Everybody loves the farmer

showcrop

Well-known Member
I was out spreading fertilizer today and made a few trips up and down the road that I live on, on my Ford 971. Our road kind of cuts across between two main roads, and at one end there is a big new subdivision a little way down. The people that buy the new homes are mostly transplants from Massachusetts, and none of them wave when meeting in a car or truck. On the tractor though it is a different story, everyone that I met or passed me gave a big wave, out the window or up through the sunroof, or just in the windshield, but always with a big smile. Maybe it fulfills a dream for them. To live in the country where there is farming going on and to see one driving his tractor down the road.
 
Are you sure they had all fingers up while they
waved ?? I thought everybody hates farmers
especially on the road we have no right to have a
slow moving piece of equipment on the highway .
 
It kind of depends on the area and the roads. Here close to home I get mostly ignored when I head out on the older equipment to do hay. Out to the farm I get a lot of very friendly waves. It is more rural and a lot of people want it to stay that way.
 
Yes I have always said it is the tractor
wave effect, people who would never wave
driving by normally wave when you go by
on a tractor, especially open station. I
think the funniest social observations
were towing a 12 by 18 ft building home
on a trailer about 7 miles with our Ford
3400, watching oncoming cars some passed
not even noticing like you went by in a
normal car, others slammed on the brakes
in a look of amazement or took pictures.
Couple weeks ago we moved a medium sized
greenhouse on a hay wagon and going
slowly down the road my neighbor was
walking along to flag traffic, one girl
went by smiling and waving like we were
family. Neighbor asked you know her? I
said nope just the customary wave when
you pass a greenhouse on the road
 
I am helping on the farm for planting season
running a 9530 JD with a 36'disk and
cultipacker . Everybody pulls to the side
when they see the 17'wide tractor coming
down the 24' road. All of them except women
in the 30 to 50 range that seem to not give
a crap or they are totally oblivious to
there surroundings . Can't tell you how many
times I have been scared that we were going
to have contact.
 
Driving a tractor down the back dirt roads around me most people give a friendly wave. Driving down the busier paved road in front of my house most of the waving I get is from their middle finger.
 
I wave at every tractor I meet on the road no matter where....sort of a recognition
of a kindred spirit. Ben
 
Something I've noticed around here, when I'm driving my Jubilee down the road I get a lot more waves than when I'm driving a more modern machine. I seem to get the most enthusiastic waves from the landscapers running zero-turn
mowers, maybe they secretly wish they had something that big to play with...
 
I think nostalgia and the idea of the farmer being more like "old McDonald" play into it. When I am moving equipment around I get two very opposite responses.
In older equipment (open cab stuff, trucks/tractors from mid 60's and earlier)people wave, sometimes even pull over or hang out the car to take pictures. I'm small enough to be pretty much totally driving on the shoulder. I'm traveling at a speed slow enough (12mph or less) that it is nothing for them to pass.
In newer equipment (70's, 80's stuff. Larger/Wider to see over and around. Now taking up half the lane and all the shoulder. Moving about 20 mph, or 60 in the truck) The number of people waving goes down and those honking of one finger waving goes up.
Nostalgia vs. slowing down their day. The image of the small guy making "natural" food, compared to the "evil factory farmer" ???
 
I often see a few really cute honies waving. Now I'M A WONDERIN IF IT'S AT ME OR THE TRACTOR?
 
Super Trucker:

Sounds like it's time to mount either the Air Horn off of a Diesel Locomotive or a Siren on your Tractor to wake up those idiots. The general "rule-of-thumb" that I have used all of my life is - if the other vehicle is larger than I am, then it ALWAYS gets the right-of-way.

:>)
 

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