Safe quad bike use when working with animals

The machine rolls, and that's the thing to design around

A quad bike sits high, carries its weight up around the rider and steers by shifting body weight, and the thing that hurts people on them is the bike going over rather than the bike going fast. That's why the national quad bike safety standard came in, and why a new general use quad bike sold in Australia has had to come with an operator protection device fitted since October 2021. If the bike you're riding predates that, it doesn't carry one, and it's worth knowing that about your own machine before you take it into a paddock full of stock.

Everything below follows from the same fact. Stock work puts you on uneven ground, at low speed, with your attention on an animal instead of on the ground, which is precisely the set of conditions a rollover likes.

Before you leave the shed

None of this takes long and all of it changes how the bike behaves under you.

• Tyre pressures. Quad tyres run at single figure pressures, and a few psi out on one side is enough to change how the bike leans on a slope. The right figure is on the placard on the bike rather than in any article, so read that one.
• Brakes. Front and rear are usually separate on a quad, so check both. Soft or sluggish gets fixed before the job, not after it.
• Steering and suspension. If it pulls to one side or sits low on a corner, the geometry has changed and so has the point at which it tips.
• What you're carrying. A load strapped high on the front rack raises the centre of gravity and makes the bike tip earlier, and an unstrapped load that slides mid corner does it faster still. Keep loads low, keep them within the rack's rating, and strap them down properly.

Gear that earns its place

A helmet is the one item worth being inflexible about, even on the 200m run down to the far gate, because the ground is just as hard for a short trip. Boots with a proper sole and an ankle, not gumboots, because gumboots come off. Clothing that fits close enough not to catch on a lever or a rack. Gloves if you're opening and shutting gates all morning, and a hi-vis layer if anybody else is working the same paddock in a ute or a tractor.

Working the stock without stirring it up

Animals don't read a quad bike the way they read a person on foot, and the engine noise is doing a lot of the talking before you get anywhere near them.

• Move steadily and keep the revs even, because a sudden change in engine note scatters a mob faster than the bike ever could.
• Work from the side and use the bike as gentle pressure rather than as a chaser. Pushing from directly behind turns a walk into a run and a run into a mess.
• Give young and nervous stock more room than you think they need, and expect them to pick the worst possible direction.
• If a beast won't move, get off and walk it. It's quicker than three attempts on the bike and it takes you out of the way if it decides to come past you.
• Never let a dog ride on the racks. It shifts the balance in a way you can't predict and it puts the dog in the wrong place if the bike goes over.

Passengers and children

A quad is a one person machine unless it was built otherwise, because a second body sits high and moves independently and that's exactly the load a quad handles worst. If you need to carry somebody, or a decent load, a side by side is the machine for it and a quad isn't.

On children, the standing advice from the work safety regulators is that nobody under 16 belongs on an adult sized quad, and the reason is mass rather than maturity. Shifting your weight is how you keep the thing upright, and a child hasn't got enough of it to do that on a full sized machine. A youth sized bike, supervised, is a different question.

And get some training if you've never had any. Most people who ride a quad every day learned by getting on one, which is fine right up until the day the ground does something unexpected.

Shop related products

• Hard Unit Tyre Repair Kit, 8 Pieces. A plug kit lives under the seat and saves the walk home.
• Monkey Grip Ratchet Tie Down 25mm x 4m. For strapping a load to the rack so it can't slide on a corner.
• Hard Unit Aluminium Torch, USB Rechargeable. Because stock work starts before it's light and finishes after it isn't.

To be straight with you, we don't sell quad bikes and we don't sell riding helmets, so I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What we do keep in the shop, and none of it is on the website, is hi-vis day and night vests, riggers and cut resistant gloves, class 5 earmuffs, first aid kits in a compact motorist size and a work vehicle size, and farm gate latches including the ring chain type for a gate you're opening from the bike. Give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

Have a read of these next

• Tractor mistakes that cost money on an acreage block
• How to spend less of your weekend maintaining a rural property

Candeece

Stay Connected

Follow our Facebook Page: Strathalbyn H Hardware on Facebook