Saw a piece of industrial?/agricultural? machinery trundling along my road today at what I thought was a fair rate of knots. It was a bit like a digger, however, where the bucket would normally be was actually about 6 to 8 very long and lethal looking spikes. They were about 2 to 3ft from the ground and pointing slightly upwards.
Certainly could cause some damage if it rear ended someone, or kebabed a mimser crossing the road in front of it.
I would have thought that something as lethal looking as that on an urban road would need something over the spikes?
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My guess is that the spikes were for picking up those great big cylindrical straw bales that you see in fields after corn crops have been harvested.
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Just a fork-lift attachment on a tractor, often used for hoisting swiss-rolls, as mentioned above. It would seem to be able to test NCAP ratings as effectively as anything else ...
Edited by Andrew-T on 02/11/2009 at 15:28
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I would have thought that something as lethal looking as that on an urban road would need something over the spikes?
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They usually do have something covering the spikes round here, and you certainly wouldn't want it on your boots! ;-)
Commonly known by the farming fraternity as "muck spikes" and they're used for cleaning cowsheds out. Also used as improvised pallet forks by some farmers!
L'escargot, there is such a thing as a "bale spike" for doing precisely what you mention but they normally consist of one large spike with a shorter one underneath. The wrapped bales are sometimes moved this way but more and more farmers now use a grab-like attachment specifically for that, to avoid puncutring or tearing the wrapping.
Edited by Harleyman on 02/11/2009 at 19:36
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Would it have been a Teleporter HM for the Heston Bales?
I used to love selecting the 'crab' mode and watching someone jump on it unaware...........!
Pat
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Strange how a tractor can merrily go on its way with lethal projections from the front, yet a family car can fail an MOT for having a badge bar or a bit of dented wing projecting in front of the bumper
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Round us they always drive with the prongs up in the air, not at 2 - 3 feet, unless actually carrying a bale.
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Its a buckrake for putting Silage into the pit
used to me mounted on the 3pl to the rear
Sensiblly it should either be crowded ( cranked up) or indeed pointing down but then the loader needs to be higher, obstructing view
Really there should be a heavy steel bar over the ends of the toes
PS
You should see what the farmers (mostly quite reasonably) think about the average motorist on the farming forum.
ie thoughtless driving & parking
not pulling in anywhere near the verge
not being able to reverse, EVEN without a trailer
not knowing their width etc etc etc
cheers
M
Edited by dieseldogg on 03/11/2009 at 11:39
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the farming forum
Excuse, please, what is this "farming forum" of which you speak?
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Excuse please what is this "farming forum" of which you speak?
getooorfmytractor.com
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our loader does 23 mph ish. we are doing to be doing well to run into the back of a car travelling at 40 mph. If a vehicle hits me in the loader and I have the boom up in the air, what ever hits me is going to be right at my feet, which is why I have the boom just skimming the floor, so they hit the front of the machine several feet away from me. Also if the boom is up in the air any collision is putting the machine on it's side = very bad. Also, you put the boom with the grab on up over a car and it is a head hight for a lorry driver also = bad.
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A good few years ago I was following a Coach full of kids on their way to school over Maidenhead way, as it was passing a farm entrance a tractor with the same type of bucket on was just emerging.
The prongs on the bucket went through every window on the left hand side of the bus, it also went through every pillar on that side, so in the end the roof was only supported on the right hand side.
It was lucky it was a single decker and that the bucket was raised quite high - there were no serious injuries on the bus, just quite a few badly shaken kids!! It could have easily been far, far worse!!
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I've been on building sites where the JCB driver has had to fit a cover over the front bucket teeth before travelling on the road. Either that or they have a toothless bucket fitted.
Is this not compulsory and/or does it not apply to farm machinery?
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Probably "driven" by their insurers.
AFAIAA it is not a regulation, though i may be wrong.
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