[AT] narrow vs. wide front tractors

[Howard Weeks]

I spent several summers as a teenager in Texas driving a Ford tractor 
with a Ford Clipper rotary cutter on it cutting highway shoulders.  We 
had lots of banks that were too steep to take a tractor on.  They 
weren't marked as such so we had to learn to make that judgement on our 
own.  If we chose to attempt a cut on a steep bank, we were taught to 
ride with one hand laying on the fender of the up-hill tire and pay lots 
of attention to it.  If the fender/tire started to float (you can feel 
it) turn the front end down hill until it stopped. If the wheel came up 
aggressively, you stopped it by hitting the down hill brake and 
immediately turning the tractor straight down hill and running to the 
bottom if required.  I and the others came off a lot of banks that way 
and never had a turn over.

We had to stay off doubtful banks that were over bridge abutments and 
other drop offs that could get you even if you avoided a roll over at 
the top.

Had one death, a 65 year old man, that got too close to a 24 inch drop 
off into a ditch with a flat bottom.  The edge crumbled and dropped the 
wheel on that side of the tractor into the ditch and turned it over 
pinning the guy underneath. Our lesson was to stay away from sharp edges 
like that.

Another "gotcha" was loose gravel, wet clay or mud on a steep bank. On 
those, the rear wheels would usually break loose suddenly and start down 
first leaving the front end up hill.  That situation was hard to recover 
from.  We were using rotary cutters with down force. Keeping it pushed 
into the ground would usually keep us from going over backwards.

And I agree with Dean!

Howard in GA

On 4/6/2014 4:22 PM, Dean VP wrote:
> I'm going to summarize the physics of a possible roll-over on our tractors
> as described in an article which I am unable to find on the internet right
> now. It is a very complex issue and the difference of potential roll-overs
> on a Narrow Front End tractor vs a Wide Front End Tractor is stated to be
> not nearly as much as we might want to believe.  However, there are three
> conditions that have to be considered to properly analyze what might happen
> and why. These are whether there are any static vs dynamic forces involved.