OOOOOOUCH 
With 4 days in the high 40's to low 50's and having 16 people over for Christmas, my driveway has turned to mud heaven. With the temperature supposedly going below freezing and staying there for 4 to 5 days I thought that I would take the opportunity to back drag it and level out the atrocious ruts that have mysteriously developed. TO assist in leveling things out I put my counter weight in the bucket and chained it there. This proved to be very effective. The problem occurred when I was putting the weight back where it belonged. I had put 1 chain through the pin that the top link attaches to and attached it to a grab hook on the bucket. Took a second chain hooked it to one side of the bucket down under the draw bar that is bolted to the weight and secured the other end of the chain through a loop in the end of the buck back onto it self.
The 3pt hitch does not go down far enough for the weight to rest on the ground so I use 2 large solid cement retaining wall blocks to set it on. I undid the lower chain and carefully slid the weight out of the bucket using the hydro's then lifted it with the top chain and set it on the blocks. I left a couple of inches of slack on the top chain both for safety in case the weight was not properly balanced ans so I could undo the top link pin. Got off the tractor - wiggled the weight a little to see if it was sitting securely. Undid the chain from the bucket and started to undo the top link pin to remove the chain. That is when the weight decided that it was not properly sitting on the blocks. Jumped back but not far enough or fast enough. The top of the weight scraped down my upper thigh across my knee and down the outer shin. Thanks to my wife putting an extra layer of heavy canvas on that exact part of the legs of my work pants, the weight did not tear through the pants but scraped down the outside. I did loose some skin and am sure that I will be displaying some nice bruises for a while.
Morel of the story: Shit happens no matter how careful you are. Don't tempt fate by disregarding safety rules and procedures.
With 4 days in the high 40's to low 50's and having 16 people over for Christmas, my driveway has turned to mud heaven. With the temperature supposedly going below freezing and staying there for 4 to 5 days I thought that I would take the opportunity to back drag it and level out the atrocious ruts that have mysteriously developed. TO assist in leveling things out I put my counter weight in the bucket and chained it there. This proved to be very effective. The problem occurred when I was putting the weight back where it belonged. I had put 1 chain through the pin that the top link attaches to and attached it to a grab hook on the bucket. Took a second chain hooked it to one side of the bucket down under the draw bar that is bolted to the weight and secured the other end of the chain through a loop in the end of the buck back onto it self.
The 3pt hitch does not go down far enough for the weight to rest on the ground so I use 2 large solid cement retaining wall blocks to set it on. I undid the lower chain and carefully slid the weight out of the bucket using the hydro's then lifted it with the top chain and set it on the blocks. I left a couple of inches of slack on the top chain both for safety in case the weight was not properly balanced ans so I could undo the top link pin. Got off the tractor - wiggled the weight a little to see if it was sitting securely. Undid the chain from the bucket and started to undo the top link pin to remove the chain. That is when the weight decided that it was not properly sitting on the blocks. Jumped back but not far enough or fast enough. The top of the weight scraped down my upper thigh across my knee and down the outer shin. Thanks to my wife putting an extra layer of heavy canvas on that exact part of the legs of my work pants, the weight did not tear through the pants but scraped down the outside. I did loose some skin and am sure that I will be displaying some nice bruises for a while.
Morel of the story: Shit happens no matter how careful you are. Don't tempt fate by disregarding safety rules and procedures.
