Young Operators - How young is too young?

virgil · Apr 11, 2005

A lot of us "more mature " folks have lotte of experance with machines and WORK. We were raised differantly. We had right and need to work.

Young folks nows are of a differant mold..Its not ALL their falt. Gee whiz, they have been protected right out of a job and experance. LEGALLY, I can not hire a boy or girl to weed eat around the yard.

How the heck is a kid supposed to get any work ethics or experance when its all against the law????

Try hiring a 12 year old boy now days to climb around, on, and in a grain elevator to sand-blast, paint, and rebuild.. See how fast someone with "the best intrest of the child" comes around and fines you.

no wonder many of the youngsters dont know how to work.

Bird · Apr 11, 2005

Yep, Virgil, I've got a 15 year old grandson who has been everywhere he can think of, looking for a job for the summer, and almost no one will hire a kid under 16, and most want them to 18 or older.

fgross335_2210 · Apr 11, 2005

I start running my dad's JD 110GT when I was seven under his supervision, by age eight I was running it all by myself. At age 10 I started running our JD2520 farm tractor doing plowing, disking, etc.

I am now in my 40's and started my son on my 335GT doing mowing and snowblowing at age 9. He's now 11 and can safely do the yard/driveway by himself.

He's tried the 2210 but cannot reach the pedals AND keep enough weight on the seat - safety interlock cuts the motor. But I have told him, keep growing and as soon as his legs are long enough, he can run the 2210 as well.

On the other hand, he has several friends that I wouldn't trust with a weed-wacker, must less a GT or CUT! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

johan3400 · Apr 12, 2005

I started young, at age 6 I was steering the tractor picking up bales, age 8 discing and baling. So I am starting my granddaughter out young.

Varmintmist · Apr 15, 2005

I was running a lawn tractor at 7. As soon as my father saw that I could do it, the job was mine. To this day I hate cutting grass /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I started on a Case uni-loader at 8, and have been changing the world (literally) since.

I have had my kids up on the tractor, the 8 year old driving it. She is not quite long enough to hit the pedals yet, but she is getting it. She has a tough time keeping it going in any one direction though /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif She gets the drifts when she looks around.

The 6 year old boy, well if I trusted him not to take the tractor into his room to see if it would go through the side of the house, he would be running it. He likes machines and motors so I figure at around 8 for the tractor.