got to use my first tractor today

[snapper]

My good friend let me mow part of his field a zetor and a very ancient mower. It waqs your basic tractor, two wheel drive, plain unsync gear shift, and a few quirks. But i got the hang of it pretty quick. It had a few quirks like you could raise the lift then without the lever ever moving it would drop down, then wouldn;t go back up until you engaged the pto, It had two other levers next to it, so i have no idea what they were and that could be the cause. So what was yalls first expierence with driving a tractor??

Thanks guys!! chris..

 

[Golfgar4]

My first experience was probably when I was about 6 years old. My grandfather owned a International Harvester dealership and he'd take us out for rides. I know, I know!That's not a safe thing to do. But you have to remember that this would've been around 1955 or '56! They didn't know any better back then - or at least they didn't think about it!

Anyway, I remember he took me out with him and drove into a big field and said, "Do you want to drive it?" Oh Boy, Oh BOY - I get to drive a tractor!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Yeah, sure! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif My feet didn't reach any pedals..I had to sit on Grandpa's lap.. I couldn't turn the steering wheel by myself...and I had no idea what any of the levers did! BUT I WAS DRIVING THE TRACTOR WITH MY GRANDPA!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Oh - by the way. Regarding your first time to use a tractor today?

You're STILL smiling, aren't you?? /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Slamfire]

It was about '48, my Granddad got brucelos from unpasturized milk, and had to sell his draft horses. Dad bought a home made tractor. It had an 8 hp B&S motor, a tranny and rear end out of a GMC truck, and a composition belt like was used to drive threshing machines, etc. with an idler wheel for clutching. Some real heavy channel welded directly to the axles and sporting a single front wheel made up the balance. There was an old iron implement seat, unsprung, and a handle on each side to operate the brakes. The steering gear came from the same old Jimmy the running gear came from. There was a single hitch point on the back and we used the old horse drawn plow for the potato and corn patch. Dad would operate the plow, and I had to drive the tractor. He didn't much care for my steering until I figured out that differential brakeing was the secret, as the front wheel didn't have much effect. That lasted until I was 14, and Granddad died, then Dad got an 8N and didn't need my help with the driving. When we visited for the Bicentennial celebration, he made me hold that old shovel plow in the ground while he drove the Ford. At the end of the first row of 'taters, he said, "You don't work much at work, do you?" /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[frank_f15]

seems like i have always been on a tractor. born in 42, and lived on a farm, back then it was acceptable to let a young guy of 8 or 9 operate a tractor, drove a ford 8n, and old farmall cub, a really old CLETRAC (who remembers those?) we even had an old iron wheel, dad took me out to mow some hay and said son STAY OUT OF THE LOW SPOTS how the heck was i to know what was a low spot? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif was only 8 or so, well i got that aold tractor buried to it's seat. was really scared to go home and tell pop, but i walked home and told him, and he said DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT DID THE SAME THING MY SELF. wish i had a picture of that old iron wheel. rambled long enough. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[rambler]

I learned to drive on a Ford 960 that dad broght home used when I was 7. All the other tractors on the place had difficult clutches very far away. This one I could handle, you step down, instead of forward. Some of you might know, a 5-speed Ford has a very different shift lever, slides up & down on a post, and the 'H' pattern is tipped on it's side.

Still have that tractor, and it's funny to see non-Ford but experienced tractor people try to shift that thing. Second nature to me.

I was putting in 4-5 hours of plowing a day when I was 8, with an IHC 300 and a 2-bottom trip Oliver plow.

--->Paul

 

[chrisjbell]

I have an old picture of me driving a riding mower with my little brother (who now towers over me) in my lap on my grandpa's farm, taken when I was about five or six. I think it was on the same visit that he let me drive his combine (I suspect he did most of the real work), which I will never forget - those things are *big*, even as an adult.

Tractors are wonderful things. I'm now teaching my daughter (five years old) to drive our lawn tractor. She can't reach the hydro pedals yet, but is getting darn good at paying attention and steering correctly. Gotta love playing (I mean working /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif) with them...

 

[Bird]

My first tractor experience was either 1951 or 1952 on a John Deere L; 1940 model according to the guy who sold it to Dad, and I guess that was right since it looked just like this one.

 

[RobS]

I plowed snow and mowed grass for some neighbors growing up with THEIR Kubota. Odd people, owned the tractor but didn't much care to operate it /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Then in high school I worked in a body shop. Owner had a Kubota with FEL. We used that tractor for everything!

I've yet to operate a "real" farm tractor though. It's on my life list /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[frank_f15]

MY UNCLE WOULD (oops) lead the way with his 39 buick as i drove the cub with sicklebar down the road and across the highway, leave me there with a jug of water and an extra 5 gal. of gas. come back and get me for dinner, next day same thing except now i had the hay rake on the back and would windrow it for running though the baler(nother story) .did not appers to do me any harm, thought i was king tut on that tractor. never got tired of it and seems to carry over to my later years /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Wannafish]

I was 6 years old in 1967. I was too small to lift the bushel crates of potatoes onto the wagon on Grand Pa's farm. At that age I wanted to be in the middle of the "action", not pick potatoes. Grand Pa climbed down off his old J.D. A, put me in the seat, put it in 1st gear, told me to push the hand clutch forward and keep the tires in the furrow. I was driving all by myself. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif All went well until we came to the end of the row...at which point I realized I didn't have directions for what to do next. I had watched my Grand Pa and Dad enough to know that all you have to do to stop is pull the hand clutch back and the tractor will stop...eventually.
I reached up, pulled the hand clutch back, and we just kept going! I tried pulling it back again with the same result. As panic began to set in /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif, my Dad climbed up from behind me, grabbed the clutch lever and yanked it back hard. Seems the clutch linkage was worn and you had to SNAP it back. That lesson has stayed with me to this day. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Whew. The pond was getting mighty close. Thanks Dad!

Grand Pa passed in 1972, and Grand Ma remarried several years later. I watched as her new husband tried to drive that old A, or should I say tried to stop it. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Yup, right into the pond it went. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Wasn't nearly as funny when it happened, but when I went home and told Dad he went over and as he was pulling it out, gave me a wink and said "This tractor's been trying to get in here for a long time hasn't it Rick?" I laugh every time I remember that.

Thanks Guys!