Landscape Equipment Safety - Is is Attached? Part 2

Unsecured weed &  landscape equipment poses a risk to the driver, the equipment and other people on the road.  This is the 2nd in a series on spray equipment load security.  

Landscape Spray Equipment that may be safe and secure under normal conditions may become a hazard in an emergency such as an accident, sudden braking, etc.

Our repair shop sees quite a few unsafe landscape equipment issues every month.

Here are a few of the more common issues we see.

Small equipment must be secured.  Just because it is in your truck doesn't mean it is safe or secure.  The most common example we see is gas can, which are common on many landscape equipment trucks.  I don't know what happens to a 5-gallon gas can that is ejected from a truck at 60 miles an hour but I am sure that neither you or I want's to find out. 

What happens to the gas can in the photo (above) if an accident occurs?

Another problem we see frequently is unsecured backpack sprayers.  The most common issue here is damage from unsecured backpacks.  The photo below is actually quite amusing.  

There is a bungy cord but it is not attached to anything.  Nice landing - wrong airport!

This is probably worse than no security at all because it gives the illusion of safety.

There are a couple of risks demonstrated in this photo.

- The most obvious is the risk of damage to the backpack if/when the driver hits the brakes.

- The backpack hits the diaphragm pump causing expensive damage (and downtime) to this valuable piece of equipment.

- Risk of chemical leak if the backpack hits the diaphragm pump.

- Risk of backpack striking the rear truck window distracting or injuring driver.

- Risk of backpack flying out of the vehicle and hitting something or someone else.

In my opinion, these risks, no mater how small, are ridiculous because the can be prevented with about 30 seconds of effort.  Why wouldn't you make that small effort to reduce the risk?

Here is a great, real life example of one of these risks that actually happened:

In this example, the tech spilled 50 gallons of chemical.  He hit the brakes to avoid and accident and the unsecured backpack fell and broke the landscape sprayer tank fitting, spilling almost 50 gallons of chemical.  There was considerable downtime to replace the tank, which cracked.

Here is what the  landscape backpack sprayer should have looked like:  

NOTE: To purchase the  Birchmeier Backpack Security rack, click.

Taking a minute to secure your backpack in a backpack security rack is a no-brainer.

Please instruct your techs to take a minute to secure their load before driving off.  It will be the best minute they ever spent. 

To read the next safety article in this series, click here.   pest control equipment safety.