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I'm not sure if it was a contributing factor here, but I'm a firm believer in that these models absolutely do need additional weight, should have R.O.P.S and Seatbelts especially in the hilly terrain around here. Mine has a loader, tires filled and extra steel for a hoe mount on the back, + when no implement is on, I use what is supposed to be an old aircraft tug counterweight, 1000 lbs or better, mounted below the line of the rear axle, it has a totally different feel to it compared to a bare tractor, it will lift a suprising amount of weight and is very stable on reasonable slopes, but I can see the dangers, no overunning clutch, pto engaged, you start to feel it go over after running up on a rock or hit a depression on the down side in unknown place, it'll get ya with no R.O.P.S. and seatbelt, you'd be really lucky to escape the seat on it without something catching you, same is true if you get the nose in the air which is a lot more prevalent on the bare tractors, and when people tow logs etc. Maybe what happened was that the tractor did not have filled tires, (our compact Challenger at the farm will bounce you easily with just air in the tires) maybe he got enough speed and it ejected him on that rough terrain, caught by one of the tires, followed by the mower, it's the only thing that makes any sense to me. Only reason I want to know is to warn others, there is another whole generation of people fooling with these tbings, a lot of the old timers learned the same hard lesson and knew what to and what npt to do, darned tractors outlasted a generation and many of them are new to em. When I was a kid, at the ford dealership, hearing about accidents was something not all that uncommon to hear about, but not all that often either, farmers around here worked on some really tough hills and they still made use of every part of a field since way back when, northern part of the county is still liek things were years ago, lots of farms. When I was picking large square bales for my neighbor with his sons small late model MF beginning of July, I worked on some of these hills just scratching my head as to how the large ag tractors don't turn over when working on these hills, I skidded a whole bunch of bales to flat areas to load fearing rolling over, even without a bale on, tractor just did not feel right in some spots.
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