Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Tractors!  (Read 9200 times)

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #15 on: October 27, 2014, 07:51:59 am »
Oi Hughesy!!! It's not just old ladies that can't reverse >:( In fact these us old ladies have probably been driving for half a century and have been reversing for people most of our lives. I usually find it's folk who aren't used to narrow country lanes be they youngsters, MIDDLE AGED MEN!! or whoever. It takes a bit of practise and patience on the side of us all. I couldn't reverse only yesterday for a man in  a BMW as there was another car, towing a trailer and a tractor behind me. We had to wait patiently while he backed into the hedge, came forward, tried again, backed into the hedge........... you get the idea?  In the end the tractor driver did it for him, very kindly I may add.
As I said country lanes are narrow and they're windy. We all need PATIENCE ;D

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2014, 07:59:56 am »
What narks me are the 4x4 drivers whose car has an invisible yard on the near side and who cannot move onto a decent grass verge to allow either a car or loaded tractor/trailer past, expecting them to get up onto the verge.  One has not got the traction and the other would sink but Mr/Mrs Pristine 4x4 does not give a damn as long as they do not get their boots dirty.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #17 on: October 27, 2014, 09:21:02 am »
What narks me are the 4x4 drivers whose car has an invisible yard on the near side and who cannot move onto a decent grass verge to allow either a car or loaded tractor/trailer past, expecting them to get up onto the verge.  One has not got the traction and the other would sink but Mr/Mrs Pristine 4x4 does not give a damn as long as they do not get their boots dirty.

Dem's Chelsea Tractors.  :rant:   I once sat in the middle of the narrow unfenced road in Exmoor in my beat up old Audi, pantomiming ' YOU - 4 - X - 4 - YOU - OFF-ROAD' until the silly yuppie in the spotless 4x4 drove onto the grass verge and let me by.  Banker.  ::)   Two minutes later, I went onto the verge for a wee Ka coming along - so you see it wasn't that I wouldn't, it was the principle of the thing!

And I regularly had to reverse up to 1/4 mile along a very windy, steep-sided lane for tourists who couldn't reverse 50yds into the passing place they'd just come past.  ::)


Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Ladygrey

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Basingstoke
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #18 on: October 27, 2014, 09:48:46 am »
The speed limit for tractors is currently 20 mph....my beef is that they now travel faster than this, in my view making them harder to get past so the queues behind them get longer.


Tractors are now allowed to go up to 25 miles per hour on the road, not 20

I do admit that I no longer pull over to let cars pass me, reason being after pulling over all of the time and watching cars pass giving rude hand signals!! swearing etc! it kinda puts you off....

Yes my tractor takes up just over half the road around here in the case of little country lanes, but they will alwasy do this in the countryside... in the old days big old horses and carts would have done the same!!! and narrow minded little chickens would have complained the same way

If a tractor was to be like a "lorry" on the road there would be no way it would be able to go offroad, no point arguing, thats a fact, torque to ground power ratio and horsepower distribution would not allow a vehicle who can go smoothly and softly on road at speeds with a high gear ratio box to pull a 5 furrow plough in a wet clay field

this means we would have to run two types of tractors, ones that stay in the fields and ones that run on the roads to allow the "high and mighty" moaning parts of the general public to speed along before getting stuck behind a traffic light...

So the cost of trailering the tractor to the field, going back to the farm, trailering your wheat trailer to the field, going back to the farm, and then getting the "road tractor" up and running, and waiting on the road outside of the field (blocking the road),
Then employing another guy to be running the off road tractor alongside the combine, trailer it to the edge of the field, tip it out onto some sort of clean concrete shed (in the field) and go back to the combine as it cant leave it for very long, whilst someone loads the grain with a JCB into the "road tractor", then the road tractor can leave to its destination and red tip the grain and then start heading back.

So the employment of 3 people vs 1, 3 machines vs 1, 3 tanks of fuel vs 1, insurance for 3 vehicles vs 1, depreciation of the 3 vehicles vs 1, paying off of the 3 vehicles vs 1 and the trailereing the tractor plus implement to the field.

This would probly mean food price would go up 4 times the amount as this is more than 3 times the amount of costings running the farm,

so then you can go and drive in your little car (un-hindered by a tractor) into the shop and pay £400 per week rather than £100 for your weekly shop, and then sit and eat yourself full on your £4 bottle of milk and your £5 loaf of bread and your £30 block of cheese and your £16 pack of chicken, you can sit and smile to yourself knowing that its all alright as you didnt get stuck behind a tractor and waste £2 worth of petrol.....

Come and complain if you give up eating food made by farmers




oor wullie

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • Strathnairn
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #19 on: October 27, 2014, 10:12:40 am »
A couple of weeks ago I was bringing hay home (7 big round bales on a trailer behind the pick-up) and met a car on the narrow (even by singletrack standards) road.  This driver expected me to reverse up a steep hill which has a tight corner on it about 500m to a passing place whilst there was a passing place only 100m behind this guy.  Needless to say I didn't. 

What followed was the best 1/4hr of entertainment I had that week.  Despite having someone walking behind them giving directions they struggled to reverse down the middle of the road, twice I thought they were going to end up in a ditch and they seemed to have no understanding that turning the steering wheel changed the direction of the car.  How they are allowed a driving license I don't know.

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #20 on: October 27, 2014, 11:01:26 am »
Oi Hughesy!!! It's not just old ladies that can't reverse >:( In fact these us old ladies have probably been driving for half a century and have been reversing for people most of our lives. I usually find it's folk who aren't used to narrow country lanes be they youngsters, MIDDLE AGED MEN!! or whoever. It takes a bit of practise and patience on the side of us all. I couldn't reverse only yesterday for a man in  a BMW as there was another car, towing a trailer and a tractor behind me. We had to wait patiently while he backed into the hedge, came forward, tried again, backed into the hedge........... you get the idea?  In the end the tractor driver did it for him, very kindly I may add.
As I said country lanes are narrow and they're windy. We all need PATIENCE ;D
Sorry devonlady, you're right I shouldn't have used that stereotype. We do get a few here on a sunday afternoon that only drive once a week to get to chapel and are a bloody hazard. I should have definitely added chelsea tractors to the list too. Just because my Land Rover is muddy does that mean it's always me that has to go in the ditch to make room?

Buttermilk

  • Joined Jul 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #21 on: October 27, 2014, 11:38:25 am »
"Just because my Land Rover is muddy does that mean it's always me that has to go in the ditch to make room?"

I have an ex MOD land rover which has "seen life" with the dents and dings to prove it.  It is funny how posh cars get out of my way if I ever play "dare".

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #22 on: October 28, 2014, 07:21:47 am »
Hughsey, you are forgiven :hug: I am thinking that poor old Shropshirelass wishes she hadn't had her rant :o I'm sure you too are forgiven :hug:

john and helen

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • Devon
  • WARNING,,,MAY SAY WHAT HE BELIEVES
    • Facebook
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2014, 02:14:50 pm »
if you want other drivers to move out the way, simply buy a pair of bottle top glasses…then get out the car wearing them looking at the gap….give them the big thumbs up that you can get through  ;D ;D

this should have most folk finding the reverse gear quite quickly  ;D ;D
« Last Edit: October 29, 2014, 02:17:28 pm by john and helen »

JEP

  • Joined Oct 2011
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #24 on: October 29, 2014, 08:45:51 pm »
just spotted a mistake it is still only 20mps for tractors until march 2015 when it increases to 25 mph. as an agri engineer I hear that jcb fast track can go 45 mph on the road because they have independent air breaks.

Mickey

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Dumfries & Galloway

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #26 on: November 01, 2014, 03:30:21 pm »
The speed limit for tractors is currently 20 mph....my beef is that they now travel faster than this, in my view making them harder to get past so the queues behind them get longer.


Tractors are now allowed to go up to 25 miles per hour on the road, not 20

I do admit that I no longer pull over to let cars pass me, reason being after pulling over all of the time and watching cars pass giving rude hand signals!! swearing etc! it kinda puts you off....

Yes my tractor takes up just over half the road around here in the case of little country lanes, but they will alwasy do this in the countryside...

So based on link above currently 20 mph ?  Bit worrying people who drive these things don't know the law.
« Last Edit: November 01, 2014, 03:32:35 pm by stufe35 »

Shropshirelass

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • South Shropshire
  • A country lass who loves it all!
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #27 on: November 02, 2014, 08:40:02 am »
Actually I'm not regretting my rant & knew that it would get a similar reaction, & I'm actually from a farming family going back 7+ Generations  so farmings definitely in my blood. I can appreciate the odd tractor & country lanes, but times are changing & I think technology needs to be improved in things like mechanics instead of wasting ££££ on computer systems that tell you how deep you need to dig & things you already know. Also another part of the rant was most tractors & farm vehicles are too big for uk roads, I wasn't referring to mainly country lanes but I've seen huge combines that take up  approx 3/4 of the 2 lanes of the A49 which is a accident waiting to happen. Farmers have a plentiful choice of vehicles some of the older vehicles you can pick up cheaply - I know plenty of farmers who have paid less than £1500 for the older tractors - ok their not maybe upto modern standards. I can appreciate there are other unwanted things like boy racers we & posh mums in 4x4s that we come across in the countryside, & tractors are needed where we are but I'd like to think that some improvements could be made.

& this wasn't a rant of living in the countryside after a few months, I've lived in it all my life & have driven & drive tractors!

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #28 on: November 03, 2014, 07:37:44 am »
Whatever :) This has been an interesting and lively debate! Maybe, when the forum seems a bit "samey" someone could drop in a bit of a controversial question or comment and we can have a good old argument ;D :                           
Sorry, Shropshirelass, I certainly didn't want to sound patronising but I dare say you have had nouveau country folk with their hand on the horn whilst you're tootling along at 20mph ::)

Castle Farm

  • Joined Nov 2008
  • Hereford/Powys Border. near Hay-on-Wye
    • castlefarmeggs
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #29 on: November 04, 2014, 12:20:10 pm »
I was towing a trailer full of straw and met a guy in a shiny new car on a single track road. I knew the road well and it was about 20 yards to a lay by he had just passed. So I sat there waiting for him to reverse, but all he did was gesticulate for me to go back.


I took my flask out of my bag and poured a cup of coffee out and turned my engine off.
It took a while but he finally got the message.


If you live in the country learn to reverse.
 
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