Teaching Wife to Operate Tractor

[budlite]

She's always been a tomboy, driving the tractor was her idea since she will be retiring soon. She won't be attaching equipment, just mowing. Mostly flat except for banks around the two ponds and one creek that's usually down to a trickle in the summer. Attaching a pic of the panhead as requested.

 

[Chilly807]

Best way to judge is to get her to drive slowly over some ground that gives you that "uneasy feeling", but is still safe to operate on. I'm no old pro by any standards, but I get a pretty good idea when I'm tilted far enough. I suspect I'm a long way from rolling it, but I like the safety margin.

If she shows the same apprehension you have, she'll be fine as long as she understands the consequences of a rollover or a PTO accident. Most women are more practical than men, in general. Once she gets a feel for where she can and can't go, she'll be right at home.

My wife is a decent operator, just not enough practice on the loader. Yet. The more exposure she has, the safer she'll be on her own.

Chilly

 

[Ezlivn]

Nice pan....I got a shovel.

 

[jayste]

Nice pan....I got a shovel.

?? I've got a knot....at least that's what my dad used to call me!

 

[Ezlivn]

Sorry....was mentioning Budlite's panhead. I have a shovelhead. (Harleys) didn't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[jayste]

Sorry....was mentioning Budlite's panhead. I have a shovelhead. (Harleys) didn't mean to hijack the thread.

Ezlivn, I don't know if you're responding to me but I was just messin' with you guys.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Just to add more perspective to this discussion. My wife started out brush hogging on an old Oliver prior to me meeting her. When we bought our first tractor (New Holland 1715) she asked me to drive it off the trailer, then promptly kicked me off of it. She took right to it, and was using it for landscaping work pretty quickly. Now for the fun part. Last summer, she comes to me and says: "Does it really make sense to have two tractors" (JD 425 for mowing and NH 1715 for loader work) I said what do you have in mind. She proceeded to tell me she stopped at the JD store earlier and was eying a 3120 with loader and MMM. A week later, it was in the barn! Just saying, it's nice when our loved ones share common interests!!

Jon

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Just to add more perspective to this discussion. My wife started out brush hogging on an old Oliver prior to me meeting her. When we bought our first tractor (New Holland 1715) she asked me to drive it off the trailer, then promptly kicked me off of it. She took right to it, and was using it for landscaping work pretty quickly. Now for the fun part. Last summer, she comes to me and says: "Does it really make sense to have two tractors" (JD 425 for mowing and NH 1715 for loader work) I said what do you have in mind. She proceeded to tell me she stopped at the JD store earlier and was eying a 3120 with loader and MMM. A week later, it was in the barn! Just saying, it's nice when our loved ones share common interests!!

Jon

Does she have any single sisters?

 

[TheRegMan]

I showed my wife how to use the tractor. From that point on, All I got to do was attach implements!

 

[pitt_md]

Picture Eva Gabor and you know who/what I am married to. She used to be a rich city kid that spent summers at their cabin on a lake. She does a lot of things at our hobby farm like help build fence, feed the horses, but stays clear of any tractor related activities.

 

[AlanB]

Farm Girl for me, literally driving tractors before she was old enough to touch the pedals etc. etc. Ran over her brother who was putting it in gear for her when she was 6 or so (ouch, dang near killed him)

That said, still lots I show the wife, mostly explaining the benefit or operation of a particular piece, or sometimes a better way of doing things.

When she has to learn something from scratch though, I usually get someone I trust to get her up to basic operating speed for me. I teach motorcycle riding at times, but when the wife wanted to learn, I put her out with a buddy of mine to go through and get comfortable, just saves some arguments. Now that she rides, I give pointers along the way and that works fairly well.

Good luck, it should work out just fine.

 

[rpeter]

Operating the tractor is just like any of the other jobs we do together. I do the heavy work and she does the finesse work. We have 10-12 acres of tree seedlings that she mows so that I do not cut them down. While I hall the big logs she could not handle.

I have been her "mule" for over 36 wonderful years