They are not to be underestimated. Heres a clip of one doing a burnout, just like a top-fuel dragster:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UGUpxWRmUI&feature=related
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Many years ago the farm hand on our farm got stopped for speading.He was driving a Ford 5000 top speed 15-20 MPH.Trouble was he was freewheeling down a hill with 10 tons of cow manure behind.He got away with it though by sticking to his story and insisting that no way could this tractor go any faster than that indicated on the plate inscribed adjacent to the throttle lever.
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The JCB Fastrac can do up to 80kph (50mph)
www.jcb.co.uk/products/overview.aspx?RID=11&IID=-1
Gone are the days of slow tractors (except the ones in front of me nearly every morning on the way to work! grrrr)
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 09/01/2008 at 18:45
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>>The JCB Fastrac can do up to 80kph (50mph)
Thats not a tractor its an extention of a luxury armchair in your airconditioned front room complete with hi-fi and all mod conns.A real tractor is one that you have to swing over on a cold frosty morning,sit on a hard pan seat go over bumps that shake your teeth out with wind and frozen rain in your face.Then after half an hour you are as deef as a post with frozen fingers and toes and need to be crowbared off the thing.Now thats the kind of thing that that makes a real tractor driver.
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.Now thats the kind of thing that that makes a real tractor driver.
Sounds absolutely delicious rustbucket.
Where can I sign on?
Knew a man once who claimed he had been dragging girders about in a crane-building yard with a tractor. There were railway lines in the yard. One day as he bounced over the rails with a girder in tow, one end lifted off the ground and held to the tractor by a chain, the front of the girder caught in the railway line and the railway line moved sideways with it until the tractor's front wheels lifted off the ground. Then the chain broke, the girder was fired through both sides of a brick shed like an arrow without hurting anyone, and the driver was fired into the air by the sprung tractor seat, landing on his back with the tractor driving off by itself. He said it took him ages to work out what had happened. But even now I'm not sure I believe the story, beautifully symmetrical though it is.
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>>Knew a man once who claimed he had been dragging girders about in a crane-building yard with a tractor.
Could well be true one of the dangers of tractors is overturning or the front lifting when winching or towing with the hitch above the centre line of axle.I have seen tractors rear up and go completely over.The consequences are not good for the driver.
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Another danger of tractor driving is broken teeth. Once knew of a guy driving a John Deere over a deeply tramlined field while drinking from a glass lemonade bottle. On hitting a particularly deep rut, he broke his front teeth with the bottle, the bottle went flying through the windscreen and the wiper came in and hit him on the forehead.
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Now thats the kind of thing that that makes a real tractor.
Yes, I can just about remember those from sitting on the toolbox that was on the wheelarch of the tractor my dad used to drive.
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Trouble was he was freewheeling down a hill with 10 tons of cow manure behind.>>
I'm sorry, this is just too good to resist........
.... did he give them a load of bullexcrement???
Taxi!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 09/01/2008 at 21:53
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My Ferguson will probably just about do 20 if really pushed on an easy road, but 10 -15 is a more typical kind of amble.
My understanding that to be taxed as an "agricultural machine" - Nil rate - the vehicle must not be capable of exceeding 20 (or 25?). Above that it becomes a different category and the rate goes up to industrial or HGV levels.
Rearing up is a very real danger even on an old low-powered tractor, because of the very high torque at the driving wheels, and the ease with which the large chunky tyre can suddenly grip. May be modern tractors have traction control or something that senses the danger, but an old one can be flipped up in a second just from getting a wheel bogged in a tight rut. It needs quick work to release the clutch in time.
A disconcerting/amusing/dangerous phenomenon can occur if pulling a heavy load or having a heavy weight in the back box. The tractor may steer adequately on a level surface, but increasing power to climb a hill can result in the front wheels lifting to a varying degree. This may give total loss of steering, or just a kind of bouncing progress in which you try and steer in the brief moments while the wheels are on the ground.
Coimbined with virtually non-existent brakes (rear only) it is a totally different driving experience from say a car.
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Thats why they have "independent " brakes! = so you can steer when your front wheels are waggling around in the air!. especally usefull whe you've just pcked up a load of grass on the buck-rake!
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My earliest driving experience on the road was a Case tractor and trailer when I was about eight years old , bouncing up and down on the metal pan seat with the farm hand standing on the tow hitch behind me.
This was in the wilds of Northumberland where if you saw more that a couple of cars a day you thought it was rush hour.
I had driven in the fields off road for probably three years before that , steering the tractor while the load of turnips was forked out for the cattle.
This was in the days before even UK law , never mind the EEC prevented children going anywhere near a tractor.
I still get misty eyed when at a local steam fair last year they must have had thirty plus little old grey Fergies....
Standard issue tractor driver outfit in the freezing winter was an ex army greatcoat belted with baler twine, topped off with flat cap and a Woodbine ....
No wonder my old man contracted double pneumonia and nearly died.
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