 6 weeks if I remember correctly. This happened 42 yrs. ago, but remember it like yesterday !! For God's sake guys, put those PTO shields on !!!

This one scared me a little.




If you got an aftermarket 3 point,dont EVER run a fold over lynch pin in the FRONT mounting pins on the stabilizer bar! I did and it got knocked out by a small tree and sent the front of the stabilizer bar under right into the Bush Hog!!! It did some good damage to the blade and the bar as you can see in the photo.You can see I run a locking bolt in it now.

as a business owner also, i run in to this problem with equipment. unfortunately, if the machine is not osha or epa compliant, it gets removed from service and taken off premise. trying to bring an old tractor up to compliance would cost far more than the machine is worth, if not almost impossible to do.

Thanks everyone. I agree that the best safety is a careful operator. I started driving tractors when I was twelve years old. At that time we had the Farmall M and an AW-7 Diesel. I started on the AW-7, but quickly started driving the M and I have never really wanted to drive other tractors since. Australia is very strict about OH&S laws. It does not matter if the machine is old, it must comply for employees to be on it. The power take off shield is an absolute necessity, I agree. I have ordered a set of fenders as well. Hearing protection crossed my mind. I never use the Farmalls without hearing protection. The same goes for chainsaws and lawn mowers. We occasionally employ people to cut firewood and the rule is: 'No hearing protection, no work.' Industrial deafness is a real problem in Australia even today, because so many blokes think they are too tough to wear ear muffs or that if they do, others will laugh at them for 'being weak'. On work sites you can still hear people say things like: "Ear muffs are for poofs". Hearing aid manufacturers would love those fellows.
Thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas.
SadFarmall

I'm reminded of a story, my uncle used to tell.When WWII ended , uncle Allen came home to resume his farming career.New cars and tractors being in short supply , he had the opportunity to purchase a new M, he and aunt Frances were dating at the time. The only way to go on a date was for aunt Frances to ride standing on the draw bar.I once asked him if he drove in road gear, he winked and said the faster he went , the tigther auntie held on to his waist.Ahh , for the good old days of no regulation.