|
Allan: I'm with you but not completely for all the same reasons. Every farmers situation is quite unique. I farmed over 12 miles of country road, two way traffic on two lanes of asphalt (one each way) with 6' shoulders. this was rolling countryside with hills that caused motor vehicles to come up on tractors quite quickly. Add to that there was a sawmill about 1/2 way along my route that was receiving 200 semis per day in the late 70s. that truck traffic doubled in the next ten years. I stopped hauling with tractors around 1976. We had so damn many close calls it just wasn't worth it. I remember once, in a hollow, on a slight S turn, gas station on my left with great long frontage, rural mail box on my right. I had combine with 18' header, making a 1/2 mile move between fields, thus didn't bother with header cart. That was a mistake. Just as I crossed the center line to go around that mail box, a truck grossing 110,000#, doing 50 mph, came over the hill. From his view point he had no idea how quickly I'd be out of his way, thus he made for the gas station frontage. I saw him immediately in my rear view. Had there been oncoming traffic, I saw my option, heading over a 6' shoulder embankment with combine. That wasn't going do the combine much good as header would have hit the dirt. Can you even begin to imagine what would have happened had there been oncoming traffic or vehicles parked near the road in front of the gas station. Speed limit was 60 mph on that road. Lets face it that trucker would have rear ended a combine rather than head on some innocent oncomming motorist. Luckily no one was hurt and no property was damaged. That finished it for me, after that I rarely roaded a tractor, let alone haul with them. Some situations may be fine but tractors and 60 mph traffic do not mix. These guys who think they're saving money, really are not. Let the trucks do what trucks do more efficiently. Tractors that never see hard roads get double the tire tread hours. I agree tractor power train will not suffer provided the operator adheres to shifting that does not create shock loads on power train. That rarely happens around these parts anyhow, as most of the guys pulling grain wagons with tractors are little more than capable of driving a bicycle. The top men in any crew are on the combines and grain buggies.
|
