Somewhat embarrassing question.

[milkman636]

Don't sweat it man. My wife even drives my tractors now, and she never got anywhere near a tractor before meeting me. The newer tractors are easy to drive.

It's a great time of year to drive around your new neighborhood and stop in to meet your neighbors. Start with the ones you see putzing around with their tractors on the weekends.

It would be beneficial to establish a relationship with someone who can help you learn how to use a tractor, and guide you through the dos and don'ts. Offering to lend a hand to someone you see out working a project could go a long way toward builidng a reciprocal relationship with one of your neighbors. Keep your eyes open for opportunity.

 

[JoeinTX]

Find a neighbor who has a tractor and ask if you can run it for a while. Their automatic response will be to get stuffed since they won't want you dirking around with their tractor and they aren't running a tractor day care. In response explain that you are just trying to learn about them, don't want any money in return, and will not prosecute in any case where you've been an idiot and almost killed yourself. Sign any papers they produce and hope you find a willing soul. I would not do it myself, ya see.

Buy your tractor and learn your lessons. That's the only way it happens.

 

[bilrus61]

Tell the dealer your a top executive with John Deere/Kubota/CHN. That way the salesmen won't expect you to know how to operate a tractor........

 

[TripleR]

Every single tractor owner was a rookie at one time and had never driven a tractor before the first time.

Excellent point; nothing about which to be embarrassed. Just tell the salesman and if he is any good, he will help you and if not, you will know where you don't want to buy.

I grew up farming with Ford 600s and similar tractors and will never forget the first time I crawled up into a cabbed modern tractor, it was like starting from scratch with all the knobs, dials and levers.

You can begin by simply going in and picking some sales brochures. They will show you were the basics are such as gear shift/range selector, PTO lever/button, 3PH lift, 4WD/MFWD lever, draft control id equipped, parking brake etc. You may want to take this with you some Sunday and spend a little time familiarizing yourself without interruption before actually speaking with a salesman.

Again, we were all newbies once and there is nothing about which to be embarrassed.

Good luck and enjoy.:thumbsup:

 

[RoyJackson]

There is absolutely nothing embarrassing about asking the sales person what the controls are and how to operate a tractor.
Everyone who operates a tractor has to start somewhere. If you were raised on a farm, it would have been your father, grandfather...older brother. But for most folks, those days are gone.
So, don't be embarrassed...just ask your questions and listen to his answers...you're the student here.

Heck, I'm on my third Deere and I had to ask my salesguy some questions since I'd never operated a reverser transmission before.

 

[brin]

Even someone who has driven a tractor for years will need to be checked out on a different brand...Say someone like me has operated an old JD 3020 and a NH tc-29....and I go to a dealer to look at a new Mahindra or Kubota...the first thing I would do is ask the salesman some questions about the location of the various controls...transmissions , speed selectors etc. are all different...

All you would have to do is tell the salesman you are not familiar with that brand tractor and he would be happy to show you the various features and how it operates ...so you don't even need to say you have never operated one...not really.

 

[jml755]

U.......

It's embarrassing to admit this, but I'm afraid of pulling the wrong lever or backing over something in the parking lot at the dealer. :ashamed:

No need to be embarrassed. That's just good common sense to be cautious when operating any equipment you're unfamiliar with. I've seen people jump on tractors and think that it's "just like driving a car", with the loader on the ground, parking brake engaged (probably most common occurrence) or an implement dragging behind them. As others said, a good dealer will relish teaching you the features of their product and be happy to create a "new" customer.

However, a parking lot test drive probably won't give you the feel for a machine that running it in the fields will. Plus, a lot of the decision making will depend on what your intended use is, how big your property is, what implements you plan to attach, etc. For example, a bigger tractor may seem nice at the dealer, but it might have too large of a turning radius to be comfortable operating in your yard.

 

[radioman]

telling the salesperson you never set a foot on one and steers you in the right direction that feels good to you is the right salesman. :thumbsup:

 

[greasemonkeyok]

Another avenue would be to rent the same or similar brand and model for a day. You really don't get the feel for a piece of machinery until you have used it for several hours and tried different things.

 

[flusher]

Start with new tractors with hydrostatic transmission--these are easy to drive, like an automatic transmission in a car. Then if you want, try out tractors with gear shift transmissions. I figure it'll take you about a minute to figure out how to operate any tractor, less if the sales guy helps. Remember, tractors are pretty much the same from the driver's viewpoint.