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An unfortunate truth about OLD tractors!!!

J

JD Seller

Well-known Member
While reading Davidj post below I got to thinking about how dangerous the older tractors actually are. Very few have roll guards and even fewer have seat belts if they do have a roll guard. Many have very poor brakes even when working 100% as designed. Aftermarket loaders that really can easily over load the tractors. Other attachments that are really too big for the tractors they are trying to use. Combinations of all of this make the older tractors causing serious accidents more common than newer equipment.

Then the really bad part. OLD MEN running them. LOL I know that I am one too. First off our reaction times are terrible. Second we actually take more risks than we think we do. It is all the macho/ego " I have done this a hundred times and nothing happened" thing. Third, retired fellows doing things they may not be used to doing at all. I personally know several that all had fatal accidents within months of retirement. I think it often is they might have had the tractor for years but now have time to be doing things they never did very much with them or trying to do things they should not even think about doing. They want to "save" money because they are on a "fixed" income. So you have the wrong equipment being used for many jobs.

The national numbers show that older tractors cause more deaths than newer ones. Also a disproportionate number of those killed are older men.
 
Yup,how smart's the old guy who keeps doing this. LOL
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Hush!!!! Don't tell anyone....They are going to ban old tractors,and the old men driving tractors......
 
Right, right , and right. It seems that most of the accidents are due to either lack of safety understanding, Underestimating the risk, or Slow reaction time.
 
Since most young folk aren't buying and using old tractors it stands to reason the people that do buy and use them(old folks) would be the ones getting killed on them if something happens.
Can't get killed on something you don't own or run.
 
You are right about them but tens of thousands of farmers have run tens of thousands of the old tractors and never had an accident. They are a text book example of how you have to be responsible for your own safety and not rely on someone or something else for safety.
 
(quoted from post at 12:09:16 09/23/18) You are right about them but tens of thousands of farmers have run tens of thousands of the old tractors and never had an accident. They are a text book example of how you have to be responsible for your own safety and not rely on someone or something else for safety.
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Bingo. Meanwhile young men with new tractors get hurt and killed every year. As someone once said, "The best safety engineering in the world is no match for a determined idiot."
 
Life has risks, using any piece of equipment carries certain chances of something going wrong, that is a fact of life. How many guys honestly can say they properly inspect their tractor and implements each time they use them? It comes down to operator error and lack of awareness (or care) of the equipment the majority of the time. Numbers can be slanted to whatever people want them to mean, they tend to show only part of the entire picture.
 
(quoted from post at 07:44:35 09/23/18) Yup,how smart's the old guy who keeps doing this. LOL
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I did a whole lot of that same thing for many, many years using a Farmall H with a McCormick #31 loader equipped with a blade. Never had a single incident.
 
Yep , we are about a week away from that . Many tractors have gone over in the bunker when one lets the ramp get to steep and treys to drive up it or build the pile way above the sides and then gets to close to and unpackerd edge . Not having a piece of equipment heavy enough to really pack it tight enough makes for a big sponge . Best leveling and packing tractor we had to use belonged to my one friend , she may have been crude but it was big and heavy it had 4 wheel drive , but since he got out of the dairy end he sold the two big ones he had . So now we are back to the way we use to do it and now down to three less tractors. So things will be slow going this year. and i can see lots of breakage due to the fact that we are going to have problems with over filling the wagons as SOMEONE never knows when to stop and wait for and empty and keeps on stuffen them FULL . And and 806 is not enough tractor to pull these 18 footer rear unloads when they are stuffed to the roofs let lone try and back them on to the pile when we are first starting to fill the hole as it takes 35-40 loads before we even can get the ramp started .
 
Let's get the government involved in this serious safety issue. They can write standards and regulations on how old a tractor can be & how old the operator can be. What about any tractor over 25 yrs. old has to have a safety inspection. Any operator over 50 has to have a operator certificate & a tractor related physical (yearly). Of course, anyone that would violate any of the standards, must serve a mandatory 5 yr. prison sentence. Regulations, that has to be the answer to these dangerous old tractors and feeble old men.
 
(quoted from post at 08:35:09 09/23/18) Let's get the government involved in this serious safety issue. They can write standards and regulations on how old a tractor can be & how old the operator can be. What about any tractor over 25 yrs. old has to have a safety inspection. Any operator over 50 has to have a operator certificate & a tractor related physical (yearly). Of course, anyone that would violate any of the standards, must serve a mandatory 5 yr. prison sentence. Regulations, that has to be the answer to these dangerous old tractors and feeble old men.
Click to expand...

That would eliminate about 3/4 of the tractors in southwest Iowa and about 99% of the farmers.
 
what scare me with the old retired guy that that left the farm many years back to chase the dollar dream in the bright lights and big city and no0w that he retired and has now left the city and bought a place out of town and is going to do this and that , so he buys a tractor and it has the loader and has heard the storys of how bad cal . eats the rims out overnight does not have the correct amount of weight on the rear and does things that he should be using no less then a 988 Cat loader for or he is brush hogging on steep slopes again with no weight to lock him to the ground or the guys that use a tractor to drag logs out of the woods . Then you see someone use a fence post chained to the back tires trying to get unstuck . and they tell you when you try and tell them how unsafe that is and yaq get well Grand dad and dqad did it this way 60 years ago , it will be fine .
 
I certainly agree with JD Seller on this one. I have been around this industry now for 75 years and I think the older one gets the more this accident and death thing bears on him. Selling KUBOTA for years I had a few customers have accidents but here is one that will never leave my mind. About 20 years ago I would have been 55 got a call man wanting to trade for a new KUBOTA. Rode out to is remote farm (back side of nowhere) and when I got there found him cutting a real steep pond bank with a nice little 35 Massey Fergerson and bush hog. He was some bit older than I and thought too much of his Massey for us to trade. I did not tell him how dangerous the tractor with no ROPS on it was working that slope. Figured it was his own business. I drove way only to get to the shop and learn his brother had called the guy rolled the tractor and was killed there on the pond bank. Always wondered if I had said something maybe he would have lived or maybe I had traded he would have went to the house. His son said the man had cut that bank many times but a ground hog had dug a hole and one rear wheel hit that hole and flipped the tractor. No question about it ROPS have saved lives.
 
I spend many hours, everyday, operating tractors. From new tractors to 50 year old tractors, and never really give much thought to it. Never had a tractor turn over, and never want to, and try not to ever take any unnecessary risks
 
these old tractors replaced the horses and opened up the country. i am quite sure they safe for what they were intended to do. many dont think of the dangers that can or will happen if not operated properly. pretty sure its operators fault in most cases. the tractor is only doing as the operator chooses and so do the horses, and was lots of accidents with using horses also. just the facts of life accidents do happen all the time and can fix stupid.
 
I think this goes a lot farther than just old tractors.

People renting bobcats; backhoes; and dozers; that think they can handle such equipment.
People buying trucks with large trailers or RV's that they think they can handle.

One thing I see everyday is people driving 3/4 ton and 1 ton pickups with 102 wide mirrors so they can see around RV trailers.
They are not use to driving wide loads especially when the trailer is not hooked to the truck.
They drive down the road with the right mirror stuck in the lane next to them.
 
Its a problem without a practical solution.Only two real answers if your stats are correct.1)set an age limit on tractor operators 2)stop people from using old tractors. Of course there is one more
answer leave people alone and let them do what they feel like they need to do on their own which was the whole idea behind the formation of this Republic in the first place.Nanny state thinking is far more dangerous than any old tractor in the long run.
 
One of the most common factors in accidents is they are caused by operator error and could easily have been prevented with a just little fore thought.

I appreciate JD for the reminder!
 
I agree with that ! See lots of trucks with the mirrors extended for hauling ! I believe they think it looks good ! I think they look ridiculous ! I have a 3/4 ton dodge I use for pulling a goose neck trailer and 33 foot camper. I never fold the mirrors out with the goose neck, only when hauling he camper because of it's length, height and width. Same goes for all the people who think they need a truck to begin with. Mine gets used almost everyday as a truck. Most of these people think they need a truck to go to the store to get a couple small bags or boxes of whatever ! My own brother is a prime example. 3/4 or on dodge diesel. He hauls nothing. Once a year he gets a load of manure for his garden. We just talked about this Friday night. He said he could get by with a small car, but just liked having the big truck ! Silly !
 
JD,
Yes it's sad when someone gets killed. There seems to be more sympathy for someone who gets killed on a tractor than someone who dies in a car. On the average over 100 people die everyday in car accidents.

When I was a kid, neighbour driving a tractor on US30, a 4 lane highway that has no restrictions, got ran over by a semi. It took his head off.

I know first hand how dangerous tractors with loader are. I was still in HS when I was putting logs on a truck to take to sawmill with a Farmall H, narrow front end, pipe loader. I flipped the tractor and went flying. Good thing rear tire hit a very large log to stop tractor from crushing me.

When I post about people getting killed on I-70 by a semi not slowing down at a construction site, some people on YT don't shive a get. Some wish I didn't post the deaths. I think all human life is valuable, but others her don't.

Do we want to get lawmakers telling us that farm kids shouldn't be operating farm equipment?

ROP on ZTR's don't seem to be 100% effective, especially when most people run with them folded down. Some don't use the seat belts.

I don't have the answer how to stop it. The unfortunate truth is that people are getting killed on almost anything with wheels.
 
I agree with this but while I think that the reasons stated are good the missing link or element in all this is a retired person is not going to invest retirement funds in real expensive equipment, first and the nostalgia makes them drift towards old small equipment, second. Also younger farmers who have the equipment (usually larger) necessary do not take on these projects, they hire it done most of the time(may or not be true). There is a growing segment of retired people overall hobby farming and a smaller younger group who are farming. I wonder statistically how many deaths occur in farming in general and if that has gone up. So just because of changing ages of the participants can make the numbers go up. I think there were a lot(death/accidents) when I was growing up and you did not hear about it as fast. I do agree new equipment is generally safer though and that also comes from being a lot heavier and bigger because the larger equipment is the norm now.
 
In my county 2 farmers overturned tractors and died this year-that I know about. Never saw any news about either. One may have had a seizure beforehand,but the other was mowing around a pond bank,and one account I heard said tractor,the other said riding mower. We are a very small county,with a lot of steep ground.Cattle ,tobacco,and hay-some corn and beans are our crops. We farm the ridge tops,and pasture the hillsides.I do not know of a farmer who does not have grey hair,except a couple of sons here and there.On my own farm,this summer,I was thinking about how many more years-can I keep on mowing these pasture hillsides,before I start slowing down.And my old tractor does not have rops,and the newer one-I took it off to be able to drive thru the tobacco barn.Mark.
 
JD, I am not sure it is the old tractors, or the old operators that are at fault.

I work on high risk systems for a living, am finding that I must not take anything for granted and triple think things as I get older.
 
No matter what age you are working lucky ain?t as good as working smart, young men rawhide equipment and run up and down, your supposed to learn better as you go. I don?t find old tractors and equipment to be any more dangerous than new because I just am not in a hurry these days like I once was.
 

I disagree with you, jd, IMHO, a tractor is like a firearm.

It's no more (or less) dangerous than the person in control of it.

Guess we'd better lobby for background checks, and a waiting period before anyone can by a tractor.

Oh, yeah, might was well go with mandatory "tractor safety training", with a certificate of successful completion needed before purchase!

(HEY, mebbe that's not such a bad idea! :wink:
 
A lot of people have a morbid curiosity.
They like to watch the news about traffic deaths and tractor rollovers.
And television merely feeds that morbidity.
People see a bad accident and presume everyone is like them and wants to hear all about it - the more gore the better.
The great philosopher Plato talked about the gate to the city where the miscreants were beheaded. And how the people from the city rushed out to see the headless bodies and were sickened from looking and they told their friends about how awful it was and they listened eagerly and were sickened too.
Maybe you were one of those who went to look George then have to come here and tell us all about it.
I don't really need to go look at the headless bodies George. Nor do I need you to tell us all about it here. It's another reason I don't watch television - because there's too much of that on and it's getting so I often don't read your posts because you dwell on that morbid crap too.
You try to figure it out and solve the problem - which usually boils down to more laws and more loss of liberty for us all.
Those people who died are wholly unconnected to me. I'm neither happy nor sad they died. If I think about it at all I am apt to think,
"So someone died in a tractor accident or wreck. Ho hum.
At least they didn't whither away with cancer. I think I'll have a glass of wine and think about what to make for dinner..."
 
Want to put my two cents in. On garden tracktors the first warning is the up hill tire breaks loose and you are just standing still. Now ALL of my garden tractors have rear tires filled with antifreeze. They just keep right on going no sweat. The warning with them is your ars is sliding out of the seat. I would highly recomend filling the rear tires on your garden tractors. Far better traction and much more stable. Anything bigger needs a roll bar.
 
Wish I could dissagree with that but I cannot as three 70 year old plus men have been killed on tractors they had owned for a very long time. All within 5 miles of my home. Had a close call myself two years ago on a tractor I first ran 55 years ago, since then slow down and think has been my motto
 
YT might be preforming a public service might by saving some families from our rants, a maybe saving a few marriages too. "Hey, don't tell me, post it on the internet for the world to see!", LOL.
 
Ultradog MN
You don't know squat about me. So don't think you do.

Maybe you were one of those who went to look George then have to come here and tell us all about it.
I don't really need to go look at the headless bodies George.

Those people who died are wholly unconnected to me. I'm neither happy nor sad they died. If I think about it at all I am apt to think,
"So someone died in a tractor accident or wreck. Ho hum.

Obvious from your statements, you don't give a crap about anyone, so get off my case. Try to show me some respect too. If you can't don't bother to read my posts.

I have compassion for people and you don't. You are definitely no Plato.
 
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