As the sun (FINALLY) starts to warm up the areas around BangShift Mid-West, it’s quickly becoming Early Tractor Season. We get two seasons: early, where ground has to be tilled, fertilizer has to be spread, and seed has to be sewn; and late, where fields of soybeans, corn and whatever else got planted gets chopped down and processed off. In either case, on the narrow backroads we live on, it means that using the miles of ribbon pretending to be a two-lane road as a rally stage substitute isn’t a good idea, because you have a radically increased chance of coming over that right-hand two with a crest and coming face to face with a whole lot of tonnage that you won’t move, even at speed. Tractors rule out here, from the tiniest yard tractors that come in handy when you measure your lawn by the acreage to massive tracked behemoths like what you will see below. When it’s harvest time, we get a fleet of these machines parading in front of the house, diesel engines at full chat, treads roaring on the asphalt. It’s these big bastards like the Case IH that you’ll see here that leave you the most spellbound. It’s less tractor and more tank, it costs about as much as every single house in a quarter-mile stretch back here, and a fueling will set you back…oh, at least two of the cars in my driveway. If you’ve ever seen one of these beasts in action or even just wondered what a modern-day farm boy is driving in the fields, this is a watch for you!
As a former FFA member, that answered a lot of questions about that size machine.
That exhaust system seems to create a large blind spot!
I wish they would have covered the business end of it and showed the hitch, PTO, and hydraulics. The drawbar pull rating in an average farm field too.