Tractors, combines & parking

[Hooli]

lbc said:

Hooli said:

Daft idea...

Considering it's one village of 12 houses between his two farm yards, it wouldn't be difficult to let us know the combines are next tuesday or something similar. But then the way they drive into cars & over flower beds without even slowing I don't expect to have any consideration for us.

I guess you did not do your homework before you moved here, or you would have known about the tractor issue.

It took ages to buy the place, we viewed it & visited the area several times over the six months the process took. We know there are tractors, it's the countryside ffs. What we didn't know is they are driven by arsebiscuits (thanks to the other poster for that excellent insult ) who would rather damage other peoples property than use their steering wheel properly.
As to how we park, everyone in the village parks on the same side of the road to give the tractors room. If a bin lorry & a full size bus can get through without issues, I fail to see why a tractor couldn't if driven properly.

[sparkythecat]

Hooli said:

If a bin lorry & a full size bus can get through without issues, I fail to see why a tractor couldn't if driven properly.

Bin Lorries and Buses are generally driven by trained professional drivers over 21.
Tractors can be driven on the road by 16yr old learner drivers who require bigger gaps.

[anonymous-user]

I live in the Lake District and you just get used to it really...

Just this very evening I was on my way to going shooting, and driving flat out down a country road only to find a 16 year old in an utterly huge Massey with a wide power-harrow on the back coming the other way, also flat out, at 50kmh (road box), we both shat ourselves and swerved towards the hedge and disaster was averted
I believe that manoeuvre is called 'up the dyke'.

I would also echo the comments of the posters thst suggest that roads should stop being used as storage facilities for vehicles and more like, well, roads for driving on. If there weren't cars all over the place, and on people's own driveways instead, then larger traffic could flow easier.

If you use a public highway as your own personal car park, you should fully expect that your car gets a bit of a touching from passing traffic from time to time.

[egor110]

Hooli said:

I understand the need to use them, I don't understand the need to but them in a size that doesn't fit down the road to the field.
I would not be happy if plod stole a legally parked car just because farmer Giles wants to play with oversized toys. Surely it should be down to them to but kit that fits the roads it needs to get down? After all if a lorry gets stuck it's the drivers fault.

So your saying the contractors should use 2 smaller combines with 2 drivers instead of 1 ?

[Silent1]

There's a lot of misunderstanding in this thread, farmers try and avoid difficult areas such as villages and tight spots because it's a pita to get the combine through and tractors back and forth but sometimes we have to go through the area and 99% of farmers and conscientious drivers but if it's the choice between driving over the verge (which is what I reckon you mean by garden, I haven't seen any villages with gardens right up to the kerb) or over a car most of the time I choose the verge and as you don't own the verge the council do then that seems a fair trade off. It doesn't help that at this time of year all farmers are working bloody hard to get all of their crops in because if they leave it too long and have issues it can quite literally mean that they make no money for the entire year.

On the flip side in going to say all SUV drivers are s because last year I was coming out of a gateway in a 30mph limit, it's just before a blind corner and as I got in the can't be arsed I could hear a car coming quickly so I pulled over and stopped only for him to come round the corner so fast in his x5 that he smashed into the front weight block of my tractor and wrote of his 3 day old car, I helped him out by dragging it into the farmyard and then I billed him the £5 for the tin of spray paint to cover the scratch on the weight block. Maybe I'm wrong about all SUV drivers but I don't want to make a mistake so actually I'm going to say all car drivers are dicks.

Perhaps one of these days I'll put an open invite up for people to come down and drive our flotation track equipped Case STX620 Quadtrac and our Fendt 939 Vario and then you'll get a feel for how hard it can be to drive these down the road with kit on the back that can mean your overall length is longer than that of an hgv and wanting to do anything but follow the tractor.

[jaf01uk]

sparkythecat said:

Hooli said:

If a bin lorry & a full size bus can get through without issues, I fail to see why a tractor couldn't if driven properly.

Bin Lorries and Buses are generally driven by trained professional drivers over 21.
Tractors can be driven on the road by 16yr old learner drivers who require bigger gaps more due care/better training.

Fixed that for you, they still have to comply with road traffic law, they can't just drive into stuff

[Gaspode]

Hooli said:

It took ages to buy the place, we viewed it & visited the area several times over the six months the process took. We know there are tractors, it's the countryside ffs. What we didn't know is they are driven by arsebiscuits (thanks to the other poster for that excellent insult ) who would rather damage other peoples property than use their steering wheel properly.
As to how we park, everyone in the village parks on the same side of the road to give the tractors room. If a bin lorry & a full size bus can get through without issues, I fail to see why a tractor couldn't if driven properly.

What did the farmer say when you talked to him about the issue?

[TooMany2cvs]

Silent1 said:

Perhaps one of these days I'll put an open invite up for people to come down and drive our flotation track equipped Case STX620 Quadtrac and our Fendt 939 Vario

On me way NOW!

[wessexrfc]

Loved reading this thread, has made me chuckle. I work, (as many do) in the agricultural market and see what farmers are up against. A wealty farmer is often "judged" by the size of the tractor, not true. If a farmer/contractor can drive into a field and cut whatever in half the time, this reduces costs and hopefully increases profitability, which, unfortunately is the driving force behind any business!! Some people call it progress, others economics, but that is why tractors etc seem to be getting bigger, this can often be taller due to the larger engines required to tow/lift the larger implements required.
My suggestion would be to meet the farmer, talk to them, get an understanding of that they are about and talk to them about your issues. But don't call him "farmer Giles" funny enough he/she might get affended by that hth!!!

[IroningMan]

My in-laws used to farm. House on one side of the A303 and farm on the other; in the summer it could take 20 minutes before the holiday traffic deigned to let them out of the end of the drive for milking. Twice a day.

A small sense of recompense for this would come with the need to move the combine up and down the 303 at harvest time.

[V8 Fettler]

wessexrfc said:

Loved reading this thread, has made me chuckle. I work, (as many do) in the agricultural market and see what farmers are up against. A wealty farmer is often "judged" by the size of the tractor, not true. If a farmer/contractor can drive into a field and cut whatever in half the time, this reduces costs and hopefully increases profitability, which, unfortunately is the driving force behind any business!! Some people call it progress, others economics, but that is why tractors etc seem to be getting bigger, this can often be taller due to the larger engines required to tow/lift the larger implements required.
My suggestion would be to meet the farmer, talk to them, get an understanding of that they are about and talk to them about your issues. But don't call him "farmer Giles" funny enough he/she might get affended by that hth!!!

I agree, a wealthy farmer is "judged" by the size of the subsidy he receives from the tax payer.

[Hooli]

Gaspode said:

What did the farmer say when you talked to him about the issue?

Dunno, not spoke to them yet. I wanted to know where we stood first.
It seems from this thread we have to accept tts trashing our stuff because they are farmers so immune from the law.
I bet it's be different if I drive through their crops and damaged the tractors.

To me it's not complicated to think 'this won't fit where I need to drive it so I won't buy it.' It's only the same choice as not buying a car because it doesn't fit on your drive.

[kowalski655]

Despite the need to do his job,Giles still needs to follow traffic law,so should be liable for damage to parked cars. Make a claim on his insurance,for damage to car and garden,he will soon get pissed off at paying extra premiums so will maybe teach his driver better. And if he doesn't stop and report the accident then call the cops,everyone else has to do this.
But talking first may help local relations

[V8 Fettler]

Hooli said:

Gaspode said:

What did the farmer say when you talked to him about the issue?

Dunno, not spoke to them yet. I wanted to know where we stood first.
It seems from this thread we have to accept tts trashing our stuff because they are farmers so immune from the law.
I bet it's be different if I drive through their crops and damaged the tractors.

To me it's not complicated to think 'this won't fit where I need to drive it so I won't buy it.' It's only the same choice as not buying a car because it doesn't fit on your drive.

Start as you mean to go on

[wessexrfc]

V8 Fettler said:

I agree, a wealthy farmer is "judged" by the size of the subsidy he receives from the tax payer.

In general farmers would rather not have subsidises. Very easy to make a sweeping generalisation without understanding the reasons behind subsides and how they effect world prices. I would love for you to work for one month as a farmer, see how much tax they do pay, see how long they work then to answer the question "do they deserve the subsidy based on level of investment and working hours", I think you'd have a different point of view.

[themanwithnoname]

TooMany2cvs said:

Silent1 said:

Perhaps one of these days I'll put an open invite up for people to come down and drive our flotation track equipped Case STX620 Quadtrac and our Fendt 939 Vario

On me way NOW!

Me too, me too!

I miss playing with tractors and other agri kit!

[TooMany2cvs]

wessexrfc said:

Very easy to make a sweeping generalisation without understanding the reasons

NAHAY?

[Gaspode]

Hooli said:

Dunno, not spoke to them yet. I wanted to know where we stood first.
It seems from this thread we have to accept tts trashing our stuff because they are farmers so immune from the law.
I bet it's be different if I drive through their crops and damaged the tractors.

To me it's not complicated to think 'this won't fit where I need to drive it so I won't buy it.' It's only the same choice as not buying a car because it doesn't fit on your drive.

So, the guy's been damaging your property through negligent driving, and you've not yet thought to go and have a word with him? You seem to have started out with a pretty combative stance, how much damage has he done? Presumably not enough to require claiming against his insurance to fix?

[Hooli]

Gaspode said:

Hooli said:

Dunno, not spoke to them yet. I wanted to know where we stood first.
It seems from this thread we have to accept tts trashing our stuff because they are farmers so immune from the law.
I bet it's be different if I drive through their crops and damaged the tractors.

To me it's not complicated to think 'this won't fit where I need to drive it so I won't buy it.' It's only the same choice as not buying a car because it doesn't fit on your drive.

So, the guy's been damaging your property through negligent driving, and you've not yet thought to go and have a word with him? You seem to have started out with a pretty combative stance, how much damage has he done? Presumably not enough to require claiming against his insurance to fix?

He hasn't hit our car yet & until recently the end of the garden was a mess anyway. The normal 'plan' in the village is for everyone to park on our side of the road to leave room for tractors etc. Hence the bloke over the road from us has lost two small trees & a rose bush under tractor wheels this year.

[Gaspode]

Hooli said:

He hasn't hit our car yet & until recently the end of the garden was a mess anyway. The normal 'plan' in the village is for everyone to park on our side of the road to leave room for tractors etc. Hence the bloke over the road from us has lost two small trees & a rose bush under tractor wheels this year.

Ah. Has he spoken to the farmer? I'm thinking that getting together with the guy and discussing how to resolve the situation to everyone's satisfaction might be the best way to go.