Safety Police Had Their Back's Turned

[KnuckleDragger]

Slap me if this link has already been posted...I searched but didn't find it.

While searching for videos of Disc Plows, I came across this gem. The video is long and boring, but at about 1:35 in, you'll see the "don't try this at home" moment. I'll spare you the agony of watching it all. After guy at the end of the field hops back on, there is nothing but endless boring plowing.

YouTube - trash eliminated disc plough

 

[Travelover]

Well, then............. what is the cruise control supposed to be used for? :laughing:

 

[radioman]

umm .. wow. I understand it basically drives itself once plowing is started, but to jump off and let it keep going to next driver???

 

[Glen Watkins]

That plow does a nice job though! We jump off with a big Vermeer Road Saw but just to check the cutting depth is getting through the road base. People driving by sure do a double take sometimes! :laughing:

 

[kday64]

Good thing he took the seat belt off. Else the other guy would have had to sit on his lap.

 

[SixHoeBob]

Two guys could operate many tractors at once. One guy starts each tractor plowing in sequence, and the guy at the other headland turns them around and sends them back. Might not work in limestone ground though.

 

[wcilbob]

I had an uncle who used to do this back in the 1940-50 era. He would plow his fields with two tractors at the same time with him as the only operator. He had to have them far enough apart that he could turn the first one around at the ends of the fields and get it started back through the field before the second one came to the end to be turned. Probably made for a lot of fancy footwork and I'm sure OSHA would not have approved. He was quite an innovator in many ways.

 

[JoeinTX]

Harry Ferguson worked on some "driverless" systems back in the 50s trying to achieve similar results. The idea was to have 1 person able to operate more than one tractor at a time and double the results possible.

I've heard about a small-time attempt at doing something similar in the Great Plains in the 1940s as part of the war time effort to keep tractors going in the fields in spite of the lack of able-bodies. It involved a spring-loaded leading arm tipped with a tire that was mounted to the front axle (or on the steering housing of row crop tractors) that was intended to run down the furrow in front of the tractor and supply steering corrections back to the front tires as well as a kill function. However, I understand that the spring trip mechanism they worked with was never completely reliable as some tractors were found sitting dead in perfect furrows having had the kill switch activated after having been set too sensitive while others had to be tracked down after having wandered out across open ground unattended their mechanisms not set sensitive enough. They could never come up with an ideal pressure setting to make the arm/switch work properly in most conditions.

 

[davygp38]

umm .. wow. I understand it basically drives itself once plowing is started, but to jump off and let it keep going to next driver???

I got news for you, not too many years ago, this was how we re-crewed a big old freight train.

 

[Markcuda]

Just can't change stupidness.:thumbsup: