Tractor Fatigue

[glennmac]

Have you ever been your car but your mind and muscles thought you were on your tractor.

I drove my tractor about 20 hours over the past three days. When I pulled my car into my parking garage at work today, I was coasting to a slow stop in the parking space. Instead of stepping on the car brake, I reached my right foot back for the HST reverse pedal. I mean, I really did! I bumped the wall but I was going so slow no harm was done. Jeez.

Have any of you been afflicted by symptoms, serious or funny, of what I will call tractor fatigue?

Glenn

[Thomas]

Glenn,
Glad to read your okay and no damages. [img]/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I have reach for the FEL joy stick a couple of times when parking my pick up.[img]/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif[/img][img]/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Thomas..NH [img]/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[DONOTDELETE]

Glenn, the habit of stopping your tractor's forward motion by stepping on the reverse pedal is not good for your machine. I think my manual even says not to do this, if I remember correctly.


Andy

[Rowski]

You know how you rev the tractor engine alittle to speed up the FEL operation... Found myself rev'n the engine on the truck to put up the power windows [img]/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif[/img].

If I plow snow for 10-15 hrs (with an automatic) then hop in the stick shift truck and drive home. Usually the first stop sign I come to (if forget to push in the clutch) the truck makes a some funny noisies till I figure out out what's going on [img]/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif[/img].

Derek

[glennmac]

Andy, I agree, and I don't really do that on my tractor. But the tractor "coasts" to a stop so quickly that I put my foot back on the reverse peddle in anticipation of of stopping. This is when I am jockeying back and forth circling a tree or maneuvering under a stump or rock.

I remembered after my initial post what I was actually doing in the parking garage: it was a tight fit kind of parking space on a corner, and I was jockeying back and forth to get my car in straight. On the last jockey, I put my foot back as if I expected the hydro to stop the car quickly and anticipating another reverse maneuver.

I dimly recall the term proprioceptive muscle memory from days training rats and pigeons in the Columbia University psychology labs.

[MChalkley]

Back when I had a GST, I once turned on the left signal light on my pickup in a vain attempt to back up...

MarkC

[gordon]

At work we have a kubota that we use for moving trailers around the lot thats a straight shift and I usually do this on a Monday it seems like. Going to shift in reverse and the lever next to the steering wheel isn't there. Then I do the look around just to make sure no one saw me reaching for a lever that wasn't there.
Conditioned actions at it's best I guess!!! Be glad when I get the hst and I'll be doing a hole new movement instead.
gordon

[scruffy]

Glad I'm not the ONLY one to be feeling silly lately! This old camray that I've been driving in place of my pickup has a automatic on the floor, while my PickUp's gearshift selector is on the column. Can't say how many times I've had the windshield wipers going by trying to put it into Drive! First crack out of the barrel, I had that turkey running, and drove it about ten miles before I figured out what in the heck I had done, and how to shut the wipers off.
I must've looked very sunburned driving that way!

[ERNIEB]

Scruffy, I did the same thing when my wife first got her Cherokee (floor shift). After a day in the dump truck, I still jump in her car and try to find the clutch pedal that aint there. I hope after a day on the tractor I don't jump in the dump truck and repeat Glenn's trick.
Ernie

[scruffy]

ErnieB, I don't know about you, but I felt awful foolish driving down the road with the wipers going, particularly on an 80 degree sun-shiny day! Remember going to visit my Dad one time (I had a 59 Bug-eye Sprite), and he wanted me to drive to town to pick up some hay using the old farm truck. (a 62 Chev P/U with one ton suspension etc). As many times as I've driven that truck, it scared the heck out of me because all of a sudden it was 9 stories high, and as wide as all get out! Sure different than that old Bug-eye!