Folks, PLEASE don't do this with your tractor

kcm.MN · Oct 13, 2017

Found this short video on Accuweather. Shows a man on tractor trying to pull out his friend's pickup truck, stuck in mud. Tractor is having a difficult time with the mud as well. The guy almost made his wife a widow!
https://www.accuweather.com/en/vide...stuck-in-mud/zzc3gwzde6sowsk0gc3jg9bzs8yz8caw

Greg1959 · Oct 13, 2017

UD posted about that down on the FORD forum....Pretty
scary stuff.
Poke here

Alan K · Oct 13, 2017

I remember my dad mentioned years ago that people used to tie a fence post on
the front side of the rear wheel of a steel wheeled tractor and then try to drive out which some of
them flipped over backwards. He said if they tied one on the back side and
tried to back out it worked better and was safer.

JMOR · Oct 13, 2017

You just have to be quick! Notice how quickly he got under the back of that PU? :wink:

kcm.MN · Oct 13, 2017

(quoted from post at 11:43:31 10/13/17) You just have to be quick! Notice how quickly he got under the back of that PU? :wink:

Yeah, took me a minute to realize what was moving him so quickly to there. Just barely before the video quits, you can just see one end of that pole circling around in the mud, coming up and pushing him under the truck bumper.

I wonder what would've happened if the log was pushing him, but his jeans (or him!) were caught on the tractor? That could've been a double-whammy!

BarnyardEngineering · Oct 13, 2017

How many armchair farmers are sitting there right now saying, "That'd never happen to me, I'd push the clutch long before that happens!"

I'm sure the guy getting shoved under the truck by that pole said the same thing when he strapped those poles to the wheels of his tractor.

Notice the first thing he did when the front end started coming up: PANIC! Instead of shoving the clutch pedal, he's looking around frantically wondering what's going on while the tractor is coming up and over.

It just goes to show that you never know what you're going to do in an adverse situation.

Philip d · Oct 13, 2017

Wow he's lucky he survived, That must have been
painful

CGID · Oct 13, 2017

Is it true that if the tow-rope is attached below the axle the tractor can't/won't flip over? Does adding posts to the wheels change this?

JMOR · Oct 13, 2017

(quoted from post at 16:48:33 10/13/17) Is it true that if the tow-rope is attached below the axle the tractor can't/won't flip over? Does adding posts to the wheels change this?

bsolutely it will, even if the tow rope is under the tractor & attached to front axle! Adequate power AND traction and over it will go.

moresmoke · Oct 13, 2017

This is why winches were invented...

DrCharles · Oct 13, 2017

It can still flip if the traction is made "solid" with posts... with the engine turning, if the rear end doesn't move, the tractor has to rotate instead.

Under normal conditions the rear wheels will break traction before the front end will come up very far, though.

My father was killed in '96 when he tried to tow a stuck gravel dump-truck from the yard and the tractor backflipped on him. I don't know what he hitched to (was on the other side of the country at the time) but the drawbar was still in the barn so I know the chain wasn't attached there

He was always very careful about hills, side slopes etc. but one mistake and that was it.

Two Dogs · Oct 13, 2017

And caskets.

gtractorfan · Oct 13, 2017

Why wasn't he prepared to use the clutch as soon as the front lifted?

Brendon-KS · Oct 13, 2017

NO, this is not true - a tractor can overturn even if the chain is below the axle. This is a common myth that could lure a person into a false security with disastrous consequences. The tires are propelling the tractor forward at the ground level, not the axle level, and the chain will always be attached above the ground. This means that the contact patch of the tire can move forward without moving the chain which will cause the front to rise up. The location of the axle actually doesn't matter in the overall system.

But yes, tying posts onto the wheels makes a sketchy situation many times worse.

mgriff543 · Oct 13, 2017

If you're buried deep enough to consider tying poles to your wheels, you need to grab a shovel instead

Pete in MD · Oct 13, 2017

That's one way to improve the gene pool.

olgentdc · Oct 13, 2017

yes ,,.there comes a point where it requires less power to raise the entire tractor than to spin the wheel in
traction ..that KID is LUKY ., when you are on the frame as this dummy is ,. and it is easy to understand how he
got there,. by hopelessly gunning and spinning while bo other help is involved ,.

SVcummins · Oct 14, 2017

Actually no he didn't say that he said he didn't push
the clutch because he'd done it before and the front
came up when he'd tried it before so he wasn't
worried about it

Texasmark1 · Oct 14, 2017

I got the drift of that remark. Grin

oldtanker · Oct 14, 2017

Actually they teach that in the military as a field expedient way to get a truck out when stuck in combat conditions. Sense they started teaching that some guys brought it home and applied it to tractors. Plus if you bother to look it's really common to use that method of self extraction in places like Russia and the former Soviet Union nations. They taught it to their military too. Easy to find on youtube. You can do something similar with tracked vehicles too, chaining a log across both tracks.

By the time that young man, now very lucky to have to opportunity to grow into an old man, realized he was in trouble the tractor was up to high for him to have the balance to hit the clutch. The lack of experience can kill at any age. What people need is the wisdom to look at an idea and know it isn't a good idea.

Rick

Folks, PLEASE don't do this with your tractor

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads