Hello Well this would seem like a obvious thing but even i have ran mine without a hood. And it injured me pretty bad. No matter how you drive it or where you drive it. Have something that prevents your face or other body parts from being shoved into the flywheel if you flip it on yourself. So here is my story I was doing some testing with my craftsman and the stock hood which came with it broke many months ago. So i have just been driving it without one. Not using common sense when i should have been. Most of my riding is in ditches as we are on back roads and the ditches are a blast. Coming up the ditch it was steeper the i anticipated and i panicked, i have never panicked like this before because while the front end has come up a bit, It has never came up like the way this one did. It is hard to explain. indecently i dumped the clutch because my feet swung behind me to try and prevent the tippage. Before i known it the front end came flying up and i rolled down the ditch and the tractor landed right on my left arm, Which was right above my face. Still running at a high rpm. Now this would not have been as bad if it was just a standard flywheel. But this was a plastic one and has lots of ridges and such. It all happened so fast that i had no time to flick the safety switch until it was on top of me running away, eating away at my arm. The first thing i did was basically push the tractor off of me. Now these ditches are pretty steep so i kind of pushed it to one side. Not even thinking about my arm because there was nothing that i could do. I managed to get it on its side and get out from under it. Now the tractor was still running at full throttle, Even on its side. I quickly flicked the switch as i started assessing how i managed to get into this terrible mess. I was in a ditch, Arm all chewed up, with my tractor flipped over. At first i thought that my arm was fine because i couldn't feel anything, Just a slight sting. So i grabbed the steering wheel and flipped over the tractor. Then grabbed the front bumper and lifted the whole front end and put it in line with the ditch. Then i had to start it up again and put the belt back on as it flew off. Then i rode it back home, Only a couple hundred meters away. I am still not sure how i managed to so that as it is pretty heavy and i should not have been able to so it with such ease. But adrenaline does some pretty crazy things. All in all i was very very lucky that it was just my arm and not my face. I have some pretty good scars that will stay with me for a while i am sure. You never really think about this stuff until something happens to you that effects you. The flywheel basically just burned the skin. And burned a great chunk out of my palm. You can still see the marks from the flywheel and it is a great lesson. Always have something covering that engine. Even if that means building a frame around it and putting some sheet steel over it. Just something. I just was not thinking and didn't think that anything would happen to me. But it could have been a lot worse. Much much worse. I do have pictures of it all and can post them if wanted. If i had not been able to get the tractor off of me then i am not sure what would have happened as nobody was home at the time. The engine is pretty heavy considering it is a v twin.
All because if my stupidity and lack of common sense that day. Hope this is allowed and hope this will make some people think about some stuff.
Will answer any questions or comments.
Thanks
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donaldcon Member
Age : 38 Join date : 2015-04-28 Points : 3770 Posts : 395 Location : Roseville, OH
Subject: 
December 30th 2015, 2:24 am
