# Safety First



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

Forum Members;
First let me say that it is an honor to get the chance to moderate this forum. All of us love our tractors and equipment or we would not be here,but I know that mistakes are made. It only takes a momentary lapse to get injured or killed.
Just so you know where I am coming from ,let me tell you about a mistake I made last Thanksgiving. My one GMC dump had an Exhaust leak that was bothering me,so I decided to braze up the torn mounting bracket. I consider myself a safety concious fellow,so I jacked the truck up in my shop. The shop was a little cluttered at the time and I pulled about half way in .Just to be out of the weather.
I have a Plow frame on the truck ,and I used hardwood blocking under it as a safety precaution. The first mistake was that I did not let the truck all the way down on the blocking.The second mistake I made ,I ran the Engine to find my leak. Went under the truck with the creeper and found the problem . Came out and shut the truck off.Third mistake I never applied the parking brake ,nor did I put the truck in gear,thinking I am on blocks,all is safe.
The dual rear wheels were at the garage door opening. I got under the truck with my brazing torch and started to work. The apron to the garage was one half inch lower then the floor and my hydraulic jack was drifting ever so slowly down.The truck made contact with my blocking,it tipped and the rear wheels rolled off the lip of the floor.
The frame of the truck bounced on me. even with all of the wheels on the truck, it hit me hard enough to break my creeper in half. I was one sore son of a gun for quite some time. But I am a whole lot wiser.
The message here for me is :
Take time for safety and think about what can happen if you don,t.
Share your mistakes with the forum I know I will. Maybe just maybe you will save someone else from making the same error and keep a member from getting hurt.
Slipshod


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

*I know what you saying*

Two years ago the old man across the street was doing a brake job on his truck its a Mazda. He had the front jacked up and one wheel off for some reason he stuck his head under there. Well i don't have to tell you what happen then it fell of the jack. His wife called all upset and crying and said the truck fell on Walter head. I toll her to call 911 and i would be right there when i got their he was alright luckily his head was just stuck between the body and the ground. So me and my neighbor just lifted the front up enough for him to get his head out. The firemen got there and check him out he just had a cut on his neck from the sheet metal on the truck. I seen he had jack stands right there by his truck and i asked him why he didn't have them under the truck he said after he jack it up it seem stable enough he didn't think he needed them. So if any of you jack up car, truck, or tractor please use jack stands. he was lucky you may not be as lucky and he might not be the next time.
Jody


----------



## parts man (Sep 24, 2003)

When working around your tractor, checking or greaseing whathave you, ALWAYS make sure you shut off the PTO! People lose limbs and lives to the drive shafts of machinery every day. A couple of years ago in the local area a 17 year old boy was crushed when he tried to unplug a round baler without shutting off the PTO, it pulled him into the bale chamber and killed him, where he was found by his parents. Always take a minute to think safety before leaving the seat!!


----------



## OhioTC18 (Sep 17, 2003)

I was sitting in a restaraunt the other day having lunch. Looked out the window and saw a 55-60 yr old guy wrenching on his car in the lot. He had this thing propped up with concrete blocks and bricks. 
There's no way I'd do that today..........did when I was young and dumb, but jackstands are NOT that expensive.


----------



## Deere (Sep 16, 2003)

"Slipshod" sounds like something you would use to by-pass safety, so it's perfect that you are moderator here.  

-D

Friends don't let friends mow in reverse!


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*The nickname "Slipshod"*

The nickname "slipshod" has been with me for a long time.It started out as a private joke with a guy I work with. We were buying forclosed properties at tax auctions and rehabing them.The state needed a name on a DBA for tax reasons so we called ourselves; Fly by Night Enterprizes: Slipshod construction Division. Somehow the name stuck. As I get older I take less and less chances,I don't heal as fast. Paying attention to the details can make you live longer.


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

*stupid*

I just got home from work and i pass a idiot mowing his grass with a little girl sitting on his leg. He wasn't just riding her he was mowing that makes me mad. I stopped and said something to him and he toll me to mine my own business. If he wasn't twice as big as me i would have toll him where he could go. Some people don't use the since the good lord gave them. So please no one mow with a kid with them. If you must give them a ride put them in a trailer with a adult. A child's life is to short to have anything happen to them.
Jody


----------



## Deere (Sep 16, 2003)

Invention time.

A series of Lawn tractor seats that have "Buddy" Seats built on. You can buckle your kid up in the buddy seat.

I guess that can only help if you promise to not run into something or flip the tractor.

-D


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*say it aint so*



> _Originally posted by Deere _
> *Invention time.
> 
> A series of Lawn tractor seats that have "Buddy" Seats built on. You can buckle your kid up in the buddy seat.
> ...


 That may be one of the worst Ideas I have ever heard of!


----------



## Stewart (Sep 17, 2003)

The kids on the tractor issue was debated on the "other" site quit a bit. Some folks got real upset over the issue. I have a 6 year old and he is our only monster. I let him ride with me on my L-130 and cruise us around the yard. When I have the trailer on the tractor he gets to ride in it around our little piece of heaven. I do not however let him ride when I am mowing, I keep him and the dogs in another part of the yard just so I don’t have to worry about them. When he rides with me he sits on my lap with his feet on the floor of the tractor. What I do not understand is how a kid could fall off and end up getting run over by the blades????? 

Like I said I do not think it is a good idea to mow with the kids, I just don’t understand how they end up getting run over. Are they riding on the hood??? 

Since I am out on a limb anyway, why not a buddy seat? If you are mowing flat terrain why not? If you were mowing hills you would have a ROPS correct? You have kids in a car seat in the car or truck in the appropriate safety seat. I will concede that most lawn tractors do not have the room for a “buddy seat” but if you had a bigger tractor why not. I used to ride on the fender of my Dads backhoe!! Now wasn’t that stupid!!!


----------



## Tractorguy (Sep 17, 2003)

*Dumb moves....*

There is a kind of FINE LINE between giving your kids a fun experience growing up, and just being stupid. We often cross it without thinking....



I mowed the lawn in tennis shoes when I was 8. 
(Now, I'd require steel toed boots of my kids)

I drove a tractor when I was 9. 
(My 12 year old can barely ride a bike, so a tractor might be a bad idea.)

I drove our old truck out at the cottage when I was 12. 
(Same kid... No clue how anything mechanical operates... Driving a car would be out of the question.)


By the time I was 13, I drove it home too, on Federal hIghways... Now, we only had 2 police for an entire county bake then, but looking back now... THAT WAS DUMB!! Fun, but DUMB... 
(WE live on a busy street now.... I wouldn't let him drive until he's 37.) 


My dad towed us around the neighborhood, behing the car on a toboggan one winter too, but He got a $59 ticket for it... and a lecture from mom!
( It sure was fun, but now I might pull my kids toboggan with a sno-Cat !!)


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

Stewart i agree with you as long as you are not cuttin grass and you dont act like a idiot. But yesterday this guy was cutting his grass with a 1year old on his knee. Kids dont like to sit still very long and that would make them hard to hold on to.
Jody


----------



## DeereBob (Sep 16, 2003)

I am a bit with Stewart on the kids-getting-run-over-by-a-tractor. The primary way I can imagine that a child could be run over is if the front or rear wheels of the tractor rolled over the child raising the deck high enough to actually contact the child. Another way would be if the child fell to the side of the tractor and his arms were thrust under the deck at the same time. Again very improbable since there is very little clearance between the ground and the deck housing but possible. Finally, I believe people mow at a very slow speed <3 mph so unless they were drunk with no reaction time, they could immediately maneuver or stop to avoid hitting the child. I really don't think it is a very good idea having the kid in your lap while mowing but just question a bit how really unsafe is it. 

Now the snowthrower on the front of a tractor is whole different story since the moving auger is exposed and if a riding child were to fall in front, the auger could easily contact the child. Of more concern would be children playing in the snow while dad is clearing the driveway. The same would be the case for a walk behind snow blower.


----------



## Deer180 (Sep 16, 2003)

*More on Safety - Bypass*

Periodically I see STUPID people wanting to bypass their emergecy cutoff switch for the blade when they get off the seat! Daaaah!

At one time I was mowing the grass on a hill, the grass was slightly wet and the tractor slipped and flipped over on its side! Good thing that it had a cut-off! I did not have time to jump off! I mowed that hill many times before w/o any problems. It only takes one time. Lucky for me it had a working bypass switch and stopped the whole tractor - blades and all!

Better SAFE than SORRY!


----------



## jodyand (Sep 16, 2003)

I bypass my back up switch but not the seat, that one i would not bypass all you have to do is set the parking brake and get off. The blades still cut off but the motor stays running. But on my Cub the PTO would cut off every time you try to go in reverse so that had to go. But i look before i back up and i don't have any kids.
Jody


----------



## slipshod (Sep 19, 2003)

*wise man*

A wise man(and I don't remember who only that he was on another site somewhere) said:
They keep making things more and more Idiot proof.The problem is now the Idiots are thriving!


----------



## parts man (Sep 24, 2003)

My daughter has driven one of our tractors when she was 6 while were picking up hay. It was only travelling in 2cnd gear low range at an idle, so about 1.5-2.5 mph, and both my girls have hitched a ride with me on selected occasions, there's a toolbox on the fender of our 444 right beside the drivers seat so they are right next to me. I remember spending countless hours in the same spot as a kid with my dad and grandfather. When my boys who are 3 and scared sh**less of tractors or any thing else that noisy, get over the freakout stage I expect they'll hitch a ride with the old man too.
But like I said, on selected occassions ONLY. Slow speed not to hilly etc.


----------

