You Never Know When It Will Get You

[Silverbullet]

Many of the old tractors the starter is up in the cowling near the big flywheel. Right by the tires , just not made to be jumped that way. But to save $20. 98% of all farmers will short them out. Forty five years ago when I used to walk and work on big tractors I had a push button switch on a heavy two wire jumper with alligator clips made just for that it came in a timing kit. Some abused tractors were famous for jumping in and out of gear. We had an old Oliver 88 ? Inline 6cylinder with metal spiked wheels that was famous for its slip . My dad hated it but said he new guys killed using the Oliver's because of there power they'd flip over backwards .The only good thing if it got stuck a log in front of the spikes and it climbed right out. I learned real young about tractors and death and it still keeps happening. My sincerest condolences to the family and hope others will please be careful , machines have no cares of what they do.

 

[RJSakowski]

I'll bet you didn't even feel the bruises as you were running after it! LOL I'm sure it was sore later though
Mark

No I didn't. I think that the thought of the tractor having an intimate encounter with a semi was pumping adrenaline through my body

 

[middle.road]

It's always shame when you hear of stories with loss of life or injuries like this. Doesn't make sense.
The shop teachers in High School always stressed using chocks and stands or cribbing.
Still we had a classmate that got crushed under a vehicle at his home when the jack gave out.

As mentioned above and in other posts, one needs to approach the task at hand and really stop and consider what you're about to do.
Despite that line of thinking, I keep having semi-close calls that bother me.

During the cold snap I went and fired up the ol' skid-steer. I had the wheels chocked. But as it turns out not adequately.
I had wood 4x4's, in hindsight I'm using either 6x6's or more rubber ones from now on.
When she fired up the hydraulics (which are aged to say the least) went wonky. It's the old style two lever type.
Well a valve must have been too cold or whatever, it was feeding the drives and she got as skittish as a spooked horse.
one of the 4x4's was rotted and shreaded and without that one holding her in place she started going hard right, all the while I'm trying to get the handles into the 'neutral' zone. The other three 4x4's didn't stay in position, and I couldn't get levers to hit the sweet spot.
Throwing the levers forward or backwards and it just kept feeding the drives in that direction - no neutral.
Forward or reverse, finally after what seemed like forever it warmed up or whatever and fell into neutral, and I was able to reach the key and kill it.
Crawled out, rounded up two 6x6's and two rubbers, then fired her up again and let her run until good and warm. Treated the fuel and drained the water from the line.
I suppose this spring I'll be attempting some hydraulic valve maintenance. And perhaps a Big Red kill button/switch.

 

[Blackjackjacques]

I recall our junior high shop teacher imparting safety instructions about a lathe and how not to wear loose clothing, jewelry, necklaces, etc when he reached for a switch just behind the headstock. As soon as he hit the green "ON" button we all watched as his head dropped violently only to bounce off the rotating head with a loud "knock" I can still hear today. Apparently, his tie got caught, however, at the time we all thought it was staged to make a point, until we saw the nasty open gash across his face and all the blood. To this day, I cannot look at anything rotating without recalling the "knock" of yesteryear. Thank you Mr. Neugerbauer.