Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Tractors!  (Read 9201 times)

Shropshirelass

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • South Shropshire
  • A country lass who loves it all!
Tractors!
« on: October 25, 2014, 04:47:29 pm »
Sorry time for a little rant  about tractors & I know I'm probably being a little ironic by complaining about them & living on a farm but why do they allow equipment that is often too big for UK roads be allowed on UK roads, making them dangerous when approaching or trying to overtake. My final bug bear with them is surely after them being around for years & the technology a lot now have why are they limited to such slow speeds?1?! Ok I get that they are built for  "Pulling power & strength as opposed to speed" but lorries are to a point. Sorry rant over x

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2014, 06:20:22 pm »
I will be blunt.  And probably provocative ;)

When you are in the countryside, you are in a place where the business is agriculture.  Some agricultural equipment is wider than one-half of the roads it travels on.  Suck it up or move back to the city!

Rather than ranting about tractors, if you think the roads need to be wider to accommodate your need for speed, I suggest you contact your council to widen the roads and/or build bypasses.  :-J

If you've ever driven a tractor, you will know that the handling and braking is not equivalent to that of lorries or cars.  If they needed to be safe at 50mph, they'd need a lot more engineering.

You'll realise that your post has struck a nerve with me.  Cars who think they should never be impeded from driving at the national speed limit, and that we don't have any right to hold them up moving livestock on the road, or travelling with equipment on the road, are likely to get me ranting  :rant:.   That's all.
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

trish.farm

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • hampshire
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2014, 06:38:27 pm »
OOHH, so glad you replied first Sally, i wouldnt have been polite.   :innocent:

I have been on the receiving end of road rage whilst on corn-cart with a ten tonne trailer of wheat behind me.  Not a pleasant experience and it really shook me up.  I only stopped as i thought there must be something wrong with my trailer, bad mistake, was verbally abused and terrified by a very nasty man.

I never take any notice of any flashing lights, hand signals or shouting anymore, just plod on carefully and ignore the rude gestures.

As Sally says, if you want to live in the country, dont complain about tractors, animal smells, mud on the road, livestock in the road, manure spreading..... i could go on and on.

And if you have one inch of knowledge about horse power and mechanics you wouldnt even ask the question about tractors being able to go faster!!!!

sokel

  • Joined Jun 2012
  • S W northumberland
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2014, 07:59:53 pm »
LOL this reminds me so much of the time we lived in  a small village in Northumberland . A new Family moved in from London and within a month they where complaining to the Parish Council about the Sheep Muck on the roads. They felt that farmers should be stopped from bring sheep up the village as her Children had to walk to School  and it was very inconsiderate of the farmers :o
This was a mostly farming community living in the village, needless to say within 6 Months they where no longer living in the Village  ::)
« Last Edit: October 25, 2014, 08:01:35 pm by sokel »
Graham

john and helen

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • Devon
  • WARNING,,,MAY SAY WHAT HE BELIEVES
    • Facebook
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2014, 08:13:05 pm »
Life is to short as it is..why do you want to rush through it…when behind a slow moving vehicle, take time to look around and enjoy the beautiful sites, normally maintained by the slow tractor in front  ;D

or leave earlier…   :thumbsup:

i got caught up in a traffic jam once, the three vehicles where doing over 100mph on the autobahn in germany, they had a massive smash up…. 5 bloody hours waiting, because some pratts wanted to get there quick

us don't do rushin round down yer  ;D

mab

  • Joined Mar 2009
  • carmarthenshire
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2014, 08:40:21 pm »
I'm with the majority here: the tractors are part of the countryside - so get used to them.  ;D


The big tractors I've driven will do the best part of 30mph and TBH they shouldn't go any faster: agricultural vehicles don't seem to have to meet the same standards as cars and lorries; one of the lads driving a modern (<5 years old) tractor had a nasty surprise  here this spring when the main buss fuse blew on his tractor as he was approaching the crossroads - he instantly lost drive (so no engine baking), steering and brakes! All he could do was sit there whilst the tractor rolled across the junction, and into a hedge.


I must admit though, when driving one of these big tractors around the welsh roads and through small field gates (or when I meet someone who can't reverse their car) that they are a bit big for these parts.

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2014, 09:26:22 pm »
I seem to spend as much time going backwards as forwards, sometimes for half a mile for someone who can't reverse for one hundred yards, though if they live along our lanes I dare say practice will make perfect :) As Sally says though the countryside is our workplace and visitors/newcomers must accept this.
I don't know Shropshirelass if you have been a country dweller for a short while or forever and I agree that Britain's country lanes were never built for today's machines but this is the world today and we must sometimes go backwards, crawl along behind a slow moving tractor, pull in for horseriders, cattle and sheep being moved etc. and do it patiently and cheerfully.
Does anyone remember the Colonel who bought a house in a country village next door to a church and then by complaining had the church bells silenced? I don't think he lived there for long!!

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2014, 11:16:02 pm »
At the end of the day, the farmers can only buy tractors that are available for sale. If the tractors are too big for UK roads, then complain to the tractor manufacturers/companies. There's nothing the poor farmer can do, and he has a bloody big price for those tractors too.


Beth

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2014, 11:27:12 pm »
Just to add to the controversy..

The OP is from shropshire. I've noticed that this side of the border Welsh farmers do tend to pull over and let cars past... but once ya crosses into England..... (and I'm neither English nor Welsh).

The other point to make is that agri vehicles aren't subject to MOT's - having them do any speed would be lethal..

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2014, 12:12:52 am »
I also live in Shropshire, in a town at that, but I have noticed some tractor drivers pulling over. Personally I would rather have the tractors and farm machinery than the big 'heavy plant' that the builders and so on use and as for the traffic lights on country roads which hold you up for ages then, when you eventually get past, you see a tiny coned off area with good visibility for a long way in each direction.......


Although I am city born and have lived in towns most - but not all - my life, I am a country woman at heart. Love the sounds of the country and that includes that of tractors busily producing our food.

devonlady

  • Joined Aug 2014
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2014, 05:04:17 am »
And I would rather have slow moving farm machinery than speeding cars and delivery vans along our lanes! (that is my opinion, not a dig, Shropshirelass :))

ballingall

  • Joined Sep 2008
  • Avonbridge, Falkirk
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2014, 09:28:43 am »
Do you know, on that note, it's the buses on our roads that cause the havoc. They will steam on at you, even if there isn't enough room. Particularly bad when driving the transit, as there isn't room for a transit and a bus on some bits of road.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2014, 11:15:31 am »
I have to say, the buses around us are nothing but considerate.  There was one driver we had to break of the habit of honking at every corner ::), but apart from that, they've been wonderful.  They were patience personified when I was getting my pony used to 'em.  (He was fine with all other traffic, but scared of buses.)
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

stufe35

  • Joined Jan 2013
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2014, 04:26:06 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.

Ironically for this thread legislation is just going through to increase the speed limit for tractors argued by the fact that technology braking etc etc is all better on modern tractors and it brings us into line with Europe.

My view is that faster tractors just mean more farmers lead their produce further and further straight to the grain merchants etc doing the job wagons should be doing.  Tractors were made for working in fields not hauling goods along public roads. Tractors used for hauling goods should in my view be subjected to the same taxation and mot inspection requirements as wagons, and have to run on white diesel....that might balance things up a bit.

All that said, if you use the roads show tolerance and courtesy to all and there room for all of us whatever our chosen mode of transport that day.   Its much easier to be nice than nasty...and far more satisfying....in fact it confuses the hell out of your enemies !
« Last Edit: October 26, 2014, 04:48:43 pm by stufe35 »

hughesy

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Anglesey
Re: Tractors!
« Reply #14 on: October 27, 2014, 07:27:20 am »
I have no problem with tractors.Buses, wagons coming from the local quarry, courier van drivers, taxi drivers and old ladies that can't reverse are a different story.

 

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