. . . In My International Harvester

I'm not really sure what you are trying to say to me, DayTrader? I'm driving a tractor with (2) 200-250 bu gravity boxes behind it, about 8 feet wide. On a state highway with paved, 10 foot wide shoulders, in addition to the paved 12(or more?) 2-way traffic lanes. Generally there is another foot or 2 of gravel/dirt before the crown goes down much.

If I were to drive on the normal traffic lanes, people will pass me on either side in conditions that are unsafe to them, to others, and to me. I _wish_ they would follow your advise, but they do not.

As it is, if I stay on the road shoulder (which as I said is paved & 10 feet) I have some control of the situation, as folks blow past me in the normal lane. Mostly I need to watch for debris on the road shoulder, that could mess me up. The one mailbox is far too close to the road, so gotta squeeze there, and the bridge over the river is 2 lane, only 2 foot or so 'shoulders' so gotta stop & let everyone in the mirror blow by, then go out and hug the centerline so no fool trys to squeeze through & make it a 3-lane bridge.

Different road conditions would dictate different driving techniques, of course, & there are situations where I would drive hugging the centerline most of the time. I used to try to drive to the right to give those behind a better view of traffic coming at us - but seems too many fools thought that was an invitation to squeeze through & cut me off trying to run me into the ditch when there wasn't enough room. That didn't work, so if you are in the regular lane, must take all of it, hug the centerline....

People in cars are idiots when they get behind a tractor or combine. I can understand the frustration of being slowed down or whatever - but why try to kill themselves or others??? That is just stupid.

--->Paul

Sir, I was commenting to the general driver that finds them self behind a tractor.

Just sit back relax and give pleny of room. The driver of the tractor KNOWS he has cars behind them. HE IS RESPONSIBLE for their safe passage. In many areas.

Like I said. Just stay back. Relax.

Dang rambler maybe Minnesota can come help with our roads? Even the provincial highways here generally only have gravel shoulders 5-6 feet wide and a lot of them slope off fairly quickly. With the local roads I'm on most of the time, the BEST one is a hardtop with about 8" of gravel for a shoulder before you hit the ditch. Just drove down one of the sideroads yesterday (not the worst by any means) and part of the TRAVELLED portion of the road must have slipped off into the swamp last week sometime, about 3' wide and 5' long. One of the bright lights on the road crew got a deadfall log out of the swamp and laid it over the hole to mark it.

I hope not all at once! Im on both sides of this situation. I farm and I drive commercial vehicals .
So Ive done a bit of thinking and studying on it.
In most states the farmer needs to be able to see around his load by law , but not by custom.
In most states the farm unit has to stay out of the way by law, but seldom by custom. Almost every state requires the farm equipment stay to the right of the centerline by law but again not by custom.
So whats the right thing to do? Ive followed a Allis WD and two bottom plow for nearly 30 miles on IL route 16 a busy two lane highway. Near the end he was holding up miles (at least 3) of traffic. I think he was leagal the entire way but not smart he caused a mini movement to close 16 to farm traffic.
Most of the way he could have pulled over and used the wide well graded shoulder to let traffic pass but never once did he.
Other times Ive seen combines with the heads on travel many miles down narrow roads ,not leagal, not nice but what ya gonna do?
The only reason that farm equipment gets a exemption is this started out way back when when a guy might pull a 10 or 12 wide disc a mile or so to his other field Now we have farmers running 48' wide equipment for miles, its just not the same thing.
I met a guy a while back that DRIVES his combine over 200 miles between farms in Northern and southern Il when I met him he had a new combine with a 12 row head on it,How long till he gets a 24?
As farmers I think Its about time we started to act like professionals and get our equipment down to a realistic size for road transport. If we dont the nonfarming world will force us,you can depend on it.
I like way some states do about holding up traffic , its someting like you can hold up one car for 3 miles or 3 cars for one it seems reasonable for all.

so far not yet fantasy maker!! with the advent of gps and remote control i can see a person sitting back and controlling 3 in a field at the same time though!! :baby04: there are days that i operate all three plus some smaller tractors one at a time when you start forgetting your own name its time to sit back and get some sleep though! chauffeured ride home on the roads is a must, to tired is as bad as drunk.

__________________
àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

Have you got the auto steer on any of those? They tell me they take a boreing job and make it absolutely unbearable! All the guys I know that have driven auto steer have a story of not waking till they bounce across the feild ditch. In fact Id swear theres a compation for the best "I was asleep" story.

Seen the picture of the big JD wraped up in a metal latice power pole in a field? Thwat made the rounds of the farm forums this spring, fella fell asleep with the auto steer. I like the selling point of those - they tell us it frees up the driver for other things.....

What other things?

--->Paul

Paul there's a guy here who's putting autosteer in his new combine for the next season, he's convinced he's going to run the tractor and buggy to the truck to unload and come back and get back on the combine while it's still combining. I hope his insurance company is more forgiving than mine would be.

A family friend has circle irrigated peas. Had a guy combining them in the night. Our friend woke up in the night when something made the house shudder. The guy fell asleep, going across his big yard and hit the side of the house. Easy to see how it can happen, going round and round all night.

DJ that's why I always cultivate or disk the headlands first. The bumping has woken me up more than once.

I really feel for you guys. I was behind a guy once who was too impatient to wait for the tractor driver to get to a spot to pull over OR wait until he had a clear view of oncoming traffic (was only behind the tractor for about a minute, so inconvenient right?).

He pulled out and stomped it just as the farmer put out his arm in a left turn signal and started turning. He hit the tractor, flipped it and threw the farmer rolling into the ditch...fishtailed his car around and then just kept going, what a jerk!

I stopped and helped the farmer, who was bruised and bloody in a couple of places, but nothing broken. I put him in my car and drove him up to his house and stayed with him and his wife until the police came and helped file the report. Some people!

When I get behind equipment like this I stay way back and just follow for a while. If it becomes clear they're going miles, I watch for a wide clear spot to pass, smile as I'm driving past and then wave once I get past just to let them know there are no hard feelings. Sometimes I get a surprised look and a wave back, lol.

A short way east of here there are some Amish, and I've seen jerks in sports cars crowd them, rev the engine, lay on the horn and then peel out just to startle the horses into shying and even saw one try to rear up. What on earth is wrong with people??

I"m surrounded by farms, so getting behind machinery is a normal accurance. Most roads are flat and straight, so it's usually easy to see if someone is coming - not much traffic either. Usually the farmer will ease over when things are clear.

What gets a bit scary is when they decide to take the combine down the dirt road with the head still on. That takes up the entire road. You see them coming and find a safe place to get your car completely off the road so they can pass.

Saw one where they had miscalculated, and realized they could not use the interstate overpass with the head on. Someone (Highway dept probably) had put up marker signs, and the head would not clear them.

Some of those machines sure are big!

Cathy