What age did you start driving tractors?

[survriggs]

First driving was a 2-ton hay truck about age 7. I stood up, they put it in gear and jumped out, all I had to do was steer. Then a 8N Ford about age 9 or 10 pulling a corn wagon. The thing I hated most was driving the 63 Chev. pickup pulling Dad on the 8N to get it started. I will not own an 8N Ford...I was scarred forever...ha!

[TripleR]

I was about six or so when I would pull the corn wagon through the field while dad and siblings hand picked the corn. Dad turned it around at the ends. I don't really remember when I was driving on my own, but I was pretty young.

I taught both my sons to start and move a truck or tractor at about the age of eight or so, but only short distances.

[IndyIan]

I was 14 or 15 and helped a neighbor skid logs with his cabbed 70ish hp John deere. I never did break anything off but a couple times it was close. I think my neck got sore more than anything... Looking backwards and forwards again and again to make sure I wasn't busting the cab up or the forest...
I don't know when I'll let my boy start driving the tractor(he's 2 now). We have so many slopes and ditches that it would be too easy to roll it with only a seconds inattention... I guess it will all depend on his maturity, hopefully it will be before he's 40

[jinman]

I don't beleive kids these days that I know of have the smarts or maturity to do what I did at that age to be safe at all. I say again " kids I know of". Just so I don't get yelled at by some of you

Lot's of things we did when young are just no longer needed. They kinda disappeared like slide-rules. Still though, it's hard to accept that so many kids have zero mechanical skills because they've never done anything with their hands. I watched my 12 yo grandson try to build something recently. It reminded me of a very young child with no coordination and no idea of how to put something together. I explained to him one day that we used to make our own sling-shots by finding a "Y-forked" limb and cutting it. Then I told him about using strips of old inner tube for rubber, how we stretched it over the limb's branches, and tied it with string wrapped tightly to hold the tubing in place. Finally, I told him that we used the leather tongue from old shoes/boots to make the pocket. He could hardly believe me. Kids these days get everything from the store and build nothing. One of these days I may mix up some flour paste and show him how to build his own kite out of newspaper. That should be a treat for both of us.

[djw250]

I was about 8 when I first started to learn to drive the tractors on our farm. By 12 I was driving everything on the place. The smallest tractor, our 1939 Allis Chalmers WC, was also the hardest to drive because of the long, heavy clutch, the lack of power steering, and the individual hand brakes by the fenders so I actually drove some of the bigger tractors first.

As for my kids, my oldest is a natural and I let him drive our tractors by age 12 when we first got our place. He was already racing motocross by then and had a pretty good understanding of how machinery worked. My stepson who is in between the ages of my oldest and youngest, I still don't really trust to drive the tractor, and he's 21. He just never had the attention span to learn and was not naturally so inclined. My youngest is kind of in the middle. He can operate it fine, but really did not feel comfortable until he was about 16. My oldest grandson is 20 months old, and loves to ride on the tractor, and wants to see what everything does. We'll just have to see whith him.

[Heywood Jannockitov]

The Stone Age

[imgone52]

I was not a farm kid so I had to wait until my friend's dad asked me to help harrow a field, I was 15. Worked raw plowed ground on an Allis Chalmers WC. You talk about a sore butt, but one happy teen. The next summer I went to work on a much bigger farm and drove everything from a Farmall C to an IHC 806. I spent 4 summers there and loved it all. Every kid should start their work experience doing farm work. It creates a great appreciation for what real labor is all about!

[powerpace]

7 or 8 hay wagon. I don't remember what tractor.

[aczlan]

I started feeding the furnace at 5, mowing the lawn (with a 6 speed Bolens 1050) at ~8, started driving dads Massey Industrial 30 at ~12 and started driving a larger (~75HP open station deere) tractor at ~13 to pick rocks.
I started running a Kubota L3830 at 22 when I met my father in law and started learning how to do hay. I have siblings who are in their 20s who I wouldn't trust to drive anything bigger than a lawnmower...
Should be interesting to see how soon our kids are ready to drive the tractors. I think that our 2 year old will be an early driver. Time will tell when the one that is on the way is ready.

Aaron Z

[firefighter9208]

Was about 10 when I started driving the ford 3000 picking rocks. Was about 14 or 15 when I was turned loose on the tractor (3610) with a disc.

My dad let me drive his '75 Superbeetle everywhere when I was in the 7th grade. From our house to school was about 15 miles and he would let me drive to basketball practice with him in the car!

My 9 year old has drivin the Farmall 140 around the field and last year when we were picking pumpkins I showed her how to operate my 48 HP Kubota (M4800). She was pulling a trailer through the field as I tossed pumpkins to my wife and 4 year old in the trailer.

I'm 6'9" so she inherited her size from me. She's big for her age. She's 5' tall and weighs 120# with a size 9 womens show at 9 years old.

Chris