You "Road" Your Tractor?

[Lastkidpicked]

This thread brings up some memories from my youth.

That's why I enjoy coming on here. Many of these threads bring back great memories.

Around here, I hate to even mow the shoulder along the road..........The crazy azz drivers scare the bejebbies out of me as they whiz by on my dead end road.

And speaking of great memories-- The volunteer fire department asked me to mow along both sides of the road that runs past the station. I had a Ford 8n at the time and said, "I'm always happy to help, but if a car hits this little 8N it will send me flying!"

Their solution? Have a fire truck rolling along behind me as a "blocker". No siren of course, but lights a-blazing.

Young me thought I was king of the world!

 

[Hermio]

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?

I have a Mahindra 5035 HST. I use it exclusively on our property, so mostly I go a few hundred feet on the road to get to another field if the creek is too full to cross it. But I sometimes take it on the road to a repair place about 6 miles away for service. My back gives me trouble, so I don't like changing fluids myself any more.

 

[LouNY]

Well I just got back in the house a bit ago for a late lunch,
roaded my little Kioti CK2620HSE cab tractor from my place over to the farm and back,
about 3 1/2 miles each way took a bit over a 1/2 hour each way. Ran over to install my wheel spacers to be ready for chains when it gets around to being winter here this year.
That little hydrostatic sure sucks up the hp on the grades,
with a max speed of 10 mph and getting pulled down to as low as 2.6 mph on a couple of grades.
And that was with turning of the AC on a couple of them, the windows sure fogged up fast with that off.
I was surprised I thought I might need to drop down into mid range for a couple of the little hills but she managed in Hi sure did have to back way off the hydro pedal on them. No way you could have done that with the linked pedal engaged.

Added; It actually took longer to drive over and back then it did to install both wheel spacers, 2" on the rears

 

[UncleW]

I have a little Mahindra 26hp that’s narrow enough to get down my vineyard rows. Once a year I put 2000 lb of grapes on a trailer and haul a couple of loads to the fruit broker. Only 4 miles each way and I go slow—still usually need to have three fillings and a kidney replaced by the end of the day. My neighbor has a 75hp tractor for his peaches. The longer wider machine is probably better

 

[ptsg]

I have a little Mahindra 26hp that’s narrow enough to get down my vineyard rows. Once a year I put 2000 lb of grapes on a trailer and haul a couple of loads to the fruit broker. Only 4 miles each way and I go slow—still usually need to have three fillings and a kidney replaced by the end of the day. My neighbor has a 75hp tractor for his peaches. The longer wider machine is probably better

Pretty common here too. Specially when it's grape harvest time. You'll see all kinds and sizes of tractors pulling fully loaded trailers filled with grapes.

Like this 60 HP Antonio Carraro tractor:

 

[jacric2005]

My dad and I are partners on a 28 HP compact JD for our hobby farms. We live 2 miles apart so just drive it. I always wear my seat belt. The tractor has a roll bar. We do get big gravel trucks going fast, so if you get rear ended by one of those and get tossed off the road, the roll bar and seat belt might save you. We get really fast motorcycles too, but they would lose to the attachment if they rear end me. Only drive in the daylight. Still get a little bit of the "hair factor" since the drivers have gotten crazier out here, like crossing on a double yellow.

 

[Denali94]

"Funny story; past the statue of limitations . . " - The truly funny part is that the statute of limitations only applies to the government charging you with a crime. There are no limitations if you readily admit guilt to a crime.

 

[Bentrim]

While most of you are happy to sit in the seat and ride along, allow me to tell you of some episodes from the past,
Back in the 70's and 80's I was workinf for a Massey dealer. That dealer sold combines, we had at that time no trailer.

In 72 Agnes went thru York county Pennsylvania and destroyed the railroads. So the railroad did some weird shipping. I drove a combine from Lancaster train yards to York, only about 30 mile, another tech drove a combine from Biglerville adams county to York again about 30 miles.
Even delivered those combines by driving them on the road.
The boss soon purchased a special combine trailer with sides that could be pulled out to match the width of the combine. Even with loading and chaining down it was much faster and safer than roading them.
I even hauled burned combines back to the shop so they could be repaired. They were real fun to load!

Wanna bug a cop leave off the SMV sign, they know they MUST be on a tractor or combine but overlook them used as driveway markers.

As for roading tractors it is just too dangerous with the motoring public. I once replaced a 4 wd front axle under a tractor knocked out by a car trying to pass, right by the shop a JD had the rear wheel knocked off by a car trying to pass. A road side mower was hit by a truck, the driver killed and the tractor was destroyed, an old farmer was badly hurt when his JD 2010 was hit by a car in a hurry. Oh yeah can't forget the 8800 White combine hit by a truck---just say the rear axle pivot lined up with the left front tire,

Here in Pa slow moving vehicles are not allowed on divded highways, and "implements of husbandry" do not need overwidth permits when hauling them. The boss was hauling a MM tractor and an old hard boiled cop tried to tell him it was an industrial tractor not a farm tractor.

Some of the farmers would reverse the tires on the combines stating two reasons 1. In mud you could always back out and 2. they said the tires didnot wear on the road as bad and it rode smoother.

Later I pulled some mobile homes, that was always a "what is that stupid driver trying to do"? I can't shrink this thing! Glad those days are past I think drivers are getting dumber every day or they want their half out of the middle and get outta my way I gotta go!

 

[Ed27]

I have a Kubota M7060HD12. I load it onto my gooseneck trailer and tow it 9 miles to a new property every weekend, unload it, use it, then load it up and bring it home at the end of the weekend. I do it my myself and get it done quickly. Most of the 9 miles is on a two-lane state highway. I would not even consider driving my tractor on the road that far. I prefer to tow my tractor at 60 mph and not think about it, rather than drive it at 25 mph on the road and worry about all the cars trying to run me over. To each their own though.

 

[JimR]

The farthest I have ever gone on the road was 15 miles to get my first tractor home. It was an 8N with hi/low tranny. Now the furthest I need to go is less than a 1/2 mile. That is a rarity. Any further I just trailer it.

 

[Hay Dude]

Crossing the tracks.

 

[Old Time Mountain Farmer]

I do, but most of our roads in this part of North Carolina are 10ft wide one-lane dirt roads with minimal traffic, so it's low risk. Plus the roads are conducive to a trailer, although I've driven both a 16ft trailer and multiple fire apparatus on the roads without problem.

The pasture that I rent is only two miles away, but I gain about 500ft of elevation from 3400ft to 3900ft.

That pasture is South facing as opposed to the North facing on our property. That lets me get poultry on it three weeks earlier than the North facing pasture once the snow stops in Mid-may.

 

[rockinbbar]

Crossing the tracks.

View attachment 841137

Just got back in from putting hay out for cattle on a ranch I manage... It's 10 miles from my place.

Drove the tractor over there, speared and put out 2 bales, threw some bags of cubes on top of the spear tines, and gave them some range cubes, squared away the bags and wrap, and headed home.

Left at 3:37

Returned at 5:20

If I'd hooked up my Gooseneck, loaded the tractor, chained it, drove 10 miles, unchain and unload the tractor, then do the work, load it back up, and chain it, drive it home, unchain and unload, then unhook my trailer....

Well, I'd still be outside cussing my wife for not holding the flashlight in the right spot when trying to finish.

 

[Hay Dude]

10 miles is nothing if you can average 20-25MPH, you’d be there in 20-30 minutes. I wouldn’t want to do all that chaining down for that, unless i needed to also bring several attachments or tools.

 

[rockinbbar]

10 miles is nothing if you can average 20-25MPH, you’d be there in 20-30 minutes. I wouldn’t want to do all that chaining down for that, unless i needed to also bring several attachments or tools.

You do it right! (Per your area, needs and time frame)

That today drive is a rural county road that turns to a Farm to Market road for most of the 10 miles, then turns onto a gravel road to get to the ranch.

County Rd- about 18mph. It can get bumpy.

Farm to Market road- 25mph.

Gravel county road- 15mph.

Nothing's ever easy, just some things are less hard than they have to be.

You are a savvy guy! One day I'd like to talk to you about your hay operation. I've recently started acquiring some hay fields, and have a couple of questions about what you do. If you are so inclined.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

What if you road your tractor to pull a tractor to a job,

OR you need to get some loads of logs home,

OR even more loads of logs home,

Hook up and Get R Done!

SR

 

[Muley Gil]

I have driven my 8N from the shop to the house once, about 7 miles.

I live in a county with only two red lights, both in the county seat. We have more cows than people. I see tractors on the road almost every day, when I'm out and about. No big deal around here.

I had a deputy in the county north of me stop me while I was driving my Isuzu pick-up and he advised that the state troopers would write a ticket if you had a hitch ball mounted on a step bumper, as the ball partially covered the tag. I removed the ball and kept it and a big wrench under the seat.

 

[tacticalturnip]

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.

Might be a 602, but I imagine this wasn't much different than the machine you got to road trip.

No thank you, not down an interstate lol; of course I do have the luxury of not having to be placed in that position.

 

[Indian Territory]

I road mine to and from the farm at least a few times a week. It's about 7 miles one way. Not too bad at 23 mph. I guess I've been too afraid to call and ask the cops if it's legal, but my limited reading tells me I'm in the clear in my state. So far no troubles at least. For sure I see many larger tractors doing the same thing, and I stay on the county roads (except when I don't ). I'm usually pulling some weird implement because we're a berry farm. Pretty unusual to see in hay country. Once we sell a few more quarts I'll build a barn and save myself the wear and tear, but until then I'm down the gravel roads remembering that I'm lucky to be driving a tractor to the farm, instead of a car to a cubicle. (And NO, my kids do NOT get to ride to the farm like that!)

 

[Helogabals]

My office is 3 km/2mi apart from home and I have to plow snow, mow grass in both places. Obviously, I just drive. My Yanmar sa424 is road worthy, with lights, my extra lights and reg. plate.
Fun thing is, here tractor pilots have to have license. I was driving around without one. But recently law is changed, under 30 hp we can drive with regular car driver's license. So now I am on the road legally. Like I care

As my tractor has no cab, I have ordered and installed mudguards. Without them winter driving was mess. Now it's much better

And on my route is speed radar, so I always can check is my tractor at top performance. 20 kmph is stated in. tech. spec