digger242j
Administrator
G4me's story reminded me of an incident that happened quite a while ago, involving a walk behind roller.
We had rented a roller to compact the backfill in a sewer trench. For those unfamiliar with the type, the only controls are the throttle, with positions of "stop", "idle", "slow", and "fast/vibrate"; and the directional control, with "forward", "nuetral", and "backward".
(Come to think of it, we learned several lessons that day, about that roller. The first one sheds light on the experience level of the guy who was involved in the rest of it.
Did you know those engines will run backwards?
The way you start them, is to turn the compression release to the proper position, and then take the good old fashioned hand crank ,and crank like crazy. The compression release ticks around until it reaches a certain point, and clicks off, and by that time you have enough momentum in the engine for it to start--usually.
This day, the laborer didn't crank quite vigorously enough, so that when the compression release went off, instead of continuing to crank in the proper direction, the cylinder rebounded, so the speak, and the engine began to run backwards. I may not be describing the mechanics of the process quite right, but the results soon became clear. Exhaust began blowing out of the air cleaner, which was pretty much of a mystery for the moment, but when the control handle was moved to forward, and the machine moved back toward me, I figured it out pretty quickly.
ointhead
So, the first lesson learned, which was a new one on me altogether, is that if you don't CRANK that thing hard, it can run backwards.)
Anyway...
I'd begun filling the trench, and made a makeshift ramp to allow the laborer to walk the machine into the hole. The ramp was a little steep, but since the only goal was to use it to go downhill, I didn't see that as a problem.
The laborer took the roller, and started it down the slope, but for some inexplicable reason, put it in neutral. They are slow, and I think he just figured it would coast down there quicker than it would walk. Well, it almost instantly started moving faster than he was comfortable with, so he did the natural thing to do when you want to stop that particular variety of machine from moving forward; he pulled the handle back. Back from neutral, is, of course, into reverse. :cool2
Since this was done at a speed much greater than either God or Mr. Bomag had intended for that particular model, the result was to make expensive little pieces of the drivetrain, which is normally composed of expensive bigger pieces.
There was no personal injury involved, and fortunately, nobody was in the way. If we take for granted that any time a machine gets out of the full control of its operator a threat to safety exists, there were several other lessons learned.
One--the obvious one to all of us; when taking a walk behind roller down a steep slope, low speed on the engine, and keeping it in forward gear, is the way to go. (And maybe don't make the slope as steep next time.)
Two--which was the less obvious one, but the more important; be sure that the people you assign to do things are experienced enough to recognize the hazards in situations they haven't encountered before, or discuss those hazards beforehand. I knew this laborer had run the roller back and forth on flat ground, but I also knew that was all he'd done with it, and he'd had a misadventure at that. I'll share the blame for this one, since I never thought to discuss the best way of safely getting the roller down that slope.
We had rented a roller to compact the backfill in a sewer trench. For those unfamiliar with the type, the only controls are the throttle, with positions of "stop", "idle", "slow", and "fast/vibrate"; and the directional control, with "forward", "nuetral", and "backward".
(Come to think of it, we learned several lessons that day, about that roller. The first one sheds light on the experience level of the guy who was involved in the rest of it.
Did you know those engines will run backwards?
The way you start them, is to turn the compression release to the proper position, and then take the good old fashioned hand crank ,and crank like crazy. The compression release ticks around until it reaches a certain point, and clicks off, and by that time you have enough momentum in the engine for it to start--usually.
This day, the laborer didn't crank quite vigorously enough, so that when the compression release went off, instead of continuing to crank in the proper direction, the cylinder rebounded, so the speak, and the engine began to run backwards. I may not be describing the mechanics of the process quite right, but the results soon became clear. Exhaust began blowing out of the air cleaner, which was pretty much of a mystery for the moment, but when the control handle was moved to forward, and the machine moved back toward me, I figured it out pretty quickly.
ointhead So, the first lesson learned, which was a new one on me altogether, is that if you don't CRANK that thing hard, it can run backwards.)
Anyway...
I'd begun filling the trench, and made a makeshift ramp to allow the laborer to walk the machine into the hole. The ramp was a little steep, but since the only goal was to use it to go downhill, I didn't see that as a problem.
The laborer took the roller, and started it down the slope, but for some inexplicable reason, put it in neutral. They are slow, and I think he just figured it would coast down there quicker than it would walk. Well, it almost instantly started moving faster than he was comfortable with, so he did the natural thing to do when you want to stop that particular variety of machine from moving forward; he pulled the handle back. Back from neutral, is, of course, into reverse. :cool2
Since this was done at a speed much greater than either God or Mr. Bomag had intended for that particular model, the result was to make expensive little pieces of the drivetrain, which is normally composed of expensive bigger pieces.
There was no personal injury involved, and fortunately, nobody was in the way. If we take for granted that any time a machine gets out of the full control of its operator a threat to safety exists, there were several other lessons learned.
One--the obvious one to all of us; when taking a walk behind roller down a steep slope, low speed on the engine, and keeping it in forward gear, is the way to go. (And maybe don't make the slope as steep next time.)
Two--which was the less obvious one, but the more important; be sure that the people you assign to do things are experienced enough to recognize the hazards in situations they haven't encountered before, or discuss those hazards beforehand. I knew this laborer had run the roller back and forth on flat ground, but I also knew that was all he'd done with it, and he'd had a misadventure at that. I'll share the blame for this one, since I never thought to discuss the best way of safely getting the roller down that slope.
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