Our tractor loader/67 and 7

[Al]

Hi, Attached is a picture of my 7 year old grandson putting me up to put a rope in a tree to cut a limb that hung over the house. This is our tractor loader and mover. It also gives my 7 yr old grandson, the power to put 67 yr old grandpa up in the world. Guess we are a team. Al Eden Eden[url="pop_download.asp?mode=Edit&dir=Al&file=21015"][img]images/disk.gif[/img][/url]

[Roy]

Al, You are braver than I am. I'm terrified of heights. [:0] Not to mention you are violating all known OSHA safety rules. :D [img]/club2/attach/Al/DSCN3498AlCalebFrkLftRopeIRedcopy.JPG[/img]

[KVANDY12]

Al, grandson do come in handy at times. Was the rope to pull on the limb to keep it from hitting the roof?

[RedbarnRick]

Al, Please do be careful or you might be selling hip replacement kits ;)

[Guest]

On the saftey note... if a hydraulic line broke when someone was up on a loader, how fast would they come down?

[SmilinSam]

quote:

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Originally posted by michaelg221
On the saftey note... if a hydraulic line broke when someone was up on a loader, how fast would they come down?

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You would be amazed at how fast it can come down. Two variables are how much weight is in the air and how big the rupture in the lines. I used to fdrive a John Deere 444 loader and was carrying 3500 lbs of Veneer logs up to a truck to load. About the time I got to the max heighth to get over the trailer stakes one of the main hydraulic supply lines ruptured. The load cam down so fast and so hard it made the back of the tractor come off the ground when it hit. Threw oil 60 feet or more across the yard out of the hose. Reinforces the idea of staying out from under a raised load and not leaving lifts up in the air when away from the machine. Also, a guy was reported to have been killed in the area a few weeks ago from a hydraulic failure. He was apparently working on a Skid steer with the loader up in the air . Was sitting in the operators seat and stuck his head out under the boom when the hydraulics went out and the boom dropped. Instant death . I've done what Al is doing in the picture before, but we must take a moment to conciously realize what we risk when we go to do it and be mentally prepared in case something happens...

[Guest]

I'd say this was a good post for safety... Thanks Sam. I've gone up on a friend's loader and I know someone who use to take the kids around the yard in the bucket of a tractor... I didn't think the later was such a wise idea.

[tec2484]

I work off a fork truck with a pallet on the forks quite often. In the back of my mind I'm always thinking like bugs bunny. Jump real high right before you hit the ground and you should be ok. That And it's not the fall that hurts it's the sudden stop at the end. But with only my 150lb on it, it shouldn't hit to hard from 10 or 12' high. I hope!

[SmilinSam]

One thing to remember , if you are working with a tractor loader rather than a forklift, unless its a self leveling loader the forks will not come down level. They wil come down like spears into the ground and if you happen to fall under them as you come down,....well you can imagine....

[stevenj]

Even if you were in a piece of equipment designed specifically for aerial lift (i.e. bucket truck) you still rely on hydraulic cylinders and hoses. If you are using a piece of equipment for life & limb use you need to take much more care with inspections of the parts and replace hoses at the first sign of abrasion and not wait until the hose ruptures.

[MikeES]

We use OSHA approved manlift cages to mount (and safety chained) on forklifts. Most forklifts have a restricter orifice on the outlet of the cylinders to prevent quick hydraulic release. It would still come down very fast.

[comet66]

Another thing to remember, even without a failure, if bringing it down manually, and you stop it suddenly it can catapult who or what ever is in the lift out for a nasty fall. I have not only seen this happen, but had it happen to me. Giraff lift dropped me from 80' to around 60' in less than a second. The only reason I didn't fall was the safety line hooked to the bucket. The other time the operator fell about 10' and broke his collar bone. Mine was a defective valve, his was operator error.

[OldFarmTractor]

In reality, unless you are on some kind of articulating platform, you can't fall more than about 16.08 ft in one second, assuming "g" to be 9.8 m/ss. From 10 - 12 feet of altitude you should be OK in a drop, provided you remember to flex/roll upon hitting. The jumping near the end of the fall will do nothing for you. You will still hit at the same speed as if you didn't jump.