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Why Farm truck are getting DOT inspected more!!!

J

JD Seller

Well-known Member
I know I am going to PO a few "farmers" here.

The reason that the DOT is stopping more farm trucks is that they have pretty much gotten most commercial trucks in pretty good condition. They will still catch guys over weight but the days of catching junk commercial trucks is over for the most part.

I agree with them wanting the farm trucks to be more safe. Now some of the officers can go over board.

I see farm trucks coming into the grain elevators with tires that are shot just waiting to blow out but since they are "farmers" they think that they should get a break on safety rules. Broken springs and non working lights all should just be ignored according to many farmer drivers. Brakes that half way work on a truck that is forty years old and over loaded badly. All should be just winked at and ignored.

"We are farmers so WE are special attitude is what is causing the crack down on farm trucks."

There have been some really bad wrecks around here in the last few years from guys running farm trucks that should never have left the farm.

One eighty year old guy with a 1960 IH truck with NO power brakes ran over a van full of kids. Killed two and hurt the rest. His reason for being on the road without brakes??? He could not afford to have the hydra-vac repaired. It would cost too much. HE was just using the hand parking brake to stop with. This from a fellow that drove a new DIESEL pickup to the coffee shop every morning. Well he is walking now and two kids will never grow up now. He should be in prison just like a guy would be if he shot the two kids. That truck he was driving was a weapon that just weight more than a gun.

So I am all for making ANY vehicle that is on the PUBLIC road be safe.

So that means good tires, brakes and working lights. If you have these things you will not have much trouble in a DOT inspection.

Also there is talk of doing something with the guys pulling these large gravity wagons behind tractors. A farm tractor is not made to handle/stop the loads guys are pulling behind them. Many are pulling two 750 bushel wagons. That is 84,000 lbs of grain plus the weight of the wagons. The brakes on most of these wagons are not really made to stop them at the higher travel speeds of todays tractors. Plus how many guys will adjust them or keep them working after the first few years???



So pile on I am sure many "farmers" are offended by my rant.

Why the anger?? Those two kids went to my church. Then I get to hear of the old guy complaining about how the "state" screwed him over by taking his DI for life.
 
I don't farm but I do own one of the other, heavy trucks that DOT loves so much. That said I've got to agree that EVERY vehicle on a public road needs to have working brakes, and at least a SMV sign (and be traveling at a SLOW speed) if it doesn't have proper signals. I don't care of your farming, driving a pulp wood truck, or anything else for that matter, if it's on the road it needs to be LEGAL and SAFE....PERIOD

Beyond that I would also like to see DOT/DMV start cracking down on all of these SUV's running around with 4000 lb tags, pulling trailers that weigh 6000 lbs. Further the ones running around pulling 15,000lbs behind a vehicle only designed to pull 6,000. In other words they seem to want to enforce the laws for the heavy vehicles who, for the most part, do their best to abide by the rules. At the same time they ignore the blatant disregard of the laws by folks driving the smaller vehicles who, though the weights involved are smaller, are overweight/illegal to a larger degree (percentage wise) than any of the heavy vehicles could hope to be.
 
That sounds like an old tightwad without enough sense or decency to keep his truck in road ready shape. How come he is not in jail or dead?
 
Everything is in good working order on my truck so far as I know. But how do you get it through all the idiots-on-the-roads-heads that it still won't stop or handle like a car?
It amazes me that fools will pull out in front of a heavy truck. Kind of similar to your analogy- like jumping in front of a gun. Someone told me that's because they don't want to get stuck behind a truck! WHAT? They would rather take the chance with their life??? They can't get their little crate around a big slow truck???
 
JD you ain't going to make me mad with this. I started the other thread because I've seen a big increase in the number of farm pickups with trailers on being inspected.

My pet peeve is under/unsecured loads. And that's with anyone. I've seen 2 boats come off of trailers in the last couple of years that could have been much worse than just the boats destroyed (one was a new, never been in the water, $30,000 pontoon guy was pulling home from the dealer). I really laughed a couple of years ago when a local guy got ticketed for an unsecured load with a F150 and a lite single axle trailer on his way to get rid of some tree limbs.

It's true IMO that too many farmers have been driving junkers hauling grain and such in vehicle that's a disaster waiting for a place to happen.

Rick
 
During fall harvest we still see a lot of old farm grain trucks on the road that are in bad shape, especially evenings and weekends when the part-time farmers are working. These trucks slow traffic, they have poor or non-working lights, and often have a bad muffler. I cringe every time I meet or pass one, hoping it does not blow a tire while I'm near it.

Those "Grapes of Wrath" or "Beverley Hillbillies" trucks are a real hazard. A friend was killed driving one for a large farm, a front tire blew-out and he rolled it.
 
The DA actually brought charges against him and had him arrested. Then the local media piled on the DA for being heartless to an old man. The DA caved because the old man demanded a jury trial. The DA stated he did not think he could get a jury to convict the old man. So he bargained the charges down to probation and life time lost of DI.

Let some one else have an ounce of alcohol an the same DA and public would want that guy hung. Even better let the driver be a commercial driver and they would have thrown away the keys on him, but old farmers are an exempt class.
 
I won't argue that recreational and residential haulers are as bad or worst than anyone else on the road. The laws do need to be enforced uniformly.

The first time I brough a pickup load of brush to the "recycling center" the operator asked me if I was a trucker. He didn't see many loads come in that were tarped.
 
Bob, this reminded me: "It amazes me that fools will pull out in front of a heavy truck." Those tiny car drivers would have a new way of thinking had they seen what I saw while a passenger it a Kenworth a few years ago. Most car drivers have not & can't imagine the view, even though you big rig truckers are fully aware. This little shoot 'n squirt rice burner whipped in front of us so close to our front end that had we not seen him go there, we would not know there was a car in front of us. Not even by the slightest bit of exaggeration, I mean the car was not visible to us AT ALL! Got my attention.
Since he could not be seen, there might have been a foot or even inches between us & him! An it the blink of an eye, he could have been under us.
 

"Holding up Traffic"..???
What part of the City are you IN..???

IF i HAVE A GOD LOAD ON, I am not concerned if I am driving carefully..that is my Livelihood in the truck (my income)..

My equipment is safe and well-kept..just not "New" by some peoples' standards..

Have TOO Maany Citiots blowing horns here too and they can just SIT on it and rotate..

Ron..
 
(quoted from post at 09:42:11 01/20/13) I don't farm but I do own one of the other, heavy trucks that DOT loves so much. That said I've got to agree that EVERY vehicle on a public road needs to have working brakes, and at least a SMV sign (and be traveling at a SLOW speed) if it doesn't have proper signals. I don't care of your farming, driving a pulp wood truck, or anything else for that matter, if it's on the road it needs to be LEGAL and SAFE....PERIOD

Beyond that I would also like to see DOT/DMV start cracking down on all of these SUV's running around with 4000 lb tags, pulling trailers that weigh 6000 lbs. Further the ones running around pulling 15,000lbs behind a vehicle only designed to pull 6,000. In other words they seem to want to enforce the laws for the heavy vehicles who, for the most part, do their best to abide by the rules. At the same time they ignore the blatant disregard of the laws by folks driving the smaller vehicles who, though the weights involved are smaller, are overweight/illegal to a larger degree (percentage wise) than any of the heavy vehicles could hope to be.
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Unfortunately you ain't never gonna see that here. They want the tourist dollar too much to go after the big motor homes and guys pulling campers.
They did nail a guy near Foley MN a couple of years ago that I know towing a Bobcat behind a 1/2 ton pickup for his Bobcat service for being overweight. And near me the local cops got a guy who hauled his skidsteer with only one chain on the bucket.

I can't count the number of tourist up here to fish can't pull a trailer worth a danr who should be barred from towing one.

Rick
 
It's farm pickups too. When I was a teenager I was conscripted to work for a ne'r do well cousin who had an old Dodge pickup. One day he had me drive it home from a neighbor's farm. As I turned into his driveway I hit the brakes. The pedal went all the way to the floor. The front bumper hit a glancing blow to a pine tree next to a garden where his kids were working. They scattered and I somehow missed them. Of course it was my fault.
 
JD thanks for having the courage to speak your mind on what is sometimes an unpopular issue. Can't say I see more then a few tired grain trucks up my way. I spend the summer inspecting highway construction and see PLENTY of vocational trucks that could use a good going through by the DOT folks. That off road and repetaive short haul start stop, overloaded, 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week takes it's toll. I see brakes, springs, air leaks, overloads, near roll overs, pushed out, pulled out with big dozers, beat all to h3ll. A lot of local loggers are every bit as bad in their inspection and repair. NC Wayne right on also, I"m 190 miles North of Minnepolis in Vacation country. Nothing like a city slicker in a new duelly pulling a 35 foot 5th wheel and a 16" boat behind having driven nothing but a Volvo station wagon their entire life. Some of these more money then brains folks hauling overweight-unsecured or UNDER EXPERIENCED are as big a menace as any.
 
If you want to see unsafe trucks and unsafe loads,sit on my front porch for a day. I'm two miles from the crusher. Just the other day I saw a pickup go by. Had one of those tandem axle bumper pull utility trailers behind it. There was a JD 55 combine backed on to it,chained down with the drive wheels rolling on the road behind it. The cab was off and just laying up in the grain tank. A few years ago there was a load of engine blocks on a flatbed,nothing tied down,one slid off and hit another pickup right dead center in the grille on the first bounce. Put the radiator right in to the fan.

As far as what some of the others have mentioned about citiots with recreational vehicles,how many times have you seen a huge fifth wheel travel trailer hooked to a half ton pickup and a boat trailer hooked behind the travel trailer going down the expressway at 75 miles an hour??!!
That's somebody who needs to be stopped and have a cop sitting right on their chest until somebody responsible shows up with two trucks large eonugh for the travel trailer and the boat seperate,to tow them away.
 
As Bruce says MOST farm trucks are saftied annually around here but there are those that still fly under the radar.
The one that gets me going is the outfit that pulls into the elevator netting 15-30 TONS on a rickety bunch of cobbled up scrap on wheels that they call wagons. The bold ones don't bother with safety chains let alone retaining clips in draw bolts.
This too will draw flak from many I am sure but I think its time we started mandating brakes on these rigs. Just because you can get it moving does NOT mean you can get it stopped!
 
JD I agree with you all the way. When I was on the harvest I saw a 60's something Chevy farm truck loaded with wheat plow into the back of another farm truck that was loaded with wheat when the brakes failed. He hit so hard wheat came flying up out of the box and over the cab. I was driving a truck and was meeting them when it happened so I had a front row spectator seat. They started swerving toward me and I thought they were going to hit my trailer but I got away from it. I looked in the mirror after they passed and all I saw was two trucks locked together with smoke and steam and a carpet of wheat spreading out on the highway. When they say a guy can be so scared he has to cr*p they know what they're talking about. Jim
 
I am in full agreement JD, if a truck is going to be the road it should be in good operational condition. I farmed with man who didn't believe in preventative maintenance and it drove me nuts. A guy gets a lot more work done with equipment that is maintained in proper working condition and there is less stress, you don't worry about running over a kid with faulty brakes when you know they work.
 
I would just like the rules to be enforced uniformly.

Last fall I got pulled over by the DOT and the only thing they could find wrong is one my my chains had a link that had been drug on the pavement and was damaged. Officer was going to write me up for that even though the chain wasn't needed for properly secure of the load. He said either you take it off or get a ticket. So I REMOVED a chain to make him happy and be legal. So what if my EXTRA chain was damaged it was still better to have extra IMO.

While I was on the side of the road getting inspected with a magnifying glass approximately 10 HUGE 5th wheel travel trailers and RV's went by and non of them even got a second look. Drivers over loaded, under equipped, and speeding.
 
In the fall I see tractors and wagons at the elevator scaling in at 113,000 pounds. The Dot will have a blue car sitting at the intersection waiting for the next truck but they can't do anything about the tractors and wagons. Our area is fairly flat so we see more of the huge wagons. Those wagons are connected to the tractor by one little hitch pin. Every fall a couple of wagons land in the ditch when the hitch pin breaks. There are always several cases of front wheels buckling under the wagon and it sits there blocking the main highway because they won't use the gravel road. We have five or ten times more trucks hauling than wagons and I never see trucks with collapsed wheels or lost trailers. One of the wagon farmers bragged to me that HE doesn't have to buy a license or pay heavy road use tax on his big wagons. The next fall two of his giant wagons were on their sides in the ditch when the hitch pin broke! The farm to market road was blocked during the busy harvest while they were vacing the grain out of the ditch and pulling the wreckage out, but by golly, he doesn't have to license those things and pay road tax on them nor do they have to be inspected! Jim
 
(quoted from post at 11:15:55 01/20/13) JD thanks for having the courage to speak your mind on what is sometimes an unpopular issue. Can't say I see more then a few tired grain trucks up my way. I spend the summer inspecting highway construction and see PLENTY of vocational trucks that could use a good going through by the DOT folks. That off road and repetaive short haul start stop, overloaded, 12-14 hours a day 6 days a week takes it's toll. I see brakes, springs, air leaks, overloads, near roll overs, pushed out, pulled out with big dozers, beat all to h3ll. A lot of local loggers are every bit as bad in their inspection and repair. NC Wayne right on also, I"m 190 miles North of Minnepolis in Vacation country. Nothing like a city slicker in a new duelly pulling a 35 foot 5th wheel and a 16" boat behind having driven nothing but a Volvo station wagon their entire life. Some of these more money then brains folks hauling overweight-unsecured or UNDER EXPERIENCED are as big a menace as any.
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I think most of the state is "vacation country". It's pretty bad in the summer in Douglas and Otter Tail Counties. Lot of the RV folks are long on money and short on brains......and always think they have the right of way.

Rick
 
I don't think anyone is offended by any one being concerned about safety. However, I do grow weary of people being down on "farmers". Not everyone has a fleet of semi's to call on to haul grain, or equipment. Some of us have to get by the best way we know how. A few posts back I was telling Eric a little about my gem of a grain truck. After getting it running, the next move I made was to fix the brakes, and lights. Yeah it's slow, but it does the job SAFELY! I would love for ss55 to fall in behind me hauling a load, I'm sure I could make him understand that he doesn't own the road, he just has the right to use it fast or slow, same as me. Im sure im not the only one that to get started, involved buying land, equipment, and inputs on your own, and not falling into it from dad, or grand dad. Maybe some did start like that and have forgotten what it's like to not have the $ for the latest and greatest. I'm also sure that Im not old enough to suit the criteria for a farmer, but we will cover that in the next "all young people suck" post.
 
Never go inspected in a heavy vehical but here in Ohio the car inspection is a farce. Just set up along side of road and hardly do anything. Had a 63 Rambler car that the brake lights were mechanical off the pedal, could have taken it thru a inspection stop using just the parking brake with NO brake lines and they would not have cought it. Every vehical should have a good inspection every year befor you get the new licence. And then any obviously unsafe vehical should be pulled over but that does not happen.
 
We see that here too. I was driving down Grand River one day, saw a barrel full of scrap fall off a truck going the other way, he never stopped, just kept going. People going in look like the Joads.
 
Lots of good points hit. I wouldn't be afraid to strike out across the state with my 1958 GMC grain truck. I am continually checking things on it each time it is running. The brakes will stop on a dime and every light works but that didn't come from a jump in it and go attitude. I have it because it will do the work of a new one and I LIKE to tinker on it. If it didn't work as good as a newer truck it would cost me money and time. None of us can afford either of those. During harvest this year I am not sure that there were more than 25% of the trucks that were road worthy. Semi trucks yes, but grain trucks no. I will admittedly say that Kansas is way too lax on some things.

There is an old boy that runs a dairy just north of town. Probably milks 100 head. Doesn't have any trucks, just carts. See them all the time at the elevator in a shiny new tractor pulling a couple of carts. Some of what they drive is a few miles of town driving. There is NO WAY that rig would stop for a little kid on a bicycle. It doesn't help that there are usually 5 family members in the cab like it is some sort of field trip.
 
I don't think it should be just the commercial or farm trucks getting inspected. I drive truck and trailer hauling masonry products. The DOT has been on us for years. It makes me fume when I see the "customer" come in and pick up his product in his pickup and leave without securing it in any way. I've seen guys put 3 20' sticks of angle iron on the rack of their pickup and drive away. I don't even want to be on the road when that happens. If we all kept our equipment up to par, it would be a safer place to live.
Tim in OR
 
We have real strict laws on vechicle safety here with ALL road vechicles inspected in proper Government testing stations every year. Of course that does not cover tractors and agricultural trailers, but the police keep a tight check on that. Worst case of a fine for insecure load was when a farmer who had been hauling straw bales got pulled because the loose straw was blowing off his empty trailer, He got done for an insecure load!!!
Sam
 
Safety is a good thing.

Trouble is a smaller to medium farm, how do you get the grain to a market 10 miles away, you maybe drive a truck 750 miles a year. In daylight. At 35 mph.

Hard to make it pencil out for the strict part of the rules, are lights an issue if you don't drive at nite (yes brake lights are!), do you need deep tread on the tires if your only driving in good weather those few miles (no rotten tires no!) and so on.

Cost per mile or per bu gets real high real fast, and can be real tough on a farmer.

But a good concern, need to be safe for sure.

Paul
 
Friend has a tandem grain truck needed inspection this fall, they had to move his rear lights, something in MN changed and no good where they were.

Now you can't see them, they are inside the frame to the rear, before they were a bit lower and could be seen from a better side angle.

Makes no sense to me, looks to be a rule only to have a rule, and make visibility worse, cost someone some money is all?

Stuff like that will still make me talk about the goofy DOT, but certainly I feel for the family of the kids that were killed, we do need to be safe.

Paul
 
I sure see a lot of posters here that are perfectly comfortable giving the government even more power to dig into our personal lives and control everything e do. Sad to see so many willing to lay down for the government.
 
Paul for most part time farmer theys would be much better off buying several older gravity wagons. Have enought to hold a semi load. Then just have some one do the hauling for you.

A ten mile haul around here would only cost 15 cents. Plus there are guys fighting to get hauling work around here. Everyone wants to drive a truck and be home every night. So they go out an buy a grain trailer in the fall. They make good money during harvest but then find out that the work crashes soon after that. I can get grain hauled in a hopper bottom trailer cheaper than I can haul it with my own semi trailers. That is figuring fuel, tires, truck maintenance, and wages for a driver. Many of these guys only last until the first time they need new tires or an engine overhaul. The strange thing is that when one fails there are two waiting to step in and try it.

So you could get the grain hauled cheaper than the insurance and licence cost for a junk straight truck.
 
Years ago an 8 year old boy was pulling a hay wagon from a field down the road to his drive way with a small farm tractor. When he turned into the driveway the wagon continued to go straight jacknifeing tractor and wagon killing the 8 year boy. A wagon of hay may not weight as much as a wagon of corn or beans though???? The boy may have been going too fast.
 
Garrett: Most smaller farmers would be much better off not owning any kind of truck. I am talking about cost wise to move grain.

Take the money you have in a truck an buy several gravity wagons and a grain auger. Have enough wagons to load a semi/900-1000 bushels. There are always guys with grain semi/trailers looking to haul grain. The cost per bushel would be way cheaper than what its costs to run and maintain a straight grain truck.

Just this last spring. I was at a consignment sale. There where 9 Dakon wagons on JD 1075 running gears. The wagons where rusty from setting out but not road salt. The running gears where good. I bought four of them for $1000 each. They hold 350 bushels each. The other five went a little cheaper. Any wagon under 400 bushels around here is selling cheap. The guys with big combines do not want them.

So $3000 would buy you three of these and that is semi load. You would never have to go on the road with them. Have an auger setup in you field or barn yard. Make sure and have at least an 8 inch auger. You can load a semi in under 45 minutes even changing wagons.

Too many guys says it costs too much to have their grain hauled. If they would figure their time, gas money( most old grain truck are gas) , insurance and license they would find out that it is costing them more to haul their grain with that truck.
 
go back to doing whatever it was you where doing any vehicle is only as safe as the operator! I have never had a close call with gravity wagons and a tractor.The only time there is a hazard is when vehicle drivers dont think
 
A few thought on the subject, yes there are some junk trucks on the road that shouldn't be and when they decide to use the public roads they are endangering me, my family and anyone else using the road, that ain't right. If you're going the run on public roads you need to be legal. Maybe we should change the criminal and civil liability laws so if you decide to run your under-maintained uninsured truck on the highway and kill my kids you go to jail and I get ALL your stuff period. Sounds good but that in itself opens up potential for abuse.

Some people have the same problem with vehicle maintenance and insurance we have with health care, there is other stuff they'd rather spend their money on. The challenge is to make the cost of non-compliance high enough that they adjust their own risk-benefit curve.

Yes there are some DOT/Compliance officers that are MLBH (Major League B____ Holes), The laws should be changed so they and the Sheriff, County or State get to pay damages if they are not acting in a professional manner, this also means the laws need to be changed so officials can get rid of the bad apples without paying six figure damages. Example the DOT officer that kept putting us out of service at the Mississippi/Tennessee line because he didn't like/understand exempt logs should maybe have to pay for the time the truck sat at the scale, and if his salary wasn't enough to cover the damages let the citizens of Mississippi rent our truck. I also think that if they ticket or fine someone that person should have the right to a trial and if the driver wins the case the state/county/city that issued the citation should have to PAY the fine and the officer maybe even gets the points on their license This would also require our legal system be modified to allow challenges to stupid laws allowing laws to be thrown out for un-effectiveness or failure to achieve the stated goal.

The focus on law enforcement needs to be shifted away from profit/revenue, that's going to require we get off our half moons during the election cycle and elect individuals that have OUR interests has their priority. How do we do this without creating a bigger bureaucracy? Don't really know, and the laws of adversarial relationships or interactions won't make it easy.

As far as some of the stupid rules and other examples of abuse mentioned, hey when you get government involved that's what you get. Remember government is usually not responsible and the folks we elect do a pretty good job of keeping it that way. Again the only way to correct is to petition the government OR elect individuals that will act to create responsible government. Again if it's stupid inform your representative or senator and don't give them any quarter if it's stupid they fix it OR you insure they don't get re-elected.

I agree with several of the posters in that most farmers would be best off hiring their hauling out and if they were really good they may find out they could improve their product marketing by using haulers to get their product to new and more lucrative markets.
 
Spook,
Joads, what an excellent reference to the Grapes of Wrath.

We see the same thing here where the scrappers are hauling into Flint on I-69. I hauling my once a year scrap run to Durand. Closer and I dont have to carry my pistol.

Rick
 
jddriver here is what can happen when you have two big wagons pushing a tractor down a hill on the road.
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Ghost: If you want to drive/own a junk truck with out good brakes, no lights and bad tires on your farm then that is GREAT!!!! The second you go onto a public road then it does become a Government thing. The reason being is that now you are a safety hazard to others not just yourself/family.
 
When did it break in half? When it went in the ditch or hit something else?

I'm pretty sure that tractor weighs right near 20,000 pounds. Pretty easy to push it around with those two big wagons!
 
I'm just not used to seeing "farmers" get together and beg for more government intervention. Are the guys here more of the city folk type of farmers?
 
Coldbuster: It broke when it was shoved into the ditch by the two wagons. There where no other vehicles involved with this.

The tractor driver was not injured. He said the wagons got pushing him just as he started over the crest of the hill. He tried to get the wagon brakes to slow the loads down but they got to pushing him even faster. They also started bouncing. You see the marks where he was sliding all four wheels on the tractor. He had it locked into MFWD before he went over the hill.

These big grain trains behind a tractor scare me just about as much as a guy with junk truck.
 
It is called six of one and a half dozen of the other--Years ago we had the 250-300 bu. m&ws-the bushnells-the dacons --we would usually have a 4010 or 3020 JD in front-500 bu=30000lb.+8000lb. tractor-No brakes! 11L tires-blow outs. Then we got the Brent 640's-a world of differance. I wasn't afraid to send anybody with them- Common sense! The brakes were set properly and you could feel them slow up just by letting up on the throttle! Now we have semis-It all cost a lot of money no matter what you haul with Tires-Fuel-Insurance-Time-But This time JDSELLER respectfully disagree about hiring somebody to haul grain out of the field in the Fall-When the line is long in town, at the Alcohol plant or ADM where are you find enough trucks to keep up and have a timely harvest? To me you have to have your own hauling method! So what I am trying to say-The DOT has their job and I have mine-We keep our trucks in good shape and if we get inspected-so be it-If you don'give them a line of cr*p they will be on their way and so will you.
 
Ghost: We all follow rules in life. I just want there to be standards to keeps guys that do not think things through from killing me or my loved ones.

The old man I wrote about. He never intended to hurt anyone but he also did not think things through very well.

I had an old straight truck for a lot of years. The cab was just about rusted off of it. I kept all the tires in good condition, the brakes working, and every light worked.

The DOT guys laughed when they say the ugly looking thing but they where surprised that everything was in good shape safety wise.

It did not really cost that much just some time to make sure things worked like they should.
 
Here it is very hard to find trucks during harvest season. As well, I can deliver to 2 different coops or an end user within 15 miles, but most truckers, if you can find one, are snuggled up to one company, little bit of a challenge to deliver to different destinations.

It's an option, and there are others, but around here its more common to pull a pair of 650 bu gravity boxes 10 miles than to try to find a semi.

This fall as I was at the top of the hill to go down into town, a van passed me on the new road construction on the road shoulder, I was going 40 mph, the van blew by totally illegal, wrong side, very dangerous.

About 6 years ago I was going with the tractor with pair of 250 bu wagons in the same spot, and a gravel semi blew past me on the shoulder side, he had to be doing 60 if he was moving at all.

Just hard to believe.

Maybe plumbing vans and gravel haulers have the right of way all the time, I don't know.

Paul
 
JD,like Paul and others said,you can't even get someone to haul out of a bin(only LONG distance,no 5-10mi.hauls)let alone haul out of a field and sit amd wait in lines.You haul it yourself or it doesn't get hauled.
 
If you are on a public highway safety is of utmost importance. I now have a ten-wheeler and make sure the brakes and tires are in top shape. I had a front tire blow out on a six-wheeler and it was not a good experience. Luckaly the only real damage was to my underwear.
 
(quoted from post at 12:10:21 01/20/13) I would just like the rules to be enforced uniformly.

Last fall I got pulled over by the DOT and the only thing they could find wrong is one my my chains had a link that had been drug on the pavement and was damaged. Officer was going to write me up for that even though the chain wasn't needed for properly secure of the load. He said either you take it off or get a ticket. So I REMOVED a chain to make him happy and be legal. So what if my EXTRA chain was damaged it was still better to have extra IMO.

While I was on the side of the road getting inspected with a magnifying glass approximately 10 HUGE 5th wheel travel trailers and RV's went by and non of them even got a second look. Drivers over loaded, under equipped, and speeding.
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I know exactly what you mean. Why is it that Joe Trucker has to have physicals, all sorts of special licensing, truck up to date on everything, lots of insurance, etc. but grandpa Grey Hair can drive a 40K motor home with a Caddy behind it on his class D? "What was that funny sound Norbert?" "Got me Irene, sounded like a Prius to me." Makes no sense.

I got in sort of hot water once for writing a guy towing a huge cigarette type boat to a high dollar charity event. I forget how wide he was but it was around 11 foot IIRC. He was towing with his 1 ton. NY only allows 102" before you need a permit and signs. He told me he knew everybody from the dog catcher up to the Governor. Must be he did because the DA reduced his ticket to about nothing. Next year, same time, I get him again. This time I wrote everything I could find. I got screamed at by a lot of high mukity-ups, but the next year when he came through with his new truck and even wider boat he had a trip permit and signs, flags , etc.
 
(quoted from post at 15:07:15 01/20/13) I sure see a lot of posters here that are perfectly comfortable giving the government even more power to dig into our personal lives and control everything e do. Sad to see so many willing to lay down for the government.
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When some idiot in an overloaded, hunk of junk farm truck kills your family, just how much chest thumping are you going to do? I'm so conservative I give Limbaugh the hives, but driving is a privilege, not a right. Driving a truck is a profession, not a hobby. Common sense shows us that without some rules most people wouldn't run stuff that was even close to safe. We don't allow people to shoot across highways into school yards where propane tanks and Haz Mat waste is stored. Is that laying down for the gov't too? Use some common sense friend. There's no issue owning a truck, even is it old. But, just as with guns, we have the responsibility to use them safely.
 
Years ago while I was in college (about 19 yrs old), I worked road construction in the summers. Worked for one guy who had a single axle dump that if you had a load of asphalt in it you had to stand on the brakes to get it to stop. Scared me every time it was on the road. Next, I worked for a major road builder who maintained their equipment very well. Was glad to work for a big outfit and never worried about driving their equipment.

One day I was driving a stake truck loaded with equipment, towing a trailer full of sand and cement and just exiting the expressway, probably doing 60 or better. I touched the brakes to slow down as I hit the ramp and I heard a loud bang, the front of the truck dipped and I saw the right front tire going like a bat out of h--- down the ramp. I had a heck of a time keeping it straight and out of the ditch, managed to get it stopped on the shoulder. Got out and found the right front corner a mess. Walked down the ramp and found the wheel had gone through a fence into a motel parking lot and smashed smack dab into the rear of a car. Put a nice big "V" in the rear bumper. (This was back in the day with REAL chrome bumpers).

Went into the lobby and called dispatch (this was back before cell phones also). First thing they asked was "did anybody see it?" I thought that was the craziest question because this was broad daylight in a metropolitan area and who knows how many people were on the road watching a truck and trailer careening down the ramp and a tire flying out ahead of it. I rolled the tire back to the truck and waited for the tow truck. Took both of us to lift the tire onto the stake truck and we went back to the yard.

Forgot all about the car in the motel lot until later when I was telling my boss about it. I can imagine some guy coming out to his car and wondering what the heck happened. This was 40+ years ago but things like that you remember.

To this day, I am wary about being around trucks on the expressway, especially if they're behind me on an exit ramp. :wink:
 
Thanks. When I was a kid a disk wagged the rear of the 4010 I was driving. Dad had told me to not go over a certain speed, but did not tell me WHY to not do it. Lesson learned and it's a good thing I knew how to steer into a skid.

We never had wagons here on our farm, just straight trucks, but I bought two semis last year. They handle the loads very nicely.
 
JDSELLER give it a rest I have read about some of your exploits and yes I regularly pull 600plus behind my tractor get over it you need to go back to City
 
JDdriver. Just cause you do it don't make it safe or right.

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE SAFE! That RIGHT is granted by the Constitution! You share that right. You DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO ENDANGER ANYONE! You are the reason that some of these laws regarding DOT and vehicle safety are on the books. If they didn't pass those laws people would be killing or injuring innocent people just cause it's convenient or seems cost effective. That isn't just farmers. It's RV owners who are not qualified to drive some of the rigs they drive. It's local guys running down the highway with an old manure spreader used as a trailer to haul firewood with no lights or brakes, just a SMV sign at 60 MPH (local guy who don't even farm). The guys running down the highway with 30K boats not tied down, just the winch connected to the bow. The farmers that never could be bothered with adjusting the tow in on farm wagons or just the guy who spent too much time at the bar. The homeowner hauling junk to the scrap yard as it falls off the trailer.

The same right granted by the constitution (see Heller vs. DC) says I have to right to keep in bear arms and the supreme court included the right to defend myself. I wonder if that should carry over onto the roads sometimes.

One of the safest guys I know on the road is a farmer. One of the worst is a farmer and my BIL. The first is safe because he understands that should something bad happen he could go to jail or be sued. My BIL is just a tight wad.

Rick
 
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