It seems to me that driving a tractor on a road depends on 'wavers'. If you are on the dirt roads where people still wave to everyone they pass, in a vehicle or not then you should be ok on the tractor. As soon as you get onto the larger roads with the outta my way cell phone drivers then things become dicey.
I live in a smaller town of around 8000 people surrounded by corn and soy beans. Our only traffic jams are at the schools (start and stop) and around the elevator (just redesigned traffic pattern, hopefully they can get the farmers in and out quicker.
We watch the harvest in our back yard and have utility tractors pulling grain carts into town all fall long.
No real problems in town or on the dirt roads.
Now on Rt 50 (4 lane highway) it is another story. I have watched cars a few times try to hit combines with 30'+ headers on them. The combines are only on the highway for a mile or two getting from field to field, but people are too impatient and distracted to notice.
The closest we ever was was a combine going about 1/2 mile down 50 to get to another local rd, header off the side of the road but still crossing into the on coming lanes. I saw him from a mile or 2 away (flat straight road) and slowed down knowing that they would be turning soon. Some idiot sped past us and I told my daughter this could get ugly. Driver never even noticed the combine/header until almost on top of him, then quickly changed lanes (and probably shorts too).
If I get behind some combines on the highway I just drop back, put on the flashers and ride closer to the shoulder watching my rearview. I'm in no hurry, let the other idiots try to fly around them.
Actually my daughter and I like watching the machinery, we have a hard time passing by a field being worked without slowing down to look. If it's an older articulated machine we will probably turn back around and park to watch for a while. I really love my little girl, she even calls out tractors or other machinery to look at.
She also calls out drivers on cell phones or doing other dumb things. She is 6. Why the heck can't adults have the common sense of a 6 yr old?
Just last weekend leaving her soccer game I yelled at some lady who pulled onto the road while starting to text on her phone, with hundreds of kids all around. She had to be a parent with kids at the game. What is so important that she couldn't have stayed parked for another 30 seconds.
I just wish I had a tractor to drive on the road.
I also slow down or get off the shoulder when equipment is coming down the smaller roads at me, I know that they don't have the control or a car and hitting a bump can cause them to move around. Common courtesy and self preservation on my part. Very rarely do I not get a wave of thanks, all these guys want to do is keep working and keep feeding us.
It adds all of 30 seconds to my trip, I can live with that.
And then there is basic physics. Once again my 6 yr old knows-
Person vs car, person looses.
Car vs large truck or machine- car looses
Anything vs train- train wins, pieces scattered for a mile.
I think that punishment for acting like an idiot while driving around farm equipment should be 'no soup for you'. Live on your own harvested food for a week and then see if you have some respect for our Great American farmers.
Happy labor day weekend.
Matt
