Safety is so important, we can all agree on this. But sometimes, when things get a little hectic, we tend to forget.
These are all personal experiences I have had where I was close to death or I saw someone else in the same situation. Most of us learn through experience, but when it comes to farm machinery safety, death is not a good teacher.
I will never forget what has happened to me over the years and I hope I can help you live to see your equipment put away after the season is over.
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I was working on a customer machine with a dealer’s mechanic and the company sales rep was with me. I was standing on the cutter bar, between the pickup and the auger on the table, trying to see why the combine would not feed properly.
All of a sudden I heard the engine roar to life and the whole machine was running.
I quickly tried to line up my shoes to make them as narrow as possible so the pickup teeth would not push me into the auger fingers.
The mechanic had started the engine forgetting that he had left the machine engaged when he had shut it off. I survived.
After the combine stopped running the sales rep told me I should not worry because this combine has a reverser. That’s when I lost it.
Afterward I thought to myself that he must have also hotwired the safety switch at one time. There is never a good reason to do this.
That day I learned that when you get out of the cab of the combine to perform any maintenance or repair, put the keys in your pocket.
Once I was called to the scene of an accident. A combine was on its side with its header all smashed up and the operator full of bruises where he
had bounced around in the cab.
His unloading auger swing had not cancelled, making the oil hot enough to distort the plastic valves in the header lift valve and dropping the header onto the pavement. It threw the machine into the ditch.
I learned that when driving a combine in road gear all the safety stops should be in place and the header resting on the lift stops. This applies whenever you park the machines where the hydraulics might be carrying any load. I have seen cylinders bulge out at the base end because the oil expanded in winter.
I was called to a tractor that was completely on its roof. The operator had a hard time getting out because the doors were jammed. How did he get on his roof? He had not used mechanical locks on his cultivator wings. A hydraulic hose popped, the wings came down and threw him into the ditch.
When you move a cultivator or drill, ensure that you use the mechanical locking devices to secure the machine.
In this case, he was the only one at risk, but what would happen on the highway with an oncoming school bus?
This holds true when the cultivator is just parked in the yard. I’ve seen what happens when a hose blows and a wing falls on a guy’s head cutting his face wide open. He was lucky.
I was once called out to a farmer’s place to look at a combine header that needed some significant attention. It had tire tracks on top of the main frame.
He said he was driving across the field and he hit some rough ground and his header fell off. He drove right on top of it before he was able to stop it. He had not tightened his attachment connectors.
He was also lucky, because it could have been worse. Always, always secure any header connectors on combines, swathers or windrow machines. They are designed to come off, although sometimes you wonder.
Hitches and power take-off shafts are also designed to come off. Make sure they are secured before you turn the key in the ignition or hit the starter switch.
And, please, on behalf of mechanics everywhere, don’t ever jump or hotwire a safety switch. You never know, it might the last thing you ever have to fix.
Henry Guenter is a former service manager for Massey Ferguson. Contact: insidemachines@producer.com.
