It’s too hot to mow.

[RugerSAfan]

Good info on not mowing above 85 degrees for us northern folks; thank you. Hopefully not too much damage mowing yesterday and today the 10 + acres in 90 + heat, mowing VERY slowly with an open cab tractor with no canopy. Kept thinking about the old-timers that worked the fields with open tractors in Arkansas, Texas, etc. and kept telling myself to "toughen up" as I was getting parched.

A deceased buddy of mine that was older than me used to work on road crews in the summer and volunteered for sub zero linemen assignments to avoid his soon to be ex-wife. He was much tougher than me.

And he commented that as he got older, his comfort range started to shrink. He couldn't tolerate the cold or heat as well.

I've found the same for me. I had a strong dose of COVID in July 2020; ever since, direct sunlight of 80 on my bald head feels like its 100. Very strange, since heat didn't use to bother me....

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

YOU may have 30 minutes of grass cutting, but some of us have acres to cut. Ain't no 30 minutes thing. (plus some medications limit your ability to sweat. No sweat = heat stroke.)

I have a JD X758 60" deck I mowed for about 220 hours last year I will probably mow that many hours or more this year. Then I have some seat time bush hogging as well.

 

[bigtiller]

Funny, I guess some are too pampered to do outdoor work without cool aid and AC. I understand some in this forum spend hours working their fields, and a cab w AC is warranted, but I have to laugh when AC becomes a necessity in order for them to get on their lawnmower, with a front loader, and cut grass for 30 minutes.

Laugh all you want my friend, I won't hear you.

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

For the folks like myself that are not cutting hay but using a rotary cutter to clean up around the farm: It is way too hot to mow. In the sun, sitting on a diesel tractor, over 50, overweight one is flirting with a heat stroke. We still do it.

I am 65 yrs old and the heat or cold has ever stopped me but then again I grew up on hay wagons and I now weigh 168 pounds at 6'1" , I drink plenty of water and the sweat and hot weather is good for a person helps you burn calories.
Bring it on.

 

[marhar]

I am 65 yrs old and the heat or cold has ever stopped me but then again I grew up on hay wagons and I now weigh 168 pounds at 6'1" , I drink plenty of water and the sweat and hot weather is good for a person helps you burn calories.
Bring it on.

I said we still do it...that is, we still work in the heat. For me, it is just getting harder as I get older.

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

I said we still do it...that is, we still work in the heat. For me, it is just getting harder as I get older.

I understand Bud...getting old is not easy is it ? I was carrying an extension ladder the other day and it felt a lot heavier than it did 20 yrs ago.

 

[G31]

Funny, I guess some are too pampered to do outdoor work without cool aid and AC. I understand some in this forum spend hours working their fields, and a cab w AC is warranted, but I have to laugh when AC becomes a necessity in order for them to get on their lawnmower, with a front loader, and cut grass for 30 minutes.

I take it you don’t have AC?

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

I take it you don’t have AC?

I always thought a cab with A/C would be great, cool in the summer and warm in the winter and dry during the rain but I have too many tree branches in the woods for a cab.

 

[check]

Heading out to mow right now. It is only 70° right now, but will be over 90 this afternoon.

Oops! That was supposed to be postrd yesterday afternoon. Anyway, I mowed the front yard for maybe an hour, and then the heat build up enough that I quit. Will start again tomorrow because it’s again cooler in the morning.

Super hot days up here will be over effective Friday. Still a fire ban in effect, meaning this week’s renters will not be allowed to have a fire in the fire pit. They won’t be happy, because the fire, pit is a big attraction!

 

[5030]

Here ya go....Make you feel better....

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I was thinking the other day as I was working in the hayfield how I used to climb poles all day with long sleeve shirts and a big portion of the time had on elbow length rubber gloves and by the time you would come down your jeans and shirt would be soaked and your leather boot tops would be soaked and white with I assume to be salt/sodium that was coming out of you, we drank plenty of water to stay hydrated and when it got like it is now we would put a little pickle juice or apple cider vinegar in some water to keep us from cramping up and we were tough, lot's of people would come try it as a grunt and couldn't cut it and would quit. I can still cut it pretty good when I need to , but I like my air conditioned equipment and I know my limitations because I am not quite as tough as I used to be.

 

[tjandrews]

I always thought a cab with A/C would be great, cool in the summer and warm in the winter and dry during the rain but I have too many tree branches in the woods for a cab.

I don't think I'd like a cab with AC. Coming out of a building with AC on a hot day hits me like a brick, and I would expect the same if I had to get out of my tractor.
We do have a tractor with a cab, but no AC. It's tolerable in the summer with the doors off, but I don't like driving it for field work, anyway. Too many blind spots where no matter how you twist around you can't see what your equipment is doing.
Don't like the bucket, for the same reason, and because on our JD 4600 it makes for a much rougher ride. Great for when I need it, but when I don't not so much.

 

[WinterDeere]

I hear more old people around here whine about the cold, than the heat. In fact, it usually seems to me they mind the heat less, as they age. That's not good either, if you're not feeling the heat and sweating with the rest of us, I suspect you're more in danger of heat stroke.

I always figured that's why so many become snowbirds, wintering in Naples Florida or Phoenix Arizona, if not moving there altogether. They hate the cold, and love the heat!

 

[marhar]

I take it you don’t have AC?

I don't even have a canopy.

 

[marhar]

Here ya go....Make you feel better....

If it were a competition you win! When the ground is frozen I think it is cold. I can only imagine needing a block heater. Down here no one knows why some diesels have an electrical plug.

 

[RidgeTopWVA]

I don't think I'd like a cab with AC. Coming out of a building with AC on a hot day hits me like a brick, and I would expect the same if I had to get out of my tractor.
We do have a tractor with a cab, but no AC. It's tolerable in the summer with the doors off, but I don't like driving it for field work, anyway. Too many blind spots where no matter how you twist around you can't see what your equipment is doing.
Don't like the bucket, for the same reason, and because on our JD 4600 it makes for a much rougher ride. Great for when I need it, but when I don't not so much.

I am on and off of my tractor too much to be climbing in and out of a cab plus it is just the terrain in the woods where I need to be able to see detail and be able to respond quickly. As you say " too many blind spots "
The cabs sure look nice on the inside.
A cab would be nice if you were running a business like HayDude .
I have had a loader 4 in 1 bucket on my JD400 for over 20 years and I have never taken it off.
My rear counter weight for the most part is a Fransgard skidding winch .

 

[bdhsfz6]

In my younger years, I used to mow with an open station tractor wearing a hat, sunglasses, T-shirt & shorts. It wasn't comfortable but doable.

As I got older and less tolerant of the heat, I installed LED floodlights fore & aft on the ROPS and mowed in the late evening.

Now, in my 70's, and even less tolerant of heat & cold, I bought my first cabbed tractor. I only wish I had done it years earlier.

 

[5030]

I have both. A climate controlled cab tractor and an open station with a Tuff Top canopy to keep the sun off my hairless head though I usually wear a baseball cap anyway. I do prefer the cab tractor when it's nasty hot outside because with the open station the engine heat blows back on me and makes it even worse.

 

[WinterDeere]

It's 90F here today, no wind and and so humid you can almost see the air. Spent the morning moving another 10k lb. of crushed stone, then moving pallets of Vlite and portland cement around the worksite in our back yard. Not fun in full sun, but others deal with worse. This afternoon will be spent in air conditioning.

 

[TractorTYMe]

I had 12h day mowing on 4th of July in my cabbed TYM. I wouldn't have made it in an open station. It was up in the 80's by noon.