12 miles on the road?

[Nik]

My brother borrowed my BX23 and drove it about 1 mile back to my place when he was done. We paid a Truck with flatbed to take it over his place for about $50. For safety sake this money was well spent I was concerned about dangers of a BX on a busier road.

It was a sunday afternoon and my brother talked me into letting him drive it back. His opinion was that traffic should be light. I folllowed him in a car with flashers blinking. One stretch of road is fairly well travelled and almost like a two line highway. This whole stretch of road was a nail biter. Cars and trucks sped around us often seeming to crash into oncoming traffic. Once one car would pass others would follow often without regard to oncoming traffic. The road is curvy and most has no shoulder. The BX is too slow for road travelling and I think you would be putting yourself at great risk driving 12 miles. I will never attempt driving my BX on the road anywhere other than a very local neighbor on a quiet road.

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My 50 hour service is approaching, I have 34 hours on my BX23. The nearest dealer is 12 miles away on paved roads, fairly hilly. To pick up and drop-off the machine is $180. Can I save the $ by simply driving it back and forth? Is this too far and too much wear and tear to save a pretty good chunk of change? I believe that top speed is 8 MPH, but I will go at 1/2 throttle say I average 4 MPH, that is 6 hours of driving. )</font>
If you can change oil in your car your best bet is to do the 50 hr service your self.

 

[Jibber]

I don't do much road travel.. just a few miles here and there getting to neighbors who need some help or pulling a trailer picking up future firewood after storms. But I have some experience with the local PD. In NY they want you to have a plate (yes.. even farm vehicles are regulated in this state) if you are going to do any road travel. The DMV has a special form and they want you to specify where you plan to use public roadsl. I think that has more to do with putting up "farm vehicle" signs.. but I didn't get the plate.

you may want to check with your state laws. I think in most states a SMV sign is all you really need.

 

[ksmmoto]

I live in Central Lower Michigan and tractors are on the road all the time. I run my L3430 up to five miles away rather than trailer as it is faster.

Thirty years ago when I worked on my Uncle's dairy farm we ran between the two locations daily. He had two farms about five miles apart.

Michigan only requires a SMV sign.

ksmmoto

 

[imported_MiserblOF]

Jibber, I'm in the process of buying a tractor for use in NY. Do you know how much they charge for the plates? If you get the plates, are you going to be hit with a property tax bill as well?

Geeze, I never even thought about that.. I'll need to hop some short distances on a quiet town road.

 

[5030]

AMR:

There is no difference between the tractor on the road and my wife and I taking the buggy and a Percheron out for a ride. With the tractor, I drive. With the buggy, she drives. She is a much better teamster than I am. No matter how I handle the lines, I weave all over the road.

Now the tractor part.
We farm fields that aren't contiguous to each other hence I drive on the road quite a bit. Those roads include paved and dirt and the paved road has a 55 speed limit. Come to think of it, the locals think that a dirt road's speed limit is whatever they want it to be, most times in the excess of 80. I'd say in any given hay season I probably drive 50 miles on the road. I always run in high gear at rated rpm in 2WD with my flashers on, SMV displayed and implement flashers on. At night, I run all my lights including the forward and rear facing high mounted cab lights.

Other than the occasional inconsiderate motorist (who don't slow down or tailgate me), I've never had a problem.

 

[Toolguy]

Where I grew up in Michigan it was farm country. Tractors were on the road all the time going to and from field to farm and most of the people that were out in the "Boondocks" were used to that. It was nothing to drive a few miles on a paved road. I never heard of any problems and all we had were SMV signs. But, times have changed. I would think at least twice or three times about driving on the road now unless I had a big machine that was easily seen. There are too many drivers on cell phones that have never seen a tractor on the road. I would just do the service myself and learn more about my tractor. Save some money and be safer at the same time. In the time it takes you to drive to the dealer and back you can do the service. It really is not that hard to do. Whatever you decide, good luck and happy tractoring.

 

[5030]

Toolguy:

I would think that if someone ran into my M9000, my partners 105S or my 1085 Massey, they would fare far worse than I would.

Cars today are basically 18 gage coffins anyway. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( they would fare far worse than I would )</font>

Probably so. The neighbor I had who was full time in the hay business got rear ended once by a drunk female driver, who ricocheted off the baler he was pulling behind his air-conditioned John Deere into a pasture. She only had minor scrapes and bruises, totalled her car, and he and the tractor suffered no serious injuries, but the baler required a fair amount of repairs. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[5030]

Bird:

If I was to get rear ended, I'd prefer that the perpetrator hit the rear of one of our tandem axle hay wagons when it had 300 bales on it. I' don't think I'd even feel it and if I did I might attribute it to a bump in the road. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif