[AT] Farmall H wide front end

[David Rotigel]

On Apr 4, 2010, at 11:31 AM, Dean Vinson wrote:

> Whenever the narrow-front vs. wide-front discussion comes up, I'm  
> always on
> the side that it doesn't make any difference.
MOST of what you say from here on Dean seems to show that you think it  
DOES make a difference!
>
>
> With any tractor, operator awareness and caution, spacing of the rear
> wheels, speed of operation, terrain, height of the loader bucket if so
> equipped, etc, have got to make more difference in the tendency to  
> roll over
> than the front end style does.
I didn't see anyone saying that it made more/less of a difference than  
anything else--just that it made a difference.
>  If all those things have been controlled as
> well as they can be, and the operator still has a concern that the  
> tractor's
> geometry is unsafe given his particular terrain, as a general rule  
> I'd say
> forget about switching front ends and switch instead to a low-profile
> utility tractor.
>
> It's not that I disagree with the personal anecdotes or detailed
> explanations of the physics or practical tests involving toy  
> tractors on a
> tilted board or discussions of the effects of having larger and widely
> spaced front wheels, etc.
I'm most impressed that you do not disagree with the laws of physics!
>  All of those sound reasonable and right to me.
> But at a very gut level I always come back to my instinctive  
> position that a
> tall row-crop tractor is still a tall row-crop tractor regardless of  
> what
> type of front end it has.
How on earth did row crops get into this discussion? Did I miss  
something?
>  Putting a wide front on an H or M won't suddenly
> convert it into a Ford 8N or IH 300 or Oliver 550 or whatever, in  
> terms of
> the relationship between the height of its center of gravity and the  
> span of
> its rear wheels.
Where did anyone say/argue that it would?
>
>
> In the end I think it's a shades-of-gray issue.  Is a wide front  
> safer?
> Sure, probably so, but only by shades of gray.
Please refer to your first comment above.
>  If you evaluate those shades
> and make a carefully reasoned choice for a wide front, great.  My  
> concern is
> our natural tendency as humans to latch onto quick soundbites and boil
> everything down to black and white, and therefore assume that "wide  
> front"
> equals "safe".  It doesn't.
Who was it that said that "wide front equals safe?"
>
>
> Dean Vinson
	Dave