37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
I have a hard time turning to see what is going on behind my tractor. When I am disking about the only time I see the disc is when I am turning, or the tractor starts pulling hard. I stop to see what I'm dragging. At 74 does this stiff nick come with age? I guess I don't turn my head enough. I'm always looking forward, no need to look back I guess. Anyone else have this problem? Stan
 
(quoted from post at 20:33:46 04/25/17) I have a hard time turning to see what is going on behind my tractor. When I am disking about the only time I see the disc is when I am turning, or the tractor starts pulling hard. I stop to see what I'm dragging. At 74 does this stiff nick come with age? I guess I don't turn my head enough. I'm always looking forward, no need to look back I guess. Anyone else have this problem? Stan

Some guys just can't figure out when it is time to retire :p
 
I retired once all ready, after 36 years as a plant maintenance mechanic, for the Unisys Computer co. I don't play golf, fish, or hunt. I guess I need something to do. I am keeping up a family tradition. Dad did disking for others when he farmed, and kept doing it when he stopped farming. He worked up into his early 80's. I doubt I will go that long. Stan
 
You need to figure out a way to swivel your seat. Even is you can mount it at a 20 degree cant will help.

As you get older we need to use our brains to outsmart out bodies. At least that's what they tell me... LOL

Larry
 
Get one of those backup cameras lik e Loren put in his tractor. No reason to quit over something so easily fixed.
 
Have you considered using one or two wide angle mirrors to check behind you without having to turn as far?
 
You might want to get some physical therapy. They can give you some exercises to do at home to loosen up your neck. But I'd still install a back-up camera in the tractor, for safety.
 
(quoted from post at 01:15:00 04/26/17) I retired once all ready, after 36 years as a plant maintenance mechanic, for the Unisys Computer co. I don't play golf, fish, or hunt. I guess I need something to do. I am keeping up a family tradition. Dad did disking for others when he farmed, and kept doing it when he stopped farming. He worked up into his early 80's. I doubt I will go that long. Stan
ood for you my friend! We do need to keep on keeping on or else we 'let the rocking chair get us'.
 
At 59 I can't turn my head very far, was driving me crazy trying to back tractor and wagon last week.
 
I am going thru something similar now. Last fall I was harvesting my pecan crop and had to turn my neck a lot to see the harvester. I strained a muscle in my neck and shoulder area. When I went to the dr. with severe pain and couldn't raise my left arm, she gave me a couple of shots and some pain meds. The pain soon left but the left arm will not lift on its own above my waist. After 2 MRIs and a nerve test, they have decided I have a pinched nerve in my neck. I am going to the ortho dr today to see what he suggests. I say all this to say don't take it lightly or a sign of old age(my dr said I couldn't blame everything on old age and I told her she wasn't there yet so she couldn't relate). Physical therapy has helped some but not fixed the problem. I am expecting the ortho dr to recommend surgery and if I had pain, I would agree but with no pain and just weakness it is hard to agree just yet for surgery that will hurt a lot and may or may not fix the problem. The rear view camera is a good idea and I am putting one on my tractor before next fall. Sid
 
I went to the doctor yesterday for the same thing. He called it cervical spondulitis (sp?). My neck is to the point of it cracking when I turn my head along with the chronic discomfort/pain. The cracking is the result of calcium deposits on the vertebrae. I was given a book to read with about 8 pages of instructions on exercises to do 2 times per day. Ibuprofen or Aleve may help. Also professional physical therapy but I elected to try the self exercises first. When I got home I told the wife doc said more necking would help cure it. You can imagine how well that went over. Oh well: win some, lose some, and some get rained out.
 

I have a similar problem, and my understanding is that it is arthritis. I am 68 now and it started two years ago. I have tried to loosen it up by doing somersaults in the snow at sixty MPH after falling from my snowmobile, but that doesn't seem to have helped. I will have to try looking up the name given by WesnIL, and trying the exercises.
 
Been getting that way the last few years. I keep telling myself that grimlins are making my drawbars shorter. My dad had the same problem.
I am thinking about a mirror on my tractor fenders may help to hitch up implements.
I had to quit running a baler years ago. Will be 65 in a few months.
My neck got messed up when I was 6 years old when I was trampled by a horse.
Richard in NW SC
 
Im 61, and i get that in my neck when i turn to the right. I finally figured out that it is a rib out of place or a vertebrae. I have been to the chiropractor and really no relief except a lighter wallet. I have figured it out and coached my wife to put my back in place laying on the floor. We kinda have it down to a science and where to crack. But it affects the neck. Works for me.
 
You might look at your sleeping position. Used to have a stiff neck and changed my sleeping position and things are fine now.
 
Seems like you could adapt a swivel office chair (or at least the swivel mechanism) to the tractor seat, so you wouldn't have to twist so much to see behind you. Wouldn't help so much for hooking up implements, where you have to feather the clutch so need to be facing forward, but would be good for running the implement in the field. And a bonus- arm rests!
 
I'm OK to the right,but I'd have a heck of a time farming with old Allis Chalmers hay tools or an AC combine.
 
There must be an interesting story here.

I once fell out of a boat at 30mph when I was the only one in it.
 
Well. I wouldn't even consider this surgery at 74 but here's what happened to me and as I read, thousands of others. I was 62 when had emergency surgery (3hrs). It's called cervicle spinal stenosis. Every upright human will get it to some extent sometime in their life. Usually it's late in life so people just call it "old age" . Discs in cervicle vertebra disenegrate and cause degenerative joint disease (DJD) This lets it be bone on bone and when that happens, the bone tends to try to repair itself and grow new bone, so to speak , which tends to lock vertebra together momentarily until you twist and break it loose. The worst part is the space between vertebra is where your nerves that control everything come out through from spinal cord. Two things happened in my case. Nerves pinched causing numbness everywhere and where my vert. were trying to heal themselves from rubbibg together, they grew bone spurs which , in turn, grew and poked into my spinal cord making things even worse. Once they diagnosed my numbness as neurological and sent me to neurologist for MRI, he pulled me out of work and put emergency collar on me and scheduled emergency surgery. Said one bad move and I would be in a wheelchair for life. I was loosing control over both arms and one leg and bathroom continence. No pain at all, just loosing control, which is why people don't get excited about it when they should.Including Dr.s which tend to mis-diagnose because no complaint of "pain". Three hour surgery to grind out all the spurs and widen cervicle canal and put spacers between vert. at rear and titanium plate on front to space vert apart for good. Hard collar and in patient PT for 2 weeks just to re-learn how to walk , shower , had to re-learn how to tie shoes, button shirt etc. Left arm is still asleep today, left foot partially and all muscles are "firing " at same time s exhaustion is an issue. Not a good thing but better than the alternative of doing nothing.I had to "re-train" myself as far as bathroom duties as when it was ready to go . you'd better be close as bladder and rear muscles had to be re-trained. Basically like a stroke but for different reason medically. Nerves take a lifetime to "program" themselves for what we take for granted every day. Once they are damaged, some of that will never come back. People don't realize that when an elderly person looses control and / or bathroom control or needing walker etc, this exact thing is the reason. It usually comes on in eighties tho so we all just call it "old age". I had to change a lot of my retirement ambitions and re-style my life some but it could have been a lot worse and I'm happy to have what I have and can do and enjoy what I can. Did a MRI at 3 yr point and all is well in neck and complete spinal column, so that's good thing . 66 now and used to just not being able to do certain physical things I used to take for granted I'd always be able to do. I just "cringe" when I see kids/adults playing tackle football and/or riding "toys" without helmets and even water sports. The cervicle spine / spinal cord is your life line and so easily damaged. Sorry so long , but just one mans experiences.
 
One neurologist told me to keep flexing my neck to keep it loose. I had a laminectomy on C3-4-5 because of a form of stenosis, in my case a narrowing of the spinal column, squeezing the spinal cord. In the surgery the removed the back of those three vertibrae. There was no stabilization. Trouble is, when I flex my neck scarf tissue rubs on frayed nerves but it's getting better.
 
My Uncle is 78 and has had a stiff neck for a few years and has a hard time turning left to see traffic at intersections. Instructions on his licence say he always has to have full side mirrors.
 
My neck feels pretty good but I've got a sore knee, a lame back, arthritis in my thumb, and a hiatus hernia. Best advice I've had so far is to suck it up which I'm trying my best to do. One thing I don't want though is any advice from farmers, acreage owners, NBA players, city folk, or anyone else who doesn't have a medical degree.
 
Same thing happens here. I, too, am 74 and can't look back like I used to. I can see the baler chamber if I turn head to the right but it is a strain. To the left it's worse. If I twist head around too far, I seem to lose vision.
 
(quoted from post at 20:33:46 04/25/17) I have a hard time turning to see what is going on behind my tractor. At 74 does this stiff nick come with age? Anyone else have this problem? Stan
At 63 I'm certainly not as flexible as I used to be when I need to look back at an implement. What I have always done is to sit sideways in the seat and that makes a big difference. The back and neck only has to twist half as much if you are already half turned in the seat. I can still work the clutch with my left foot if I have to.
 

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