[klaaar]

I use my machine more on my own property than on jobsites. I'd like to disable the backup alarm and then enable it at will, but without spending a lot of time or effort.

Is there a fuse, or another means to accomplishing my goal? I looked in the parts book, but couldn't find a shortcut to killing the alarm.

[Pelican]

Open the rear door and attach a slide-on lug to the hot stud of the alarm. Then install an insulated female connector to the hot lead. This way you can push the wire on and off as needed. There are other ways to do it that are more elaborate, but this is quickest and least expensive.

Just be aware of the liability exposure you create by disabling ant safety device. If an accident occurs and the alarm was disabled, it will not go well for you.

[Dale Wiley]

Any changes at all to the back up alarm will render you completely liable and possibly criminally liable depending on your state if done with knowledge and premeditation.

Maybe a good set of ear plugs ??

[klaaar]

Those are pretty heavy replies.

I hadn't considered being liable for damages to visitors while on my own property.

The alarm doesn't bother my ears. I was just thinking of the neighbors (even though the closest is 300 yards). I don't want to sound like a construction site in the evenings and weekends when I'm working on my grounds.

Thanks for the electrical tip, Pelican.

[Dale Wiley]

Not heavy reply's just some basic fact. Any modification of any safety equipment leaves you open. But nothing could ever happen on your own property. Insurance companies look for ANY reason to deny a coverage.

I know of damage settlements in the millions of dollars over such a thing. My neighbor would have to run one of those things a long time to bother me. I probably do some things that might bother him, but in the farm country of the west, what you do on your farm is your business. A back up alarm is pre inoccus to me.

I have a wholesale nursery and people in and out during business hours, and family and friends around at others. I will keep everything safe.

And since I have worked 10,000's of hours and several million of dollars in work with NO LOST TIME accidents, I want to keep it that way.

Disconnect it if you want. Just my opinion FWTW.

[klaaar]

Heaviness is in the mind of the beholder.

Thanks for smacking me upside the head w/ basic fact, and thanks for the perspectives. Chances are the alarm won't be tampered with.

[Squizzy Taylor]

klaar, late reply but as Pelican has pointed out the Siren is on the back door. Cat has various models (dB) available and some new ones are much more directional. My first 246B was incredibly loud (for what reason I don't know). I went to Cat and got a lower dB one that was still acceptable for that machine.

At the end end of the day the operator has responsiblity to take "all due reasonable care" for the hazards presented. If the manufacturer puts a safety device on a machine then messing with it will probably not be "due care".

I always tell the SWMBO that if I die (for whatever reason) to go and get the skid and run over me and park on top......she'll get more payout if I die cause of the machine

[zullo-design]

I get complaints from the guys while running the ctl70, but in all reality the back-up alarm doesn't add that much more noise while running a large machine like that.

[Squizzy Taylor]

This is from 2006:

Friday, May 12, 2006

A CONSTRUCTION company working south of Perth has been fined $12,000 for failing to provide a safe workplace after a worker was struck and injured by a reversing grader in May 2002.

Busselton-based Cowara Contractors pleaded guilty and was convicted and fined in the Busselton Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

The incident occurred when an employee directing trucks to offload limestone road base, which was then being spread by a grader onto the sub-base, was struck by a reversing grader, sustaining several injuries.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said today the incident highlighted how much care must be taken when work involves plant such as graders operating with workers in the surrounding vicinity.

There are some very specific safe practices associated with this type of work, and it is clear that some of these safe work practices had not been put into place by this company,� Lyhne said.

The grader involved was not fitted with reversing beepers, and the injured employee did not see or hear it coming.

The employees working near the machinery were not wearing the reflective vests they had been provided with, and were not using radio communication between the grader operator and those working on the ground.�

Lyhne also said no spotter was being used at the time of the incident, and there were no exclusion zones to keep workers a specified distance from the mobile plant.

So there it is...I don't have reversing alarms...I have Beepers