When is comes to crash testing, tractor crash testing is kind of the weirdest. Why? Because lots of times when you crash a tractor you die and you don’t die some quick way, it’s like being stuck under the thing or worse. So companies have worked over the years on safety guard to protect operators in the event of different wrecking situations. How? They use dummies and place the tractors in the kinds of places that cause the physics to go pear shaped and them to end up with the wrong side up. Be that a steep side grade, climbing a too steep hill or more.
This black and white video shows a John Deere 4010 going through various different crashing scenarios and the dummy riding on the seat is really in for it in more ways than one. While this guy does not get the bad end of it every time, he does most times and that’s the rub here. Farming is a dangerous job for lots of reasons, but the bottom line is the tractor does not really care about you near as much as you care about it.
Our favorite test in this film is the “side entry steep ditch” program. We have no idea if that is what it’s called but that is what we’re tagging it as. Seeing that thing go in head long and at speed is pretty awesome. The ROPS (roll over protection system) works well although we’re thinking that if were human the guy would be hating life pretty bad.
Enjoy!
