- Joined
- Feb 21, 2003
- Messages
- 26,976
- Location
- SE Michigan in the middle of nowhere
- Tractor
- Kubota M9000 HDCC3 M9000 HDC
I am certainly glad that those who seem to believe that farm equipment needs permits and loading and being hauled are in a minority.
Fortunately we are in a farming area with Right to Farm laws which protect normal and established practices,
and roading farm equipment has been done since the days of horse drawn equipment and many of the roads were farm to farm and farm to town.
You and I and some others like Hay Dude and Richard will be right in there at the DMV, getting permits and paying for them so we can get to our fields. Of course we get to roll the cost of the permits and the additional employees driving vehicles front and rear of the unit too.... yeah right. Of course all over width permits also come with routing and restricted hours so we will have to only farm when it's 'legal' to move equipment, usually dawn to dusk and no weekends or holidays. Sounds like a plan to me.... not.
I don't believe any of us would be able to farm productively under those rules. Sounds to me like a recipe for bankruptcy. hard enough as it is (farming) without imposing more regulations. Growing and harvesting crops or rotational grazing don't adhere to rules and regulations and never have and are not going to start now or in the future.
Implement width has everything to do with productivity and getting it done in a timely manner. If all implements were legal width (102") maximum, productivity would be constrained to the point that it would not be cost effective to farm, bad enough as it is today to make a go of farming.
Even then, with all that, it won't deter the 'all about me and pizz on you drivers' from pulling stupid stunts anyway.
Like I said previously, all distills down to common sense and pro active driving habits, neither of which are the norm today.