I know this may not be well received here, but here's a counter argument.
Roads, and specifically highways, including the dual lane divided highways were designed to efficiently move high speed car, bus and truck traffic. That traffic pays taxes in the form of registrations, and fuel taxes to maintain and support the infrastructure.
Farm vehicles(of all shapes and sizes), MAY use those roads for travel when other means of getting from place to place would prove difficult, or impossible. It is up to the operator of the farm vehicle to insure safe passage of a non-highway machine on an open high speed road. Up to and including a convoy car/truck behind with flashing amber light.
Having said that, this is no excuse for the highway vehicle(car, truck, bus, motorcycle) to strike the farm vehicle. But it IS incumbent on the farm vehicle which has no registration in most cases, pays no registration fees, and is exempt from highway fuel taxes to stay out of the way of highway traffic. When needed to transit on a muni, state, fed highway to see that all precautions against being hit by high-speed traffic be taken by the farm vehicle.
***************************************
How I handled it. About 4 years ago, I bought a road grader in central CO and had to move it to the northern part of NM. Before my trip, I mounted a rotating amber light on the cab, and a pair of flashing lights on the back(magnetic trailer base bought at Walmart for $29). I called the CO state patrol, chatted with them a bit, gave them the route, and my schedule. They said they would have a cruiser wait for me at X location for the high speed road where I needed to travel 18 miles until I was on backroads again.
I joined CO hwy 160 from a dirt road access and met the state trooper. We chatted a bit, and he followed me with his flashers on for the full 18 miles(almost an hour), plus another 4 miles south toward NM before he had to rush off to some accident.
Maybe a tough crowd for this sentiment, but really - the highways aren't meant for farm vehicles. I see plenty out here where I am, and give them every advantage. All of them are also trying best they can to not impede traffic, but I've seen some situations which really could have used a convoy car or truck behind with a flashing roof light.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 8MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Earthmaster Project Progress Just a little update on my Earthmaster......it's back from the dead! I pulled the head, and soaked the stuck valves with mystery oil overnight, re-installed the head, and bingo, the compression returned. But alas, my carb foiled me again, it would fire a second then flood out. After numerous dead ends for a replacement carb, I went to work fixing mine.I soldered new floats on the float arm, they came from an old motorcycle carb, replaced the packing on the throttle shaft with o-rings, cut new ga
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
1964 I-H 140 tractor with cultivators and sidedresser. Starts and runs good. Asking 2650. CALL RON AT 502-319-1952
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.