Inconsiderate drivers and tractor operators, bad mix...

[Hay Dude]

Never seen a tractor with self cancelling turn signals. It might exist but I've never seen one. When I put on my signal to signal my intent, my running lights automatically switch from 4 way flashers to a solid amber light on the opposite side of the turn and on the turn side, flash and yes, I have to manually turn them off (return the turn signal lever to the neutral position).

Mine self-cancel. Love that feature. Even better, as you mentioned, Kubota has a feature so that if youre roading with 4 ways and want to make a turn, the turn signal overrides the 4 ways auto cancels and puts you right back into 4 ways when the turn is completed.
Very safe and very forward thinking.

 

[zzvyb6]

Now add alcohol.
Fowlerville man hospitalized after crash involving tractor, pickup

 

[Industrial Toys]

I let someone (from the city) drive my Gator on the weekend and I noticed something, virtually every time I have let someone drive something. They just mash down that accelerator, from the first second! Like slow is just no good! Don't know the machine, don't know the terrain, but they have to go fast! No wonder accidents happen.

 

[Jstpssng]

Speaking of construction. It is amazing how permits, escorts and such are often required for loads that don't even pose a threat to the motoring public, and then the huge agricultural equipment has no restrictions for the most part. BIGGEST problem, I beleive, is that you are never sure what they are going to do. Is he going to turn any minute or drive another ten miles down the road? In my mind, THAT should be somehow addressed.

Funny comment, coming from your side of the border. I was driving through the village of Bingham Maine, as everybody was cleaning up after a 2 day snowstorm. Cars lining both sides of the road, leaving a narrow lane to drive in. I came around a curve and somebody in a little S--- box aimed right for me in my lane; instinctively I steered around a parked car and into the snowbank. He was the chase car for a wide load mobile home coming out of Quebec... apparently too important to follow our laws prohibiting wide loads until the snow got cleaned up. I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd cleaned that little car's clock and pushed him into the snowbank...

 

[paulfun9]

I'm the op and that is exactly what happened. The clown was coming down the dirt road at warp factor one. When I swung into the road, he was (in my estimate) fat enough away from me to be able to control his vehicle). Pretty hard to estimate speed at a distance. By the time I got out in the road, he was on me and sliding all 4 wheels. He slid by me on the loose dirt, flipped me off and hammered down again.

Speed limit on any unmarked road in Michigan is 55 which, IMO is way too fast and this guy must have been doing 80.

The vehicle was in my view as I pulled out but was a long ways off, far enough that I felt I had the room to get out in the road without incident. There was no incident but it was close and I didn't have anything on the back, just the tractor.

Tractor in my avitar is the tractor I was driving.

So you felt the need to pull a slow moving vehicle onto a road with a car or truck coming, and wonder why he came on you so quick?

Sorry but unless traffic was heavy on that road which by your description it wasn稚, You should have waited for him to get by before pulling out!

 

[CobyRupert]

Speaking of construction. It is amazing how permits, escorts and such are often required for loads that don't even pose a threat to the motoring public, and then the huge agricultural equipment has no restrictions for the most part.....

Don’t! Don’t!, Don’t follow ag equipment with a vehicle. If the ag equipment has lights or reflectors, don’t quadruple the passing distance (i.e. hang other vehicles out in the oncoming traffic lane, making a MORE dangerous situation) when there’s NO need to.
There no advantage to having a trailing escort vehicle.
Now if it’s a wide load, a lead vehicle might not be a bad idea.

 

[Industrial Toys]

From what I observed, there are NO TRAFFIC LAWS in Quebec!

I don't generally drive so close to flatbeds/lowboys that I will rip my mirrors off if they happen to have a tracked machine sticking out a bit against standard operating rules. BUT, if they "PAY" for a permit they can do, like that changes safety in any way, shape or form.

 

[Hay Dude]

Speaking of construction. It is amazing how permits, escorts and such are often required for loads that don't even pose a threat to the motoring public, and then the huge agricultural equipment has no restrictions for the most part. BIGGEST problem, I beleive, is that you are never sure what they are going to do. Is he going to turn any minute or drive another ten miles down the road? In my mind, THAT should be somehow addressed.

Lets hear your proposal for large AG equipment, which Im sure you realize is used to, produce food?
I have enough BS to deal with. You suggesting I need to get an over width permit to drive a few miles between fields?
Is it build real small AG machinery and go back to the stone ages?
Maybe we oughta go back to baling hay with mule teams and put it away loose in the barn?
Everyone wants cheap food, but complains about anything farmers do.

I need more stinkin permits like I need more government regulations.

 

[Industrial Toys]

No, I am pretty much a libertarian. BUT, you can't have Ag stuff just getting bigger and bigger and everyone is just ok with that. Construction companies build the roads, houses and schools so farmers feeding the people is a rather dumb point.

Besides, the largest machines are often CASH CROPPERS. Really hardly farmers in the traditional sense. All JUST about money and profit.

 

[4570Man]

Lets hear your proposal for large AG equipment, which Im sure you realize is used to, produce food?
I have enough BS to deal with. You suggesting I need to get an over width permit to drive a few miles between fields?
Is it build real small AG machinery and go back to the stone ages?
Maybe we oughta go back to baling hay with mule teams and put it away loose in the barn?
Everyone wants cheap food, but complains about anything farmers do.

I need more stinkin permits like I need more government regulations.

Construction guys have a pretty important job to but they don’t have any of the freedom a farmer has. Try driving a 988 loader down the road ad see how it goes.

 

[Hay Dude]

No, I am pretty much a libertarian. BUT, you can't have Ag stuff just getting bigger and bigger and everyone is just ok with that. Construction companies build the roads, houses and schools so farmers feeding the people is a rather dumb point.

Besides, the largest machines are often CASH CROPPERS. Really hardly farmers in the traditional sense. All JUST about money and profit.

You don’t have a clue what youre talking about. It’s the STATES that permit width of farm equipment NOT farmers.
Go complain to your state bureaucrats, NOT the farmer. Construction vehicles drive millions of miles on roads. Farmers drive a minuscule amount compared to that. Don’t go throwing rocks at my way of life and feeding people.
Money & profit? Are you kidding me? There’s so little money in farming under 1000 acres and the machinery is still huge.....you don’t know what youre talking about.
Stick to your industrial toys...

 

[Industrial Toys]

All farmers ever do here is complain. I know it's more complicated than this, but if they don't like, find something else to do. Just tired of hearing farmers (in this country) complain.

You don't usually have airports sharing runways with Jumbos and Cesnas. Who would think that massive farm equipment could share a two lane paved road with vehicles? At least without some basic rules understood by all.

 

[Hay Dude]

Construction guys have a pretty important job to but they don’t have any of the freedom a farmer has. Try driving a 988 loader down the road ad see how it goes.

Yeah....freedom...
I just worked Saturday 5 to dark, Sunday 7 to after dark and Labor Day 7 to dark. Construction guys are all on vacations with their families.

Yeah....farmers have all the freedom. That’s a Joke.

You don’t understand the importance of food and the urgency of getting crops made.
By the way, I also own a construction business and have driven construction equipment down the road all the time.

 

[Hay Dude]

All farmers ever do here is complain. I know it's more complicated than this, but if they don't like, find something else to do. Just tired of hearing farmers (in this country) complain.

You don't usually have airports sharing runways with Jumbos and Cesnas. Who would think that massive farm equipment could share a two lane paved road with vehicles? At least without some basic rules understood by all.

Like I said. States make the rules on equipment width, not farmers.
And you still havent offered a solution.....just complain, complain, complain.....

So is it I need to buy a permit? Is that really going to solve ONE freakin thing Industrial toys?
Or should we shut down all farm equipment on roads??? Yeah....that’s the answer.
Bet youd be the first to complain about rising food costs....

 

[Industrial Toys]

I didn't know that responding to a thread was complaining. And Big equipment on the roads is NOT even on my radar for peeves, pet or otherwise. Just making observations.

The stupid flashing lighting schemes on modern equipment is just simply retarded! Like has been discussed (if you even read it), some kind of beacon, and standard automotive lighting and turn signals. With use thereof enforced as with vehicles under the highway traffic act.

Then some restrictions as to where very large equipment can and can't go. Just like with trucks. Maybe time restrictions.

Then, some clear proceedures for large equipment operators and the motoring public as far as right of way and so forth.

Can you imagine the mayhem if suddenly everyone started driving around with their four ways on?

 

[Drstrangeglove]

Yeah....freedom...
I just worked Saturday 5 to dark, Sunday 7 to after dark and Labor Day 7 to dark. Construction guys are all on vacations with their families.

Yeah....farmers have all the freedom. That’s a Joke.

You don’t understand the importance of food and the urgency of getting crops made.
By the way, I also own a construction business and have driven construction equipment down the road all the time.

Some do. Like the time a farmer wound up 50 feet of fiber optic after busting a handhold while bush hogging. And then there is the time they burned their land and used the road as a fire brake melted the the box holding the coil of fiber. That one one only cost about $30k. Then there is the numerous time a farmer decided to clean the ditch in front of their house with a backhoe on Saturday.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Nothing more pathetic (IMO) than a person trying to make arguments coming from a position of emotion and anger. Just saying.

AND, just for the record, I do have not one but TWO tennant farmers, on the farm where I live full time. One Organic and one CASH CROPPER. So I am not some city slicker sitting in my armchair high in my penthouse, without as you say, a clue.

 

[aczlan]

I didn't know that responding to a thread was complaining. And Big equipment on the roads is NOT even on my radar for peeves, pet or otherwise. Just making observations.

The stupid flashing lighting schemes on modern equipment is just simply retarded! Like has been discussed (if you even read it), some kind of beacon, and standard automotive lighting and turn signals. With use thereof enforced as with vehicles under the highway traffic act.

Then some restrictions as to where very large equipment can and can't go. Just like with trucks. Maybe time restrictions.

Then, some clear proceedures for large equipment operators and the motoring public as far as right of way and so forth.

Can you imagine the mayhem if suddenly everyone started driving around with their four ways on?

The 4 ways on every tractor built in the last 40 years are interlocked with the turn signals so that the turn signals override them.
The turn signals are setup so that when you put on your left turn signal, the left turn signal flashes while the right turn signal stops flashing and turns on solid (just like a car with combined brake/turn signals when you turn on the turn signals and hit the brakes).
Not all tractor drivers use them, but that is how they are setup.
If you can't figure out what that means, it's time to hang up the keys and turn in your license.

As for width, we have a 1960s era 9' cut mower conditioner and it's almost 12' wide.
Most modern equipment folds up to be not much wider than that.
Here are PA's rules on width for ag equipment: http://www.dot.state.pa.us/public/d...Sheets/Implements of Husbandry Fact Sheet.pdf

Aaron Z

 

[tduby]

Lets hear your proposal for large AG equipment, which Im sure you realize is used to, produce food?
I have enough BS to deal with. You suggesting I need to get an over width permit to drive a few miles between fields?
Is it build real small AG machinery and go back to the stone ages?
Maybe we oughta go back to baling hay with mule teams and put it away loose in the barn?
Everyone wants cheap food, but complains about anything farmers do.

I need more stinkin permits like I need more government regulations.

Well if you are going to drive on the roads yes there probably should be some regulations about maximum width and where and when they can use the roads. I don’t think that is to much nor is anyone asking you to go back to mules but let’s be over dramatic for effect ��

I don’t know why you think your job is any more or less important than anybody else that you should be less regulated than anyone else. And if cheap food is what we want giant farm complexes with vast swaths of land is probably ideal not 1000’s of smaller farms scattered around the country so probably not the best argument to make in this instance.

 

[K5lwq]

The thing to think about is in most businesses, if the cost of doing business increases, you can pass that cost on to the customer. The farmer is raising a commodity. Their cost of doing business goes up and the price they get for their crop can go down. A totally different ballgame.

Farmers are moving equipment a few miles at a time not hundreds of miles over the road. Having to go get a permit to change fields would be ridiculous and would do nothing to make things safer or better.

I also think regulations on other businesses is getting a little ridiculous as well. But anyway, my hat is off to the farmer. Thank you for doing what you do!