baler accidents
this baler can easily be a killer as well as a lifesaver, especially when it is open in this position to eject a bale. the hydraulic lines could fail causing that upper hunk of metal to come swinging down acting like a guillotine and effectively cutting you in half. they have safety stops to effectively stop this from happening , but as a general rule i never enter into the inside of the machine without taking additional measures to assure my safety. other hazards exist also.
again the pto power take off unit is still an ever present danger with loose clothing etc. , being wrapped around shafts and dragging you into the machine possibly causing loss of life. hydraulic fluid shooting under skin or into eyes from sudden loss of pressure due to rupture of line. this is a heavy unit when it is full with a bale and must be handled with caution as it is being transported and when the bale is released as the bales do roll, and it could possibly roll over you or some unsuspecting individual if in the wrong place and with a steep enough hill. i have watched these bales roll and they can pick speed and could easily run you over or a child . so one needs to be careful.
so one day when i was a child of 5 and i was helping my grandpa by taking the grease gun and a rag back to the garage after visiting him in the field. he had just finished greasing the baler as it was an old roto baler 66 made by allis chalmers and was capable of making a 66 inch long round bale about 2 feet in diameter. a much smaller bale than the one in the machine above. he had an old ford 8 n tractor he used to bale with and it was attached to the baler. he had to grease all the fittings on the baler and i watched as he worked in the sunshine. finally he handed me the grease gun and told me to head for the house. carrying the grease gun was important business for me or at least i thought it was. i was helping grandpa when no one else was around. he waved at me as i headed down over the hill past the barn and to the house and the garage . i put the grease gun where i was supposed to and went to playing with my sister when i looked back up at the barn in what seemed like no time and there was my grandpa walking off the hill all hunched over.
i ran to him to see what he was doing back so quick and as i approached he went down on one knee and asked me to run and get my mom. i ran and yelled for her to come as grandpa was hurt, and she came running back to where grandpa went down on one knee. he told her he had been run over by the tractor and that he needed to go to the doctor . she ran and grabbed the pickup and drove right up beside grandpa in the yard and helped him into the cab of the pickup and was soon headed to the doctors office , but upon realizing the extent of his injuries the doctors shipped him on to the hospital where he stayed for 2 weeks.
he had fractured 13 ribs and the tractor's rear tire had ran up over his chest and barely missed his head as it had ran over him in a diagonal fashion , doing as much damage as possible. on top of the broken ribs he had double pneumonia .
but he recovered and was soon home to recuperate. his recollection,as it was the only one ,as no one witnessed what had happened, was that he had exited the tractor and was making his way back to the baler to see what the problem was with it . as he did he noticed the baler was moving and so he ran to the tractor which was speeding down the hill now, and tripped as he was about to climb on and slipped under the tractor and then under the tire as he lost his grip of the fender . he recalled turning his head as the huge rear tire of the tractor grazed his jaw and went by. still the baler was coming at him as it was connected to the tractor and he was still laying on the ground , he tried to roll over on his side and noticed the tractor and baler were stopping. it had come to the bottom of a small hill and didn't have enough momentum to go any further.he said it took all his energy to rise up on one knee and then to stand and walk down that same hill i had just walked down. it was at least a quarter mile to where i saw him again and he sent me after mom. to be run over by a tractor and make it back to the house was quite a feat in itself and only thing that saved him.
i remember seeing his chest and the tractor tire bruise he had and you could clearly see how truly close he was to dying that day. he was truly more of a man than i ever hope to be. he lasted many years after that.
how quick things happen at times. he had set the brakes on the tractor but it still released and started rolling. in retrospect the best thing to do in that situation is to let it go. attempting to climb on a moving vehicle while rolling can be deadly. in the end it stopped on its own , but even if it hadn't, is it worth losing your life for?
so one day when i was a child of 5 and i was helping my grandpa by taking the grease gun and a rag back to the garage after visiting him in the field. he had just finished greasing the baler as it was an old roto baler 66 made by allis chalmers and was capable of making a 66 inch long round bale about 2 feet in diameter. a much smaller bale than the one in the machine above. he had an old ford 8 n tractor he used to bale with and it was attached to the baler. he had to grease all the fittings on the baler and i watched as he worked in the sunshine. finally he handed me the grease gun and told me to head for the house. carrying the grease gun was important business for me or at least i thought it was. i was helping grandpa when no one else was around. he waved at me as i headed down over the hill past the barn and to the house and the garage . i put the grease gun where i was supposed to and went to playing with my sister when i looked back up at the barn in what seemed like no time and there was my grandpa walking off the hill all hunched over.
i ran to him to see what he was doing back so quick and as i approached he went down on one knee and asked me to run and get my mom. i ran and yelled for her to come as grandpa was hurt, and she came running back to where grandpa went down on one knee. he told her he had been run over by the tractor and that he needed to go to the doctor . she ran and grabbed the pickup and drove right up beside grandpa in the yard and helped him into the cab of the pickup and was soon headed to the doctors office , but upon realizing the extent of his injuries the doctors shipped him on to the hospital where he stayed for 2 weeks.
he had fractured 13 ribs and the tractor's rear tire had ran up over his chest and barely missed his head as it had ran over him in a diagonal fashion , doing as much damage as possible. on top of the broken ribs he had double pneumonia .
but he recovered and was soon home to recuperate. his recollection,as it was the only one ,as no one witnessed what had happened, was that he had exited the tractor and was making his way back to the baler to see what the problem was with it . as he did he noticed the baler was moving and so he ran to the tractor which was speeding down the hill now, and tripped as he was about to climb on and slipped under the tractor and then under the tire as he lost his grip of the fender . he recalled turning his head as the huge rear tire of the tractor grazed his jaw and went by. still the baler was coming at him as it was connected to the tractor and he was still laying on the ground , he tried to roll over on his side and noticed the tractor and baler were stopping. it had come to the bottom of a small hill and didn't have enough momentum to go any further.he said it took all his energy to rise up on one knee and then to stand and walk down that same hill i had just walked down. it was at least a quarter mile to where i saw him again and he sent me after mom. to be run over by a tractor and make it back to the house was quite a feat in itself and only thing that saved him.
i remember seeing his chest and the tractor tire bruise he had and you could clearly see how truly close he was to dying that day. he was truly more of a man than i ever hope to be. he lasted many years after that.
how quick things happen at times. he had set the brakes on the tractor but it still released and started rolling. in retrospect the best thing to do in that situation is to let it go. attempting to climb on a moving vehicle while rolling can be deadly. in the end it stopped on its own , but even if it hadn't, is it worth losing your life for?
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