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Neighbors new combine
Ditch-Runner
Member Posts: 25,230 ✭✭✭✭
Several weeks back discussion on farmers and equipment
I think I posted about one of our neighbors buying a new combine a very large one .
Ok the story the dad , was driving the new combine he thought he had closed down the wings on the hopper area
but they were still at least 1/2 way up.
he caught a overhead powerline and pulled down two power poles .said he never noticed or felt it
Comments
I bet that was exciting. Would have loved to see the power company reaction when they arrived.
Wow! Sure glad he didn't get electrocuted!
To big to fail
This is a serious problem for many rural areas. Equipment has become so big that transportation becomes difficult. A short while back a large wing fold field cultivator snagged an overpass on a major 4 lane highway in north MO. Combines can't cross bridges because even if the load rating is high enough, the tires are wider than the bridge top. Our equipment choices are determined by what can be moved rather than what would be a better choice. At present, our combine w/o the head has 2' of pavement on either side with zero allowance for oncoming traffic. A 'lead vehicle' has to go ahead and stop traffic at a place wide enough for passage. With the head on, the machine won't even fit between the road signs.
None of the field entrances are wide enough for a semi to turn into the field so we have to load the trucks with a grain cart behind a large tractor. this completely fills the two lane highway plus the shoulder and grader ditch(s).
When I was 15 and driving dad's combine back in the mid-'60's in Texas Panhandle we could run down highways with our 20' headers and leave plenty of room for traffic to pass on other side without slowing down.
Now the rear tires on combines are bigger than the drive wheels on the ones I drove.
But the fields in the Texas Panhandle where I harvested wheat and corn are all growing cotton now.
I think My son said they, the neighbors Bought or were going to buy a new planter but they would also have to buy a bigger tractor to pull it I will have to ask him what become of it
Honest I thought they the biggest tractors you could get already
They also have bought up several more farms over the last couple years I have lost track of how much they farm now
One of the recent buys down the road from us is going to be a solar farm I know it got a lot of negative feedback but sounds like its going to happen if not already
i know its a big difference but it was suppose to be 40 or 400 acre site idonot remember .I Wil have to ask my youngest son he is buddies and helps them on the farms Some times .
They also dary farm and have a automated system they had done a few yrs ago
Went to North east Arkansas, saw a tractor a few miles away, didn't look too big a that distance.
Finally got close to it, bigg as a house, took both lanes of the highway.
So will the neighbor be responsible for the repair of the lines? Bet that'll be expensive.
wouldn't homeowners cover it, or some type of tractor insurance??
I expect the farms general liability coverage would cover it .
We moved the combine 2 miles on a state highway yesterday w/o removing the header. Landowner said he'd stop traffic because the combine fills the 2 lane pavement and has to wiggle a bit to pass the road signs. I followed so some idiot didn't try to force his way past from behind and we made the move w/o incident.
A couple years back we tried this with a planter and I almost got into a gunfight because oncoming traffic refused to obey my 'suggestion' that there was NO WAY to get past the machinery and the vehicle driver was becoming extremely aggressive. UNTIL the machinery rounded the corner and idiot driver had to find a better place to be. He was steaming and I was laughing as we trundled past.
I prefer to use a large grain truck to 'buffer' oncoming traffic. Sane drivers will more readily give way to a truck displaying 'WIDE LOAD' signage than a pickup with flashers blinking. I've been in/out of the custom harvesting business since 1973 and have seen the gamut of stupid/inconsiderate/impatient drivers who challenged 40,000# of iron to save themselves a couple minutes.
Have you seen the new "linear" combine? It's 60' wide but only about 12' deep. Crop moves across the machine. Interesting concept.
I remember reading years ago, that in Alaska the right of way belongs to the biggest vehicle.
Heck! It may have been fake news even back then. But it did make quite a bit of sense to me.
I think here in Ohio their is a law farm equipment has the right away . . ( basic biggest vehicle wins )
another neighbor story I did not see it only heard about it some time back my farmer neighbor was out spraying his fields with one of the 4x4 high rise sprayers that has several feet of clearance between the cab , the spray tank and road . any way he said he pulled back in his drive way heard a horn there was a small car wedged under the machine , the cars driver had run under his sprayer while the farmer was headed back to his house