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My part-time job during October


HubbardRA

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Got a part time job. Started last weekend and ends first of November. Driving a setup like below. This is used for hauling families from the Fall Festival area to the Pumpkin Patch and back at Belvedere Plantation. Drove one of these for 8 hours last Sunday and will work both Saturday and Sunday of this coming weekend. Getting some good seat time in the next month, and getting paid to do it. What else can someone ask for? Guess I could ask that the tractors not be green. These new computer controlled JD tractors sure are nice to drive. I love that air conditioned cab. LOL I hope to have more and better pictures as soon as I can get a family member to visit the farm and take some pictures. My wife is out of town and has the camera in her purse, so the pictures will need to wait a few days. I swiped this picture from the Belvedere Plantation web site.

Tractorandtrailers.jpg

Tractorandtrailers.jpg.49942071268af16915925d26a514e9ac.jpg

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Brettw, All I was taught about this tractor is how to drive it in the way they want it driven. I know the engine is computer controlled. I don't know in what manner, since these are 170 Hp diesels. The two items that I watch on the screen are engine rpm and fuel consumption. I try to drive at a good average speed(usually between 8 and 12 mph depending where we are on the required route), but keep the fuel consumption below 3 gal/hr. For instance, on the trip back from the pumpkin patch there is a long straight section. I was told to not go over 12 mph. 12 mph is a little over 1500 rpm, but is using 3.5 gal/hr. If I go a little slower at just over 11 mph, I can keep the fuel below 3 gal/hr. I think it is great that the farmers can now watch these specific items and decide whether the extra speed is really worth it in added fuel costs.

The transmission has electronic shifting, but I don't know if that is computer controlled. You use a clutch pedal to start moving and to stop, but you shift gears by pushing a button without touching the clutch. I will be gathering more information as I drive them more. I have only worked one 8 hour shift so far, and I spent most of that time getting speeds, shift points, rpms, clutch, and brakes down well enough to give the people a smooth ride.

The more time I work, the more questions I will be able to ask from the other drivers and also the people who own the farm.

These are rental tractors, but the top guy at the farm said they do own one like these, and it spent most of last winter in the shop because of a computer problem. He did not say exactly what was happening to the tractor or what was wrong with the computer.

These tractors are rented for at least two reasons. One is that the farm cannot afford to buy three of these tractors to use for just one month of the year. Secondly, if one of the tractors breaks, it will be immediately replaced by the business they rent from. If they owned the tractor it would be just sitting, out of service, and of no use to the farm till it got fixed.

This Fall Festival appears to be a major portion of the profit making process for this farm.

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Never did have the chance to run a Deere, but in a new Kubota, the clutch is also computer controlled.

If you "ride" the clutch too long, it will disengage and you have to fully depress the pedal and start over, and if you "dump" the clutch, it will engage exactly the same as if you let it out gently.

The Kubota also had a forward / reverse lever besides the push button transmission, and you could actually (you were not supposed to) change from reverse to forward without pushing in the clutch, and the computer would do the clutching

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Dan, this one has a lever that you take out of "Park" and put into one of 5 operating ranges. We drive in "E" which is the fastest range. There is a Forward/Reverse lever that must be engaged. There are then at least three push button gear selections within each range. There may be more than 3 gears, but that is as high as I have been. I will check tomorrow to see if there are other higher gears. The speedometer goes up to 70, but with the very soft radial tires on the rear, I wouldn't want to go that fast.

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quote:Originally posted by Chris727

The tractor pictured is probably a "50" series, late 1980s. You'd be amazed at the technology in the brand new ones.


id="quote">
id="quote">AMEN to that.About 5 years ago I took a class on the "NEW" spray systems for Cat.With a 90' wide boom on a spray rig, you could set the GPS mapping system, drive the perimeter of any field, then let go of the steering wheel and just ride for the entire field. At that time, it was accurate to within 6 inches.Next time you came to that field, if the program was saved, you could enter the field, start the program, and the tractor would basically drive itself in the same tire tracks.
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Dan, Chris,

The tractor picture was taken from their WEB site. It could be an 80s picture. The tractors we are actually driving are brand spanking new. They are rented from Greenline Service, which is the local JD dealer. They are similar looking, but not exact. I don't really know anything much about JD farm tractors, so I would not recognize the subtleties. I hope to get some up-to-date pictures whenever I can get my wife and one of her friends to come to the Festival on a day that I am driving. I also was given four free passes, so they will not have to pay to get in. I may take the camera with me and get a few close-ups of the tractors.

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Sorry Goat, no can do. We have to wear a red shirt and bib overalls. That is what all the workers wear. Supposedly a farmer uniform.

Chris, the tractor in the picture is an 80s tractor. It is owned by the farm. We are driving rented tractors. Today I was driving a 6125. They have two others rented, but I didn't get the numbers from them. They are also 6100 series. I work again on Tuesday, so I will get more info then. I will try and remember a pencil and paper so I can write down the numbers. If I can remember the camera, I will take pictures of the tractors.

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Nice job Rod!....I may even drive a Deere if I was getting paid to :D

I actually drove a JD on the farm...Very cool; Heat, A/C, AM/FM Stereo w/8-track tape 8 it was the 70's:D

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  • 1 month later...

OK, the job is over now. They had a picnic last Sunday evening for the employees. Had hot dogs, hamburgers, BBQs, turkey legs, and fried chicken, french fries, coleslaw, baked beans, etc. Basically all the food that they make in the snack bar. Not a bad feed!I took my wife to the farm a week earlier on a day that I wasn't working, and she took a few additional pictures that I thought I would post.This is Lloyd (age 80) driving one of the tractors. He had a heart attack during the Harvest Festival and was in the hospital for two weeks. Had three stints put in. The day after he was discharged from the hospital, he was back driving a tractor. He came back with an excuse from his doctor that said it was OK for him to drive.

LloydTractor..jpg

This is a look at the rear of the tractor that Lennie was driving the day we were there. We were sitting directly behind the tractor on the way to the Pumpkin Patch to get my one free pumpkin.

LennieTractor.jpg

This a a look at the plantation house that was built in the 1700s. The wings were built at a later date.

BigHouse.jpg

Here is a view of the Pumpkin Patch looking underneath the irrigation system.

PumpkinPatch.jpg

Here is a look at the trailers after we got off at the Pumpkin Patch.

TraileratPumpkinPatch.jpg

I thought I would show one last tractor picture. This one is owned by the farm and not rented as the others are. It is a loader tractor with a fully variable hydraulic transmission, and not gear drive like the others. I didn't get to drive that one. There were quite a few days when we were running the three rental tractors and they also brought out this tractor and one other, so that we had 5 rigs running to the pumpkin patch and back. There were a couple days that we had nearly 6000 people come to the Harvest Festival. If anyone wants to see what else they have during the Harvest Festival, just go to Belvedere Plantation.com. There is actually quite a bit of information about this farm on the net, including a film that shows how the pumpkins are planted and raised.

loadertractor.jpg

LloydTractor..jpg.20d1353e7981ddc64e0828538287691b.jpg

LennieTractor.jpg.6f2229d35a36b6ecbf6aa71efc2890cd.jpg

BigHouse.jpg.0a50f583479cca82acac450cef45ff90.jpg

PumpkinPatch.jpg.9d742e05d7af6619334a7eae3e728ec3.jpg

TraileratPumpkinPatch.jpg.26d09876e49481eb9402ce15feab7bd0.jpg

loadertractor.jpg.653eea8ef4d90d14b85f3e24722b77ac.jpg

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Nice pics & looks like a fun way to make some extra scratch...$

ps...that loader tractor looks awesome! I bet it'll dig like a payloader

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