Inconsiderate drivers and tractor operators, bad mix...

[LouNY]

5 foot markers on each side.



go tell that to the guy that I had to plow though several acres of peanuts. He planted up next the the paved road and county said the cable will be on the back 5 foot of the ROW.

I have seen the state take an excavator to pull up a fence and then send the owner a bill.


Were those markers visible in the vegetation, why hadn't the town or state mowed it so he wouldn't have needed to.
So that was an easement taken from him that he was still paying taxes on and still owned.
I've seen some very tense scenes when that happens also.

 

[ovrszd]

Funny. I just got (back) a little farm wagon, maybe seven feet long. My Lady friend was pulling it with the Mule on the weekend, and stopped in position to back it into a parking place. I just stopped what I was doing, and watched smiling!

Never mind, I couldn't do it either. Not even observing the angle of the front wagon wheels.

If you have a front hitch on the Mule use it. If you don't have one, add it. My RTV has a receiver hitch on both ends. We use them equally.

 

[ovrszd]

I'm not sure I would consider that to be above us,
seems to me like just more unfunded mandates from the government to follow to aid in their coffers.

Not knowing your history Lou, have you traveled in European or Asian countries much? Tractors on the hiway is very common. Sometimes it's the means of transportation, nothing to do with tractor tasks. Cabless tractors will have a mirror clamped to the vertical exhaust. Seating platforms fastened across the rear fenders. Very common to have hiway speeds in the high 30s or low 40s.

The more developed nations have comprehensive laws in place to control this use just as they do for cars/trucks. The Auto drivers tend to accept the tractors on the road better than we do. We only consider them a distraction.

 

[ovrszd]

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

My area is rolling hills and curvy roads. Large AG equipment almost always uses a lead vehicle. Almost never uses a trailing escort.

 

[ovrszd]

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.

How should they transport?

 

[Jim Nelson]

Before You Dig

When I was working construction we very seldom got into any wiring, plumbing,or gas lines but when we did it was because the locators had mis marked them, usually by 2 or 3 feet. We got to the point that we would always try to pothole with a shovel to be sure there were no utilities where we needed to dig. There is nothing worse than cutting through the T.V. cable when some old rich broad in her estate style home down the road is trying to watch "Days of our lives".

 

[ovrszd]

"farmer wound up 50 feet of fiber optic after busting a handhold" ;
it should have been better protected and more visible.

"they burned their land and used the road as a fire brake melted the the box holding the coil of fiber";
they own and pay taxes to the center of the road in most cases, you have just decided to use the utility easement design for regular and normal occurrences.

"decided to clean the ditch in front of their house with a backhoe on Saturday";
then bury it deeper then the bottom of a ditch should be, too many times cables are put in just a few inches below grade then get po'ed when dug up bury them deeper.

In Missouri, a person brushcuts a fiber optics pedestal he pays for the repair. In Missouri, a person burns the roadbank and destroys a fiber optics pedestal he pays. In Missouri digging without contacting One Call and submitting a request for utility flagging is illegal.

I work with the local utility companies frequently. Have the local guy's Cell Phone numbers stored in my phone. They have mine. Even if I "think" I know where the utility is I submit a One Call ticket. That's my get out of jail free card.

 

[ovrszd]

I知 sure glad we don稚 have to get permits to move cattle from one area to another via a county road or highway. Putting slow moving signs on them would be a pain.

And the cows get real testy.....

 

[ovrszd]

I do not view farming as a job. It is a life. Most farmers are very humble people and care more for others than themselves. They don't ask for a lot and are very thankful for what they have. Very rarely do you hear a farmer complain about anything. Most will pray that God will honor their hard work.

Our nation has about a 6 months food supply. If farmers failed to put in a crop one year, getting food and the basic necessities would be far worse than when Covid hit the world.

I am very thankful for all that served in our military to give us the freedom to have this discussion. Likewise I am very thankful for the life the farmer chose to feed the world.

Amen...

 

[ovrszd]

When I was working construction we very seldom got into any wiring, plumbing,or gas lines but when we did it was because the locators had mis marked them, usually by 2 or 3 feet. We got to the point that we would always try to pothole with a shovel to be sure there were no utilities where we needed to dig. There is nothing worse than cutting through the T.V. cable when some old rich broad in her estate style home down the road is trying to watch "Days of our lives".

I fought the DigRite, One Call system for many years. It used to be a lengthy painful phone conversation trying to tell someone sitting in an office in New Jersey that you don't know the mailing address of the location you are digging because there's not a house in sight!!!!

In the last few years this system has automated into one of the easiest to use programs I've ever saw. I have the AP on my phone. Can submit an accurate request in 3 or 4 minutes. Has my Cell phone number on the request along with my email address. I get immediate response, almost always within 24 hours, gets flagged within 48 hours max. I give them all the lead time I can. It's a great system that saves a lot of mistakes.

I've had the heart stopping moment several times when I come up with a strand of buried fiber optics or older sheathed copper cable that wasn't flagged!!!!! I always stop and call the utility guys for an explanation. It's usually an old cable that's not used anymore. Sure wakes you up though.