falling off a running tractor

Wow - you're very lucky to have not been hurt...or worse. Thankfully I've never had a similar experience.

I was bush hogging with the WD45 and was mowing under some low branches . A low hanging branch snagged me and was trying to pull me off the back of the WD45 with the rotary mower trailing . I threw the hand clutch forward and before it stopped another branch that was caught in the loader frame came loose and caught the hand clutch lever and reengaged it . The jerk alone about knocked me off the seat . Again the branch I was stuck on was pulling me also . I hit the foot clutch but no over running clutch on pto so tractor was still going forward . I thought it was all over when the branch that had me broke and I finally got hand clutch disengaged .Went straight to TSC and put an overrunning clutch on PTO shaft . Close call to say the least . I love the sound a WD45 makes under load and it was a hell of a tractor , but operator comfort and or safety were not so much. D series was better in both regards . When I ran a conditioner/ crimper behind our WC my fathers best advice was " Don't fall off the back , it will take the rest of the day to get you unwrapped "

A young man working for a local farmer was raking hay with a farmall M on some rolling ground he had in hay . Young guy claimed tractor was tipping over and he bailed . The tractor righted itself and took off . He could not catch it so he walked back to the shop to get the farmer . they followed the trail the tractor and rake left , through a couple fences , across an interstate , through the median and across the other side . It then ran into a house and stopped in the front room . Somehow it was a rental house the farmer owned so he lucked out from being sued . State police and DOT were not very happy though .

40+ yes ago one of my Dad's uncles fell off a tractor and got run over by the disc he was pulling. I was a youngster at the time. All I know is it was a closed casket funeral.

Heard a story of a guy getting ran over by a 4020, right across his torso. Being in a fresh plowed field saved him, as the wheel pressed him down into the soft soil and kept from crushing him. 

I slid off into a roadside ditch and was spit off.  The rear finish mower was chucking rocks and ground up asphalt at me but no injuries.  I remember my left hand was on the spinner and I bent the steering wheel where it was attached and in my right hand was the rubber grip that was on the three point lever.  It happens fast. 

On watercraft they have added a Kill Switch to a lanyard the operator wears. I wonder if that would not be a reasonable add for the older open station tractors to preclude these incidents? My 180 it would not work as has cable shut off but a attached solenoid to that cable or a reverse pull cable to that lanyard could do it.

Decades ago a local farmer fell off his tractor when pulling a one-way disker and survived. As he went off he somehow hit the hydraulic lever and it raised the disker enough that although severely injured it saved his life as it passed over him. The tractor then started going in circles in the field and he had to crawl out it's way a couple of times until a farmer passing by noticed the circling tractor and managed to jump on and stop it. The injured farmer spent about 3 months in the hospital. He had some scars and some permanent damage but was able to continue farming.

In my experience, the butthole takes a bite out of the seat cushion, at somewhere near 30º...

Everything mechanical is dangerous. We often get so used to it we forget what could happen with the slightest bit of carelessness. Be careful guys.

GT in Indiana wrote: Has anyone fallen off a running tractor and it has just kept going?  I was going through the woods on my WD 45 and somehow a small vine got twisted around my wrist.  Before I could get it loose, I was pulled off the seat and the old tractor just kept going in 2nd gear. Not hurt but a scary situation...

I once stood in front of the left rear tire of a WD-45, reached across and grabbed the starter rod, pulled and as I did my elbow pushed the gearshift into second gear as it started. Only by the Grace of the Most High God am I still here as the tractor missed me. Still hard to see how. 👆

Speaking of the grace of God, me and a friend ages 12 - 13 were out in an old field full of one and a half two foot ant hills. One in the seat and one standing on the drawbar holding on to the fenders, we romped through this field nailing as many hills as possible at a time seeing how high we could bounce and hang on. Man talk about stupid!!! I don't know how neither of us got hurt, but I'm sure that old Coop felt it. Yep by the grace of God.

I remember at around 7 or 8 figuring out that gasoline smelled good and so me and my younger brother decided to smell gas out of the gas tank on Dad's old WD. Got dizzy and fell down. Survived that easy enough but then we found out later that gasoline was also flammable and that lighting an empty fuel can and watching it fly like a rocket was really fun. Now that was stupid!..... it was plastic and that probably saved us.

NEVER green wrote: [TUBE]7QmHM148A5A[/TUBE]