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Turning tractor over

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Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
Has anyone ever done this? If so what did you do to do this? Did you get injured or hurt?
Is a small tractor less likely or MORE likely to tip over than a BIG tractor...

Like I said before I have this fobia of tipping a tractor over on me and trying to convince my self of the safest way possible to operate this thing..
 
Be safe. I had a great uncle who was killed by a Gravely garden tractor turning over on him. a gulley bank caved in causing him to roll into the gulley and the gravely crushed his ribcage and such.

It does not take a big tractor to kill ya.
 
(quoted from post at 08:27:06 03/05/08) Has anyone ever done this? If so what did you do to do this? Did you get injured or hurt?
Is a small tractor less likely or MORE likely to tip over than a BIG tractor...

Like I said before I have this fobia of tipping a tractor over on me and trying to convince my self of the safest way possible to operate this thing..
Click to expand...

Almost turned mine over a few weeks ago doing normal stuff and did some real ignorant stuff with no problem. Life is a number game. Be as safe as you can, but if you worry yourself to death you'll still be just as dead as if you were crushed. Get a good roll bar and enjoy life.


Dave
 
I am 70 and have been operating tractors by myself since I was 8 and never turned one over. I have got myself into places that I did not feel safe but took corrective action before disaster struck. You just have to make sure you know the limitations of the tractor you are operating and stay on the safe side.
 
It doesn't take a big tractor indeed...

Last fall a coworker was killed when he rolled his lawn tractor while cutting grass on a sidehill behind his new retirement home. He'd been retired only a couple months.
 
Well, of course you can turn it over, no matter what size it is; people have survived a turn-over, but just assume you're gonna die. Two people of my acquaintance were killed turning crawlers over on themselves (2 separate incidents). One person down the road slipped in the bathtub, cracked her skull and died. Have you considered a team of mules for your 50 acres? That's probably not a good idea, either; old folks used to say that a mule would working faithfully for 10 years just for the chance to kick you once. BTW........most folks wouldn't consider a 4020 a BIG tractor.
 
One of the most important things to remember in handling a tractor and really any piece of equipment, is do not get in a hurry. The vast majority of "horror stories" I"ve seen where someone got hurt or killed, they got in a hurry and tried to finish something when they really didn"t have the time to do it in a safe manner. We have 3 John Deere B"s, 3 A"s and a 70 Diesel. I generally operate in 2 or 3rd, only rarely in 4th and I"ve ever driven any of our tractors in 5th or 6th. To me, its a good way to die. I love the farm, I love working on it and I love working with the tractors, so I"ll keep doing it as long as I"m able. Life is a fragile thing and death could be just one breath away, but death holds no fear for me. Just be mindful of what you"re doing, respect your equipment and enjoy what you"re doing. God Bless.
 
I've never done it, but have felt the frontend slip into places where I did not feel comfortable. I know I have places on my propety were I could roll it. I have my rears set almost as wide as I can get them and practice safe operation. For instance, I pull loads from the drawbar designed to pull loads, it's mounted under the tractor and will pull the front down under heavy load. Pulling from the three point will do the opposite. The safest thing you can do is be aware of your tractor's limitations and common sense safe operating conditions.
 
Good post, and lots of information in the archives on tractor rollovers. You never know when you might die. Just recently a kid tried out a car from a local used car dealership, decided to see how fast it would go and ended up losing control of it and hitting an elderly couple head on at a speed determined to be 98mph. He was going 98mph on a road with a 40mph speed limit. Killed that elderly couple who were both in their 80's and were just headed into town to buy a new razor for him. Or the fellow who went into Wendys to exchange that promotional toy for his kid on the news just a couple of days ago just as some nut job came out of the bathroom shooting people.
point is life is full of risk, use your tractor and enjoy it. You will gain more experience as you use it. Read the operators manual and take a tractor saftey course.
 
It happened a few years ago. We have a big bank barn with a good size barn yard. There were (are) blocks about 2"x2"x4" along the barn yard that make up the one wall. The blocks are two high(4" total height) and stockers love jumping these when your chasing them into a pen. We had some old silage wagons that we havn"t used in years and decided to put these at the top of the wall so the calves couldn"t jump. It wasn"t me backing up but I guess he was too concentrated on backing up straight and not paying attention to the front wheel. He felt it start to tip so he put it in neutral and jumped. Nobody got hurt but he must of been pretty shaken up.If the loader wouldn"t have been up so high we might have been able to save it by dropping the loader and holding the tractor stable. The stupid thing was that we got a loaner tractor while the tractor was getting the rear wheel fixed (bent disc)and the first thing he did was finish backing up the wagons.
 
Rolled an escavator into a ditch when the dirt bank gave out and finally landed greasy side up in the ditch/mud/water..
Glad I took the time the day before to clean the dirt out of the seat belt buckle and freed the rusty mechanism.
Even though it rolled in slow motion. There was no way to jump to the low side and get clear. Or to jump and climb up over the high side as she went over.
She went with enough of thump that if I had time to get a hold with my muddy/greasy hands. It still was not possible to have held on.
Anybody that has survived a roll over, it wasn't due to their speed, strength and brilliance. It was survival due to the Almighty looking after fools and children.
I'm convinced I'm here today un-crushed, un-drownded and physically able thanks to the seat belt.
Now to find protection from my own Brother and Physician who tried to cripple and kill me.
 
It depends a lot on the tractor those little Fords will flip over backwards if you go up to steep a hill. The small Kubotas that I have are very tippy on even level ground. To much load in the bucket and they get real nasty to handle. On my older model I spread the rear wheels out as far as they would go that made a lot of difference, on the small 4 wheel model they are not spread out as I use it in narrow spaces like the barn and its not the safest thing I have ever driven. Did tip it over on its side once cleaning out a ditch, soft mud and a little to much side hill and she just slowly laid over on her side.
Now my big Case LA would take a truck to knock it over lots of low ground clearance and weight plus big tires.
Walt
 
Avoid rollovers by:
Pulling only from the drawbar. Tying on higher than the rear axle can cause the tractor to "climb" the bullgears in the rear case.
Don't drive in wooden fenceposts with a front loader, or if you do, drive them in with the center of the bucket, not a corner. Too many accidents have involved fencing around here.
Drive on the center of the road. Well, in your lane on pavement obviously, but don't be crowding the road ditch where you won't have time to correct if it starts to go in.
Keep your loader bucket low, and don't be screwing with the loader when on the road. I know one guy that used a loader to raise a round bale. It rolled off the bucket and crushed him in the seat. He survived, but he's stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
On a related note, don't be trying to overload the loader. I watched a guy try to lift out a giant cement footing for a satellite dish with the front loader. Both back tires of the tractor were off the ground before he got it stopped.
Obviously don't be trying to drive it sideways into a road ditch. A lot of tractors will handle going right through a ditch if they go in perpendicular to the ditch, but it's a thrill ride you won't do again.
Obviously, wider wheels reduce the likelihood of tipping, but keep in mind that sliding your rears all the way out puts much more stress on just about everything in the rear end. Better to widen it by adding duals and keeping your inner tires closer to the tractor.
Drive on level ground. Actually you can drive on pretty uneven ground, and in practice I've found that you'll start to feel uncomfortable long before you're ever truly in danger (a 15-degree incline will make you nervous but it's pretty safe.)
Lock your brakes together for road driving. Many rollovers can be traced to be being in roadgear (usually with a 3pt-mounted implement) and the driver stepped on an individual brake instead of using both rear brakes together.

Common sense goes a long way, of course. Be careful, but these are actual rollover stories I've been told.
(Around here, they'll probably stress that you also invest in a over-running clutch for your bush hog too.)
 
I rolled an oliver 1950t many years ago. I was VERY fortunate or fast that i was not killed. It took 2 weeks to retrive and repair the tractor.I tried to jump to the high side but ended up just going up. I landed on the oil pan when the tractor hit bottem. I think i was the first one around here to have roll bars on all the usable tractors.
 
A friend of mine rolled over a 450 case dozer on flat ground last year. was backing up and ran up on a stump...luckially he only hurt his arm.
 
I "feel" a tractor like a 4020 with the wheels set out and full of fluid is pretty stable compared to some smaller tractors. I had ours on a side hill going along slow it seemed to want to slide more than tip. I got out of there BEFORE I found out for sure. I had some compact loader tractors and they can be very tippy as they are very narrow.
Always drive along slowly and with one hand on the loader valve and be ready to drop it fast !
 
What part of the country are you in? Growing up in West Virginia, I had a lot of opportunities to turn a tractor over. Still not sure how we allsurvived.
One story I always heard, as was mentioned in the previous post, is that if you are going over, trying to jump to the high side will result in you just going straight up and usually straight down, right under the rolling tractor. I was always told to jump downhill and roll. Neither scenario sounds like good odds.
We did a lot of brush-hogging on steep slopes, with a MF 135 and a Ford 2000. We put the rear wheels out to maximum width, and we had the rear tires loaded with calcium chloride, trying to get the center of gravity down as low as possible. When brush-hogging or using any 3 point implement, keep it as low as possible. On side-hills, always leave the brush hog on the ground.
When going across a side hill, go slow and keep the front of the tractor uphill to the rear. We did this by riding the uphill brake a little to provide some drag. So the tractor more or less crab-walks. Yes, it's hard on the brakes, but they are a consumable anyway.
If things start to go wrong, a quick hard braking to the downhill wheel can quickly flip the nose of the tractor downhill. Always assume that if you start to slide, you're going to slide to the bottom, so have a path picked out. So of course, I never attempt any field work with the brake pedals locked together.
Ground-hog holes on the downhill side were always my worst fear.
Even though I'm in Texas, where everything is relatively flat compared to WV, one of the first things I did was install a factory ROPS on my JD, and I use the seat belt.
 
You know I had a GOOD John Deere 5020 that would have been PERFECT with Duals and I got rid of the thing....to this day I wish I kept it with the duals!!! I would feel a WHOLE lot safer if I had duals!!!
 
I haven't rolled one, but I scared the heck out of myself once.

I had to go several miles down the road with a large forklift. The forklift would go faster in reverse than forward, so I took off in reverse and opened the throttle. The forklift started to drift to the side of the road, and it dawned on me I didn't know which way to turn the steering wheel since I was in reverse.

Thankfully, my first try was the right one.

It's those stupid little lapses that will get you.
 
worked for a highway dept when i was in high school. was mowing road ditches with an i-h 2444 and a bush hog. steep ditch near a tile out flow. ground gave way, turned the tractor turtle. happened so fast was nothing you could do. thank god for seat belts and rops. still leary whenever im on an incline with a tractor.
 
Was using a rear blade on a 9n and drove into a irriagtion ditch when I was 13 and turned over.I wasn't hurt,but I've sure been more careful since. I walked away from a D4 on a ditch bank in my 20's. The Good Lord must not have wanted me home yet.
Actually probably have had more close calls with horses.
 
Never Rolled a big tractor , THANK GOD ! , Had a 1010 Massey loader tractor laid on Its Side 3 times , Traded it for a 210 Massey and put the loader on it , It ended upon its side twice , Someone wanted the Massey Bad , Sold it And replaced it with 2220 Yanmar, It has been on its side once ,, EVERY TIME THIS HAPPENED WITH ANY TRACTOR I WAS IN REVERSE WITH A HEAVY LOAD IN BUCKET.
 
My cousin was scraping the free stall with a blade on the back of a 420 john deere. He was backing up to the ramp to stock pile it and his foot slipped off the clutch pedal, him and the tractor backed off the ramp and landed upside down about 8 feet below. Luckily there wasn't a spreader parked there. He was trapped between the seat and fender. Got a broken pelvis and a life long memory. Very shortly after that they put a barrier there to stop a tractor but let the crap go down and also welded a arm on the clutch pedal so a foot couldn't slip off.
 
I've never tipped a tractor but I've had a couple of heart thumpin close ones.

When I was about 14 years old I helped pull a guy out from under an overturned Farmall M. He was a big guy and I had to help carry the stretcher up a steep road ditch. Boy were my knees a shaking. He passed away the next day.

I couldn't get myself to drive a tractor for several days after that and I've tried to be a careful driver since then. Sometimes even the most careful driver has those little 'tipsy' times happen once in awhile. Jim
 
I forgot to metion that it didn't actually roll over but landed on it's side. With the loader up as high as it was I would have loved to see it upside down for the situation it was in.
 
Ballast, Ballast, Ballast.

Widen those wheels out past 7 feet.

NO hills with the loader up in the air.

If you don"t feel good about a hill, don"t do it.
 
I've only rolled one completely over, it was a 2090 Case (105 hp) with a cab. I was raking hay and got too close to a creek bank and the bank gave way. To this day I dont know how it happened but I ended up upside down in the cab (didnt have my seatbelt on, but I do ever since) and covered in broken glass.
 
The only thing I have laid on its side was a 35 ton cherry picker. Trying to spin over the side with a load and not using the landing gear.

I can think of several things that will turn a tractor over.
Trying to pull on something with a chain and having the chain hooked above the axle level.
Moving with a front end loader in the air above the hood level.
Working on hills and getting the weight of the tractor past the center of gravity.

A small or large tractor will roll. It depends more on where the tires are set in width; how tall the tractor is; and where most of the weight is.
 
(quoted from post at 01:22:09 03/06/08) Never Rolled a big tractor , THANK GOD ! , Had a 1010 Massey loader tractor laid on Its Side 3 times , Traded it for a 210 Massey and put the loader on it , It ended upon its side twice , Someone wanted the Massey Bad , Sold it And replaced it with 2220 Yanmar, It has been on its side once ,, EVERY TIME THIS HAPPENED WITH ANY TRACTOR I WAS IN REVERSE WITH A HEAVY LOAD IN BUCKET.
Click to expand...

It would seem, that one would have learned something after
so many incidents ??? :roll:
 

Backing up with a raised loader with a load in the buck then turning is classic text book loader turn over!

You are looking the the back, chances are still pulling up on the loader, then turning in reverse before being inline with your truck/spreader/wagon etc. etc.

Hope you have a good roll bar and seat belt......
 
I have never rolled a tractor and I hope I never do.

Last year at the Indiana State Fair (I believe in the Farm Bureau Building) there was a poster showing roll-over fatalities by county. Our county (Dearborn) was one of the worst in the state. Most of the county is hilly, and we have very few full time farmers. Mostly we have semi-retired and part-time farmers using smaller and older tractors.

Having said that, I think lack of experience is the number one cause, with old age being number two. One of my Dad's friends moved out here after retiring. He was pulling a log with an old Ford, he had chained the log to the seat support. The log hit a stump, the tractor went over backwards and killed him .
 
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