Shoot me I'm a tractor driver

mukki

I used to draw silage for the summer maybe 8-9 years ago, today i had to make 4 runs with a tractor and a 14 foot trailer about 10miles, and it was the first time i really noticed how mental the roads have gotten. It was really scary, I felt like i should not be there, even though the tractor was taxed for road use!


no one will wait behind you anymore, it's like every driver nowadays has got a women in labour in the passenger seat


you hear the lorrys revving agressively till they are up close, then they fall back, they do it again and again,

vans and jeeps pass just by, they dont care about twisty roads or oncomming cars

cars still seem patient enough to wait till you find a spot to pull in to let them pass


The problem with tractors is they are heavy and have no suspension, you have to keep out a little bit on back roads or you'll be throwen from the seat

you also need to choose a good spot to pull in to let people pass because- you need to slow right down ( remember most tractors weight over 4 tonne ) before you pull in or you'll get bumped about, so you need to see the spot well in advance,
also if its a house your stopping at you have to be able to see the driveway before you sway off the road incase someone is coming out

so everything you do in a tractor annoys the cars\vans\jeeps and lorrys behind you, but......

it didn't 9 years ago

endplate

Bet your one of those ignorant farmer types that will refuse to pull tho regardless if there is space or not. You should get yourself one of those GTI tractors ie JCB fasttrax

mike65

I hate you mukki!

The roads have changed incredibly in 10 years, we're all driving further so don't want to be delayed and there's more of us.

Mike.

BrianD3

One reason why drivers are so impatient is the number of tractors on the road. The number of agri tractors may be roughly the same as 9 years ago - but with the boom in the building industry in recent years tractors pulling low loaders, dumpers etc. are all over the place. If you are on a nat secondary road with no hard shoulder and every few miles you get stuck behind some builders tractor that can't/won't pull in then of course you'll get frustrated.

Also, lets face it, the majority of tractors/trailer combos on the road are unroadworthy. I actually sit up and take notice when I see one with the full compliment of working indicators, non broken mirrors, visible number plates etc. Tractors do no DOE test, can be driven by a 16 year old who has never passed a driving test, motor tax is a pittance compared to a truck. Yet they are being used for a lucrative commercial acitivity (building) while at the same time plodding along holding everyone else up. Is it any wonder there is resentment from other road users.

PanhardPL

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/86958/43561.JPG

On saturday morning last near Limerick Junction I was travelling behind this tractor for a mile or so on a side road before it turned onto the main road, and the driver was on a phone totally unaware of what was happening outside his cab. Is that what one would call responsible driving at 50kph.

colm_mcm

I used to like tractors a few years ago, now i get annoyed by getting stuck behind them, Guess this makes me an "ex tractor fan"


(sorry)

Merrion

We're just jealous because, no matter what we acheive in our desk bound day-to-day we feel inadequate when we see people stacking bales with tractors....or is that just me?

maidhc

I'm another tractor driver, although normally only on saturdays and weekends.

I do my best to try and pull in for everyone, but as you say, the roads can be so busy you can't be pulling in all the time for everyone.

Overall though I find most drivers alright, but I think that is because I live in east cork where getting stuck behind in agricultural tractor is a fact of life and people are resigned to it.

colm_mcm

an interesting point has been raised, In todays Ireland, is it appropriate to have 16 years allowed to drive a couple of tonnes of metal around with inferior brakes and suspension to trucks of similar weight.

MayMay

Well I'm one of the few people that has the patience to stay behind ye....most tractor drivers are very considerate and I feel sorry for them. They usually pull in whenever they can to let cars pass. Big up the tractor drivers, ye have to use the roads, there's nothing ye can do so don't worry about it

mike65

In todays Ireland, is it appropriate to have 16 years allowed to drive a couple of tonnes of metal around with inferior brakes and suspension to trucks of similar weight.

Nope but so much thats related to agriculture is from a different age and attitudes tend to the "ah sure t'will do - it always used to" mentality.

Mike.

colm_mcm

MayMay wrote:

Well I'm one of the few people that has the patience to stay behind ye....most tractor drivers are very considerate and I feel sorry for them. They usually pull in whenever they can to let cars pass. Big up the tractor drivers, ye have to use the roads, there's nothing ye can do so don't worry about it

Are you 0the car at the top of the queue behind the tractor who holds everyone else up

colm_mcm

mike65 wrote:

Nope but so much thats related to agriculture is from a different age and attitudes tend to the "ah sure t'will do - it always used to" mentality.

Mike.

Don't know about that, but surely it's up to the dept. of transport to decide. maybe it's not much of an issue, just think it's bizzare that you can just get a work vehicles license and drive what is essentially an articulated truck

maidhc

mike65 wrote:

Nope but so much thats related to agriculture is from a different age and attitudes tend to the "ah sure t'will do - it always used to" mentality.

Mike.

'twill do just fine without ye city fellas interferin' where yer not wanted!


I'd agree. Big difference between driving my 1968 Ford 4000 (max speed maybe 15mph... canvas roof... no power steering) and a modern Fastrac.

The Ford 4000 is so much more fun though. You feel like you are working the land like your fathers and forefathers when you are driving it... especially with doors off and the throttle open. Driving a modern tractor is just like a modern car. Far better in every way, but missing that je ne sais quoi!

colm_mcm

is a fastrac not classed as a truck because it has front suspension and is capable of higher speed?

Wishbone Ash

I can sympathise with the OP. I spent a few years driving tractors and trailers drawing silage, hay, straw and assorted implements in the greater Dublin area. Most car drivers don't seem to appreciate the difficulties involved in driving heavy slow-moving vehicles.

When approaching roundabouts on dual carriageways, if you need to take the 3rd exit it can be virtually impossible to get into the right lane as everyone is using it to overtake.

Turning right onto a dual carriageway is also very difficult especially with a 30ft trailer as the combination is too long for waiting in the centre median forcing the driver to take long detours.

On a busy standard road with a hard shoulder,, if you pull over to allow traffic to pass, it can be difficult to get out again. No one wants a tractor in front of them.

On roads without a hard shoulder, the edge of the road is usually very uneven making the tractor difficult to control (remember no suspension in majority of tractors).

If drawing a high load, it is sometimes necessary to keep out to avoid colliding with tree branches and, with a heavy load, to avoid soft margins.

Perhaps if car drivers spent some time driving agri machinery they may have a different outlook.

Wishbone Ash

colm_mcm wrote:

is a fastrac not classed as a truck because it has front suspension and is capable of higher speed?

No.

colm_mcm

so a 16 year old can legally drive one? how do they differentiate between the likes of a unimog and a fastrac?

Biro

Wishbone Ash wrote:

I can sympathise with the OP. I spent a few years driving tractors and trailers drawing silage, hay, straw and assorted implements in the greater Dublin area. Most car drivers don't seem to appreciate the difficulties involved in driving heavy slow-moving vehicles.

When approaching roundabouts on dual carriageways, if you need to take the 3rd exit it can be virtually impossible to get into the right lane as everyone is using it to overtake.

Turning right onto a dual carriageway is also very difficult especially with a 30ft trailer as the combination is too long for waiting in the centre median forcing the driver to take long detours.

On a busy standard road with a hard shoulder,, if you pull over to allow traffic to pass, it can be difficult to get out again. No one wants a tractor in front of them.

On roads without a hard shoulder, the edge of the road is usually very uneven making the tractor difficult to control (remember no suspension in majority of tractors).

If drawing a high load, it is sometimes necessary to keep out to avoid colliding with tree branches and, with a heavy load, to avoid soft margins.

Perhaps if car drivers spent some time driving agri machinery they may have a different outlook.

I agree with this. Sickens me to see the amount of impatience in car drivers. Everyone is in a hurry and doesn't want to be delayed... for what? Leave earlier if it's an important appointment.
Overtaking trucks and tractors with trailors coming up to a roundabout is so annoying. I always hang back and let the trucks have the space they need.

maidhc

colm_mcm wrote:

so a 16 year old can legally drive one? how do they differentiate between the likes of a unimog and a fastrac?

The fastrack is limited to 50km/h.

The older generation had the top gear blanked out, while the newer ones are electronically governed.

And yes, the limiter is thrown off straight away.

Biro wrote:

Overtaking trucks and tractors with trailors coming up to a roundabout is so annoying. I always hang back and let the trucks have the space they need.

Indeed. When I am navigating roundabouts with a tractor and a long trailer I generally take up two lanes and keep everyone behind me. People don't realise that tractors with long trailers have a very bad turning circle in comparison even to an artic truck.

Stephen

I learned something new here, never realised tractors don't have any suspension!

Wishbone Ash

Stephen wrote:

I learned something new here, never realised tractors don't have any suspension!

Some of the modern high spec ones do but for the majority the only suspension is the air in the tyres.

colm_mcm

I know a guy who has a JCB fastrac and it'll do a lot more than 50 kmph

Wishbone Ash

Has anyone ever driven a self propelled crop harvester (i.e for harvesting cabbage etc.)? They have to be one of the most difficult vehicles to operate on a public road.

For those who aren't familiar with them, they are a bit like a back-to-front tractor with a canopy and folding conveyor belt arms. They steer from the rear meaning that you have to position the front large wheels tight against the entrance you wish to take to allow the rear small wheels to swing around. Visibility is absolutely crap and they are painfully slow. It's arduous driving them on busy public roads. I've driven nearly everything and I'd say they are the most difficult.

Stephen

I thought those Fastracs topped out at 50mph rather than 50kph?

Wishbone Ash

Stephen wrote:

I thought those Fastracs topped out at 50mph rather than 50kph?

I think the top model can be specified with a 90kph box.

maidhc

Wishbone Ash wrote:

I think the top model can be specified with a 90kph box.

To avail of the green diesel a vehicle must be capable of no more than 50k, and I am led to believe all of the fastracs sold in Ireland are so limited.

As I said above, the limiter can be removed quite easily, and this is done a lot.

Max_Damage

colm_mcm wrote:

I know a guy who has a JCB fastrac and it'll do a lot more than 50 kmph

I reckon this Massey Ferguson 20 could outrun it...

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=DapHhgnm6CQ

Wishbone Ash

maidhc wrote:

the limiter can be removed quite easily, and this is done a lot.

Just wondering maidhc, are the brakes/tyres/suspension capable of handling the 'unlimited' speed or do they all come with a default set-up for the highest speed?

eamon234

I live on a smallish road and the bastard$ are flying (in tractor terms anyway!) down it all bloody evening there's a lot of young kids on this road I don't give a fiddlers how difficult it is to drive the shaggin things - how about how difficult it is to stop them in an emergency when you're driving too bloody fast? They nearly ran my neighbour off the road already the gobsh1tes

PanhardPL

maidhc wrote:

To avail of the green diesel a vehicle must be capable of no more than 50k, and I am led to believe all of the fastracs sold in Ireland are so limited.

As I said above, the limiter can be removed quite easily, and this is done a lot.

Of late the Gardai have been stopping any of the fastracs that are being used towing trailers for non agricultural use, and this will increase in the future as these guys have been taking work from licenced hauliers who pay very high road tax on their vehicles.

Rowley Birkin QC

maidhc wrote:

When I am navigating roundabouts with a tractor and a long trailer I generally take up two lanes and keep everyone behind me. People don't realise that tractors with long trailers have a very bad turning circle in comparison even to an artic truck.

Yup, only way to keep people back for their own safety, take up two lanes on approach to roundabout. I just wave back and smile at people while they lose the rag.

maidhc

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Just wondering maidhc, are the brakes/tyres/suspension capable of handling the 'unlimited' speed or do they all come with a default set-up for the highest speed?

I doubt if JCB downgrade their equipment especially for the republic of Ireland.

Rowley Birkin QC

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Some of the modern high spec ones do but for the majority the only suspension is the air in the tyres.

Ah the joys of driving the 6920 S . With air conditioning, handsfree kit, air cushioned heated seat and the daddy feature : front and under-cab suspension!

More comfortable than any car I've been in.

maidhc

bigkev49 wrote:

Ah the joys of driving the 6920 S . With air conditioning, handsfree kit, air cushioned heated seat and the daddy feature : front and under-cab suspension!

More comfortable than any car I've been in.

Just don't throw it into corners!

unkel

maidhc wrote:

I do my best to try and pull in for everyone, but as you say, the roads can be so busy you can't be pulling in all the time for everyone

That sounds more than good enough to me. In my experience, the problem is more to do with insufficient places to pull in to (N and R roads without hard shoulders typically) than tractor drivers' unwillingness to do same

mukki

Max_Damage wrote:

I reckon this Massey Ferguson 20 could outrun it...

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=DapHhgnm6CQ

that is the funninest thing i have ever seen

G Luxel

eamon234 wrote:

I live on a smallish road and the bastard$ are flying (in tractor terms anyway!) down it all bloody evening there's a lot of young kids on this road I don't give a fiddlers how difficult it is to drive the shaggin things - how about how difficult it is to stop them in an emergency when you're driving too bloody fast? They nearly ran my neighbour off the road already the gobsh1tes

I have to agree with this comment. I too live on a small road. My house is adjacent to the road, no wall, no ditch. Every year the machinery is getting bigger and bigger, so big its almost as big as my house:D . The speed laws on narrow roads or boreens are 80 Km so if the government put speed cameras or dropped the speed for everyone to 30 km, then they would probably lose the next election. The tractors and trailers never slow down. I had to remove half of the grass verge next to the house as it was covered in tyre tracks and had to be dumped because on wet days these machines completely destroyed the grass and the newly painted wall on my house had to be powerhosed. If you stop the drivers or complain to the contractor about the operation, numerous excuses are given from 'twill rain tomoro,' to ' Ive to cut for ten farmers today as Im going to Santa Ponza for two weeks'. I can also state that it doesn't matter to them what time they work as there have been nights that I have been kept awake all night with 4 or 5 machines passing every hour. So much for motorists to complain but not many residents complaining about it either but then thats farming culture. If you complain about another farmer or farming in general, you will be ridiculed and made a social outcast by your own community.

Esel

PanhardPL wrote:

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/86958/43561.JPG

On saturday morning last near Limerick Junction I was travelling behind this tractor for a mile or so on a side road before it turned onto the main road, and the driver was on a phone totally unaware of what was happening outside his cab. Is that what one would call responsible driving at 50kph.

Is taking a picture while driving 'responsible'?

What percentage of tractors on the road are insured (never mind taxed)?

Wishbone Ash

esel wrote:

What percentage of tractors on the road are insured (never mind taxed)?

I'd say a very high percentage and much higher that cars. Tractors are usually insured as part of a general insurance policy and do not have to display an insurance disc.

A lot of tractors are untaxed but that's because most do not use public roads and therefore are not legally required to be taxed. Otherwise the tax rate is a nominal €78 and not based on engine size.

Kali

A lot of posters here seem to think that there are more tractors on the roads these days and the tractor drivers are the ones being ignorant.. they don't look at the flipside of the coin which is the incredible pace at which argriculturally-zoned land has been turned into vast tracts of apartments with absolutely no new road infrastructure, meaning thousands more cars on country roads completly unsuited for the levels of traffic ... I'm thinking the north-west part of dublin (back of the airport, swords through st. margarets all the way to blanch) in particular.

End of the day, farmers have to make a living same way everyone else does... you purchase a house/apartment on a country road that's life. Deal with it. Tractors get bigger because farmers have to do more and more with less time as overheads get constantly lowered.

maidhc

Wishbone Ash wrote:

A lot of tractors are untaxed but that's because most do not use public roads and therefore are not legally required to be taxed. Otherwise the tax rate is a nominal €78 and not based on engine size.

Indeed. We only have one tractor taxed (the one that does the road work), although all of them are insured.

G Luxel wrote:

I can also state that it doesn't matter to them what time they work as there have been nights that I have been kept awake all night with 4 or 5 machines passing every hour.

Well that is just life unfortunately. People work late and night because it is necessary to do so, not because it is somehow enjoyable. I have at times come home from a days work at 6, and spent until 3 in the morning on the tractor, and back at work again for 8.30.... because a job needs to be done. If someone came complaining to me they couldn't sleep they would get short shrift.

cavanmaniac

There's times you're eating the steering wheel in frustration behind tractors but you gotta pause to think that everyone, farmers included, need to use the roads to make their living like the rest of us need it for getting around and whatever.

If you're late or in a hurry it's always testing on narrow roads but sometimes you gotta grin and bear it and live and let live.

That said, there's NO excuse for any agri vehicle/lorry/van/horsebox pottering along at 60kmh on a national route with a gleaming hard shoulder sitting empty beside them as they smoke a fag and tap the fingers on the wheel listening to Joe Dolan. It's one of the most monumentally ignorant and inconsiderate driving practices I encounter, all too regularly. Sometimes the bastards actually pull out in front of traffic and then sit in your way!!

And the Nervous Nellies who are first in the queue and refuse to pass when safe to do so, those gits want a good kick in the hole as well.

I feel a bit better now thanks.

siralfalot

maidhc wrote:

Indeed. We only have one tractor taxed (the one that does the road work), although all of them are insured.

same here, we have 4 tractors, only two are taxed cause the other two are never on the public road, all however are insured

maidhc wrote:

Well that is just life unfortunately. People work late and night because it is necessary to do so, not because it is somehow enjoyable. I have at times come home from a days work at 6, and spent until 3 in the morning on the tractor, and back at work again for 8.30.... because a job needs to be done. If someone came complaining to me they couldn't sleep they would get short shrift.

couldn't agree more!! if you live in the country deal with it, we have to make a living too.

sombody asked how hard is it to stop a tractor? you would be surprised at the braking systems in modern tractors, we have a 7 ton 150hp Lamborghini capable of 50kph in the right conditions, from flat out with a laiden braked silage trailor it stops extreamly quickly

Stephen

Lambo tractors always bring a smile to my face

Seinas

Wishbone Ash wrote:

Has anyone ever driven a self propelled crop harvester (i.e for harvesting cabbage etc.)? They have to be one of the most difficult vehicles to operate on a public road.

cabbage???

siralfalot

Seinas wrote:

cabbage???

its a vegetable, green stuff, looks like a big lettuce to the untrained eye

vegetables need to be harvested, they don't just appear in Tescos overnight as if by magic you know!!

PanhardPL

The photos were taken by my passenger, and even a close up of the registration plate.

yellow012

cavanmaniac wrote:

That said, there's NO excuse for any agri vehicle/lorry/van/horsebox pottering along at 60kmh on a national route with a gleaming hard shoulder sitting empty beside them as they smoke a fag and tap the fingers on the wheel listening to Joe Dolan. It's one of the most monumentally ignorant and inconsiderate driving practices I encounter, all too regularly. Sometimes the bastards actually pull out in front of traffic and then sit in your way!!

And the Nervous Nellies who are first in the queue and refuse to pass when safe to do so, those gits want a good kick in the hole as well.

I feel a bit better now thanks.

Well said, also needing a good kick in hole are the pig ignorant tractor drivers driving in the middle lane of the N7 acting as a rolling traffic block.

mike65

I was behind a Klass combine harvester today for 30 seconds and was most pissed-off it did'nt even try to pull out of the way!

Mike.

endplate

And what about the tractor drivers helping to build our beautiful roads are they exempt from abuse also cos there are plenty of them esp the guys sweeping the roads after their buddies left loads of mud on the roads