Risks of operating tractor from a standing position?

[Thorny]

I'm new to tractors, with only 15 hours on my first one. I've been doing some light dirt work around the property and I've found the sometimes I need to stand up to see what the bucket is doing. Or when switching implements on the front end I also stand up as I line up the quick disconnect. Obviously the seat safety switch can kick in when I do this and i have to sit back down again.

I've considered disabling the seat switch. But before I do something really stupid, what are some of the accidents that happened that lead to the seat switch being put on tractors in the first place? Specifically on an HST, open cab model?

 

[Boo]

I find that I have to do this as well. The Skid Steer attachment process does not work well without seeing what I am doing, and I can really see unless I am standing up. I know that I have just a few choices:

I can tied down my seat switch lever and standup and then "gently" move the tractor where I need it, or

I can mount a camera on my front guard that shows me what I am doing on a monitor on my dash, or

I can have someone stand up front and give me instructions.

Out of all of them, I end up disabling my seat switch. I have gotten used to the stand up and move forward method. The monitor option was more difficult than standing. On certain types of tractors, it is really more difficult, but on my MX, it is pretty simple.

 

[skeets]

OK Im gona chime in here,, The seat switch is there for a reason,, yeah sometimes its a PIA but it was put there because someone most likely died because it wasnt. In my other life I have seen to many times where a safety item has been disabled for the convenience of someones inability to do a job. Not that Im saying you cant do the things your trying, but others couldnt and wound up hurting or killing them selves or some one else.
What I would say to you, is slow down and feel the tractor, it will tell you everything you need to know and how to do what you want.
Think things through, each and every step, and then rethink it again.
And soon you will be able to do things with out having to think it through and through again.
Look at what you cant see with the Quick hitch, think how you can do it with out having to stand up, maybe a black line painted on each part so you can match them, something other than standing up.

I know I come off as a Safety Sam some times, but I have investigated too many accidents in my past life, and some resulted in body bags being filled. I just want you to keep coming back here for a lot of years and filling your dreams for your homestead and family.

OK Im done preaching

 

[Bulldog777]

When I was a teenager I was roading our tractor back home from mowing our pasture. There were police and an ambulance at some people's house we knew. A lady was mowing around a pond in their pasture and was thrown/fell from the tractor. The rotary cutter ran over her. It was a horrible sight. Her husband was the first one to find her up underneath the shredder.
There was no seat switch on that old tractor, but if there had been maybe it would have turned out different. If you have spent any sufficient time on a tractor, you know every once in a while you get "rocked" pretty good. If you're standing up, you're center of gravity is higher and above the fenders.
Skeets is right, find another way to do it sitting down.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Many older machines had no seat switches. Imagine bailing off a tractor to avoid a bad situation and its still running and moving. Not a good scene.

I stand while running my tractor for extended periods.it gets uncomfortable after sitting for a few hours.

 

[hodge]

I think the seat switch is to stop the tractor in the case of being removed from the tractor, not simply standing up. Sometimes, you have to stand to see/operate the tractor. What comes to my mind is mowing, and looking for objects like rocks or stumps.
While it is inconvenient, it is a useful safety device. I have a friend with severe leg damage. His plow got hung up on roots and tripped, and he got off of the tractor to do something to it. His pants leg caught the shifter, pulled it into gear, and the tire pulled his leg under. Because the plow was hung up, the tractor sat there and spun, on his leg, until someone (another family member that was plowing with him) came and shut the tractor down. Obviously, a seat switch would have either reduced the injuries, or negated them.
The risk is real. These safety devices aren't always convenient or perfect, but they do work.
So, to answer, I don't think that it is inherently dangerous to stand while operating. But, if you have to disable a safety device to accomplish it, you are entering into dangerous territory.

 

[OldeEnglish]

I'm with skeets on this, you should be seated and buckled up while operating. Picture yourself standing up, hit a bump, your right foot lands on the reverse pedal, and now your ass over tea kettle . It takes time and experience to get a feel for your tractor, pretty soon you will know exactly where and what your bucket is doing. What I do when I'm trying to do bucket work close to something I go real slow and lean left or right, you should be able to see and judge where the cutting edge is within a few inches.

Look at it this way... there are people that operate monster pay loaders all the time, their view of what's going on is a lot less than of a small tractor. I can't recall ever seeing someone standing up to see what their doing operating a pay loader. I've been around operators so talented that they could scratch an itch on your back for ya with a bucket. They didn't get that good overnight, practice makes perfect.

 

[D2Cat]

A few moons ago I was told by a renowned medical dr. I would be blind in two years if I didn't "change my ways". I thought he was an ass, and never went back to him, but his comment did make me think.

As I am working on anything I always wear safety glasses, even if it's inconvenient to get them. When threading a nut onto a bolt that I have to reach for, I imagine how to get it started, is it at an angle? Does it feel like the threads of the nut are turning on correctly? Is the wrench in the correct angle? I visualize the process like I was blind.

When operating a loader, I don't want any indicator telling me when the bucket is level. I either get a feel for the bucket by identifying a part of the bucket that is level that I can see from the operator's position, or I dig too deep or don't take enough. Or I look behind the bucket to see the results and make immediate changes. But in short order one becomes competent at operation without all the "make it easy" inventions.

I challenge any operator to visualize every step of your operation in detail to the degree you can perform the operation sightless. You will soon amaze yourself and create ways to do things quicker and safer.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

Too bad there isn't an optional dead man switch option. Maybe the ones who need to disable the switch could consider adding a dead man switch.

 

[TripleR]

I operated machines standing up for much of my life and still own old tractors without safety devices, but I operate them the same as my newer machines. I'm alive because of seat belts and airbags, maybe someday the operator presence switch will do the same.

 

[virginiavenom]

I sometimes wish I would have bought a skid loader. as any loader work would be WAY easier if I could see my front lip, same with when I hookup to other attachments, although I've gotten the correct "lean" position down from the seat. but that's on my 4060.

 

[sagor]

There could be an option for a hand or leg tether, like the ones on some walking machines/treadmills. You clip the tether onto yourself and plug the plastic/metal key into the safety slot (best is a magnetic pad/switch - can pull out sideways too). That could then disable the seat switch, since you are tethered to another safety switch. Make it a short tether, and if you ever leave the tractor by accident, it would pull out and shut the machine down - the same way as a seat switch.
That way, you would have two options, either one or both at the same time if there is an optional "selector" for both.

It would be a very simple improvement to make. Maybe some tractor designer will read this and think about it... Of course, a seat switch is "mandatory", you can't avoid it without disabling it. One could plug in the tether and not attach it to the "body", a definite cheat. But then, someone will always find a cheat for any safety device.

 

[Thorny]

thanks guys those are good examples. I do cut my pasture with a rotary cutter and do some light grading with the box blade and running over myself is a possibility with those implements. Or my kids doing it as they get older and start operating the tractor. I think I'll look into a temporary disable option for the seat switch rather than a permanent one.

 

[virginiavenom]

There could be an option for a hand or leg tether, like the ones on some walking machines/treadmills. You clip the tether onto yourself and plug the plastic/metal key into the safety slot (best is a magnetic pad/switch - can pull out sideways too). That could then disable the seat switch, since you are tethered to another safety switch. Make it a short tether, and if you ever leave the tractor by accident, it would pull out and shut the machine down - the same way as a seat switch.
That way, you would have two options, either one or both at the same time if there is an optional "selector" for both.

It would be a very simple improvement to make. Maybe some tractor designer will read this and think about it... Of course, a seat switch is "mandatory", you can't avoid it without disabling it. One could plug in the tether and not attach it to the "body", a definite cheat. But then, someone will always find a cheat for any safety device.

exactly. I have a 24ft pontoon boat that has one....it has never EVER nor will it EVER be attached to any part of my body, now a jet ski I had, duh. i might use the teather on the toon IF I got into some real bad choppy/windy/stormy conditions.....but I'm never out if it looks like it might get bad.

 

[Bulldog]

I'm not going to go all safety police but this question/situation kind of reminds me of my mining days. MSHA would come a couple time a year and inspect us. We had the little CFR book which were full of rules to follow. Some of them seemed so stupid you asked why that was even a rule at all. Then when you do question why something is in the book and you find out that each and every rule in there is because someone was either hurt or killed.
I bet if you do the research the little pia seat safety switch is there because of all the people that have been hurt or killed on equipment that didn't have them. Another thing to think about is the safety of others. May never happen but if someone else used your tractor and got hurt because of a disabled switch it would be on you. I'm not telling anyone what to do with their own tractor but choose wisely.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Yamaha atv has an rpm limiter while in reverse. Got in situations where a little more zoom was needed. There was wire that needed to see ground to bypass. Put in a hidden toggle,only used as a last resort. Same machine occasionally liked to stall. Easier to start in gear with a bit of throttle, had a temp bypass if you pulled on brake lever. Safety features with a necessary bypass.

 

[maclean]

I removed the seat switch on my BX25D...I don't weigh enough and every time I got a bump or rocked to the side the tractor would start to cut out.

Then I removed the PTO switch after the I don't many know how many hours I spent getting the tractor started racking the lever up and down.

I also had to wire out the opm module after a stick rammed up under the tractor and broke it...and if you know where that is on a BX it was a one in a million shot.

I also installed an emergency start switch...but haven't needed it since I bypassed everything.

I wear eyepro and earpro and gloves and chaps and steel or composite toe boots. That stuff works.

If Kubota's safety stuff worked...and if didn't cost me hours of troubleshooting I'd leave it alone.

Now...I don't mow with my tractor...and if I decide to get a brush cutter or MMM then I will spend some time finding working switches and relocating or uparmoring the OPM.

 

[DocHolladay]

exactly. I have a 24ft pontoon boat that has one....it has never EVER nor will it EVER be attached to any part of my body, now a jet ski I had, duh. i might use the teather on the toon IF I got into some real bad choppy/windy/stormy conditions.....but I'm never out if it looks like it might get bad.

It isn't just for bad weather/water conditions. It helps when there are people out there that you don't know their intoxication level or boat driving abilities. You don't hook the kill switch up to your body, you put it on your life jacket. Its a small thing that lets you go home at the end of the day. You might be shaken up and scared, but you get to go home to your loved ones.

 

[dandeman]

Work associate of mine killed when he stood up for some reason and fell over backwards and disk harrow got him.. Tractor was found still running around in circles.

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69544921

 

[Fractal]

I have found that it is pretty easy to see the bucket with the new sloped hood design on our 2501. I can attest to how dangerous our old Jubilee was though. I had to jump start it one time, and forgot to take it out of gear, and was standing up to run the battery jump pack, as soon as it fired it almost threw me over backwards while immediately starting to go forward. It wouldn't have been pretty if I hadn't caught myself since I had the back blade on it. I still don't know how I didn't fall off.