LBrandt I had a similar experience. I'm going to murder the spelling here, sorry flycarpin. I could not reach the clutch on tractors, but my dad bought an old Minneapolis Molinn with a hand clutch. We farmed, but dad also worked at a concrete plant. In the morning he would set the depth on the Graham Hommy digger and I would dig sometimes only a few hours, and a few times all day. There were no hydrolics . You had to squeeze a lever and move it to the notch that set your desired depth. One morning I thought I was big enough to do it myself. Squeezing with both hands I managed to free the toggle from the upper most notch , but I could not handle the weight of the digger. Since I was squeezing with all my strength I had a real good grasp of the lever. When it released it yanked me off my feet faster than you could blink your eyes. At first I thought I was going to be lucky enough to clear the entire digger and land on the ground behind. That's close to what happened, but my shines took a beating somewhere in the trajectory. I felt lucky not leaving the family hanging on that darn lever.
Edit: That should read lower most notch.