Flopped Iron Mule, Broke my neck

td25c · Dec 1, 2015

old-iron-habit said:
td25c said:

This one is built on a Ford Chassis, It has a 4 cylinder Ford Diesel, 192 CI I think. It has a 4 speed transmission with high and low range in all gears and reverse. It uses a floor pedal to step on for locking the rear ends. Irom Mule used both Ford and Massey Furgerson drive trains over the years.

Click to expand...

That's interesting . The differential looked very similar to a Ford 4,000 tractor .

Your Mule somewhere around early mid 1970's ?

Sure looks like a handy unit .

Deere500a · Dec 1, 2015

Tell the truth, it wasn't the wood it was all the leftovers that flipped her. Good to read it wasn't worse.

Plebeian · Dec 2, 2015

What would be the best way to recover the mule? Pull the logs out the back with a wire rope to reduce the weight. Use two skidders to pull up right?

fixou812 · Dec 2, 2015

I'm praying for you Now Iron. ...i hadn't read your post when i posted that quip about pain.

Plebeian · Dec 2, 2015

What modifications would improve the iron mule ? Tyres/ rims with smaller diameter and wider to reduce the height of the centre of gravity, modify the bunk? Changing machines - are there any good skidder conversions to forwarders around or purpose built forwarders around?
https://youtu.be/5NoD76uTVvo - this mule runs a fairly wide tyre.

OCR · Dec 2, 2015

I'll go with that, too...

Nige said:
I'm glad to hear that you got out of it more or less in one piece and are on the mend.

BTW... I fractured the same bone, C2, back in the early '70s... from a "face flop" into a hill side off a motorcycle.

I didn't even know I had broken it until about 30 years later, when I got an x-ray... my neck, and both shoulders were hurting.

I ended up getting an epidural steroid injection ... that more or less took care of the shoulder pain, my neck is still somewhat troublesome, though...

old-iron-habit, you heal up now, OK...

OCR

old-iron-habit · Dec 2, 2015

Plebeian said:
What modifications would improve the iron mule ? Tyres/ rims with smaller diameter and wider to reduce the height of the centre of gravity, modify the bunk? Changing machines - are there any good skidder conversions to forwarders around or purpose built forwarders around?
https://youtu.be/5NoD76uTVvo - this mule runs a fairly wide tyre.

It is a purpose built forwarder. The machine was not at fault for the rollover. I was on a bit of a sidehill but loaded about a cord of oak on the bunk picking the wood up on the downhill side of the machine. There was one 18" or so oak tree with the butt directly behind the downhill back wheel on the Iron Mule. To save me a trip back in there I threw a log chain around it and anchored it to the boom cradle at the back of the machine. As it turned out the easy spot to hook to the machine was on the uphll side of the forwarder and about center of axle height. When I pulled ahead and started turning downhill the chain tightned and instead of the tree moving the traction lifted the high side of the machine rolled it over faster than I could push the clutch in. Setting on the hillside, the machine was lighter on the side I hooked to and pulling at an angle I never had a chance. Pure and simple bad or no judgement by the operator.(me)

old-iron-habit · Dec 2, 2015

Plebeian said:
What would be the best way to recover the mule? Pull the logs out the back with a wire rope to reduce the weight. Use two skidders to pull up right?

Today I stopped by my old employeer and borrowed a set of 20 foot 3/4" cable spreaders and a couple of 8' 3/4 chokers and a handful of shackles and assorted rigging. I am going to park my D2 equipped with a D2N winch uphill with the back against a big stump. We will connect one end of the spreaders to each end of the articulation. The boom will be chained so it stays low in the bunk. It has lift and swing detents so it can float about a bit. We will install a sheave at the ring on the spreaders and two part the winch line. We should be able to winck it back to its feet nice and slow. The machine only ways 6,500 lbs. We will drag what wood we can off first. We will get some video for sure.

old-iron-habit · Dec 2, 2015

fixou812 said:
I'm praying for you Now Iron. ...i hadn't read your post when i posted that quip about pain.

No problem, and I deserve some crap for doing something when I should have known better than to hook the way I did.

Blueboy · Dec 2, 2015

old-iron-habit said:
No problem, and I deserve some crap for doing something when I should have known better than to hook the way I did.

Been there, done that.
About 15 years ago I was doing the front brakes on my Jeep, 83 CJ7. It was up in the air with the tires off on a floor jack with no jack stands. I noticed the breather tube fitting came out of the axle and the more I struggled to get it back in the more I positioned myself in the middle of the Jeep. Fighting with the fitting I didn't realize the frame was sliding off the jack and when it fell the cross member bounced off my chest and knocked the wind out of me. It was a little bit of a squeeze getting out. If the steering arm didn't land on the jack I would be dead. But I'm sure we all did something we should have stopped and used better judgment.

Legdoc · Dec 2, 2015

Old-iron my thoughts and prayers are with you. As far as my "day job" I am the local guy that is called to apply a HALO in circumstances as yours. You are very fortunate as some of my patients never walk or feed themselves again. Have a speedy recovery!

RonG · Dec 3, 2015

Wow,I wondered where those Dodges went Legdoc.Have fun and take care of them.Ron G

fast_st · Dec 3, 2015

Heya Old-Iron, heal up and come up with a battle plan! Looks like you'd need to unload the wood and find yourself a friendly winch cat. Quiring towing has some great videos but they're in BC, you have plenty of healthy trees nearby so maybe just a pulley on your machine and skidder cable through that to a solid tree to double up the line pull, prolly have to anchor the skidder too.

old-iron-habit · Dec 3, 2015

Z

fast_st said:
Heya Old-Iron, heal up and come up with a battle plan! Looks like you'd need to unload the wood and find yourself a friendly winch cat. Quiring towing has some great videos but they're in BC, you have plenty of healthy trees nearby so maybe just a pulley on your machine and skidder cable through that to a solid tree to double up the line pull, prolly have to anchor the skidder too.

I have plenty of antique recovery equipment. I am hauling down my D2 with D2N winch and anchoring it to an large stump that is located in the right spot. I will two part the winch line so we can take it slow and easy. I'm sure we will have plenty of grunt. If not I will have to haul a skidder down also. The Iron Mule is not a heavy machine at all and the weight is low in comparison to our connection points so should roll up quite easily.

fast_st · Dec 3, 2015

Great!! I have a JD350, 5T dozer with a 24T winch, I'd love to see a video or some pics of your recovery when you make it happen, don't hurry too fast but the snow is coming and the cheeze will run out.

old-iron-habit · Dec 3, 2015

fast_st said:
Great!! I have a JD350, 5T dozer with a 24T winch, I'd love to see a video or some pics of your recovery when you make it happen, don't hurry too fast but the snow is coming and the cheeze will run out.

There will be video.

Blueboy · Dec 4, 2015

Hey old-iron-habit, how does your neck feel after a week now?
Is the recovery team working this weekend?

old-iron-habit · Dec 4, 2015

Blueboy said:
Hey old-iron-habit, how does your neck feel after a week now?
Is the recovery team working this weekend?

Actually feeling real good. Headache went away mostly after 5 days. Only a mild one on occasion now and my face is healing nicely. Still probably not going to end up handsome though. LOL. Got the D2 out of the barn and ready to go today. The team is coming over tomorrow and we are going on the recovery mission in mid morning. Hope to have good pictures and maybe some video tomorrow evening. Sasquatch from the ACMOC board is filming. He does a great job with videos.

old-iron-habit · Dec 6, 2015

We went and got the Mule back on her feet today. We did not try to drag her out of the woods. We will let her set a couple days and then the plan is to start her up and drive her out. Hope that works out. No damage to it that we can see. Did not seem to lose fluids except for a quart or so of hyd oil that came out the l shaped tank into the cab when it layed on it side. The plan using spreaders and the D2 winch went well. The winch which we 2 parted to the spreaders pulled it at a bit over idle as nice as could be and nice and slow. We rolled it until it was horizontal at 90 degrees and then using a chain come-along we pulled the boom into the cradle to keep in in place and avoid damage. The wood fell out nicely as we winched it up. After securing the boom we winched it further until it flopped back onto its tires. One of the guys took some video on his go-pro. I will put the link up when he gets it sorted out and posted.

Blueboy · Dec 6, 2015

Nice job! I don't see the guy with the collar in any pics.

Flopped Iron Mule, Broke my neck

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