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Farm equipment on highway

J

Jiles

Well-known Member
Saturday, a group of five sports cars were driving down a highway. We see in the distance a John Deere crop sprayer big enough that we could have driven under!
No traffic so two cars go around the sprayer. I start around and he decides to make a left hand turn when I am ten foot from his rear.
NO TURN SIGNAL, not even a hand signal. Sprayer had two blinking red tail lights.
I slam on the brakes just as he crossed the dotted lines, and miss him about two foot!
Driver probably never looked back and was oblivious to other cars needing to pass!
 
Closest I have ever come to having my heart stop dead in my chest is when someone in a sports car decided they needed to blow the doors off of whatever I was pulling at the time. Worst case was a little bitty two seater. I was stopped at an intersection because a double gravel hauler was coming down road at about 50 mph. Woman driving the car just blew right by me, past the stop sign turning left. Truck laid on horn and locked up his brakes. To this day I am not sure what happened. Skid marks everywhere but no one got hit. Y'all need to use better judgement...or call a cab.
 
In my state legally you need to slow to the speed of the farm implement, then signal and pass. No I've never actually seen that happen, people
love to speed up and whip around at more than the speed limit to show their frustration, which is typically they didnt do their time management
well and try to make it up by driving too fast and wrecklessly to make up tome....

That does not excuse the sprayer driver if he did things wrong as well.

But, the person behind holds the responsibility for proceeding with caution.

A fam implement going down the road is not driving to Chicago. It is going from one field, or one farm, to another, and the driver gates that road
time more than you do. You need to expect that they are going a mile or two, not 20 miles.....

Wish you could drive some farm implements on the road for a couple days, you would gain a whole new view of irresponsibility on the road! It is
a full time job trying to get safely down the road with a public that has no clue.

Again, farm drivers are not exempt from the law either, and if he didn't make an effort to signal or look then bad on him as well.

But, typically the person behind has the view and the control of the situation to be the one that needs to assess the situation and drive safely?

Five sports cars traveling in a pack..... That tells us something right there maybe.....

Vroom vrooom! ;)

Paul
 
I know that it's irresponsible to not signal for a left turn--BUT it's

just as irresponsible to PASS at any intersection, whether it

be a lane or the public road.
 
Pulling two gravity wagons of corn to town, same spot in the road, two different years, first year a plumbers van passed me on the shoulder at 50mph. There was road construction so he didnt have a full shoulder, and I'm trying to watch traffic on my left side at the top,of a hill/curve that is a no passing zone but many pass there. And this idiot passes me full bore on the wrong side.

The following year a gravel semi does the exact same thing, same place.

How increadably irresponsible and dangerous.

Paul
 
The GPS in the operator's cell phone told him to turn left, so he did. Is it his fault the cell phone didn't check for traffic, LOL?
 

[b:28724d4203]"Wish you could drive some farm implements on the road for a couple days, you would gain a whole new view of irresponsibility on the road"[/b:28724d4203]
I have--MANY times, but I pulled, off road, when possible, for vehicles behind me. Always aware of what was around me.
Five British sports cars, MG, Triumph, Austen Healey, and Jaguar. All antique and not a one of them fast!
We all had I left turn signal on and never got over 50mph, during the pass!
Hardly [i:28724d4203]"blowing the doors off"![/i:28724d4203]
 
I see bicycles on the road all the time and none of them even have flashing lights and they aren't trying to make a living. I try to keep my highway time to a minimum because of all the sport cars and SUVs that pass on curves, double yellow lines and intersections. Many of them have a cell phone stuck to their ear.
 
Actually, passing at an intersection is illegal for this very reason. Its also illegal to change lanes at an intersection.




"Driver probably never looked back and was oblivious to other cars needing to pass!"

When you are making a left turn do you stop so the cars behind you can pass you on the left before you turn? They "need" to get to their destination too.
 
(quoted from post at 20:49:44 06/11/15) Actually, passing at an intersection is illegal for this very reason. Its also illegal to change lanes at an intersection.




"Driver probably never looked back and was oblivious to other cars needing to pass!"

When you are making a left turn do you stop so the cars behind you can pass you on the left before you turn? They "need" to get to their destination too.
Click to expand...

There was no intersection or farm road involved, tractor turned off road to go into field.
 
I saw nowhere in the post that the machine was turning at an intersection. Could just as well been at a field gate/entrance.

If so, the FULL responsibility for clearing and signaling belongs to the tractor driver. If not, well, it's sort of split in my mind: no passing in an intersection and failure to check and or signal.

Lots of guys around here have to road equipment for a lot more that 2 miles mentioned, since most farm land is in small plots. If you want several hundred acres of crop land, you're going to be traveling. A lot.

JMHO. If they had collided, it would have been a bad deal, maybe even tragic because of one or both's inattention to their surroundings. You can get dead right or dead wrong. Drive defensively in your tractor, car, truck or airplane, always.
 
A Great Wish

"Wish you could drive some farm implements on the road for a couple days, you would gain a whole new view of irresponsibility on the road"

I had a baler with a wagon behind going up a hill. Two gray haired " ladies" was behind blowing their horn. When I topped the hill they went around laying on the horn giving me the finger. Their mouth was moving but could only guess what they were trying to convey. :)^D The day before I had six cars behind and not one was blowing their horns or waving their hands as I turned off the main road. The first car behind me was a State highway Patrol but I am sure that didn't have anything to do with the calm following. :)^D

Farm to market roads friends!
 
Yup, there are bad farmer drivers out there.

Your message left it open either way? ;)

Some of the newer farm equipment, sprayers like that, can go 50mph too, which kinda gets them away from being a typical 'farm implement'.

I met a fella on the road at midnite on a foggy night with a tractor and plow, he should not have been out there, when he turned off the road the
plow swung way out into the other lane as they do; in a fog that should never be on the road. He was mud covered, poor lights, everything dark
and crossing lines...... Yikes.

Have a few that park on the road with big equipment as if it were part of their field road, not a,public tarred road.... Grrrr.

I used to think a person has to be an idiot to hit a big farm implement on an open road, but of late I've seen how a slow moving implement at
dusk or night, even with lots of lights, just doesn't stand out all the time as something to be careful of, and a person going 55mph gets up upon
them so much faster than one would think, I see where we farmers need to do a lot better at those times of day for sure.

Most farmers are pretty good, but yea, there are are bad deals on that side as well for sure.

Paul
 
OH my,my. We must limit the time of day farmers can go from farm to farm. I don't think so! Farming today will go 24-7 when the weather permits. Some around here will go two or three days without going to bed when planting or harvesting.

Keep the farmers off the roads at night and buy more food from China.
 
Reminds me of a friend who said his wife was hauling corn while he shelled, she was using tractors and wagons. She was returning to the field on a state highway and was getting ready to make a left hand turn and fortunately he was watching. Coming up fast from behind her was a semi. Their radios saved a crash! He shouted to his wife "DON'T TURN!" just as the semi wizzed by. I think this was before mandatory turn signals and extended mirrors.
 
OK----IT done and over. So beware of your surrounding the next time. Be a defense driver, You may of saved a funural from happening for
some wife and children, and for what reason, to show people you were right. Come on . If you live in the country , you should know this piece
of farm equipment is going to a field or to a lane leading to a farm.
 
What is nasty is hauling a load you can't see behind -wagon load of hay, for instance. You are at rhe mercy of the automobile drivers.
 
Lucky no one was hurt. Like Allan said in the very first post, you would have been responsible if you hit him from behind. I'm not faulting you at all, because I wasn't there. However, I can guarantee it's best to slow clear down and make sure you are good to pass before actually doing it when it comes to passing big machinery.

That is certainly not to say that the driver of the spray rig wasn't texting or something, but I would think it rare that he didn't know you were there. I have driven large combines, 4 WD tractors with huge eqt on them down the road, and I, like I am sure most, know where every vehicle in the state is, when I'm on the road.

Again - that is not to say the guy wasn't paying attention or doing something he shouldn't have been. Main thing is no one was hurt. Bob
 
I'm still trying to figure out why you think he should have waited for you pass him on the left before he turned left.
 
If it had a slow moving vehicle emblem,which I'm sure it did,you're supposed to slow down to the speed of the vehicle then proceed around WITH CAUTION!
 
In New Jersey, you can be ticketed for being on the road after dark with farm equipment. Law on the books from the 1940s. Same law says you're supposed to have red flags on all four corners of a trailed implement on the road during the day. Generally this stuff is ignored but in that instance you cross paths with the wrong cop on the wrong day. . . .
 
Yesterday morning ( Wednesday) there was one of them highboy sprayers turned over in the middle of Lagootie,Indiana
Don't know vhat happened, but it appeared as if he went around the corner too fast.
It was at the intersection of highway 50 and 231.
 
Actually New Jersey law specifies that "CODE 51" ag equipment may not be driven on public road after sunset - then specifically states that a farm TRACTOR is "CODE 52" equipment that does not include the after dark restriction. They even specify different plates for the two.
 
It's amazing farmers take their equipment on public highways and everyone is suppose to magically know they are there. When a truck is hauling a wide load they have a vehicle in front and back with a flashing light letting people know the danger but a 20 mph tractor is exempt. I was traveling in Kentucky one time where the highway was one steep hill after another. I came over one hill and there was a tractor poking along and no place to get off road and not enough time to stop so I had to go around him. About the time I went around him a Grayhound bus was coming over the next hill head on at me.
 
Look like this, probably couldn't see your little sports car zooming by. To many booms in the way.

Nate
a193370.jpg
 
Jiles,I like that"NOT EVEN A HAND SIGNAL",how naïve are you anyway?Those flashing red lights keep flashing,but one goes solid while the other one signals the turn.But you were still 100% in the wrong anyway.
 
More so just better lighting.

Maybe on a pea soup fog night maybe rethink things, maybe just right now this isn't a good idea?

No sort of ban or anything!

More, common sense?

Paul
 
Why is the one behind automatically wrong. I've driven tractors for for over fifty years on public roads, and I never turned left or right without making sure that I had clearance to turn. If you are driving a slow moving vehicle, it is totally your responsibility to make sure you can make a safe turn
johnwesley
 
I agree. The driver approaching from behind is responsible for having his vehicle under control at all times.

If you hit something from behind, it's your ballgame.
 
Yup, common sense comes into affect. Maybe just maybe you should not have been out on the road if it was that foggy. :)^D
 
The rules of the road as stated in almost every vehicle and traffic code book in the world:
If you are moving FROM your lane of travel to pass, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to determine whether you can safely complete the pass.
The basic law states that if you are in the act of passing and a collision occurs, you are presumed at fault. It does not matter if the other operator signaled or not. The vehicle moving in the travel lane has the right of way to proceed as necessary. The overtaking driver is required by law to yield to the other vehicle. Frustrating as it may be, that is how an accident investigator will see it.
 
All the farmers around here have lights on all the equipment they run down road and have SMV warnings on them. But from what I have seen and experienced over the years of farming and driving for a commerical freight line that most people don't know what a SMV sign and what flashing lights mean. You guys have forgotten one rule that I was taught when I started driving many years ago and that is you drive defensively and don't trust the other driver.
 
As a sprayer operator who sprays quite a bit right on the edges of the Denver metro area I spend a lot of time driving down some heavy
traveled roads (Tower Rd, 120th Ave, the field across from Cabelas on the north side, for instance). It is absolutely amazing how stupid
people are around such a large wide bright red machine (mine is a Case). Just yesterday I was going down a narrow 2 lane road in a no passing
zone when a nutjob lady kept trying to pass in her Lincoln. I signaled to turn left slowed way down got partway through my turn and she tried
to pass. Luckily I was paying double attention to my mirror thinking she would try something this stupid. You will be amazed how fast I can
come out of a sprayer and give a cussing lesson on how to drive and pay attention. This is by far my closest call. Last year two other
machines were hit by vehicles and both those vehicles were found at fault. My machine has the red lights (brakes that you do not touch as its
a hydro) and also has a set of led yellow lights that no one pays attention to.

Slow down around equipment....especially if you are out joyriding around anyways.
 
No one will ever know if he was on the cell phone or not. I'm betting he was. He was not right by not indicating a turn but by law I don't know if farm equipment is required to signal. You might have been in his blind spot. The folded booms are pretty hard to see around. Anyway it's good no one was hurt. In my neck of the woods a guy was killed when his car was run over by a sprayer on the road in the middle of the night. I don't know the details.
 
well, 50 mph is 2 fast for english cars, bolts that hold wrist pins in, fall off into pan...jag 120 would go 120 mph...be blessed, grateful, prepared, nik...
sunbeam alpine, sunbeam imp, 58 austin healey 100-6, 61 bugeye sprite bought new, 62 lotus super 7
 
Farm equipment has gotten so big all parties have to be careful as well as give and take. If you see something coming on a two lane road pull over.

I passed some sort of potato sorting machine (or something) pulled by a tractor the other day on a four lane. It was so wide I had to get my L.H. wheels over the rumble strip. The tractor and machine was followed by a pick up with 4 way flashers on (only). Should of had a yellow flashing light and "Wide Load" sign.
 
If you live in farm country, I expect that's nothing new and therefore should be expected when...passing with care. I don't say that its right, but do say that its expected. If I'm coming up on the rear of an Amish buggy or farm implement and it hangs a left and I hit it as I'm passing it, I get the ticket.

Mark
 
I am in a sprayer basically everyday it is not raining
in the spring. It is absolutely amazing seeing some
people's brains. I hardly ever get passed on a two
lane highway in passing zones that you can see a
mile ahead but every thing there is a double yellow,
hill, blind curve or especially if I have my left turn
signal on someone decides it's time to pass. Just
really gotta be on the look out and yes it is terribly
hard to see out of when the booms are folded
 
I remember driving a John Deere 4430 from the shed to the dealership for some work about 8 years ago... Maybe 4 or 5 miles? Was rolling down the road in road gear, and it wasn't going too bad, pulling over as much/often as possible to let people by. But then I got to the dealership. Put the left turn signal on, and slowed down to turn due to oncoming traffic. Finally came to a complete stop waiting to turn.

Guess what happened when oncoming traffic cleared? The first three cars behind me decided TO PASS ME. That almost ended very badly, but fortunately I looked back and jerked the tractor back straight. I couldn't believe it. My number one rule on the road -- never trust ANYBODY, EVER. :(
 
I live a the top of a hill, with yellow stripes on both sides, get passed all the time when I am turning left. I really believe most people do not understand hand signals and some think holding your hand straight out means OK to pass.
 
Just wanted to add one more thing on the
approaching farm equipment with caution. Many of
these custom application vehicle have operators in
the cab that have spent many many hours in that
cab. (We work at least daylight to dark 7 days a
week when we can) operator fatigue takes a huge
toll on the guy behind the wheel by Saturday and
Sunday I am usually so ready to be anywhere than
behind that wheel that a lot of cares go out the
window. It's not right but but I'd say 100% of the
people on here have experienced that at least once
in any kind of vehicle. Being a weekend I'm sure it
was worse because of a long week and on the
weekend everyone in the country is out on the road
joyriding or doing chores that didn't get do during
the week. You just have to be patient. Another
instance I had was I pulled into our office got out of
the sprayer and into my pickup to head home pulled
out and instantly got behind another company's
spreader. Took about two miles of almost cursing
until I realized I'm usually the jerk in the vehicle
holding up traffic. Just had to sit back there and
laugh at myself
 
"cars needing to pass"

Jiles, I think you are confusing "cars WANTING to pass" with "cars NEEDING to pass"!
 

I was hauling a dump box wagon and I had someone pass me a few weeks ago, I was making a left hand turn WITH TURN SIGNALS in an INTERSECTION with NO PASSING on either side of the intersection, slowing down and my tires were on the yellow line, and some old guy barrels right by me, front end loader bucket almost tore the side of his car off.
 
(quoted from post at 01:14:16 06/12/15) "cars needing to pass"

Jiles, I think you are confusing "cars WANTING to pass" with "cars NEEDING to pass"!
Click to expand...

You got that right. I live on a narrow winding road that is 55MPH at best. Every morning when I go to the farm I'm usually passed by they same cars that are "running late" and are talking on the phone. I can't say for sure how fast they are going but they have to be well over 65 and pass on double yellow on a curve.
 
here, lots of fields, narrow roads, big farms with massive equipment..
They'd squash me like a bug.
roll down the window and enjoy the slow drive until he turns off.
gives me a chance to watch that big ol tractor and dream of driving it.

after all, we get stuck behind school buses for miles sometimes...twice a day...slow...sure, but we don't even think about passing em.
 
I had a cleaner LII combine. The only way to tell if there
as a car behind me was to look for shadows in the ditches.
For some reason drivers insist on driving right up behind
you in the blind spot. You have no idea they are back
there.

What really irritates me. I live on a residential street
on the edge of a very small town. Farmers insist on
driving combines with 24_30 foots heads down the street
without removing the head. They damage the mail boxes and
knock over the trash dumpsters scattering trash
everywhere. Never stopping to clean up the mess they made.
The biggest offender for doing this is the county
commissioner with his John Deere combine.

Everyone of those farmers could go one mile east or one
mile west and avoid driving through town.
 
OK----IT done and over. So beware of your surrounding the next time. Be a defense driver, You may of saved a funural from happening for
some wife and children, and for what reason, to show people you were right. Come on . If you live in the country , you should know this piece
of farm equipment is going to a field or to a lane leading to a farm.
 
I don't think drivers pay any attention to turn signals on machinery. I typically crown the road when making a left turn. A slow gradual drift to
the center or a sharp one if an oncoming car has passed to take the whole road. It gets the point across that I am turning. I try to avoid the
busy times of day and luckily don't have to work near major highways.
 
This post reminds me of the one where they were
flying down a 2 lane highway at night, during a wet
harvest, and they didn't slow down when a semi ahead
on the side started flashing his lights, and they
almost ran into the back of a combine at extralegal
speed. And the poster was mad at the guy in the semi
instead of his dipstick brother who didn't slow down
when someone was trying to warn them of a problem.

It wreaks of the same attitude of the guys who come
around the curve onto a dam we have to cross with
equipment. The 1-tripper is 2 feet wider than the
pavement, the wings even folded are wider than the
guard rails, they see you coming, and instead of
stopping before the guard rails start, where you can
get around each other, they continue onto the dam
and expect you to back off the other end a good 3/4
mile away.
 
(quoted from post at 14:43:56 06/12/15) I had a cleaner LII combine. The only way to tell if there
as a car behind me was to look for shadows in the ditches.
For some reason drivers insist on driving right up behind
you in the blind spot. You have no idea they are back
there.

What really irritates me. I live on a residential street
on the edge of a very small town. Farmers insist on
driving combines with 24_30 foots heads down the street
without removing the head. They damage the mail boxes and
knock over the trash dumpsters scattering trash
everywhere. Never stopping to clean up the mess they made.
The biggest offender for doing this is the county
commissioner with his John Deere combine.

Everyone of those farmers could go one mile east or one
mile west and avoid driving through town. Take their pic driving thru town
Click to expand...
 
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