. . . In My International Harvester

[nehimama]

I'm sure some of you have heard this song, which tells about driving a tractor/combine with payload down a state-paved road, holding up traffic, impatient drivers flipping you the bird, etc. I can certainly relate to this song.



Yep, that was me on the IH 706 Farmall, hauling a payload of hay, holding up traffic, getting "the bird".

DH and I used to farm some leased acreage not far from our farm in Michigan. Unfortunately, we lived on a county-paved road that was getting busier and busier each year. We always tried to get to the other fields for mowing, baling, combining, etc during low-traffic hours. The fields were less than a mile down the road, but we always seemed to wind up leading a parade of extremely impatient drivers. And, yes, we were equipped with the SLOW MOVING VEHICLE triangles.

It was hard to believe the absolute rudeness some times! One young driver tried to zip around DH in a no passing zone and got a foot-long gash in the passenger-side door from grazing the axle on the Massey-Ferguson. It WAS a nice-looking sports car, too. Fortunately, no one was hurt. And unfortunately for the young driver, HE got the ticket.

It used to shave 10 years off my life whenever I had to take the tractor and some pull-behind down the road to one of the other fields. Senses always on full alert for the unexpected things passenger vehicle drivers would pull. Try making a left-hand turn with vehicles trying to PASS you on the left ! ! !

DH had it somewhat easier. HE drove the Massey-Ferguson 8700 with the cab. I was out there on the IH, no cab, exposed to the elements and thrown beer cans!

Those experiences have made me SO much more aware of local tractor traffic here in my small Missouri town. I am unfailingly polite and cautious whenever encountering such machinery.

Have you had similar experiences?

NeHi

[Maura]

No, haven't. But, this afternoon my neighbor delivered my hay using a very similar looking Farmall. Slow but steady.

[Jim&Chele]

Awesome song !! We love it!

[uncle Will in In.]

My neighbor had a good stratagy. If he couldn't see what was behind him, he got right in the middle of the road and stayed there until he met oncoming traffic. Then he picked a spot wide enough to let them pass then pulled over and stopped. Everyone behind him laid a patch to get by him before he took off again. As soon as he did, he got right back in the middle. It's also safer to make a blind left turn if the traffic behind you can't get past you on the left.

I have a 560 gas IH with a loader on it. I'm retired, and seldom use the drawbar anymore, but that loader would sure be missed if I didn't have it. UNK

[nehimama]

Good strategy, Uncle Will. Wish I had known about that way back then. DH passed away not long after we moved to MO, and there is no reason now for me EVER to take the tractor on the paved road. Well . . . once in a great while, if I'm hauling compost over to a neighbor's garden or something. I will remember this strategy, even though the cars per hour on my road is about 3.

NeHi

[DaleK]

When we're in the fields we see stupidity several times a day on the roads. The farthest we have to travel is about 6 miles each way but about 15 years ago treehuggers convinced our local council not to spray or cut brush along the roadways anymore and about the same time they stopped maintaining the shoulders so there's nowhere to go anymore. When I'm disking with duals I'm at about 18' wide with the disk folded, corn planter and no-till drill are both 16'4. Doesn't seem to matter how wide or narrow I am, I get passed on blind corners, cresting steep hills, anywhere. Spreading manure last year with duals on a little Honda tried to force me off the road... yeah ok fella, I'm weighing in at about 16 tons and my front tire is bigger than your car, not gonna work. Don't know how he escaped.
Pretty much have to do the same as uncle will's neighbour here, take up as much road as you can, if you give them an inch they'll try to go through it. Combining wheat this summer we had to come down about 500' of road with the combine down a steep hill and the custom operator decided to let me block the road for him instead of taking off the 25' header. SO I'm sitting crossways in the road with my 4 ways on in a half ton, got two cars stopped waiting, he's just starting down the hill with all his lights on, visible for a mile off taking up both lanes and what little shoulder there was, and some plumber in a van decides he's going around me on the shoulder, gives me the finger, heads off up the hill, goes around the combine IN THE DITCH and still had to get lucky to fit under the end of the header.
Really frustrating thing for me is farmers who travel on the shoulder to let traffic by... then every time they come to a mailbox or signpost they're weaving out onto the pavement, blind half the time, hoping for the best. Just stay on the road and let them wait.

[Freeholder]

I end up behind farm equipment sometimes. I just slow down and hang back -- I can wait long enough for them to get to where they are going! (It's never very far on our road.)

Kathleen, who rather enjoys having farm equipment on the road -- at least someone is still farming!

[fordson major]

i drive a New Holland 9482 like the one in my avatar as well as a stieger 9230 and a versitile 756 many miles on all types of roads, even with these behemoths i get cut off and treated as though they were made of air! as yet have not run over any cars but they keep trying!

[hotzcatz]

What I always wonder is if you would run over a small car, would you even notice? One of my neighbors who used to drive for the cane company, he backed a cane tractor over his own pickup and didn't even notice it. Guess his buddies never let him live that one down.

[daytrader]

It is a nice fun song.

See I live out in the country only 30 miles from downtown St Louis.

We Have plenty of city type folks that live out here now. The tractors do not seem to be much of a problem.

I know for a fact I scare some of the kids and hired help driving them.

When I drive my pick up down the road and they are in their 8 wheel tractor. I many times do not slow down when comming at them. Heck. I know I can run on the grass a bit. I SURE know they can. So I just go on my marry way. I give them ALL THE ROOM I can.

Just many of these folks for get. THEY can drive on the gravel or even the grass. Their machine is made for it.

Over all. I give them their space. If I end up behind one. I SIT WAY BACK. Going nice and slow. Way back so I CAN SEE and they can see me. When it is safe to do so. I pass, many times they see this and get over. Some times they get over just to get me to pass. Now, when I pass its peddle to the metal. I am not going to play around and hang out taking my time. The operator dosn't want me behind them. They sure do not want me beside them.

The folks that get really mad. I just sit back and let them stack up. Its not that long of a road. Some times I will not pass. Just because folks are so outraged at the machine. I hang back. Turn on my hazards and just follow.

I am sure many ont this site have been the tractor driver. When you have an implement on. You sure do not want folks following very close. Every little bump is going to send clay falling off the implement. A car 10 feet off your planter is not a nice thing.

I have found being a truck driver. Its so much more plesant to just stay back. Way back.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by DaleK

Really frustrating thing for me is farmers who travel on the shoulder to let traffic by... then every time they come to a mailbox or signpost they're weaving out onto the pavement, blind half the time, hoping for the best. Just stay on the road and let them wait.

They DO NOT WAIT. If i stay in the lane (I got 4 miles of state highway to travel to one elevator) there will be dead people. Not my fault, but they will be dead. I wouldn't care if it was the jerk that had to drive around the yellow line or through the shoulder or what - but I'd feel bad for the other innocent driver if they were hurt.

So, drive on the shoulder it is. It is wide enough, I don't have to weave out of the shoulder but for one foolish mailbox in the wrong place, & a too narrow bridge.

There really is no choice - semis, cars, vans - they all will get around you - they do not wait.

I love the song, Craig Morgan. The video is poor, but the song is great.

--->Paul

[daytrader]

Originally Posted by rambler

They DO NOT WAIT. If i stay in the lane (I got 4 miles of state highway to travel to one elevator) there will be dead people. Not my fault, but they will be dead. I wouldn't care if it was the jerk that had to drive around the yellow line or through the shoulder or what - but I'd feel bad for the other innocent driver if they were hurt.

--->Paul

Humm 12 foot wide 8 wheel tractor with a 12 foot wide implement. On a 10 foot road. You think they can ru on the sholde forever?

Really, just sit back relax. Pass when it is safe for you to do so. The driver know there are cars behind him or her. They WILL in most cases get over WHEN IT IS SAFE for you to pass.

What is the rush? Really why?. JUst to get infront of it. I drive semi trucks. I can run 5 miles under the limit and have folks pass me flash their lights and slow down infront of me.

Us Americans hate to follow.

You want to save your heart. Just sit back and relax and deal with the probems. Not stress over them.

I also KNOW FOR A FACT. I can run in my semi 20 mph over the limit and a car will pass me. Just to get infront. I now run the speed limit with the cruise on. I pass sometimes the exact car 10 times. They just run on the peddle.

There comes a time you just do what you have to do. Sit back and relax. The farmers in their tractors. They really have no controll. They sure can not run the speed limit, yet they have to move place to place. So just relax and deal with it.

It is that simple.

[tomstractormag]

I used to crop and custom farm. Moved all types of equipment up and down the roads. Scary at times and this was years ago. I have been driving truck (all my life since I got my license) as my main living for some years now. Its unbelievable how bad traffic has gotten. Now days just as many bad truck drivers.
At least I know I am #1 in some peoples eyes. Everybody is in a hurry to go nowhere.
Tom

[susieM]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

What I always wonder is if you would run over a small car, would you even notice? One of my neighbors who used to drive for the cane company, he backed a cane tractor over his own pickup and didn't even notice it. Guess his buddies never let him live that one down.

I remember those GIANT turnatoos from when I was a kid growing up in Waialua. Heck, you might not even notice running over a rubbishtruck, with one of those monsters! I also remember the delicious smell of the burnt cane at the mill.

[Scrounger]

Originally Posted by DaleK

.... 15 years ago treehuggers convinced our local council not to spray or cut brush along the roadways anymore and about the same time they stopped maintaining the shoulders so there's nowhere to go anymore......

Around here if that happened, the county/state wouldn't have to worry about clearing the roadside. Local farmers would do it for them, tree huggers or not.

[susieM]

Hawaiian Tshirt company, dedicated to cane-haul trucks.
http://starbulletin.com/2001/10/21/features/story1.html

[fordson major]

Originally Posted by DaleK

Spreading manure last year with duals on a little Honda tried to force me off the road... yeah ok fella, I'm weighing in at about 16 tons and my front tire is bigger than your car, not gonna work.

my suicidal honda driver gets around does he? must like the smell of farm gold!! of every ten cars that narrowly miss one of the tractors, eight will be hondas! unfortunately one of my coworkers got too see what a motorcycle and rider looks like when they hit you head on. paul, stay on the traveled portion of the road! roadsides can give way, fellow killed here few years back and one of our guys lost the 756 and full train into a ditch when the bank gave way. busted the guy up some and bent the 1 inch plate rails on the tractor. having my self survived a tractor roll over 30 years ago, i can tell ya it is some scary! (white 260 with a loader and set narrow, hit a rock in the muddy field and over it went! )

dale, at those widths do you use a spotter? MTO stopped me and at at a little over 11 feet they were getting riled at me not having a chase vehicle! even covered in dripping liquids (chicken) they got in there close and personal like!

[nehimama]

Originally Posted by tomstractormag

I used to crop and custom farm. Moved all types of equipment up and down the roads. Scary at times and this was years ago. I have been driving truck (all my life since I got my license) as my main living for some years now. Its unbelievable how bad traffic has gotten. Now days just as many bad truck drivers.
At least I know I am #1 in some peoples eyes. Everybody is in a hurry to go nowhere.
Tom

I always figure they must be late for a dental appointment.

NeHi

[ceresone]

The slow moving traffic I often think of was around Seymour, Mo. Amish country. I was driving on a narrow black-top highway near there, on a very hilly road, came up behind a young father, teaching his 2 young boys, about 3 and 4, to drive the buggy. The littlest one was driving at the time. The father started looking for a place to get over, but there just wasnt, no road shoulders. I waved to him, never mind, and smiled to let him know it was O.K.
So, for about 2 miles, I drove at a horse trot! So enjoyable, to watch the little boy proudly handle the horse. And the beaming smile on Daddy's face when he could pull over made it all worthwhile. Just a small sharing moment in a little boy's life!

[DaleK]

FM it depends on the road. We have one road we travel on where even the 12' discbine is touching the brush on both sides of a (supposedly) two-lane road. We always used to use a truck out ahead to stop traffic but found people ignored it anyway so now mostly I just drive.

Two years ago a friend in the southwest (Ontario) was hauling corn down the highway when the OPP pulled him over and told him to drive on the shoulder or he'd ticket him. On the way back out he was driving on the shoulder when the local Staff Sergeant, an old farm boy, told him to drive on the travelled portion of the road or he'd be in violation of the traffic act, raising dust, etc.. Apparently the first officer had some explaining to do when he got back to the office.