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South Central MN | For the most part if working properly the latches should hold the head in place, but some freak accidents do happen and those parts can fail, but should be a very rare.
I'm not even sure if my old combine has a seat belt ('81 model) but the canning company I work for is big on using them in pea combines and sweetcorn pickers. Never know what can happen, and with my summer job see a lot of road time in machines that don't really fit down the road well. Knock on wood we haven't had any issues with a head falling off in the time I have worked at that place, but can remember one spring they had to bore out some hole for a bigger pin on the pea heads for one make of combine, seems the previous summer one broke and the head fell off. The way it was described though was that the bolt failed that held the head onto that pin, and if carried properly (I.E. raised all the way up) the weight of the head would never be on the bolt. (For some reason that particular crew at that other plant carried the heads about 1/2 raised, which then became an issue with the header putting pressure on that bolt, thus breaking it on the one. Also they hadn't hooked the header safety chains up that would hold the head up incase the hydraulic or something else failed.)
The accident from years ago I mentioned the guy also wasn't wearing a seat belt and took a ride through the window, thankfully the combine stopped before it got to him and he survived, although you can probably relate to how he felt. Glad you are still with us! | |
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Matt Griggs accident
