What age did you start driving tractors?

[YesDeere]

Great stories!! I learned to cut grass on an old 110 jd at about 7. But I had been riding 3 wheelers long before that. Had a little 90 Honda that dad started me on at 4.

And since I had bad allergies I couldn't help load hay on my grandparents place. So I was the driver at about 8. A 9n with a hay wagon behind it. They'd put it in low and jump off. "just steer boy". That went so well that the next year it was a NH bailer and a wagon behind it. Wow what fun and great memories. My daughter is 3 months old and I'm sure mama isn't gonna like how I want to teach her. We will see. I want her to know all she can without fear.

 

[Combustix]

I didn't get my first tractor till 40. Grew up behind a walk behind mower that was self propelled but my dad disabled it, (guess that was a character builder) had an acre of slope to mow. We would also take his Pontiac executive into the woods to load the trunk with firewood, so I could split it back home. tractor I couldn't even talk him into a pickup for the firewood. Got my two boys learning the ropes now started each at 7. Did I tell you about the snow I had to walk through on the way to school:laughing:

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I was about 8 when I first started to learn to drive the tractors on our farm. By 12 I was driving everything on the place. The smallest tractor, our 1939 Allis Chalmers WC, was also the hardest to drive because of the long, heavy clutch, the lack of power steering, and the individual hand brakes by the fenders so I actually drove some of the bigger tractors first.

Yeah, we had a WC too. You were old enough to drive it when you could start it and put it in gear.

The other tractor was a John Deere model B crawler. It was easier to drive, with the hand clutch and the steering clutches. It had a spring loaded suicide seat that hung off the rear. If you drove over something, when the front tipped down the seat would launch you into the air right in front of the tracks. We almost lost my dad that way, but he hit the exhaust stack and bounced off to the side.

Our combine was an AC All Crop with its own motor, which threw sparks and kept setting the field on fire. We kept a milk can full of wet sacks on the combine, and one of my earliest jobs was to ride around on the combine and put fires out.

Another job was sewing sacks tight enough that the grain wouldn't run out. I still have the sack needle, but I haven't seen a skein of sack twine in over 50 years. After the harvest we would load the grain into a Model A truck and haul it to the warehouse. I loved that model A. It was the only vehicle we owned where the windshield cranked out to give you better ventilation.

 

[jpm1]

My dad had me on the tractor with him when i was 3 months old. Guess it really irritated my mom at the time. I was plowing using our farmall H when i was 5, running dozer and backhoe also. I was big for my age and caught on quickly. Been on a tractor or some piece of equipment ever since, lost track of the hours. If it has wheels or tracks, it's a friend of mine .. . John

 

[ronjhall]

Started driving tractors when I was 10. A Farmall A. Next year I was allowed to run the farms Farmall H. It was a bit much for me to reach all the controls. By the time I was 12 everything seemed to fit and was out plowing the fields. I look at our 10 year old grandson try to reach the controls on my Kubota B2910 and wonder how I was able to run that A.

 

[johnrex62]

Don't guess I am gonna be able to catch up. I started at 48. Years, not months

 

[sea2summit]

First one when I was 11 but I'm doing better with my children. 7 YO steers and operates the FEL, 4 YO can operate the FEL...not at the same time.

 

[llhjunk]

I started on an Allis Chalmers 45d at age 6. My dad put her in first gear and get the tractor and baler going. Then he jumped off and went back to stack bales on the wagon. All I had to do was steer and keep the windrows going into the baker pickup head. Looking back I'm sure it was murder on him having to go so slow, but as a kid it was a big deal. Then there was the time while on my own taking an empty wagon back to park and unhook from the tractor when I discovered a higher gear and came rip snorting into the yard skidding around the corner. Scared them & me! Loved that hand clutch!!!

 

[Pete Judd]

I can't remember exactly when. The MM had a hand clutch so did not need to reach the a foot clutch. Level ground did not need the brakes, hauling the hay wagon.

A couple of years later I could reach the clutch and brakes on the JD. Then I could pull the rake at a much higher speed that I ever before ran the MM. Boy, that was fun.

 

[Creamer]

I was 5 - JD 4010 (it had power steering) with a 14' MM tandem disk. The next year I was able to drive the Super M TA but without power steering I could not drive it at 5.

One better was my cousin who got stopped by the highway patrol when he was 5. He was driving his Dad's Chevy pickup on the highway following his Dad to town. His Dad was taking their M into town for repair and needed a way home. In second gear it idled along at just about the right speed. The patrolman was amazed that when he turned his lights on the kid behind the wheel stopped the truck almost immediately.