Roll bar idea

I am getting older. My personal automatic safety features are getting slower and slower to react.

This tractor has already flipped backward onto me, once. Put the two together, and I am naturally more prone to the heebie-jeebies, whenever the tractor seems like it might flip or roll.

The ATV trail that I am building this for, is very steep in places. And in a few places it is steep, AND there is a sharp curve. Bottom line, there are a few places where riding this tractor up and down that trail, is pretty scary.

My first thought was to widen the stance of the tractor. But every solution I have seen, or have figured out on my own, either compromises the axles too much, (especially given my weight.), or is too expensive.

I had a thought, this morning. New idea. Roll bar. Only not the kind of roll bar that goes up over your head, etc. (Part of a cage, if we are talking tractors.)

What I am thinking is this...

Really heavy duty back bumper.

Wheelie bars.

Now bend those wheelie bars sideways. (You'd have to keep the wheels oriented forward, though.)

What do you guys think? Stupid idea? Freekin jeenyus?


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Ok, thinking about this some more...

Wheelie bars have the wheels pretty far off the ground.

If you flipped the bars sideways, they'd be so far off the ground, that they would be worthless in a roll situation caused by being sideways on a hill.

So you'd have to make the 'side wheelie bars', with the wheels already on the ground, to do any good at all.

Only way I see this making any difference is if the wheels are constantly on the ground, and are as much as a foot beyond the wheels of the tractor.

Even then, you'd still have the tendency to roll at a forward angle, instead of just sideays. So you'd have to have them out front, as well.


Nope... I don't think there's any jeenyus involved in that there idear! It would cost much more than the idea I have been leaning toward. (No pun intended.)

Cut the axles short on the peerless. Install sprockets. Then chains to sprokets on a go-kart axle. Mount the axle as far back as possible, and make it as wide as necessary.

Ok, I told Doc Sprocket yesterday that I would start looking for the cheapest possible go kart axle, bearings, sprockets, chains, etc... So I guess that will be my research for the day today.



Move along, no jenyus to be seen here.... (But I am going to go ahead and post this, in case anyone else has any ideas!)

What about a suspension wheelie bar with pneumatic wheels? Sideways rolling is going to be hard to stop unless you extend training wheels three feet out each side, and im sure rebuilding your frame for a ROPS is out of the question. A suspension wheelie bar will stop you from rolling back but still allow travel if you happen to go over something large. Extend it 2-3' out the rear and be golden.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing, but looking like this.



Still, it's going to be cheaper to just extend the chassis a bit, add a go-kart axle, and do chain drives on both sides of the axle.

The thing about side extensions is you now have to keep more of an eye on your side clearances for snags.

Doug Fackler wrote:

The thing about side extensions is you now have to keep more of an eye on your side clearances for snags.

I'd already considered that.

The use I have for the tractor isn't that critical. The trail is known, and there is no deviation from the trail.

The things I don't like about the idea are the wide turn radius, and the cost. Plus the fact that the tractor is less useful in pulling a trailer. Not completely useless, just more complicated, etc. Kind of flies in the face of K.I.S.S.

Unfoetunately KISS and safety dont really well coincide with eachother.

i would just do a ROPS like you see on compact and subcompact utility tractors and some Z-mowers. i think that would be your best bet