Posted by Lennh on October 30, 2009 at 08:56:06 from (71.192.137.159):
The other day, I posted my thoughts on cranking safety. Many of you wrote in that you appreciated the advice of us "old timers." The instruction books that came with tractors "in my day" (we old guys always talk like that when we get older and, of course, wiser) always spoke of the danger of not using the drawbar to pull with. I guess some people thought they might as well hook a rope or a chain around the axle. That might be OK for pulling the kids around the back 40 on the ol" Flexible Flyer, but not for any kind of heavy load. If the axle is the fulcrum, then the drive pinion is going to climb right up the differential gear and throw the tractor over on its back, especially if the clutch is engaged in a hurry. It"s a common notion that jerking the clutch will help loosen something that doesn"t want to come out, like a stump. Every once in a while, you hear of people who did this, and they usually didn"t survive four or five thousand pounds of castiron coming down on them. I"d defer to engineers on this one, but it looks to me like the drawbar "geometry" (got a B in high school) brings most of the load ahead of the rear axle and tends to pull the front end down. This is especially obvious with a swinging drawbar, but I"d bet that even a solid drawbar does the same thing because of its placement below the plane of the rear axle. I"ve noticed this with my little utility tractor and rear-mounted rotary mower. When the mower is raised off the ground, the front wheels are really light and there is very little steering traction. A little too quick on the clutch and the front end tends to raise off the ground. When the mower is down on the ground, steering traction returns and the tractor does not tend to rear up if the clutch is engaged too fast.
Another common danger is using a tractor on a steep hillside. The old tricycle tractors are probably the least stable, because they are so high off the ground. Still, I"d guess even a low utility tractor can be turned over if the hillside is steep enough, OR if the tractor hits a bump while traveling at a good clip. I actually know a fellow who upset a W-6 on a hillside. I don"t know the circumstances. He somehow got away from the thing, and went on to spend 30 years flying in the Air Force. Luckier than some. Another danger is fueling a tractor with the engine running--a VERY common practice back when tractors did not have starters and cranking was considered a chore to be avoided whenever possible. An especially dangerous arrangement is a low exhaust pipe, like on the old McCormick-Deering standard tractors of the 20s and 30s. Some of them exit UNDER the gas tank!!!!! I witnessed a fire that erupted like a bomb when a teenage boy was holding the fuel hose when the tank overflowed. He spilled gas on himself and you can guess the sad rest of this story. He died a couple of days later. I will NEVER forget this. It happened 65 years ago, and it is as fresh in my memory as something that happened yesterday.
Guess that"s all the old-timey advice I"ve got in me. Back to the rockin" chair and the pipe. Don"t smoke, but it makes me look wise. Least that"s what my wife says (she knows better, but likes to make me feel good, "specially after I tell her how amazed I always am that she can come up with a gourmet meal in ten minutes)(sounds like flattery, but it"s actually true, especially compared to what I can do: I make grilled cheese sandwiches when I get to feeling guilty and decide it"s my turn to "cook.")
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