Just out of interest, I was trying to figure out how to drive a tractor.
After visiting the John Deere site, I am even more confused!
www.deere.co.uk/en_GB/products/agriculture/tractors/6030/intro.html
Click on Cab
Then click on Dashboard
You can the see tilt-steering animation with accelerator, two brakes and a clutch [?]
On main image, if you click on Transmission Choices, you can see a feature which can keep tractor at a specific speed chosen by driver.
Then what the clutch pedal is doing? Or is it really a clutch pedal?
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Naow, wot Oi sez is this 'ere.
Oi knows aow to droive a tractor - Ferrrguson, Noineteen Forty-Noine.
Yer wears a trilby 'at and sucks a straw. Foire 'er up, engage first gear and droive at ten moiles per aour in the middle of the road.
Them grockles - if they oot their orn - Oi stops and they get a noice load o' manure over their gleamin' bonnets.
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Unhook the wee bar behind the brake pedal(s) for independent brakes == rude not to turn corners at 30mph :-P
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An if ize wave both ans in ze air it meenz I got no braxe.
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...a trilby 'at and sucks a straw...
Avant,
Funny how this characterisation stuff is deemed OK when the target is a British farmer.
Perhaps you'd care to do a few lines for us on a sugar plantation worker in the Caribbean?
You wouldn't dare, would you?
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...How to drive a tractor...
The controls are clutch pedal on the left, gear stick(s) in the middle, brakes on the right, and a hand throttle, usually behind the righthand side of the steering wheel.
Most of the other levers and instruments are to do with controlling implements and can be ignored if the task is simply to get the beast moving forward.
Push down clutch, engage gear - high ratio first or second for hard ground - get the revs just above tickover, release clutch pedal and away you go.
The tractor in the link has a foot throttle, which could be used on the road, but not in the field - tractors have no suspension and there's too much jumping about to keep it steady.
Gearboxes were always of the 'crash' type and changing up, or double de-clutching to go down, requires some skill with a hand throttle.
Particularly so if you also need to change the transfer(ratio) box at the same time - steering has to take a back seat for a few seconds because there is just too much to do.
Engine braking is the main means of slowing down, assisted by the brakes, which only operated on the rear wheels on older tractors.
I always though the independent rear brakes were something of a gimmick, but they do enable you to drag the tractor around on its axle in a very tight spot.
A little lever locks the pedals together, but it's simple enough to plant your wellie in the centre of the two pedals to avoid inadvertent one wheel braking.
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You're not mis-named iffy :-) it always does...
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...it always does...
Thanks, Craig.
The info I posted mainly applies to older tractors.
There are one or two sons of the soil on here who I hope will tell us more about the modern stuff.
I'd be curious to know if there are any significant differences.
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>> I'd be curious to know if there are any significant differences.
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Lights
Cab
Power steering
Hi-fi
Pair of powerful rear-facing lights to dazzle following motorists
Padded seat
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FIRST gear,ten mph.??????????????????????.I don't think those two statements go together-not on any tractor I've driven!!!
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Lights,power steering and padded seats were on tractors in the 1950's.As were cabs but not usually on agricultural ones.If you had a cab,a heater was optional-it funnelled hot air back from the radiator.
Last edited by: jc2 on Sun 4 Jul 10 at 07:22
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Cabs became far more common when some sort of rollover protection became compulsory in the late 1970s
Many manufacturers decided to combine the two.
There were different types of sprung seats dating from much earlier.
Allis and Ferguson used to mount the seat on a wide ribbon of mild steel in an 'S' shape.
Nuffields had a rubber bung which didn't do a lot.
There was a limited amount of foam padding on the seat itself, but this didn't last long in agricultural conditions and would be replaced by an old sack.
Tractors were quite jarring on rough ground and the best bet was to drive standing up - surprisingly comfortable.
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The tractor on the site is a 6030 series. I've got the previous 6020 series which is similar, but the new ones have got engines which have cleaner emissions.
It isn't as easy as ifithelps suggests to drive a modern tractor. There are several different transmissions, from 6 gears with 4 splits in each, to variable as in a modern automatic car.
The hydraulics are electric as in a Airbus plane, these make it better to get good control of implements.
Modern tractors are quite difficult to drive. A non farmer wouldn't be able to get in and drive it away without some instruction! Which makes some of the comments posted as rather/very silly.
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>> You wouldn't dare, would you?
Yeah mon, I does dare. Is not all that diffrent. Straa hat, chewin a piece a cane, slashin about wit a machete, what the diffrence to raaaas?
Cha!
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>> Perhaps you'd care to do a few lines for us on a sugar plantation worker
>> in the Caribbean?
We tek hold of dem slaves an we get dem to work til dey drops.
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>>Them grockles - if they oot their orn - Oi stops and they get a noice load o' manure over their gleamin' bonnets<<
Triffic Avant ... reminds me of when we lived up on the Bodmin moor,
grockles are called emmetts in Cornwall (ants!)
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What ifi describes is the kind of tractor I'm familiar with, having driven a Ford 5000 diesel for a few weeks on a construction site, rather than a farm, in 1972-3.
I don't recall any special difficulty in changing gear but I will say that using the brakes when properly on the move is not generally a good idea, especially if there's any sort of trailer involved. Brakes on rear wheels only.
Another chap was driving this tractor one day with a pole trailer (unbraked I can't remember whether by accident or design) attached carrying probably 5 tons of steel reinforcing bar. He got a bit too carried away downhill on some smooth tarmac such that he had to brake, the wheels locked momentarily and the resulting jacknife overturned the tractor. He walked away but was lucky not to be pierced or decapitated by the steel which was everywhere, or crushed by the tractor. There was no rollover protection on that tractor either.
The tractors I see today belting around at 30mph on the road are clearly a different kettle of fish altogether. There's a local who drives one for a farm contractor - GPS ploughing controls, auto-steering, hifi, air conditioning etc.
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Parents' New Holland tractor has three gear boxes:
Extreme left is a forwards/backwards shuffle.
Then there's a standard 1-4 gearbox.
Finally there's a range gearbox, offering 3 ranges (slow, slower, and slowest).
So in theory you're got forward and reverse in 16 gears.
It also has air conditioning and a pressurised cab, making it a godsend in dusty conditions. Then there are several levers and buttons for the hydraulics, and a big guarded button for the PTO.
2WD/4WD is on the button but mostly left in automatic mode, and diff lock is again on a switch.
Interesting consequence of the 4WD is that in icy conditions, locking up the back wheels will make the front wheels go backwards. I have no idea why this happens, but it scared the bejazus out of me the first time it happened!
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...The tractors I see today belting around at 30mph on the road are clearly a different kettle of fish altogether...
Yes, they have more in common with the articulated tractor units driven by the likes of Pat and gb than an agricultural tractor.
I believe JCB make one that is legal for use on a motorway.
An ordinary agricultural tractor will do 15-20mph flat out.
Quite fast enough with five tons of grain in a trailer pushing you along.
As Manatee describes above, it is very easy to lose control of such a load.
Gentle engine braking and take it very steady on steep descents.
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Tend to end up using a tractor quite regularly in my job, usually fitted with a Quicke frfont-loader, to take the pallets of feed off.
I agree with comments above re. modern tractors being more complicated; for an occasional user like me there are far too many gadgets, and whilst most major controls are fairly standardised, you need a good memory for others.
If anyone fancies a real hoot, try driving a Bobcat skid shovel. Crude, but remarkably good fun.
tinyurl.com/2uqzvqn
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I use my 1949 Ferguson about once a month. The controls are very basic. 4-speed gearbox, but you never change gear on the move (crash gears), just start off in the required gear for the job.
There is one pedal on the right operating both (rear -only) brakes, and additional pedals each side for individual wheels. But as said above, using the brakes on the move requires extreme caution. There are basically only 2 positions - off and wheels locked.
Manual steering, metal seat mounted on a springy bracket. Hand throttle stays where you put it, conventional left hand clutch lever.
The most dangerous thing is the catch that locks the brake pedal down to act as a handbrake. The catch is automatically released merely by standing on the pedal, so it is all too easy to release the brakes unintentionally while climbing aboard by catching the brake pedal instead of the mounting bracket. People have been run over by their own tractor doing this.
The other dangerous thing to watch is if both rear wheels get caught in a ditch. The torque is so enormous that if both wheels suddenly grip together the tractor can flip over backwards in an instant.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Mon 5 Jul 10 at 08:23
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Live in a city and drive a 4X4.
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...I use my 1949 Ferguson about once a month...
Cliff,
Is that a dual fuel Fergie?
We used to start ours on petrol and then switch to paraffin - rough equivalent of Tractor Vaporising Oil (TVO) - which was cheaper.
The trick was to switch back to petrol a minute before you wanted to stop, so you didn't have to drain the fuel system to get started again the next day.
Plenty of grey Fergies still in regular use - ideal tractor for light work.
Last edited by: ifithelps on Mon 5 Jul 10 at 09:10
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There's loads of little grey Fergies still in use around this part of France - they even call it the 'petit gris'. My neighbour has an early 60s Massey Ferguson 35 he uses to bring in his logs. There are also many single cylinder machines like Deutz and even Porsche, all well over 50 years old.
I bet I'm the only person on here who actually has the genuine accent that some people seem to imagine is normal for English tractor drivers - ie Mummerset yokel. And I haven't driven a proper tractor since the David Brown 990 Livedrive in 1970. I saw one in a field near here back along and wondered if I could remember how it worked.
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Little Fergies, mostly the 1960's red ones now, are the tractor of choice for most of the older-style dairy farmers round here for "scraping out", fitted with a C-shaped squeegee device on the back which clears the slurry off the cowshed floors. They use 'em because many modern tractors can't cope with the residual muck which inevitably builds up no matter how often you hose them down, and also because they're absolutely indestructible and small enough to fit.
Another victory for low-tech British engineering!
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>> Is that a dual fuel Fergie?
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No, mine's an original petrol-only.
It cost £50 in 1985. I got it just for fun, but once you have one there are enumerable uses. The back box is the equivalent of about 10 heavy wheel-barrow loads, useful for moving building materials, compost, logs, etc.
I've pulled cars out of ditches, ploughed the vegetable patch, manoeuvred caravans etc into tight spots, and used the hydraulic lift to pull up tree stumps and gateposts.
All with the same engine that also powered the TR sports car.
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...It cost £50 in 1985...
Last time I looked, a grey Fergie in decent, but nowhere near show condition, could be had for about £1,000 to £1,500.
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These things as per OP and Countryfile last night are not proper tractors....
I learned to drive helping my father on a Case Tractor in the fields and on the roads of Northumberland in the 50's at the age of 5 or 6 . The little grey Fergie we had if I recall had to be started by pressing in a button on the gearbox with your ankle and pushing the gear lever into where would normally be 3rd gear.
No cab , standard wear in winter was ex army greatcoat tied with baler twine and cloth cap.......
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And changing shear bolts on the baler!
Do they still have to do that?
Pat
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My tractor ownership cut off with a mid 80's John Deere. I really didn't miss the *simple* aspects of the older ones. Very pleased to welcome a pressurised cab, CD player, tint glass, power steering, syncro gears, damped sprung seat with armrests/recline etc.
Well yes Pat ....shear bolts are still a chore to be undertaken.... well they were for me but my baler was from the 60s. In truth they only really break loads if there is something wrong with the material or the rate you're feeing it in.
My outfit just before we gave up haymaking.
i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg72/SealgairC420/DeereBaler.jpg
Last edited by: Fenlander on Tue 6 Jul 10 at 12:53
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Fergie engine COMMON with Triumph sportscar????????.Well the block may have been but IIRC the head was different,the sump was different and,instead of twin side draught carbs.,it had a single updraught.Oh.,and I missed out the camshaft!!
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Wikipedia has good info under "Operations" section.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tractor
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That's the sort:)
I think it was a New Holland and I drove an old white David Brown and an older red tractor with a muck bucket on the front to clean out the slurry pit!
I always thought the faster you went when baling, the quicker you got finished!
Pat
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...baling...
The baler in Fenlander's pic link is driven by the tractor's power take-off - pto.
The first baler I used had its own petrol engine mounted fairly high up on the front of the unit.
To operate, you start the engine, let it settle at medium revs, and then jump on the tractor and tow it around the field.
I often used a grey Fergie, because the only power you needed from the tractor was to drag the baler, and the Fergie was more than capable of that.
The rig was also very easy to manoeuvre - no pto shaft meant you could use a tight steering lock without jack-knifing.
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dont you have to be on the phone
totally ignorant of your surroundings
and use sat nav to locate your dads field before you can drive these behomafesses
did i mention the fact these things laugh at normal road rules and driver hours?
someone did somewhere
probably on hj
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Reply to Bellboy-----
NO
NO
NO
NO
Did they?
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How to drive a tractor? - Avant
