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I rest my case...........

Goose

Goose

Well-known Member
Several days ago, we had a rather spirited thread about combines on public roads. I was abruptly taken to task for opining that some combine operators could be more alert and courteous when encountering motor vehicles. At least one poster voiced the opinion that all vehicle drivers are stupid morons.

Fast forward to this morning. U.S. Highway 77 is a four lane highway between Lincoln and Wahoo, Nebraska with a 65 mph speed limit. It's also the main north/south route through that part of the state. I was coming south out of Wahoo with my cruise set on 67 when I topped a rise in the road and came up behind about a dozen assorted vehicles behind a combine blocking both southbound lanes and going about 15 mph. He was centered exactly on the centerline and the header was wide enough to cover both lanes completely. From my vantage point at the rear of the pack I could see mirrors projecting out about two feet on both sides of the cab, so it's reasonable to assume the combine operator could see the traffic behind him.

At this place in the road, there is a hard surfaced shoulder almost as wide as a traffic lane, and the header on the combine was lifted high enough to go over the reflector posts, so there's absolutely no reason the combine operator couldn't have drifted onto the shoulder without breaking his speed and cleared one lane at least long enough for the traffic to pass.

This went on for another couple of miles with more traffic piling up behind me. Finally the combine turned off onto a side road. If the combine operator was capable of coherent thought, he was probably thinking how nice it was of the State of Nebraska to build this nice wide 4 lane highway for him to run his combine on.
 
You must have been in a terrible hurry. Yes, he could have gotten over & risked puncturing a $1200 tire or getting the header torn up on one post that happened to be a little higher than the rest. What do you expect??? Yer in Nebraska for god's sake!!! Now, guy's like you here in Ohio just drive down in the ditch with the pedal on the floor screaming bad words as they go around flipping their finger in the wind. They be fun to play with.
 
Stupid people drive all sorts of things....cars, trucks, 4 wheelers, motorcycles, tractors, combines, semis, horses, lawn mowers, bycyles, etc....yep, you can't fix stupid.
 
Most likely you are haveing to pay the price for what some IDIOT driver has done to him in the past. And now he will not give anyone else the opportunity to do some thing that stupid again.
Been there, done that.
Steve
 
It is frustrating to drive big equipment down the road and have clowns cutting you off and crowding you.... That being said when driving equipment and there are people behind you just pull off and let them pass if you hve a chance.

There is less chance of another driver doing something stupid if you do.
 
The header should not have been on the combine on a major road like that. Period! Blocking both lanes is not OK.Jim
 
That is probably the Cold HARD TRUTH , on top of what others mentioned , slipped belts and clutch taking off , uneven braking coming to a stop . andif anyone hits a car coming toward them as they whizz around , You can BET the CAR driver will say that the combine driver motioned them thru .. One of My Peeves of these asleep car drivers is to be rolling along and come to the Church lot which is serveral hundred ft long , I ease over to the parking lot and idle back , Hoping I can Stay in Hi without shifting , while the one or 2 cars pass at a pokiy-a-z attitude.. I end up coming to a complete stop . To give Me Space, nephew in Lead Warning truck serpintines in the church lot . Now I have to stress all those componets again for a needless takeoff .. I thought they were in a big hurry /? GUESS they were just trying to lick the tailend of My combine ???
 
Guy i work with did a little test while driving home from work. He timed him normal driving style (he usually just stays in the right lane, and waits through the lights). He then drove like an idiot along with the rest of the drivers. He saved 3 minutes driving like a moron. 3 minutes isnt worth burning the extra gas (will definately add up to more than 3 min, especially when you waste your time at the pump), it is also not worth getting into an accident (at least 30 min and $$$$), or getting killed or killing someone (destroying your life). I just dont understand people. One thing i dont understand is about a month ago i was driving along a 2 lane road lots of traffic and bikers. I was going around 50 in a 70 b/c there was a car off to the shoulder with their flashers on so slowed down to safely pass, and i get pulled over. On the warning he wrote up that i was going the incorrect speed or something like that. And before letting me go he said be carful there are lots of people at (no crap, thats why i'm not driving like an idiot with a 1 ton truck and a trailer) especially when there is a car off on the shoulder, you never know when someone will pop out of that vehicle. I just dont understand some people...............
 
The law in Idaho states that slow moving vehicles must pull over to let traffic pass if there are more than 3 vehicles behind them. In 40 something years I don't think I've ever seen it happen.
 
Goose have you ever drove a piece of farm equipment on the road Having people zoom around you at high speeds because they think there more important or they think they need to get there a few minutes early Most farmers around here anyways have fields right beside one another so they on travel short distances on the road so just be patient an maybe some complaints wouldn't be in order
 
Okay now the other week i was driving into town on my jd 60 with a farmall behind me. plenty of room to pass, only a 1 mile trip. this a hole passes both of us then missis cliping the front tire by about 3 inches. was he justified hell no. Farm equipment always has the right of way here in CT except to pedestrians
 
I'm heading down the township gravel with a combine and 30' head. No I'm not going to unhook the head and tow it for only a few miles. Some idiot comes barreling down the gravel towards me, drives right past a perfectly good field approach and stops on the side of the road 100 feet beyond it. Now wouldn't common sense tell him to pull into the approach and get the hay off the road? Does he really think I'm going to put my $225,000 combine in the ditch and risk damage to my machine just so he can pass by with his $200 rust bucket rice burner.
I stayed right in the middle of the road and pulled right up on him so my header was in his eyeballs. He just sits there. After about 30 seconds, (I wanted to stay as long as it took to see if he grew a brain but I was in a hurry) I got out of the cab and told him to back that son of a bit...honda up and park it in the approach right behind him. He says......oh!
 
I must have been mistaken but for some reason I thought off road diesel fuel meant that a person didnt have to pay the road taxes on the fuel. I know that farm equipment has to be moved and I understand as I farm too, but I think the roads were actually meant for cars and trucks. It doesnt take that much time to move over and let the traffic pass.

But I know some people think their time is worth more then the 10 or 15 cars and people in them that they are holding up.
 
What makes your trip more important than his? Too friggen bad if the next feild is only a mile away, take the head off and then use the road. Am pretty sick of people who just think because they are a BIG FARMER that allows them to rule the road. If you were anything but a farmer you would have to have an oversized load permit and a DOT escort. Suppose you dump your grain cart on your semi on the road blocking both lanes also. Suppose you think it is perfectly okay for your loaded wagons and grain carts to go down the road and break it all up too. You are not the only one on the road. What do you do when you meet anothe idiot that wont take his 12 row corn head off? Do you both sit there to prove your point that you are oh so important?
 
(quoted from post at 19:23:18 10/19/09) with my cruise set on 67 .
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You were speeding Mister!!! Good thing someone was there to slow you down. You must think the road belongs to you and you can do whatever you want... :shock: Just kidding.

I don't know how much work it is, but they take off the heads here and pull them behind. My area has no fields as big as some of you folks, so they get plenty of practice. 10ft is the max for the road.

Dave
 
Around here there is no place to pull off. A semi tried pulling off once, and the entire tractor and trailer sank down to the underbody. They closed down the road (i was watching from a corner store while getting fuel) and I left just as they were trying to pull it out and the big 18wheel tow truck was sliding itself across the ground. Up at our farm the road we normally use is a road that only our neighbors travel on since it dead ends (only 2 neighbors) so one of us gets out of the way for the other. On the main road i do occasionally get behind a tractor, but i stay at least 20' back and go with the flow of him. I will pass if he signals me too, there are too many blind corners up there to be flying around at 50 mph.
 
One of my driver education students ventured that "they ought to build a special road for them..."

This is Michigan with lots of large combines, hay harvesting equipment and potato equipment.
 
Goose have you ever driven a combine? Even if you haven't you have noticed that they are rear steer and of course you have driven something that streers like that, maybe a forklift?
In a field and round warehouses they are preety stable, speeds are low, maybe 2-5 mph. Get a combine on a highway and watch how quick they move sideways. Me I wait for the operator to signal or slow down and move to the side--nothing is that important.
Also you'll notice the response in this list that points out the difference in value? Your vehicle is valued at more then 1/4 million dollars?
 
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned what I see as the real issue here. When I am holding up a line of cars even though it's on just a two lane 40 MPH road, I will pull off at a safe wide place that I use nearly every time I am on this stretch with equipment, and take a few seconds to let people pass.I CAN SPARE THE SECONDS !!! I don't need it on my conscience that I could have avoided a pile-up. It would ruin my whole day if someone died or was maimed because I couldn't spare a few seconds. Likewise if I were on a bigger road with more traffic and a back-up behind me reaching back almost to the crest of the last hill that a loaded 18 wheeler is about to come over----------I would have time to take off my header. Who is right or wrong doesn't bring back dead people, it only decides who is living in your house next year.
 
Check the lawbooks - in most states it is illegal to drive on the shoulder, a farmer legally must use the actual roadway.

Did you also know you cannot buzz around a tractor or combine at 67 mph? You legally must slow down to his speed, and first then pull around him.

Implement driver was probably required to pull over every so often as traffic builds up & conditions allow.

I've met a few bad implement drivers on the road.

I've met a whole lot of bad auto drivers on the road.

Don't think your case helps you very much.
You didn't know the ules???

But there is a lot to be said for everyone to be careful & think about what you are doing.

--->Paul
 
I have a plan. Show them you are upset, organize your group and boycott farmers by not eating!

If this is the biggest problem in your life you are lucky.

People, its called commone sense, get some and use it. Serioulsy!

bill
 
Your line of thinking remined me of a time when I was a highway comm. in IL. We were oiling roads for another township when we noticed tracks through the fresh oil,. the comm. of that started swearing at the unknown driver that would do such a thing. All of the swearing stopped as we chipped past HIS house and there set his wifes car dripping road oil. How would you feel if your wife or kids are in an accident that could have been avoided if some one would have taken an extra five minutes to increase the chances of their saftey. I have landscaping business that reqires us to load and haul large mowers from job to job. Some days we load and unload eight times I sure that tracor will set on the trailer without being strapped UNLESS I have to hit the brakes or make a swerve to avoid a toddler chasing his ball(ect). There was an accident several years ago that killed a young farm girl on a bridge when she met a fourwheel drive JD in the dark that had only the two head lights in the frame for head lights. She hit the left front tires on that tractor thinking she was meeting a Jeep type vehicle. She hit so hard that front axle was broken off of the tractor. Removing that head might take a few minutes but if yiu are involved in any type of accident you will spend enough time with that to remove that head many times. We can not assume people know how to drive around eqipment as so few drivers are farmers anymore.Be Careful
 
I farm and I think he should be ticketed,especially going down a US highway, he could put the head on a trailer and pull it behind, takes a few minutes to put it back on, some of those puncture wound farmers do that stuff for the same reason that dogs lick their balls, because they can!
 
I'm gonna say this again. The head needed to come off that combine before it went down HWY 77. I know there are laws of husbandry permitting us farmers to drive our wide machinery down the road without oversize permits, but we also have to use our brains a little before we go on the road. I've plopped a head down on a trailer many times and yes it is time consuming plus it takes an extra man to pull the header trailerr, but sometimes you've gotta do it. Blocking two lanes of a four lane is plain arrogant! If the combine would have been going down a lonely gravel road it would have been a different story. Like I've said before, I've driven a combine hundreds and hundreds of miles on the road, and a lot of times it was with a 30 or 40 foot head. But the head is off the combine when I'm on a highway, no matter what state of the union I'm in. I too have had my share of encounters with dumb drivers but I'm not going to turn into a big bully just to get back at them. Life's too short for that. Jim
 
I've experianced this a lot in IOWA. The additude
is that the farmer pays just as much, road tax
as anyone, and owns his share of the road.
Many times they could pull over, but won't !
 
this is a serious safety concern,it's not about some jerk farmers rights, yes I have moved 8rw planters ect. short distances on township roads without putting them on transports and yes if i had a 30' beanhead and had to go a mile or two to the next field I would probably leave it on but I would not go on a major highway with the head on. This is the reason farmers are disliked, the richest ones sit in the coffee shop and complain how tough they have it then tell about their new combine or tractor then leave in their new $40,000 pickup. They ruin it for the nice ones that live around here that stay at home tending their own business. Ding themn with a good fine that will wipe the smile off their face! ps- my bean head is 18' and I do move it on roads that see 3 cars a day.
 
Goose,

you have got to realize that in that area where you are/were driving, Corn is a Religion. And to speak your opinion about Combiners hogging the road is sacrilegious!

Don't you know that without Holy Corn....we'll all starve to death?

Combines are nothing less than giant Arks, that carry the yellow Manna to the Temples...er, I mean silos.

It's the same wherever you go. Here in eastern Ky and over in West Virginia, the miners and truckers worship their Black god, that they call Coal. They even advertise on local television that without coal......there would be no electricity. Therefore, that gives them the right to run over you in an overloaded coal truck enroute to their temple...otherwise known as a coal dock.

So....it's not about sharing the road....it's more like forcing us Infidels and Heretics to accept their religious practices....lest we face starvation....or be cast into outer darkness when the electric goes off.....hehe!
 
I also run large equipment. I get over when there are too many people behind me. I mostly run sprayers for a local agronomy center, but I do run a 6620 with 6 row head and 15 foot flex head. The heads come off my "little" combine between farms. If not for safety, for the fact that it's HARD on a combine to bounce that much weight down the road. A previous poster said combines get real squirrely at 15 mph, they're a lot easier to handle if they don't have several ton of header on front.

I deal with dozens of local farmers all through the season and see two major types of farmers - The polite, "just glad to be farming" type and the "I'm a big dog and more important than everyone" type. This discussion seems to be filled with the latter. I work with both types when spraying. Let me tell you, the guys out there have 3000+ acres, "quarter million dollar" combines, 30 foot headers, double and tripled up 4WD articulated tractors, and the debt to prove it are the biggest pricks I know. WORSE than the guy in the car trying to get around you. I'd rather work with 10 guys running 350 acres than 1 guy running 3500.

My point - Take off the header! It's easier on the combine, the operator AND neighborly relations. Becoming a bigger jerk is not the way to deal with jerks.
 
Well if a combine is worth so much money and so hard to move maybe they should have to get a helicopter to move it?I say you take the head off if you have to go a mile down the Interstate.I dont care if you are a big farmer or a small one,you dont get to block the road for any reason.If you block the road and an ambulance is trying to get down the road and you cause somebody to die you might loose your farm when they sue you.If you arent careful the next time you tell somebody to back their car up they might climb up there with you and beat on you for a while,or pull a gun out and shoot you.People are getting a worse attitude daily.I got a ticket one time for blocking traffic in a semi,I deserved it,but I couldnt move my truck because another truck blew his engine and there wasnt enough room for me to get out of the passing lane when the traffic stopped.I had traffic backed up as far as I could see.I dont see what makes a farmer so important he can block both lanes of one side of a 4 lane.Highway patrol needs to write him a ticket he wont forget.If you have to take the head off to move your combine,you have to take the head off.I have noticed in the past few years equipment has gotten bigger,and operators seem either more arrogant or dumber.Im all for farmers,but you have to share the road,not be a jerk about it,and while I dont understand why it seems a few are trying to farm the whole county,Im glad they farm.Common sense has to work both ways.If you are farming half the county,and your machinery is blocking 4 lanes,you might need to think about what kind of image you are projecting to the public before griping about what some poor person has to use for transportation.Makes the impression to me that you are a jerk,farming or not.
 
Yes, I have farmed, and I've spent plenty of time on public roads with a combine.

And, I've always respected the rights of other drivers. And, also, if I had to go 10 or 15 miles between custom jobs, I always took the least traveled roads, even if they were a few miles farther.
 
If its illegal to drive on the shoulder,its illegal to block the road too.I doubt any cop is going to tell a farmer he cant use the shoulder if it means he is going to block the road if he doesnt.If he does,he needs the common sense.However if the equipment is so wide its blocking the road the head needs to come off.Farmers,no matter how big,have no right to block an Interstate highway because they are too lazy to take the head off.People have to take the head off on gravel roads around here to move a couple of miles.Its arrogance of a big farmer not common sense of a 4 wheeler in this case.
 
I would put money on the fact that the operator, just like most of the drivers of the vehicles that was following him was glued to a cell phone either texting or talking and become completely distracted from anything else on the road. The cell phone and especially texting is costing the world money every second of the day. Not only a huge waste of time but also creating situations that are very dangerous. Honestly, how many people that were following the combine were either talking or texting on the go and not driving responsibly? Just a thought. Dan
 
Doesnt make any difference if anybody was talking on a cell phone,or texting.He knows he was supposed to take the head off.Cell phones save lots of time and make lots of money too_Of course they are abused.Of course they cause wrecks.You arent going to stop people from using them.Plus there are many other things that are distracting drivers besides cell phones,like reading,lap top computers,Playboy magazines,other drivers,signs beside the road,weather,other things that you cant do anything about.
 
greygoat said .... The additude
is that the farmer pays just as much, road tax
as anyone,

Farm fuel is tax exempt

billonthefarm said .... I have a plan. Show them you are upset, organize your group and boycott farmers by not eating!

That really solves the problem. That just shows how some farmers are. Like it or not... live with it.

AND
paul said .... Check the lawbooks - in most states it is illegal to drive on the shoulder,

I think if you really check the law book you will find that farm machinery is allowed on roads to move them BUT they are not allowed on interstates AND any other hwy that is part of the federal hwy system when there is a alternate route even though it may be a farther route to travel. This US hwy 77 may fit in that category.
 
(quoted from post at 19:49:23 10/19/09) Most likely you are haveing to pay the price for what some IDIOT driver has done to him in the past. And now he will not give anyone else the opportunity to do some thing that stupid again.
Been there, done that.
Steve
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On my little road trip yesterday, I tried to be curtious and stay to the right but still in my lane, had people crowding and one almost took my frt wheel by trying to pass between me and the center line. After about the 3rd time, I rode about 6 inchs from the center line. Had 3 motorcycles pass me on the right and a car try it. Coming back with the baler, had a few folks get disturbed but got over it I guess. Then had this guy in a porsche lay on his horn as I got over as far as I could and he passed flippng me the bird. He stopped at a bakery in the next town and I passed him. He caught up with me just outside of town and took a nice, leisurely drive for about 7 miles until we got to the next town.

Dave
 
A BIG 10-4 on that one!! Most guys here in So. Il. are good about taking their header off when on the highway, and on backroads alot of them (including me when I am helping the FIL) will stop on the backroads to let a car go first. If it is going to take me 30 min to get 7 miles down the road, another minute or two won't hurt.
 
I believe that alot of the guys are taking this the wrong way. It is not anything against farming, it is about not being polite and friendly like we should. The better public appearance we have the more acceptance we get for being on the road. I know that they would starve without us but they have a bigger voting majority and we need them on our side when the government decides to add more regulations.
 
But you do need another person to guide the combine when it's backing up to the header trailer, or in our case the heads had their own wheels. BTDT alone sometimes but it involves getting out of the cab a thousand times to see how close the combine is to the trailer.Jim
 
Like some others said, we have to put our big egoes in our pockets when we have the machinery on the road. And no, we farmers don't support the road system with fuel taxes.

Talking about cell phones, I was driving a combine on a highway between Idaho Falls and Shelly when the law pulled me over. Some impatient driver called the law on their cell phone to complain that I was impeding traffic. The officer said I was doing nothing wrong, but he still had to follow up on the call. In that case I had three choices. 1. Load the combine on a truck, get the permits, escorts etc. and be hassled by the DOT. 2. Drive the combine on this busy two lane or 3. Drive the combine up busy interstate 15, and in that local area farm machinery can be driven on the interstate. I did drive a combine on the interstate there once and I'll never do it again. I want to live for awhile longer. JIm
 
Check the state laws- did a seed corn harvest a few years back in Wisconsin, got to travel a section of interstate with tractor convoy. State patrol cars did a little clearing, pulled over cars that passed improperly, county deputy blocked traffic when coming to bridge so pickers could take up both lanes. Law has farm to market road designations, Implement of husbandry privileges, designated dates for overload/overwidth usage and slow moving vehicle rules that get tighter for night use but basicly say farmers during planting and harvets during daylight get most right of way situations. County cops are aware of laws and like to ticket cars breaking the passing slowmoving vehicles in unsafe manner- usually they can write multiple tickets and collect more money off car driver. Timber trucks get a couple overlength breaks on a couple roads also. Some of the laws were written when corn pickers were only 2 row heads mounted on tractors-this has been update some in many places to a max 10 or 12 foot wide limit but taking off corn head on a designated farm road is not required unless way over width or night usage. Most laws say overtaking driver responsible for checking clearance before passing- case law in Iowa, Wisconsin and Ohio has incidents of car driver passing improperly a "implement of husbandry" being held responsible for the resulting "accident", most other states probably have similar cases to be checked. If combine or tractor has visible flashing yellow lights and slow moving vehicle signage during daylight hours or full width lights at night the law tends to support farmers on non-interstate highway main roads. If Interstate runs on old farm to market road then some sections may farm use allowed also. RN
 
Bill I don't think this is an anti farmer thing, I think it is a pro safety thing. Anyone that drives anything down the road is obligated to do it in a safe manner no matter a combine to a pedestrian. If you cant do it safe, if you are liable of harm, you should not have the privilege of using the roadway that we all pay for. We not only pay for the construction and maintenance but also research to make and keep them safe.
 
You can cuss and sew all you want when your family is in danger because someone is negligent! SAFE OR NOT AT ALL!
 
He's got as much right to be on the road as you do. A bicycle does too. Did you have a wide load permit? A pilot car or 2? Yah, the guy could have pulled into the approach but the road isn't your private road! You had no right to curse at him. You should have politely asked him to back up into the approach. What if he would have been p'od at your attitude and just sat there and waited for you to move? If law enforcement were called, they would care less if you drove a $2,000,000 combine or a $100 beater. I think you'd be found in the wrong if you didn't have all the permits necessary to have your 30' wide combine on a public road. You complain that he drives a rust bucket rice burner Honda, yet when ever someone asks what the best small engine to get is, Honda is at the top of the list. There are arrogant drivers of all kinds of vehicles on the roads. Just because you drive an expensive combine and are too lazy, or in too much of a hurry to take the header off, doesn't give you more rights on the road that a passenger vehicle. It's just too bad you only have to go a couple miles. If he would have run into your combine, it would have been your fault. I think the original post had people like you in mind. Nobody owns the road and can set their own rules to suit themselfs. Most farmers do look and pull over to let people pass and/or have another vehicle follow them or lead them to warn other traffic. Dave
 
I am a farmer but I would have passed that combine in the median if I had to stopped in front of him and ripped him out of the cab and gave him a beating he would not forget.Then I would pull combine off the road and take keys out just so the rest of the people and farmers stuck behing the idiot could do what they need to do.A couple farmers give all farmers a bad name.A few years back I met a combine on the road. He had left his head on and I took mine off.Not room for both of us so I kept it full throttle and centered it in the road and I was not moving. He had to get over so far on the shoulder he got stuck.I stopped after passing him.He was mad that I ran him off the road and I told hime take the head off next time and I left him there.Now he always takes head off.
 
I have been down that stretch of hiway between Wahoo and Lincoln. As a farmer I will say that its stupid to go down a major hiway with your header on.It only takes a few minutes to take if off.Almost everyone pulls their heads off to move in my area.Some of the bigger combines are almost 20 ft wide with no head on.

I'm in an area with mostly narrow gravel and blacktop roads so a 20 ft head or 8 row corn head is as wide as you can go on the back roads.I farm all on gravel roads and will leave the heads on if only moving a few miles. Otherwise they get pulled.

Its not illegal to drive farm equipment on the shoulder in my area so if going down a hiway we stay there.Most all of the farmers in my area are courteous but a few think that they own the road.I pull off every chance that I get.
 
Back in the spring the University of Maines' Ag. Extension Service offered SMV triangles free to farm equipment operators. Along with the triangles there were do's and don'ts of the road, one of which was not to pull over with farm equipment while on public roads....apparently the reason is that if someone passes and gets in/causes an accident it would leave the operator liable......go figure. Ya can't win.
Cal
 
(quoted from post at 19:48:34 10/19/09) Stupid people drive all sorts of things....cars, trucks, 4 wheelers, motorcycles, tractors, combines, semis, horses, lawn mowers, bycyles, etc....yep, you can't fix stupid.
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True words right there.
 
(quoted from post at 04:42:11 10/20/09) I'm surprised that no one has mentioned what I see as the real issue here. When I am holding up a line of cars even though it's on just a two lane 40 MPH road, I will pull off at a safe wide place that I use nearly every time I am on this stretch with equipment, and take a few seconds to let people pass.I CAN SPARE THE SECONDS !!! I don't need it on my conscience that I could have avoided a pile-up. It would ruin my whole day if someone died or was maimed because I couldn't spare a few seconds. Likewise if I were on a bigger road with more traffic and a back-up behind me reaching back almost to the crest of the last hill that a loaded 18 wheeler is about to come over----------I would have time to take off my header. Who is right or wrong doesn't bring back dead people, it only decides who is living in your house next year.
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You sir, have an abundance of common sense, something that is in short supply these days.
 

trucker40, I generally agree with you but the use of paragraphs would make your posts much easier to read and understand, just a suggestion, carry on.
 
I heard that someone recently invented an extendable hitch! makes hooking up alot easier I hear, suppose they make them for wagons? Sure would have been to have such a thing when we filled silo!
 
I pay road tax whenever I fuel my diesel and gas pickups to run for parts, check cattle, pull machinery, haul cattle ect. Other (non-farm) off road equipment doesn't pay road tax either.
 
Gotta be careful, with the level of government subsidies given out in my state, I tend to think of them as "our" combines.

Keep the shiny side up.
 
I know one thing for sure, if I had ever blocked traffic for a long time when I had the chance to pull over and let them by on of my Gramp's rigs, he woulda chewed my a@@ 'till I had to sh$% in a washtub- just plain rude. He was the local IH dealer, and limespreader, and we had several farms, so he was pretty well known with a good reputation that he earned, so.. We had a a pair of 706D's, a 93 combine and a lever-steer 91- nobody had combines much bigger at the time in that part of NY. We had an old hay wagon to move the 16' drag harrows, pulled 'em on sideways and pulled with the pickup. I started roading the equipment at 11, after a while when I got some experience, he would send me off and catch up on the way. Widest thing we pulled was a 13' wide disc, both combines had 10' heads, so about 12' overall. There's ALWAYS a place here and there to pull off the road for a minute and let the line go by- no excuse for arrogant blocking.
On the lighter side, my first road trip (age 12) with the lever-steer 91- anyone who's never run one has missed out on a great amount of comedy relief- a very handy machine in some respects, and a rolling spaz attack in others. Top speed was a brisk walking space, and as experienced 91 guys will tell you, you had to adjust the air pressure in the drive tires to get it to go straight with the planetary steering, and it wasn't quite right- needed a "course correction" about every 75 ft. Pretty hilarious to watch it twitch 'n waddle down the road from behind, but the trip being about 10 miles, it quickly became un-funny if you were in the seat. You want big arms? Cruise a crooked-steering 91 for a couple hours... I get about a half mile from home, state hwy at that point, wide paved shoulders, no problem- then I see the Plymouth with the bubble-gum machine on the roof behind me- but it happened to one of a pair of brothers, both statey's, who also owned the local Ski-Doo and Yamaha shop- of which I had one of each, both needing a fair amount of "maintenance" work due to my gentle operation... plus my Dad was state BCI, so to say the least, they knew us well. So he stays behind for a while watching the waddling show, then pulls alongside and sees who it is, and yells "GET THAT POS OFF THE ROAD!!!" and speeds off laughing.
Forward about 25 yrs, I running a CAT 140 grader on a city paving job, and had to run from one street site to another, and this city motor cop pulls me over- he's gonna give me a ticket for no SMV emblem. So I tell him it doesn't need one, doesn't go that slow- he gets pissy and tells me anything 25 mph and under needs one, so I tell him, "This thing goes 26 MPH" So now he's really getting pissy, thinks I'm just being a smarta@@, maybe a little true, but I produce the op manual from behind the seat which states "Top Speed 26 MPH"... By now, the owner of our company, a well-known "screamer" pulls up, and I hand of to him and watch the rest of the show
At another outfit I worked for, myself and one other guy did all the large dozer work, so both of our company trucks had signs & beacons, so whoever was going to do the job ran pilot, and the other drove the Mack hauling the dozer. Coming in from one end of town required us to turn left at a major intersection in town, 4 lanes all ways with left turn pockets. So if you were first in line in the left turn pocket, the dozer blade on one of the D8's would hang about halfway into the first lane- and you'd always get the Bozo in a pickup that would drive around the blade and park in front of it, beside the Mack- left turn light goes green, and you're stuck- can't move without making a roadster out of the pickup, and the light doesn't want to change with the transport & dozer sitting on the sensing loops...
 
(quoted from post at 18:08:23 10/20/09)
trucker40, I generally agree with you but the use of paragraphs would make your posts much easier to read and understand, just a suggestion, carry on.
Click to expand...

I agree that paragraphs make for easier reading. I would also agree that your run-on sentence makes for difficult reading.
 
I think pretty much all of you, need to go back to kindergarten. Maybe you would learn the basic concept of having concern for others. We are constantly reminded at the fire house. "The law says they are to yield the right of way to you. It does not say it is yours to take." It seems to me some of you big talking braggers would do well to remember that and think of was you could make it a safer experience for everyone involved.
 
Where are you from? We've had extending toungs on silage wagons for 40 years. Most gravity flow wagons also. It helps for the last couple of feet but you have to get close. Keep a flag with you to mark the hitch location in relation to the trlr. where you need to stop the rear tire, then maybe two trips off the seat are needed. .02
 
My state, up to 20 feet a farmer is good to go. Not always wise, but legal.....

I agree on common sense, but the laws rarely take that into consideration. a good cop will figure it out, a bad one will do things to the letter of the law.... There is a difference, perhaps one of the few times we might agree I think? :)

Myself, I drive the road shoulder the whole 5 miles to the elevator, state highway, concrete road, tarred shoulder. It's a narrow shoulder, but tarred & tractor & wagons fit.

I'm illegal - I'm sure I'm hard on the tar, and I'm not where I legally should be.

But, I think I'd be dead if I tried to stay in the roadway and let all those cars & semis weave around me. In my own lane, and watching very carefully, has kept me alive with some common sense.

But, what I do and what you suggest is not _legal_ if you look it up. Folks driving cars & semis are supposed to do things differently than they do.

That's all I'm saying.

The funny thing of average car driver - they will pull over onto the shoulder to let you pass with a wide header or planter - directly opposite of a mailbox or road sign - where you can't fit through! Duh. Look beside you, pick a spot to pull over where it will work for the farmer. :)

--->Paul
 
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