You "Road" Your Tractor?

[oldnslo]

I thought asphalt was horrible to tractor tires? I've taken my compact tractor to a friends about a half mile each way a couple times, and didn't know if that would wear my R4s substantially more. I guess it really isn't an issue on occasion?

Yes asphalt is hard on tractor tires but It takes more than a couple of miles to show any wear or tractor tires.

Hard to calculate but would guess we put 70 - 80 highway miles on each year and it shows a little on the lugs but nothing like lugs half gone or major must replace tires every year type wear. Last tractor had around 3,000 hrs when we bought it and had over 9,000 when we sold it. Was on 2nd set of tires when sold.

 

[5030]

Some do and some don't.

I have to admit that roading my tractors to a place up to 40 miles away is probably easier, less time consuming, and safer than driving a big tractor and shredder up on a deckover gooseneck trailer and trailering it to the place.

By the time I hook up the trailer, chain it all down, drive to the destination, take the chains off, and back it off the trailer, and get going, I find it easier to just drive it down the road.

Tractors today can run faster than you want to run one. I know both mine will run about 30mph, but I seldom exceed 22 mph or so.

So I can be at a destination 40 miles away in less than 2 hours drive time. Might get there a tad quicker with trailering it, but trailering is much more work. Besides, a casual drive down a farm road is good for the soul.. Turn the A/C and stereo on and enjoy the ride.

How do you get your tractor from one place to the next?

Same as you but... I like to 'rubberneck while tractoring along. Great way to be nosey and see what is happening in the neighborhood. I own a tri axle Kauffman GN but I rarely use it. In fact, I'm selling it.

 

[paulsharvey]

I have roaded mine around the neighborhood to friends house a couple times. It's slow, but as long as it's just a few miles no biggie. Have road ran a JD 310 back hoe probably 12 miles down Us411, but had a follow truck. Contractors road run motor graders upto 40 miles routinely.

Funny story; past the statue of limitations; me (an assistant superintendent at the time), an other assistant superintendent, and a project manager where working on friends barn to house conversion on a Saturday, kicking carpet. He took us to get lunch, and on drive mentioned needing to dig a septic tank, and needing to rent a back hoe. On way back, we passed a county JD 544H front end loader on side of the road. Project manager and me ran back up, (I had keys for about everything), and took it. PM told me, if we get stopped by cops, leave it in gear and bail, they will have to stop the loader before they chase us. Anyways, ran it 15 miles to friends house and hogged out a hole for his septic, and returned the loader unharmed. Anyways, anything over 18 mph on heavy equipment, without any type of suspension, gets sketchy. If we got busted that afternoon, it would have been close to 1/3rd of the company....

 

[CliffordK]

Yes asphalt is hard on tractor tires but It takes more than a couple of miles to show any wear or tractor tires.

I need to try that a bit more. My biggest problem is the tires dry rotting long before they wear down.

If one has a 4x4, make sure the front axle (and differential) is unlocked before substantial driving on dry pavement.

 

[CADplans]

When I bought my 584IH,, the guys wife said;
"How you going to get it home!??"
I told her,, Right down your driveway!!
I'm gonna drive it.

I thought she was gonna have a conniption!! LOL!!

You can Google it,, Stewartsville VA to Fincastle VA,, ~24 miles,

It took under 1.5 hours,, I doubt a truck could move it much faster than 1.5 hours,
considering load, and unload.

SEVERAL people from work saw me,, the next day, the factory was a BUZZ,, discussing my road trip!!

(I had done that MANY times when younger, and working on a farm,,,)

 

[TractorTYMe]

I haul mine when going on mowing jobs, so it's second nature for me. I can load it and secure it in less than 15 minutes now.

 

[milkman636]

This thread brings up some memories from my youth. We had an old neighbor down the road that was a WWII combat vet. He had his share of driving problems with a truck, and ultimately lost the right to drive one. He could still drive a tractor though, and I'd routinely see his small one parked at bars and stores up to about 10 miles away. He managed to get everywhere he wanted to go and kept doing it that way for about 2 decades.

The PTSD and alcohol made him a bit of a legendary character to those of us that grew up nearby. I'll always remember the warnings about where "they like to hide and shoot from". He still lived on his family farm with no indoor plumbing when he passed away around Y2K.

 

[Hay Dude]

I’ve had a few times where the dealer (35 miles away) has had to fix my tractor and when they are done, I will have one of my kids drive me up and drop me off when its done.
I drive the tractor home.
Did it a few times at night, too.
No big deal with a cab. 4 ways and beacons on.

 

[JasperFrank]

My zone is in the transition from Ag to high end housing. I will wait for a tractor to get to its next field. Other people do not.

 

[J&K]

We have some hay fields about 3 miles away so I do road some. Most of the way is dirt and now having a cab tractor for most of my hay sure makes reading better also.

 

[oosik]

When I had the Ford 1700 - once a year to my friends place. Clean up his feed pens and big 'ol barn. Not any more - the Kubota M6040 won't fit where the Ford use to. All of his tractors are just too big also.

It worked out well for both of us. His barn and feed lot got cleaned up - I filled my pickup and farm wagon with garden fertilizer. The wife always said - she got the crappy end of this deal. She drove the pickup and pulled the farm wagon - I drove the tractor.

This was an eight mile - round trip - to the neighbors place.

 

[LHF2019]

I've roaded over 2 hours back when I did custom work. Not a big deal. Bought a tractor at an auction that I drove 6 hours to get it home. What better way to make sure it was a good purchase. When I worked out west we roaded tractors and combines 8 hours or so. Sometimes it is just easier than making multiple trips and having to load/unload chain everything up

 

[rockinbbar]

When I take my tractors on the road, I don't want an "escort vehicle" per se.

Some guys I know have someone drive behind them with the emergency flashers on. In my opinion, if someone coming up behind you doesn't see a large tractor in front of them on the road, they probably won't see a regular vehicle with flashers on either...

I've added emergency lights to the back of both tractors, and turn them on when on the road.

They are pretty bright, and tend to catch someone's eye.

I actually have more trouble from the drivers who won't pass me. They just get behind you and stay there, bogging traffic. If they'd just go around, everything would run much smoother.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

My tractor is tiny compared to some of your big Ag tractors, but I don't "road" it anywhere. Any of my off site jobs have been far enough away (anywhere from 10 to 50 miles) that even if I wanted to do so, at 15 mph top speed, I'd have wasted the day just getting there. So I chain it down and haul it, every time. Maybe once in a while a close neighbor needs a hand with something, but most any time I'm off my own place, it's trailered there and back again.

Would be burning way too much daylight to road it there.

 

[Jstpssng]

In my opinion, if someone coming up behind you doesn't see a large tractor in front of them on the road, they probably won't see a regular vehicle with flashers on either..

In my opinion it just creates two slow moving vehicles to try to get around rather than one.

 

[SmallChange]

In my opinion it just creates two slow moving vehicles to try to get around rather than one.

No personal experience with this, just wanted to say that I have seen exactly this opinion expressed here before. Seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

 

[EddieWalker]

About 15 years ago, when I was still flipping houses, I drove my open station backhoe to a house about 20 miles away. It was a nice day out. Not too hot, and I figured it would be an enjoyable drive. I didn't know about all the sand and dust that cars kick up as they drove by at much higher speeds!!!! That 20 miles turned into the most horrible, torture test beyond anything I could ever guess. It was non stop sand blasting on all my exposed skin, and face. Several times I thought about pulling over and calling somebody to tow it!!!!!

When I drove it back, I waited until Sunday morning when traffic was light, I wore long sleeves, gloves, goggles and a bandana. I felt like I had just robbed a bank, but it made a huge difference when the cars drove past me.

I've never done that again.

I have a cabbed tractor now, but I don't want to drive it on the roads. My neighbor drives his to the gas station when he needs to without any issues, but I'm just going to take my truck and fill up a five gallon can instead.

Eventually I have to buy a bigger truck and trailer to get to my other farm that's 62 miles away. I've towed a smaller tractor there and back with my F150 without incident, but I feel like I need more power and a better trailer to do this regularly. I avoided the Interstate and most of it was 45 mph to 65 mph. Until I buy those things, I'm considering hiring somebody to move my tractors there, but I'm hesitant to become dependent on paying somebody to do things for me.

 

[LouNY]

In my opinion it just creates two slow moving vehicles to try to get around rather than one.

No personal experience with this, just wanted to say that I have seen exactly this opinion expressed here before. Seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

I would agree with this in most cases. When we do feel it would be better to have an escort vehicle we leave a good gap to allow a vehicle to pass each of us separately. At times the trailing and or leading escort vehicle will also operate as traffic control preventing passing on hills and blind corners. If an implement is to wide to allow oncoming traffic to meet the lead vehicle will stop traffic at a spot were it is possible to meet and get by. In the same vein the trailing escort may drop way back when a corner or blind hill top restrict visibility of the slow moving vehicle to prevent vehicles from running up onto equipment to fast. To many people will drive way too fast on many of our back roads to accommodate slow vehicles or animals.

 

[azbinder]

In the late 70's, I was working on a farm in southwest Arizona. Owner came up to me one day and said let's go for a ride. Went to the IH dealer and looked at a used International 622 cotton picker. He bought it and guess what I did? Checked it over and then drove it home about 110 miles on Interstate 8. Did have leave it parked overnight about 3/4 the way home. We also would "road" our pickers about 20 miles to the owner's son's farm. We would do this 2 times during picking season. And NO cabs on them.

 

[hosspuller]

Trailer except when crossing the road to a neighbor's. Suburban traffic is dangerous with people that don't understand farm equipment and want to run 10 to 20 MPH over the posted limits. Wasn't always like this, but the city moved out to us.