Second experience roading tractor

[bdhsfz6]

I road my tractors 2 or 3 times a year while doing work for others or getting it to the dealer. I usually won't attempt it for trips more than 5 miles or so. It was more of a problem with my smaller tractors but less so with the 50+ HP machines I have now.

In addition to lights & SMV emblem, I plan my route to avoid busy roads if possible. Sometimes, this means going a mile or so out of the way. When possible, I also have someone follow me in a vehicle with flashers on. I used to do this for my FIL twice a year when he took his combine 25 miles to fields he leased.

Luckily, this is farm country and drivers are used to seeing tractors on the road.

 

[chim]

Hay Dude, you're lucky with the pole placement. Here's one near my house.

 

[Hay Dude]

Hay Dude, you're lucky with the pole placement. Here's one near my house.View attachment 4121042

Yeah, but are you running 12’ wide equipment? lol

I have some poles to get around that are even closer than your photo. Stay tuned-I’ll photo them. You won’t believe it. Chunks of wood taken out of the poles from truck & equipment strikes.

Here’s my drive from one field to another today. There’s no room for an oncoming car.
I have a 12’ wide mower and if I had to guess, the road might be 16’ wide???

 

[Gregster613]

Yeah, but are you running 12’ wide equipment? lol

I have some poles to get around that are even closer than your photo. Stay tuned-I’ll photo them. You won’t believe it. Chunks of wood taken out of the poles from truck & equipment strikes.

Here’s my drive from one field to another today. There’s no room for an oncoming car.
I have a 12’ wide mower and if I had to guess, the road might be 16’ wide???

View attachment 4124300

That phone pole just ahead looks as close as the one in Chim's picture! You've really no room for options!

 

[Hay Dude]

What’s kinda funny (again, picking on women drivers here, sorry) is they will stop, not only in the middle of the road and squeeze their steering wheel tight, but for the strangest reason, seemingly almost always across from a TP or a tree leaving a bottleneck for farmers to drive through.
We farmers talk about this all the time.
Around my area, the cops have ZERO sympathy for truckers or farmers. As long as you are driving the larger truck or equipment, and you come in contact with a smaller car, it’s going to be your fault.

 

[RayIN]

My tractor has full lighting, but I don't use the turn signals, they kinda look like brake lights. I use hand signals, but even then some drivers don't have a clue.
We've had a large influx of people building houses that lived in the city, that think the county road is their personal driveway.
I was turning left into my driveway one sunny day and some small red car honked his horn at me because he had to slow down or hit the tractor broadside.
To be fair, Indiana law says if a county road is not posted otherwise, the speed limit is 50 MPH.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

A couple times each year, I run the 2+ miles...uphill, about a 600 foot change in elevation...with my B2301, HST to move wood, pull a rock...whatever. At full throttle, petal to the metal, it makes the trip in about 14 minutes. Coming home, it's lighter on the throttle, but a minute or two less.

 

[Tinhack]

I use hand signals, but even then some drivers don't have a clue.

I was turning left into my driveway one sunny day and some small red car honked his horn at me because he had to slow down or hit the tractor broadside.

Most younger folks have no idea what hand signals are. I think they believe you're flashing Gang Signs at them.

I cut the grass along both of my bordering roads. One is a state route the other is a county route. I don't have turn signals but I do use the flashers. I also have a SMV triangle on the back. If I'm close to the roadway and see someone coming up behind me, I'll stop to keep from throwing trash at their vehicle.

If I'm roading, I have to remember to lock my brake pedals together. Stomping on one of those will flip the tractor above creep speed.

 

[JimR]

I posted several years ago about my first experience roading my tractor. It was unnerving. I didn't account for how underpowered the machine was, trying to climb hills at a speed that motorists behind me might find a little more tolerable.

Yesterday I roaded it to a job my son-in-law was doing, 2.1 miles away. The goals included helping dig a trench, moving a big concrete well cover, and pulling a concrete ring out of the ground. Trying to be ready for anything, in addition to FEL bucket I brought my FEL forks and my 3pt counterweight, and chains and sledges and digging bars etc etc. With the rears filled, all this weighs a good 5,000 lbs, and the motor is only 25 horsepower. By way of comparison, my not-very-racy station wagon weighs 3,500 lbs and has a 182 hp motor, so the tractor should have a small fraction of the pep the station wagon has. We are talking seriously weak performance on the road. For ground engagement it's a fine little tractor, but it's amazing how going, say, 35 mph in a car really sucks up the power.

In top gear (12th) this tractor can do about 14 mph, but with only a slight uphill grade it grinds to a stall. I've driven this route countless times, but there were some uphill grades small enough I'd never noticed them, and the tractor couldn't climb them. I kept having to stop, choose a gear from 9 to 12 that I thought would work, and go up the hill. 9th gear worked on the worst climbs.

But it worked. I don't see doing it often, or far. People drive too fast on these narrow curving hilly country roads. However in the intervening years I had looked up the worst grades, and measured the grade on my driveway so I could compare, and I had some idea how tall a gear would work in each of the worst spots. I do have lights, including flashers, a well placed SMV placard, and insurance. I tried hard to drive safely, accounting for all the issues I could think of.

I completely get why bigger farm tractors that sometimes pull trailers on the road have to be so powerful.

The solution is to get a trailer to haul your tractor around. My 45hp Kioti hydro weighs in around 5000 and slows down on pulling grades also. At least you have 12 speeds to play with.. I only have 3.

 

[dodge man]

Several years ago not to far from my house a farmer sawed off a power pole near our house. It turned out it was my brother in law. It was near the road, a sort of blind downhill corner and a car came along and he moved over.