Almost lost my head this weekend

Negligence · Sep 26, 2011

Had a close call. Neighbor was combing oats and crossed a ditch at the wrong place, got stuck real good. Grabbed my tractor, hooked on to the combine and snapped my heavy chain twice.

Decided to run back to his place and get a heavier chain and his JD 4955 to get it out. We hooked on, I climbed into the 4955 and pulled until the chain was taught. Inched forward a bit more and suddenly, chain let go of the drawbar pin it was connected to and whiplashed back towards me, shattering the rear window and deafening me for a few minutes. Thank god the window wasn't open or I would have eaten a very heavy chain traveling at God-only-knows what speed, square in the face.

Learned a few things: the chain was too long for what we were using it for, and we should have used a heavy clevis pin (which we used on the next try and we got it out) instead of a drawbar pin.

That, and don't drive combines into ditches! Stay safe out there guys

ShadetreeRet · Sep 26, 2011

You got lucky! Sometimes I feel that happenings such as that are gentle reminders of just how fragile life really is. Few years ago I had a chain snap and smack me up side the head. Broke my glasses, but didn't really hurt me. It just kinda piled up aside my head with no real pressure.

oldtanker · Sep 26, 2011

2 nephews did that a couple of years ago, busted the windshield out of thier 1586 that way!

Rick

oldironman · Sep 26, 2011

A friend of mine was pulling a tractor with a strap and hooked it to the ball on his bumper. The pin on the ball broke and the strap was like a rubber band and though the ball back into the boys mouth. What a mess and it took a lot of work on his teeth and face to get it back to somewhere near what it was. Remember to think about what you are doing and look ahead to see what might happen. Be safe. The first thing that you want to do when you have a problem is to take a breath an calm down and think it though.

elmersooner · Sep 26, 2011

seen a fellow lose both his eyes in the oilfield when he tried to pull a truck out with a forklift and a spinning chain. think it through, if it can't be done safely---think of another way.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 26, 2011

If you ever have to do that again, throw a tarp or a couple heavy coats over the chain (or cable) They'll help deaden the whip effect as the chain snaps.

Flewster · Sep 26, 2011

(quoted from post at 12:17:13 09/26/11) If you ever have to do that again, throw a tarp or a couple heavy coats over the chain (or cable) They'll help deaden the whip effect as the chain snaps.

WOW what a great idea........I learn something new every day from this site

Justin SE IOWA · Sep 26, 2011

If doing it again and you are close to the shop put the chain through a lenght of pipe. That will also not let the chain whip if it breaks.

NCWayne · Sep 26, 2011

Glad yo hear your OK, it could have been ALOT worse. I remember hearing dad tell a story years ago about watching two D8 CATs trying to pull another out of the edge of the river where it backed in to far and had gotten stuck. Don't remember what size cable he said they were using but he said it broke and took down a tree that was as big as a man's leg just like a weedeater string going through a piece of grass.

Watch offroaders sometimes when they are winching themselves out of a mess. Often they will put the hood up to keep the cable from coming into the cab with them should it decide to break.

I watched alot of safety movies when in the navy where they showed some of the BIG mooring lines snap. Being made of a nylon (?) material with alot of give/stretch, they would get pulled as tight as a rubber band before snapping. When they did they would take out pretty much anything in their path.

Like another post suggested when pulling with a chain, cable, strap, or whatever, it does help to drap something over the line about half way to help eleminate alot of the recoil should it ever break under tension.

oldtanker · Sep 26, 2011

(quoted from post at 10:49:27 09/26/11)
Watch offroaders sometimes when they are winching themselves out of a mess. Often they will put the hood up to keep the cable from coming into the cab with them should it decide to break.

I don't think a hood is going to slow anything down too much, just too thin! Maybe deflect it a little.

Rick

Billy NY · Sep 26, 2011

I can't say for sure which is more dangerous, cause they both are, wire rope or chain. While operating a D5 almost 20 years back, another brilliant operator decided to take the vibratory roller through the mud instead of using a dry road, because it was shorter. I would not help him, was getting tired of these novices they hired to fill the seats, yes we all started somewhere, but not on a busy high production job site. Figured it best to have the foreman deal with it. Don't recall, but think they used another dozer, hooked a chain to it, tried to pull it out of deep mud, chain snapped and a piece of link hit the upright on my D5, and left an impression in it. ROPS are made of thick and strong material, still cannot believe how hard that piece of chain link hit. I hate to say it but eventually there was a physical altercation at break time soon there after, which solved the problem.

BobHnwO · Sep 26, 2011

Hang a big tire in the middle of the chain,if it breaks the tire will dispel the force of the chain.

paul · Sep 26, 2011

Just to mention freak things, this isn't related, but I was at a 1/2 mile dirt track watching car races. The main group flew by the grandstand, I turned to look at turn one, and somerthing rattled hard, my nose was a bit stingy, and something rattled at my feet.

Well, there was a tiny pebble at my feet, more like a large piece of sand - less than a 1/4 inch in size.

Nose was still bugged a bit, took my glasses off, looked, and there on the metal piece that holds the nose pieces on, was a dent in that metal of my glasses.

So this little pebble cam flying in the side of my glasses, hit the metal of the glasses between the lens and my eyeball hard enough to dent the metal and sting my nose from the impact, and fell out again. That was a hard impact.

Didn't bother the lens of my glasses, and didn't bother my eyeball.

But that's pretty close!

--->Paul

Unruh · Sep 26, 2011

When I got stuck with the combine, I would back up to it with an empty good-sized gravity flow wagon. I hooked the nylon rope between the wagon and back of the combine. I instructed the wife to put the pulling tractor in 4th wide open throttle and when she saw the blinker lights of the combine come on, take off! Watching in the rear-view mirror, I could see when the wagon slid over in line, and pulled the hydro down all the way. Worked for us every time and we were both safe from a possible snapping rope, although it never did.

mkirsch · Sep 26, 2011

I studied physics in school, a lot...

I'm still kinda stumped at how a HORIZONTAL being pulled HORIZONTALLY chain can snap UPWARDS into the driver. The forces on the chain have no upward component.

The chain should snap in the direction of pull.

The only time a broken chain has hit me in the head is when Dad THREW it at me for popping the clutch and snapping the chain.

Later he got smart and chained an old car tire to the weight bracket on the 1066, and hooked me to that. We really mangled that old tire, but it absorbed the shock loads that were inevitable when you've got a 10-year-old kid trying to pull you through the mud.

M Diesel · Sep 26, 2011

(quoted from post at 13:30:26 09/26/11) I studied physics in school, a lot...

I'm still kinda stumped at how a HORIZONTAL being pulled HORIZONTALLY chain can snap UPWARDS into the driver. The forces on the chain have no upward component.

The chain should snap in the direction of pull.

And it does. Generally. And I've broken a few behind the crawlers. What they will do is break a link or clevis and a vertical component develops as the pieces come apart lop sided. Especially true with a pin letting go in a clevis when one side pulls out first.
However the main reason is people screw this up yanking on a loose chain or strap, imparting vertical energy as it comes taut and rips apart.

VADAVE · Sep 26, 2011

Yup Wayne and you NEVER ever pick your feet up on deck when the anchor line is running. It'll throw a loop around your leg faster then you can think and take you through the hawser hole. Had that happen to a young sailor when I was working in the Washington State area. Screamed all the way across the deck lost his life at the hawser hole.

Anonymous-0 · Sep 26, 2011

Ding ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! If you put a coat, or heavy flannel shirt over the tow chain, the object n question, will deflect any chain breakage.

Doug in Illinois · Sep 26, 2011

Cable is worse, because it is a jagged break with strands going everywhere.

If chain is hooked properly, it will go under both "tractors". That means use as short a chain as possible as low as possible.

Tow straps (nylon and fabric) will break also, and when they do the hook(s) will fly a LONG ways.

I agree with keeping something heavy over the cable, strap, chain. Need to disperse some of that built up stress (energy). DOUG

buickanddeere · Sep 26, 2011

No clevis? Just wrapping the chain around the
drawpin ?

fixerupper · Sep 26, 2011

I've been involved with pulling out quite a few combines, and I've never seen a snapped chain fly up. One thing we always stress is to wrap the chain on the axle so the chain goes under the combine axle, and then up and around. That way if the link the hook is on breaks, and more times than not that's the one that will let go, the chain will fly around the back side of the axle and down to the ground. Doesn't hurt to wrap it twice around if you have enough chain. Jim

Anonymous-0 · Sep 26, 2011

agreed ,, it is physics gone wild ,, but it happens ocasionaly

Anonymous-0 · Sep 26, 2011

that is a good plan ,,practical , and mostly safe ..and wife proof

jackinok · Sep 27, 2011

i was winching a truck out of the mud once when the 1/2" winch cable broke and came through the back glass of a 63 gmc 1 1/2 ton truck.made a believer out of me in a hurry.luckily there was a headache rack on this truck and one of the posts was right behind the driver.i was watching in the left hand mirror so that post kind of protected me, but it sure tore the back of that truck cab up.when i was working on overhead electric line our old polecat had a rope winch cable to stop electrity from being ran down to guys on ground through a metal cable if you accidentally got truck into wires,saw that snap once,it was like a snake whipping around.i dont know how it didnt hit someone because there was 4 guys standing around that pole .

Almost lost my head this weekend

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