Need some advice on "a new seat cover"......................and a PSA

[Runs With Scissors]

OK, so full disclosure..........I almost never wear my seatbelt when on the tractor......

Yea, yea, yea.....I know, 10,000,000,000 people a year die, and your cousins, uncles, twice removed Sister-in-Law got maimed real bad..........blah, blah blah.....

I should.......But getting on and off a billion times when working makes it "inconvenient" to say the least.

My land is flat, no hills, only one area has a "minor'ish slope". (not making excuses, just stating facts)

I almost always have the BH-77 on the back....(note that word....almost )

Well, the other day, I had to drill some holes with the PHD and I was too lazy to put the 77 back on.

So there I am "Tractor'n".......all Fat, Dumb, and Happy....Needing to pick up some pressure treated lumber off the trailer, I put the forks on; but the load will only lift up maybe an inch or so.....so I know it's heavy.

Well brother......Let me tell you....... gravity was in "full effect" that day....

As soon as I hit that "minor slope" , the whole F'ing thing started to tip....The left rear ass-end was off the ground, and I slammed that loader stick forward, so fast and hard that I figure I must have broken it.

The whole "kit and kaboodle' hit the deck, sending lumber spilling off in all directions, and the ass-end hit the deck "micro seconds later".......My ass puckered so hard/fast, I will be pulling out pieces of seat cover for days......

I have never had that happen with the counter weight of General Jackson on the back.

Moral of the story................Keep your BH-77 on.... (ohhh...and wear your seat belt......and keep your load "low" )

 

[Paul Allwood]

Glad it worked out ok

 

[GeoHorn]

We all like to think … that won’t happen to ME, because…..

Reminded me of our family-friend, John M. who had retired from over 60 years of rice-farming .…He’d spent his whole life on them….
but Wasn’t going to need them anymore and was moving two of his tractors out to the highway with “For Sale” signs on them….

When he was late returning to the kitchen for lunch…. the Missus went to see why…

It‘s not the last thing you’d want your loved ones to see of you…. a tractor over-turned in a ditch on top of what is left of you.

 

[Workerbee]

Glad it worked out ok

I dont think its worked out yet. He said its going to be days! Those seat cushions must be some sticky stuff.

 

[Orangeglow]

RWS, glad your ok. I really enjoy your story telling. Letting my imagination run wild while reading tour story, made my laugh.

 

[D2Cat]

RWS, seatbelts are on everything. I have an old, early '80's, 40 HP Ditch-Witch trencher and it has a seatbelt! If I'm digging 4' deep in fairly nice soil it might move a foot in 30-40 seconds. No matter what, it can't tip, the digging boom is down in the trench making if as stable as you can imagine--still has a seatbelt? Oh, it's rotted in place out of the way.

 

[pigdoc]

When I was 12 years old, in 1969, I rolled a tractor over...it landed on top of me. I was bringing the cows in from the back pasture, using the tractor as a cowboy would use a horse. We had to do this until they got trained (by a bucket full of ground shell corn, and a hollered "Cm, boss"), because there was no water for them out there. I typically took the Ford Jubilee out to do this. That time, one old biddie turned on me, and instinctively, I stomped on the L brake pedal to turn with her. Centrifugal force took over and over she went. I was in road gear. It threw me off, and then the L rear tire landed squarely on my back, as I was laying flat on the ground, on my stomach. I still remember the force and the grunt I heard myself make as the air was forced out of my chest. Luckily, the tractor kept running for a couple of seconds, upside-down, and the rear wheel churned its way off my back, freeing me. I sat up, leaned against the rear tire sidewall of the now-quiet tractor, and wondered what to do next. My T-shirt was hanging by the collar, from my neck. My parents were both gone, and I figured that, if I waited out there long enough for someone to miss me, I would pass out and die. So, I got up and walked back to the house. It was a good quarter-mile, down a long hill, over an electric fence, over a barbed-wire fence, across a creek, and up a steep hill through an oak grove. It was hard to breathe. I couldn't see anything because i was blacked out. But, I had all those obstacles mapped in my brain. Called Dad on the two-way radio from the house and he came and drove me to the ER. Ruptured stomach, perforated lung, and 4 ribs broken. I took 4 pints of blood, immediately. Was in the hospital for 10 days, 4 days in intensive care. They told me I could have a hypo every 4 hours for pain. After 3 days, they told me I was asking for it every 20 minutes. That's how FAST you get addicted to narcotics. For a year, you could see where the tractor tire lugs had scraped the skin off my back. The tractor? Bent steering wheel was all...

Ya, I don't wear my seatbelt on my L2500. I look up at that ROP and imagine it cutting me in two if I get pinned under it. I drive super-slow on a tractor. Slow enough to react. Scariest thing that happens with that short-little L2500 is that it will high-center on the RF/LR or LF/RR and slowly rock back and forth. You don't have any traction when that happens, because there are no limited slip diffs in these things. Yep, I'm instinctively pushing that FEL lever all the way forward when that happens!

-P

PS, my mom's older brother died in a tractor accident. I think that was about 1939, when she was 8 years old.