[AT] One for Ralph - now California farm equipment stories

[Grant Brians]

One of my more memorable farm equipment transports was moving our 22' wide
Bean Planter that is on Iron Wheels. I had to run it at slightly less than
3mph to not damage the iron wheels on it on the asphalt (tarmac to our
European members.) It was the middle of the day, so there were not the crazy
commuters on the road, but nevertheless at that speed it takes quite a while
to go over 4.5 miles. The width of the paved road including the 4 feet of
shoulders is about 26 feet, leaving less than 4 feet of pavement where I was
fully on the pavement. Granted, most of the time I was able to crowd the
shoulder on the side of the road, so vehicles could either pass or go the
other direction by passing slightly onto the unpaved shoulder on the other
side, but they had to go quite slowly.
     Interestingly, there were only two drivers who had any problem with my
actions. One was a tow truck driver with the company whose owners are now in
State Prison because of stealing peoples vehicles, falsely claiming
abondonment and notifications of owners and many other crimes - when he took
his turn passing me (after an oncoming vehicle) he whipped around and nearly
went out of control trying to cut the tractor off. It was really pretty
funny! Trying to cut off a tractor going 3 miles per hour at about 25 miles
per hour.... The other was an elderly driver with a monster motor home
pulling a car who kept honking and honking and refusing to pass when there
was plenty of clearance to do so! I can just imagine the conversation in the
vehicle with his wife who was the passenger.
     Here in California, we also have the "Implements of Husbandry"
exemption to the Vehicle Code. They enacted an odd modification to it back
in the late 70s or early 80s, I don't remember which. Previously Farm
Machinery only had to have a Slow Moving Vehicle triangle Symbol on it to
drive on a road (and to simply cross one, even that was not technically
required). The modification was that you cannot now operate such items for
more than 50 miles on an interstate highway. I can only guess at the
motivations of that one! We do have an interesting situation in the
summertime to early fall in California's Central Valley on Interstate 5. It
is the main North South highway for the Pacific Coast states. In the San
Joaquin Valley there used to be a huge amount of Dry Beans and Tomatoes
grown on the west side (now only a large amount are grown....) When the
Freeway was built it cut through 200 miles of barely irrigated lands and
then the water projects opened up the land. The lands are in pretty big
parcels and fields and there are very few roads. So the Bean harvesters
migrate back and forth on the shoulder of Interstate 5. The Bean harvesters
are 50-80 feet long, self-powered by usually 100-120hp diesels and are
pulled by 100-150hp tractors usually. So you can see these convoys of
machinery traveling along the side of the freeway where the traffic is going
60-80mph, while the farm machinery is travelling about 15mph. Quite a
sight....
          Grant Brians
          Hollister,California vegetable, fruit and nuts farmer
p.s. Full disclosure: Yes, I coveted a Bean harvester for years but have
never gotten one and probably never will.

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com]On Behalf Of charlie hill
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 12:09 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] One for Ralph


Same here Ralph,  in fact farm equipment has the right of way in NC on any
road except limited access freeways.   A 180 hp tractor pulling a 20' + wide
disc harrow creates quite a traffic jam
on a narrow two lane road with woods on both sides.

Charlie

-----Original Message-----
From: Ralph Goff
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 1:11 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] One for Ralph

On 1/10/2012 9:22 AM, Mattias Kessén wrote:
> No,
> It was at a one of our construction sites. Did you notice the license
> plate?
>
> Mattias
>
> 2012/1/10 Ralph Goff<alfg at sasktel.net>
>
>> On 1/10/2012 2:30 AM, Mattias Kessén wrote:
>>> Here's one for you Ralph:
>>>
>>> http://public.fotki.com/Duplobarbaren/misc/imag0133.html
>>>
The license plate did catch my eye but I did not look close enough to be
sure if it was Sask or not. If it is, I wonder how it traveled that far
from Sask. We don't have license plates on tractors here. I could (and
do) drive down public roads on an unlicensed tractor anytime I need to.

Ralph in Sask.
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