Hospitals SUCK! : (Swather Pics Too!)

Yep, it happened, had to make a trip to the E-Room....

Yesterday at about 2 I fell a tree, and for what ever reason, it did NOT want to fall over!! Started beating a wedge into it, and it slid right off the wedge, off the stump, and perfectly onto the bridge of my left foot. Hurt to say the least. I wrangled the tree off of me quite quickly, then did a 1 legged pain dance.

Next, I made poor choice #2 of the day, didn't tell mom and kept on working. Took my boots off at 4:30 and the pain hit instantly. Then I made poor choice #3, decided I could walk it off..... Every step I made it hurt worse and worse to the point I was in tears and couldn't walk. FINALLY made it back in to the house, tripped, and fell on it. That was the final straw.... OFF to the hospital we go!!

Set in the e-room waiting room for over an hour, FINALLY got me in, shot a few x rays, doc looks at it and gives me the all clear! Said I REALLY got lucky, and "only" stretched out a few ligaments/tendons stuff. Hurt REALLY bad last night, got some drugs in me, and today I am walking again! Still kind of sore, but MUCH MUCH MUCH better than it was yesterday...

Onto other news, I decided to go for the swather. I think that it is a good buy on a good machine, and that it will treat me well! Here are 3 pictures of it.

What do you guys think? Like said, the only repairs of know of that need to be made are the push bar being broken off, and the "drive chain" occasionally skipping off... Neither of those sound major to me?! Anyone see any reason I should bail on it?

Thanks! Bryce

Oh, also, can anyone tell me what size tires one of these 990's has on it? I have spare tires I want to take with me, but I don't know if they are 15's or 16's? I have some REALLY nice 10 ply car trailer tires that would look good on it....
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Does not sound like fun at all ! You'll probably get all kinds of comments on the tree felling incident , but these things can happen with the best laid plans !

The foot is a complex part of the anatomy, something to be cognizant of while working as foot injuries, (as you just experienced) can be complicated. I had an 18' post fall on mine and that as well as being stepped on by a big ole fat mare, seemed to have contributed to a ganglion cyst that formed into something like a wavy 3/8" fuel line, intertwined in the works at along the top of the foot, as well as being deeply rooted. Its bone lubricant in a sack, for some reason the body can over compensate for something like this as I understand part of it, the other part is arthritis, per what the doctor and surgeon told me when done. Its taken years for that foot and the leg to get back to normal, reason I mention this is a reminder about the things we do now, and potential problems later, work smart and work safe is all I can say ! Also good you did not suffer any worse injury. Lately I've cut or felled with a partner, we've been taking down more dangerous trees, (well where they could fall) by attaching a line, and leaving just enough hold wood to get out of its path and just pull them over, some have a good lean to them and no place or danger to fall. I do like being away from them, but there are some where you need some wedges and have to be near just the same.

Don't know much about that IH, looks like a mower conditioner. I'd check out the works to see why its tossing a chain, see if its requiring a major repair, that would be highly annoying.

The "jumping chain" could be alignment, loose chain, worn chain, worn bearing, worn teeth on the sprocket or something else entirely. Check it out.

You need to be careful; the injuries that you incur when you are young have a way of coming back on you in old age! I'm living with some of them now.

Yup, mower conditioner and definitely not a swather.

Sorry about the foot, any ice?

The later 990's had a fat little 15" tire, kind of like a rear lawn mower tread, early ones were narrow, rib 15". Probably needs new chain and possibly new sprockets, they wear and tend to jump, check tension first, may just be loose and flops a lot. Check the bars on the steel roll, they tend to break the welds, make sure and weld any broken welds. I had a 7' and a 9' 1976 models (later ones) Good machine....James

Today it is feeling really well, I am actually back to walking again, just a little sore... I usually bounce back pretty quick after "accidents"...

Okay, 15's, good to know! Looking at them in the picture I would guess 6.00 or so on the width? I have some trailer tires (like I mentioned) Not sure if they will work or not... Might be a little toooooo wide?! Will go have a look right now...

Thanks for the info!

I am hoping that it is just a worn out chain, and I can go put a new one on it and call it go. For this year, I want to tear into it a little, just check everything out, and go from there. I only have 5 acres to cut with it.

I know NOTHING about the wobble box, so I will look it over well. After talking with the guy on the phone, I got a "good vibe" about him. Sounds like a really nice, stand up guy. Told me straight up what the issues were...

I am very excited to say the least! NOW I just need a Super M-TA to pull it!

Bryce , You are dealing with alot of equipment. You have never been subjected to any safety meeting , insurance lectures etc. Always take a minute to plan your task and try to account for anything that could go wrong. Be careful out there!

Oh ya, I know. Funny thing is, I have fallen 100's of trees, and you just have to realize, the tree is going to go where it needs to go, period. I did everything text book, just like I have been taught, and just like I know how, and it didn't even come close!

Worse part of it, is that after it landed on my foot, it fell on the house...... No damage, wasn't THAT big of a tree, but, after all the fuss, and wrangling with it, it STILL went onto the house, so, who cares right?!

Lesson learned. The doc had a funny comment though:

"In all actuality, it is probably a good thing that your feet are so big (16's), because if they had been smaller, your foot wouldn't have dispersed the weight of the tree as well, and more than likely you would have fractured, if not broken bones, instead of just soft tissue damage..."

I think that could be very true, wouldn't want to try it again to find out though!!! :O

That's the reason we gave up on the Ford. Kept jumping the chain for the reel, no mater what we tried, and parts were obsolete.

They just ran the mower through high grass that's all, to bend the push bar(it get over the bar into reel and pulls the bar in). I know did that a couple of times with that Ford, and a new idea (same exact thing as the ford just green/orange, not blue). Lay it down and give it a couple of wacks with the sludge hammer to straighten.

Sorry to here about the foot it happens, can always be worse. Had my feet get run over with a full rock wagon, stepped on by cattle and nails forced through my shoe into them. So I'm no stranger to a pain in the foot.

I used to drop a lot of big trees. never got hurt thank goodness but with old age comes wisdom, I hope. The last 2 trees I dropped this spring had the bucket of a large excavator up against them, only wanted them to go 1 way. In the past I've sat in a tractor loader bucket 20' in the air basically cutting a tree out of a tree (Chinese Elm) so it wouldn't damage anything, got lucky it didn't damage me. What I hope I've said is be darn careful, getting extra help, even if you have to pay for it is better than the ER or worse. Your Girlfriend wants you in 1 piece.

I'd be surprised if the tires weren't 15 inch tires. If you got an operator's manual it would probably tell you. The 990 AFIK as I know has a neat feature. When you raise the header, the conditioning rolls spread apart, making it much easier to clear clogging lumps of hay.

Re making a tree fall where you want to, get an inexpensive cable puller come a long. Using a short chain, attach one end as high as you can reach to the tree trunk. Run as many chains as needed to the other end and to the bottom of a tree in the direction you want it to fall. Tighten up the chains. Make your notch and start your cut on the opposite side. Tighten things up some more. The tree should start to lean. Tighten some more. Saw some more. Tighten again firmly. Saw mostly through the tree. If the tree doesn't start to lean more and give off cracking sounds, saw more, at this point the tree should start to fall. Get out of the way, cutting off the saw as you move.

KEH

I don't know if hospitals suck so much. I've been around long enough to be grateful and appreciative of them. They seem to save a lot of folks from things that they cause or do to themselves.


Mark

No SMTA required although I would like to own one of those myself too.

Your h will handle that mower conditioner. You will likely cut the majority of the time in 3rd gear WOT. In real heavy hay or if your sections and guards are not the best then you may have to drop down to 2nd gear WOT.

Regardless even 2nd gear and cutting at 9' will make short real short work of 5 acres. 3rd gear and you will simply be amazed how fast you get 5 acres done.

Thats what I am hoping... 3rd gear is what on an H? 3 mph? 4 maybe?

This H I have seems to have a REALLY slow 4th gear! I thought they would run 6.5 or so in 4th, this one is hard to tell the difference between 3rd and 4th, but there IS a difference...

Either way, I am excited! I hope the old H gets er done!

The only thing I am worried about now is Hydraulics. Not sure how or even IF the hydraulics work on the H!?!? I am really hoping that they work, not really sure how to test them out??

Bryce,

Nice score on the IH 990. Definitely a mower/conditioner. I actually looked at one up close this past weekend and was amazed at how simple the construction, i.e. pillow block and flange mount bearings. I like the steel roller on the laminated lower roll too. I came close to buying the same mower about 10 years ago and regret it to this day - LOL! Do a search on the 990 on YT - there is some great info on them.

Watch out for those trees. We heat our house with wood (keeps the electric baseboard heat off) and cut/burn around seven cords of wood a year between the two wood stoves we have at either end of the house. What I fear and watch out for is not so much the tree falling on me, but a limb unexpectedly falling down on me from above while sawing the tree.

Bill

I agree. However, in February, I spent two days in a large local hospital having a colonoscopy. I was furious by the time I left.

All of the staff, from doctors to nurses, etc. looked at my age (80) and automatically treated me as if I was a doddering old relic incapable of doing ANYTHING. After about the sixth nurse asked me if I could stand by myself, I assured her that I'd mounted and balanced a set of tires on my minivan two days before. They even sent a physical therapist to see if I was capable of walking up, and back down, 4 stair steps. I walked up and down a flight of ten steps in the time it took him to do the 4.

After the procedure, which went well, the doctor added insult to injury by commenting that at my "advanced" age I wouldn't need another colonoscopy unless symptoms indicated a need.

I don't think it's asking too much to be treated respectfully and with the assumption that I have all my faculties, both physical and mental. If I have a physical ailment, I want it fixed so I can get on with my life.

Yes Bryce, the only red flag is the jumping chain. When you look at it try a determine why and/or see if the owner has any idea. Parts are one thing but I would not like to see anyone stuck with something major like a bent frame causing the jumping.

As I read your post about the foot I was glad to see it was not broken. An active person always needs to be thinking about what could happen next. Take care.

Paul

On a stock h at WOT:

2nd gear is 3.5 mph
3rd gear is 4.3 mph
4th gear is 5.1 mph

Frankly even cutting in 2nd gear is not all that bad on limited acreage like you (and I) do.

I never mow faster than 3rd gear with my h or my standard m for that matter. I do not use a hydraulic cylinder so my mowing pattern has to roundy roundy working towards the center just like you would do with a traditional sickle machine. I need a speed that I am comfortable turning at while still cutting. 3rd gear is perfect for both the straightaways and the turns. 4th gear would be faster than I personally would want to make turns although it would likely work well on straightaways (with an M) That said, 4th gear would be asking too much from an h horsepower wise.

Of course with an h or m there is no live PTO or powershift on the tranny providing ability to speed up and slow down on the fly so you have to compromise.

Bryce,

I know how you feel and I hope you recover soon. No one every plans to have an injury. It takes fore thought and some experience to anticipate if something could be dangerous, and then take the extra time work out a way to get the job done safely. When an injury does happens it's human nature to try to blame the tool, implement, animal, rock, tree, or another person for causing the accident (I always try to).

If you think you don't like hospitals now, wait a few months and then ask your parents to show you all the insurance payment statements and actual medical bills for your visit. Better yet, offer to reimburse everyone for the total costs. The cost of an injury and lost time from work can really add up very fast. Walking into an emergency room can cost $500, an ambulance ride can cost over $1000. Urgent care centers are often less than half the cost of an emergency room if you can arrive during business hours.

It's not easy or the fastest, but it's often the least expensive and the least painful to plan how to work without injuries or accidents, especially if you work alone or in remote areas.

Feel better soon.

Shame on you! as they would say on the chopping crew that I worked on many years ago: You cut the corner! So you lost control. I don't know how many times I reattached the end of that bar on my 990, it would shake and fatigue the metal pretty badly. So take the time to plan a fix that is 3x stronger than original. Check the chain by grasping it at the large sprocket and see how far you can pull it from the sprocket. If you can see the tips of the teeth under it, it is time to replace it before it ruins the sprocket. If the tips of the teeth are bent over the sprocket is junk too.

It sounds like the hospital did you a good service so not sure why you say it sucks. Carelessness sucks when it catches up to you (or me - certainly not perfect here, either).

On the other hand, Goose has a quite legitimate complaint and I would be sore about that kind of treatment, too. In fact I plan to remind my emergency room RN daughter about being sensitive to older folks and not treating us like children or mental cases.

No no, don't get me wrong. The nurses and doc were VERY nice, and good at their job, just being there, and to me, it REALLY freaks me out.

As we are sitting there in the waiting room (waiting to go into e-room) there is a grandma, her daughter, and then two little kids, and both of the little kids are banged up bad, cuts, scrapes, etc. I am looking at the kids trying to figure out WHY I seem to think I know them, then the dad walks in.... OMG, it's our neighbor.... His wife (x-wife actually) had the two kids and was hit head on at 60 on the hwy. She has a "collapsed chest" and was "barely pulling through"....

Just, a scary place. LOTS of sad stories, and THAT is why it sucked...

(quoted from post at 11:00:38 06/04/15) No no, don't get me wrong. The nurses and doc were VERY nice, and good at their job, just being there, and to me, it REALLY freaks me out.

As we are sitting there in the waiting room (waiting to go into e-room) there is a grandma, her daughter, and then two little kids, and both of the little kids are banged up bad, cuts, scrapes, etc. I am looking at the kids trying to figure out WHY I seem to think I know them, then the dad walks in.... OMG, it's our neighbor.... His wife (x-wife actually) had the two kids and was hit head on at 60 on the hwy. She has a "collapsed chest" and was "barely pulling through"....

Just, a scary place. LOTS of sad stories, and THAT is why it sucked...

Click to expand...

I am praying for your neighbor and his ex and the kids. Thanx for clarifying!

Depends on where you are. Back in Pennsylvania it was a haybine. Out here it's a swather.

Yep, things can happen for sure.

Mark

2 nearest hospitals... one doesn't treat you til you come back in right after they send you home. A friend and his buddy made the 70 mile trip to North Platte in under 30 minutes when another friend had a real bad asthma attack.

All they did was parade a row of people through the room and tell me what I told them when I walked in the door. Told my former co worker that he had a couple bruised ribs, go home. With broken ribs, bruised intestines, partially collapsed lung.

The other hospital, by the time you get turned around from hitting the after hours buzzer they have 2 nurses at the door with a wheelchair. The only thing that I would say sucks about them is the financial dept. Heard from them before the surgery dept the day of my surgery. And after the surgery.