Just a reminder, danger can come at you from all angles

http://www.mlive.com/midland/index....Feed: saginaw_news (Saginaw News - MLive.com)

How sad. I can easily see how that would happen. Sometimes it is best to have a spotter when doing this kind of work. On a much tinier scale, I always flag down a neighbor to watch when I have to get up to the gutters on a ladder.

Can happen real fast.
Same when dragging logs with an ATV. Be careful, they can flip quick.

Wonder how he had it chained to the machine? Funny there's a whole section in the old Farmall manuals about that.....

The drawbar attaching point is forward of the rear axle on most tractors for exactly this reason. The front end can still come up from torque reaction but unless you're really hauling, it should be manageable.

As a kid I worked summers on my uncles 200 head dairy farm. Maybe 13 - 16 years old running every machine they had. Farmall's are extremely torqueee. It takes nothing to lift the frount wheel 2 ft off the ground. Since the throttle position is a fixed position leaver they wouldn't stop as you are thrown away from the controls.

We had an old Ford 8N that we hauled trees with too, but we always left the backblade on to prevent the tractor from flipping back. had the front wheels off the ground many times though. Very sad indeed.

It's some wonder that our farming ancestors survived at all with some of the equipment they used.
I was probably 13 or 14 at the time and I was helping my uncle on his farm. We were going to combine some soy beans with his old Allis Chalmers pull type combine and I was going to drive the other tractor and pull the wagon. I was riding standing on the draw bar holding onto the back of the seat. He hit something with the front wheels and popped the front of the tractor up pretty good. Next thing I know I'm holding on to the seat back and my feet are dragging on the ground. Had I lost my grip I'd have been run over by the combine. Likely would have spoiled my weekend.

You said it there, brother. A friend was teaching me how to handle his old Farmall, and the first hour into lessons I felt like I was riding a bucking pony.

We used to read of folks getting killed by being pinned under tractors every summer. Thankfully, they are much fewer and further between now. Still just as sad to read about them. Feel sorry for the family too.