The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Shropshirelass on October 25, 2014, 04:47:29 pm
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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
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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.
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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!!!!
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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 ::)
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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
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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.
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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!!
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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
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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..
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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.
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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 :))
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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.
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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.)
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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 !
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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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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
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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.
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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. ::)
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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
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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.
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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?
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"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".
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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:
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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
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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.
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https://www.gov.uk/government/news/farmers-get-62-million-yearly-boost-as-tractor-weight-and-speed-limits-increased (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/farmers-get-62-million-yearly-boost-as-tractor-weight-and-speed-limits-increased)
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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.
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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!
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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 ::)
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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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Good thread :)
As road users we all need to be aware of the other drivers 'skill' limits or their vehicles 'foibles' or both.
The C class road upto my place means I have to drive for 10 minutes with my own vehicle to go collect parcels off anything over a luton size lorry.
And in the summer we only get one cut at the end of the season cos the parks think its real nice to have flowers (in the shape of ferns, bracken, blackthorn, long overhanging grass cos its not looked afetr) in the hedges. Townies have trouble enough going forward without shitting themselves let alone going backwards :)
I think its a good idea increasing the speed limit for tractors (does anyone adhere to that?).
Whats worse than a wide tractor - is seeing the lead car of a wide load going past at 50mph then you see a lorry with a static carvan ripping up the road with branches hanging of it on the white lines.