Kids & Tractors

[skyhightree1]

I agree it does take years to do that as well. I also think they should have watched the parents for hours using safe practices so that they will also use safe practices.

 

[Nesikep]

I started around 4 or 5 on my dad's lap and a Yanmar 22hp (same as a JD 850), then we weren't on a farm again until I was 11, and I pretty much started on a JD 950 then feeding cows, etc.. wasn't long before I was harrowing... then it was swathing and picking bales... it was a while before I ran the baler though.. It's got it's own engine and a belt drive that's potentially lethal, and there's enough stories of people old enough to know better getting baled up. About the time I started running the baler I also started running the hoe and crawler. I have rolled the Allis HD6 when I was building a road out of a bank and had to crest a hill, where there was a log that I went over.. machine slid sideways on the log and went over... I was lucky there.. Sure had fun getting that thing righted up again, and then straightening out the ROPS (if you call it that.. more of a branch guard than anything else)... I touched up the paint and no one (except me) was any wiser... I remember that day everything that went wrong did.. and that was the first... right after that a wasp stung me under my eye, and then when I was righting the HD6 with the JD350B, the track came off... Of course it was the track nearest the bank, so I had virtually no room to work on it. It took a lot of blocks and tackles, chains, and brains to do it, but I think I had it back up an running in about an hour.

 

[skyhightree1]

Yea, I am gonna be chisel plowing a field tomorrow and may let the kids drive the JD 8410 if they want too.

 

[john250]

My son has been driving since age 6. He's 8, and works the arena by himself. I rolled a tractor in a highway accident at age 9. It was a super A. Those things must be designed to roll over.

Yep, engineered to roll. And the driver's head is the highest point They'll also roll backwards, and any direction you care to try. I have a CUB and it feels like it is going to roll over in the driveway.
The neighbor was an IH mechanic at the local dealer and did custom farming--baling hay; filling silos; combining.
A Super A with a manure loader rolled onto him. It is speculated he passed out first--he was a heavy cig smoker and had some heart trouble. But the A finished him. I wouldn't let a kid near anything without roll protection. I want it for myself too.

 

[Lawson Farms]

We started out by moving the feed tractor and loader from the commodity shed to the silo. It was an old Kubota loader and a ford 7610. I ran the Kubota into one of our barns at the age of 6 b/c of how much pressure the spring loaded clutch took. Very minor damage. Wevpatchedvthat up and my grandfather hit the same spot a few years later. My oldest is now 5 and it's about time for her to get started.

 

[skyhightree1]

I had the kids on the tractor today we took turns driving we chisel plowed my field

 

[Nesikep]

I found that of the tractors I've driven, the MF165 is the most unsafe... and for many many reasons..
the hydraulic powered PTO can come on unexpectedly
High center of gravity, especially with row crop tires
you have to stand to use the brakes effectively, since they're designed to be pushed downward, not forward
the MultiPower system doesn't give you any engine brakes in Low, which is just where you'd want it.
and they're short with a light front end...

They're a good tractor.. just not safe... we wouldn't let any hired hands use it

 

[skyhightree1]

Every massey I have driven or owned the brakes were funky.

 

[dieselbeef]

yep..the ones on my 1240 suck too

 

[Anonymous]

There's brakes on my Massey????

 

[skyhightree1]

sometimes when driving the massey I felt like i should stop it like fred flintstone id probably get stopped faster.

 

[ifarm26]

We've got an old 65 MF diesel that we use to bushhog pastures and disc garden spots with. The first thing I learned about it is to plan an escape route because there have never been any brakes on the thing and to leave all implements on flat ground!!

 

[skyhightree1]

LOL... yea those masseys are something.

 

[danl]

There's brakes on my Massey????

My 135 has good brakes, but the parking brake on my 2705 is worthless. I have to park it on a flat spot or chock a tire. Had a little excitement a time or two.

 

[Commercialfarmer]

We've got an old 65 MF diesel that we use to bushhog pastures and disc garden spots with. The first thing I learned about it is to plan an escape route because there have never been any brakes on the thing and to leave all implements on flat ground!!

I thought it was just because our's was so dang old and used when we got it and that was ~ 30 years ago (wow, that really hurts the first time you say that). Didn't know they all came factory that way. :lol: But one thing I will say, it may be the most dependable things on the place. I broke the lift and our's sat for several years. Decided to finally get around to fixing it and that little tractor fired right up like it was never turned off. Had an old 510 combine that would sure purr as well.