What about a Worker's Comp claim if an employee is injured because of a disabled safety device?
How old to operate a mower?
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Insurance will pay, if you have less than 10 employeess you're exempt from OSHA regs. If you have more than 10 you will be fined by OSHA if it's serious injury.
You face civil lawsuits no matter what size business and it's not going look good if you disabled saftey equipment. Your insurance may or may not cover you depending on the coverage and limits of the policy. They will likely drop you afterwards, so it might be hard to get insurance. Insurance can't wiggle out of providing coverage just because you did something wrong or really stupid.
I know of a small engine mechanic that disabled the operator presence bar on a mower while he was working on it, ended up cutting his own foot off while trying to adjust the carb. he sued the business owner( and me, because I had just bought the business after this happened.), and successfully won 40K, plus collected workmans comp and disability. His arguement was he was improperly trained. Luckly I got out of the lawsuit, but still cost me money for a lawyer. The prior owners insurance paid up.
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Years ago the Kees walk behind.
You did not have to disengage the blades. When you dump the bag.
I was cutting some tall grass.
The shoot got plugged.
I reached to dislodge the chunk of grass. The tip of blade . Got the tip of my finger.
The only equipment I modify is my string trimmer.
I'm curious to know how safe is a sit down mower is.
Will it not start. If not in seat ?
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Depends on the model. Typically if the blades or PTO are in the “off” position and the parking brake is set, you do not have to be in the seat to start the engine.
I think the post about starting with GT pulling trailers and such is great. We grew up mowing early, running lawn tractor (at friends house, we didn't own one) would go to parking lots and steer on Dad's lap, practice and training. As a parent that takes interest in training for life, you know when they're ready to start cutting. As for ZTR at 15, that seems nearly a no brianer (based on the individual child). If child can run a go cart full throttle smoothly, should be able to run mowing equipment (hence farm licenses at 14-15 depending on the State).Seems like a burn hazard!
I was running a 54" 25 horse ZTR on commercial accts at 15
Really depends.
All told. I agree with the guy who said talk to your wife not the internet. That settles it. Period Paragraph. End of Thread.
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Everyone has to learn at some point. 7 might be on the young side though. I don’t believe waiting until they are an adult to do anything that’s potentially dangerous is the right plan either. There’s a big difference in doing something at home with supervision vs working on a full time crew. Here’s my 11 year old sister on my skid steer. I’m 23 btw and I’ve been on equipment since I wasn’t much if any older than the OPs kid.
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So many kids today can't even use common hand tools, I want my son able to use his hands and know how machines work like you and your sister.
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Then teach him.
What other types of equipment do you own?
I know I already stated it several times, but I was running a garden tractor at 6, small farm tractors by at least ten and doing full fledged field work at 13. Here is an internet pic of the tractor I ran at 13 doing field work. So, no I don’t see a problem with teens especially running a ztr mower. My teen boys run our Walkers on the mowing crew.
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I agree the difference between city kids an farm kids; city people won’t understand this because they didn’t grew up by them self but typical city behaviour is to point the fingers to others how people have to behave. One of the reasons there are farmers protests here now in The Netherlands.
I didn’t grew up on of a farm, we had glasshouses and the neighbours cultivate fruit as apple and pear. We had and they had machinery as tractors; I grew up with it.
I didn’t grew up on of a farm, we had glasshouses and the neighbours cultivate fruit as apple and pear. We had and they had machinery as tractors; I grew up with it.
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Memories of these...1466 and 1468, 706...JD4010 gas, 4020 and 5020 diesels...in my area, when you were able to reach the pedals you were old enough to be doing field work. As for safety?? Well back in the 60's and 70's, manuals didn't contain 10 pages of warnings, it was assumed people were smart enough to operate what they were buying...and enough direction was given to the kids to not kill themselves or someone else.
It has been found that unfortunately you cannot fix stupid. Reaching into a running mower or combine? Pure stupidity. Cutting your foot off? Yup...stupidity at it's finest. People simply knew better back then and I guarantee you most farm kids knows far more about equipment at age 7 or 8 then most city adults of any age...and evidently more than some people commenting on this thread. Somewhere I have a pic of me at 10 running a Cat D7 as we were digging out a lake...OH MY!! Imagine that, a tall lanky kid running a dozer!! However did I survive?!! At 9 I was cutting hay with a JD4010 and 4020...WOW!! Field work...I still have all my appendages!! At 13 I was driving an old '64 IH Emeryville (318 screamin' demon Detroit and 13 speed underdrive with a 40' hopper full of corn...about 90,000lbs and NO POWER STEERING) to the elevator in town...a whopping 3 miles away. I could get up to about 50mph on the only decent straight...and I know it's probably hard to believe, but I didn't hurt anyone or myself...IMAGINE THAT!!! My family must be HORRIBLE!! How could they do that!! Well of course I had a go-cart when I was able to reach the pedals and started racing dirt bikes at 5...HORRIBLE PARENTS!! I switched to drag racing at 13 (those deadbeat lousy uncaring parents both drag raced) when I was hurt in an accident on the motocross track. I was running low 12.20's @ 115mph on a Kawasaki H1 500cc triple...HOW COULD THEY!! Since I was quite tall for my age and looked fairly mature, they actually encouraged me to do this and even got me an ID showing I was 16 so I could compete...Oh the humanity of it all!! Then came an Kaw H2, a Kaw Z1 903 bored to 1000cc's, a '78 Yamaha XS1100 then added the Turbo for '79 running mid 9 second quarters at 150mph..at age 18...onto the GS Suzuki drag bikes, Pro Comp Suzuki, Turbo Suzuki Funnybike and culminating with a Top Fuel Honda for almost a year before the owner found out just how expensive it is to build, maintain and race a one off fuel bike. I had a lot of parental and family encouragement...what were they thinking?? I've taken some family members for rides on my 300 rear wheel horsepower turbo street bikes...mom loved the 160mph power wheelies!
Man...looking back my family really did me no favors according to some...but try and tell me how horrible they were and try to wipe the smile off my face and you'll be picking up your teeth with a broken arm...
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Hard for me to imagine that you could get the 'average' 7 yr. old off of their phone or video games long enough to 'mow' anyway. So.....probably more wishful thinking than anything else. 
I tend to agree. Life gets thrown at them way too quickly these days. I'd rather see them riding bikes and playing ball without a care in the world.
I don’t think it’s that life gets thrown at them too quickly. Rather, I think their parents don’t prepare them for what life throws at them. Plenty of great parents out there doing right by their children. But there are also far too many other parents who would gladly forsake yours and my child if it benefited theirs. And for some odd reason, those parents see nothing wrong with this. Put the shoe on the other foot and oh boy, we have a mess!!
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It good for kids to feel like they helping, they want to help.
It's not like I was going put him on a 40 hour work week
Not what I was saying at all. If I'm doing something and the little one wants to help, I love it (as long as it's safe). That's how they learn. Put a wrench or screwdriver in their hand and let them go at it.
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Personally, I loved mowing as a kid...we all had chores to do BEFORE playtime. With 2500 acres to work, school granted extra time off for farm kids...and while that was real work, it was relatively easy work, pretty boring if you've never worked soil before...a lot of back and forth...and back and forth...but still cool and fun when you're a kid! I enjoyed a pretty good lifestyle derived from this...I was able to see the work hard, play hard thing at work as my parents both drag raced, I had excellent go carts, minibikes, little motorcycles, the best baseball gloves, bats, cleats...some may call it being spoiled and many did...but they were the ones who didn't put in the work either...I wouldn't have traded my childhood for anything!!!
We all have differing opinions on this, there's no manual...this is on a case by case basis. City kids? Probably not that young as they don't generally have the maturity of kids raised on a farm. So while that may seem too young for many, I'd say it works quite well for others. Your actual mileage may vary...LOL
And yes, we had to do the make-up work for school too...
We all have differing opinions on this, there's no manual...this is on a case by case basis. City kids? Probably not that young as they don't generally have the maturity of kids raised on a farm. So while that may seem too young for many, I'd say it works quite well for others. Your actual mileage may vary...LOL
And yes, we had to do the make-up work for school too...
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When did the forum turn into this SJW mentality to come back to and press charges on? This is the 2nd time I've seen a person post as though to threaten somebody based on what they post about what they may or may not have done in the past or currently. Kids do farm work every day. Maybe not 7 year olds, but over 10 years old, sure and especially starting in junior high.
All farms are different. Livestock, grain, hay, grapes, hemp, produce, you name it.
For generations farmers have worked as a family unit to make a living. That means, in many cases, everybody pitched in. I know several dairy farms who have had their kids milking at 4:30am since they were 7 years old. I know some corn and soybean guys who won't let their kids operate any of the big stuff until they're 12. Even then it's in an open field and they have been taught many times while in the cab with their father, uncle, grandpa, etc.
I do agree that it's silly to put a kid on a mower when they're that young. Mowers are terribly dangerous. My opinion is that if they can't run the string trimmer yet, then they can't get on the mower.
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