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Side-Hill Operaion
Nobody commented to a side comment I made in another discussion about a rule of thumb for operating on side-hills. I can't remember if the rule of thumb is to turn into or down the hill if stability is in doubt.
I think I'm in the situation of of having heard somebody say that turning downhill is safest, but my instinct is that turning into the hill would be more stable. Perhaps there are reasons other than stability for turning downhill.
Anyway, it seems like my head and heart disagrees so I've got a 50% chance of being right and a 50% chance of being wrong. I'm not going to try and think it through, but it'd be nice if somebody would recall what the rule is. It's probably good for everybody to be very clear on this.
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Side-Hill Operaion
Seems to me turning downhill would be less stable. When turning, the weight is shifted to the outside tires of the turning radius. Turning downhill would shift the weight down hill, turning up hill would shift the weight into the hill. Am I thinking right?
Billy
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Side-Hill Operaion
That last post was if you are going up or down a hill and decide to turn. If you are going along the side of the hill, it would be just opposite. I think
Billy
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Side-Hill Operaion
The way I see it whatever course adjustment you make has to be the safest possible you can acheive as fast possible. Therefore, always turn down-hill, you do not want to increase the instability by compounding the problem by adding gravity/traction issues to the side-slope problem. Besides, this would be the very last situation where you would want your machine to start slipping or sliding and if you are going to be borderline (or completely) out of control you will want it to be rolling forwards, NOT backwards. 'Nose' uphill will always give you the best traction, but it is not the safest from a control point, Best of luck.
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Side-Hill Operaion
Turning downhill makes sense to me. If the tractor is tippy it going to skid too. The rule in high speed pursuit driving is to always turn into the skid. Saved my bacon and other parts more than once. Tractors aren't cars, but cars can flip under similar circumstances.
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Side-Hill Operaion
TURN DOWNHILL!!!!!!! This action will get the front wheels down the hill fastest, and 'catch' the tipping tractor, assuming it is starting to tip. Turning uphill will not help get the mass at the bottom under the mass at the top. Even when feeling a little squeemish about being on the sidehill, turning down will help lower the pucker factor. When on the sidehill, I am always ready to turn down, and I keep a light touch on the uphill brake so I have power to the wheel on the lower side if anything starts to happen. Not much traction on the upper side if the rig is ready to tip over.
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Side-Hill Operaion
I don't need to postulate on physics or theoretical what-ifs of sidehill tranport. I live and play on hillsides all the time; my properties have maybe 10% level ground.
When traversing sideways, the first rule is SLOW. Hitting a rock or root with the uphill tires will afford a terrifying and potentially fatal trip 90 degrees to the intended direction of travel.
Anytime you find yourself approaching the limit of stability, turning downhill becomes very obvious quickly as the right correction. I've reached that point of near-rollover several times, and the experience will immediately show you that heading your machine downhill is the only choice. It shifts the center of gravity back toward the uphill side of the equipment.
jim
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Side-Hill Operaion
Thanks for the comments. They verify what I remember as the rule of thumb--turn downhill.
Murf's comment about nose up hill increases traction is probably the reason why I didn't have the whole idea in mind. True enough that noise up causes a weight transfer back onto the large rear tires to increase traction. But either noise up or down is going to be more stable than the side hill, and what you want is more stability as quickly and safely as possible. Control rather than traction is what is needed. Think I've got it now.
I couldn't find quite the right category for posting this. I used the hobby farmer category with a bit of irony.
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Side-Hill Operaion
One could only think about the 'old days' when someone would (usually at the county fair) get a car to tip up on two wheels, and they would drive that car past the crowd. How did they keep it up there? They turned the wheels to keep it balanced. The same reaction applies to sidehill safety. They would keep from tipping more on the side of the car by turning into the direction of tip. If the car was starting to drop back down on all four, they would turn that direction to get it to tip back up.
Hope this helps justify the answer and the need to turn downhill to keep on all fours.
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Side-Hill Operaion
I think everyone has the idea, just trying to explain it their way. The main thing is, don't turn uphill and be careful.
Billy
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