Lesson learned on tractor safety

[Nancy Howell]

Sunday afternoon, hubby cranked up two of our JD tractors and said let's go for a ride. I hadn't felt particularly good and had spent most of the day inside. After we got back, we put the tractors up. As we always do, we shut the gas off to let the tractors run out of gas. I had driven our '46 A slant dash. The shut off valve at the bowl is on the right side (clutch side). As I leaned in to turn off the valve with my right hand, my long hair slid down and over my left shoulder. My eyes where drawn to the spinning clutch and it occurred to me what would have happened if I had been closer to the clutch and it had gotten into the clutch. I backed up immediately, tucked my hair up securely, then turned the gas off. Normally I put my hair up in a braid and this wouldn't have happened, but since I had spent most of the day inside, it was loose. This made a serious impression on me and it won't happen again. You gentlemen may not have the hair issue, but be cautious about loose clothing and moving tractor parts!

 

[rrlund]

It's a blessing that you weren't hurt. That's just how quick it happens. I saw pictures once,stills taken from a film or video. I guy got his shirt in a PTO on a post hole auger. The expression on his face never changed until well after his shirt was torn clean off. He never knew it happened until it was all over.

 

[Dairy Farmer in WI]

when i was growing up, there was a lady farmer down the road that was out baling hay shje had to get off the tractor for some reason and left the PTO running. she leaned over the power shaft and it cought her hair and pulled her scalp back a ways. she got out of it somehow and now wears wigs.
another story...again from when i was younger. my dad was baling hay with his 24T JD throw baler. one bale landed back on the throw plate and wouldn't throw. so he then got of the tractor and left the PTO runing and PULLED the bale out from under that bar on the back of the throw cage. the thrower cought him right beneath the chin and slammed him into the front gate on the wagon. he had to get at least 10 stiches. i witnessed the whole thing and it scared the crap outta me.
just be safe and always be aware of your surroundings EVERYONE!
DF in WI

 

[Paul from MI]

Can't be too careful with long hair, loose clothing, etc. Our shop used to have pretty strict rules about long hair(hair nets needed) due to safety. Union really complained because some of the guys hair was longer than the gals and finally management decided to let them hurt themselves. No serious incidents so far, but a VERY wrong move in my opinion. Be safe!! Of course since all this problem occurred mother nature has resolved the problem for me. It's called baldness!!
Paul

 

[Gun guru]

An old boss of mine worked in a machine shop 20 years ago when guys had long hair (to look cool) and this one fella was running a drill press and someone called his name and he spun his head around to say "What" and at that instant a chunk of his hair was torn right out at the scalp...ouch. Long hair is for women, not men.

 

[HENRY E NC]

In 1987 I had a young fellow working for me that had below the should hair and lots of it. He was my best AC tech and did all the service work on large units over 30 tons. I sent him to a hotel to work on a unit. He never came home by closing time but that was not unusual. The next morning his car was still at the shop and he never showed up By nine AM I called his wife and she was very worried. We found him at the hotel in the mechanical room on the floor still tangled in the pulley shaft. His neck and back were broken and he lived another 12 years as a paraplegic. Henry

 

[Doug in Illinois]

I think we have ALL done stupid stuff. My worst mistake with a piece of farm equipment was with an IH 151 combine, was cutting weedy milo, feeder house would plug, didn't take me long to figure out could pull the plug out by pulling on the drive belt. This was before header locks, was just after dark and really wanted for finish the last couple acres in this patch, did same as always but in the dark didn't see that I had my foot against the hyd line for the header. Snapped the line, head dropped, don't know to this day how I had the strenght in my legs to lift the header and roll out from under it.
Any of you you still have young ones around the farm, I would recommend 4H farm safety class. I assume still being offered. DOUG

 

[T_Bone]

Hi Nancy,

Yep just about anything can and will get caught in rotating equipment.

I was looking at a refrigeration unit one time with the owner. The condensor fan was a open design where the blades were exposed. As I was talking with the owner I lost track of what I was doing and stuck my fingers into the bottom of the fan.

It sure looked like there was clearance there, between the blades and mount opening, but my fingers said other wise. I got lucky as it just cut the ends off my fingers that grew back. Dang they sure was sore for a week or so.

T_Bone

 

[fixerupper]

rrlund, were the pictures you saw from a university photo? I saw a video that was very similar to that. It was at a university somewhere and they were using a post hole digger while the video camera was running. A fella got his shirt ripped off by the PTO and he didn"t react until the shirt had wrapped around the shaft a couple of times. It turned out to be a very good safety video.

When I was a kid I was peering into the gas tank on our "35" A while it was running and I leaned into the spark plug right THERE. Another lasting safety memory!Jim

 

[Bruce Hopf]

Back in 1984, when I was in machine & welding shop during highschool, a class mate of mine had real long hair. He was running a drill press, with his hair down, got caught in the drill bit, and ripped a chunk of hair, roots, and all, about the size of a golf ball. The shop teacher tried warning him on several occasions, to put his hair up. He had so much pride, in his hair, and refused to. The next day he came back to school, he was completly bald. He shaved his head, and today he keeps his head shaved, because in that spot, he never grew hair again. He learned his lesson the hard way unfortunatly. He had real nice hair. Made alot of girl students jelous.

 

[Lee in Iowa]

My folks always talked about a neighbor lady that didn't wear a bra very often, and one time she was doing laundry she got her you know what in the wringer on an old maytag. Lee

 

[teddy52food]

In shop class in High School, the teacher said no one with long hair could use the drill press and had to drill by hand. After a project or two everyone had short hair.

 

[Goose]

I used to work in a large printing plant, about 30 years ago. The gals that operated the binding machinery in the bindery department all had long hair. The Department Head kept warning them about long hair around the machinery. The gals' attitude was that no one was going to tell THEM how to wear their hair.

About every six months, one of the gals would get her hair wrapped up in a machine and it would take about a half hour to get her out. Next day, all the gals would have short hair. Then in six months it would grow out enough so someone would get caught again.

It was a never ending process.

 

[sammyd]

Why was the clutch spinning if you were shutting down?
I've never thrown it in N engaged the clutch then shut an old 2 banger off.

 

[rednekelmo]

glad your ok and realised the danger that's the imporntant step in being safe.about 30 years ago the guy working for my uncle though he would step acrossed a running PTO shaft that was at a dead idle on an oliver 77. when he hit the ground on the other side he had a pair of boots and 2 sore nuts left. the PTO pulled his pants shirt and belt off and destroyed them.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Why was the clutch running and you can turn the gas of from the other side. You also can turn the ignition sw off then when engine is off shut the gas. With engine off and brakes locked the tractor would be safe.Some 60yrs ago thats the way i was taught to stop a JOHN DEERE.

 

[Spook]

I have a younger brother that got his hair caught in a drill press and lost a patch. Years ago, I looked up to see a fellow worker without his shirt, thought it was odd. I walked up to him to see what was going on - he didn't say anything, just pointed to his shirt wrapped around a shaft he had been turning on a lathe. I always wear short sleeve shirts around machines now. Sure don't have to worry about the hair!!!!

 

[Nancy Howell]

This tractor doesn"t have an ignition. When we park the tractors, we put them in neutral, set the brakes and engage the clutch to prevent excessive wear on the clutch plates, shut the gas off to prevent varnish in the carb, then let them run out of gas. This is an all-fuel and yes you could reach the valve from the starter side, but its hard to get to because its on the side away from the starter. Its much easier to reach from the clutch side.

 

[Mattlt]

We always just pull the wires out of the magneto to shut off our "B"

 

[Anonymous-0]

Doing that can ruin the magnetos coil.With no gap to jump it will arc internally.Shut off the fuel.With out a load the voltage runs high and breaks down insulation.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Long hair should be tied up.A braid would increase the danger.We all know people who have gotten hair caught in machinery.An engineers cap will have plenty of room for long hair.My grand mother always wore her long hair in a bun.Although her hair was white it still showed blond were it was rolled up.The sun is hard on hair and skin.

 

[Amarillo Doug]

I had an"assistant" assigned(neither wanted nor needed) to help me work on a 575NH baler when I worked for CASEIH.He was the hippy type with long hair and always wore a necklace and loose sloppy clothes.I had warned him about it several times but he Knew it all.I was shutting down the baler when he got caught in the PTO.He wrapped up his hair and that necklace and his vest before it came to a stop.An hour later we finished cutting him loose.The next day he showed up with shaved head and clothes that looked painted on and no necklace.

 

[wfw]

in my younger days I was working in the coil shop at the western electric plant in winston-salem nc and saw a girl have a big patch of hair pulled out by a coil winding machine, she was talking to the girl next to her and just turned her head, the machine caught her hair and a patch about 3" diameter was jerked out. be careful around machinery that turns!!

frank

 

[Mattlt]

Good to know. That's the way Dad always did it, so as you know, the apples don't fall far from the tree.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I made a new set of custom wooden side boards for my flat bed pickup, on the drivers side, I cut the 8' board down to 2 4' boards, the cut being on a 45 degree angle to the side of the board. These boards are about 18-20 inches high, above the bed. Me, I am 6'0', and the boards top is about 4" below breast height, to use a forester's term. I have a friend who is about 5-6 inches shorter than I am, he was reaching into the bed to get something. As he grabbed the item, and started to pull back the boards came back together like a Chinese handcuff, giving him one of the most scientifically administered purple nurples that I have ever seen. His scream of pain also could be heard by the auction crowd, and he almost ended up buyin something he really didn't need. Luckily, no serious injury resulted, but we was laughin' about it, he says that's the best anti theft device ever designed!