At which age did you first drive?
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Forum Name: Shops, Barns, Varmints, and Trucks
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URL: https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=182240
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Topic: At which age did you first drive?
Posted By: AC7060IL
Subject: At which age did you first drive?
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 9:15pm
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Another forum topic about today’s work/wages/etc got me to thinking about older years back on our family farm when we kids would fight over who might drive. So at which ages did you begin driving? And what did you drive? Thanks for sharing. Tractor; age 5, D17 series I. Mower, age 7, Ariens Emperor 8hp Pickup; age 8, 65’Chevy 292-4speed. Combine, age 14, JD4400-wheat.  j 
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Replies:
Posted By: DanWi
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 9:41pm
| Grandpa was farming, I drove the 8N ford probably around 5 or 6 I had to pull up on the steering wheel to push the clutch in and shortly there after the WD couldn't push the foot clutch because my grandfather was over 6 FT so he had the pedal adjusted for him so I used the hand clutch. For cars and trucks around 10 or 12 car in drive way then 53 chevy pickup hauling oats in summer from field to grainery that was a 3 on the tree. |
Posted By: plummerscarin
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 9:41pm
| I was 10 when dad got a B and fixed it up. Started pulling hay wagon with it then. Then he put a mower deck on it which was the only rider we ever had while I lived at home. Was 13 when he put me behind the wheel of 69 C10 in the hayfield. Was 14 the one and only time he let me run the Oliver 33 combine. |
Posted By: shameless dude
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 9:41pm
| drove the grain truck to the elevator in town at age about 13, was about 5-6 driving the tractor while dad and the bro's picked up hay bales |
Posted By: klinemar
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 10:06pm
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I don't remember how old I was but the first tractor I drove was my Grandfather's 1958 D17. I pulled a 3 section spring tooth drag and had to stand up to push the clutch all the way in. I used the power director clutch for starting and stopping and the foot clutch for changing gears. I learned to plow by my Dad with a 1959 Farmall 560. Dad would turn on the headlands get the wheel in the furrow ,slide off the seat,I would climb on and put the 4 bottom pull type plow in the ground and steer to the end of the field where we would switch until Dad felt I had the hang of it.But don't plow a crooked furrow or a deap dead furrow! I learned to drive truck by backing Dads blue 63 Chevy pickup with bagged fertilizer up to the planter. I would have been about 8 years old then but I drove tractor earlier. |
Posted By: Lars(wi)
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 10:27pm
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First rider lawn mower we had, Dad got a Sears & Roebuck, one those ‘bathtub’ models, one speed forward, one reverse. Then my Grandfather had a Cub Cadet 127, and a Farmall Cub. I was about 13 or so Dad got a Chevy pickup with 3 on the tree. First ‘real’ tractor was a Farmall 400. Actually drove that pickup before I drove that 400. ------------- I tried to follow the science, but it was not there. I then followed the money, and that’s where I found the science. |
Posted By: Dakota Dave
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 10:29pm
| I was 7 or8 dad got the C stuck in the pasture so he put me on the tractor and he pulled it out with the jeep when the tractor was unstuck he put me in the jeep to drive it out of the woods I couldn't reach th clutch so I had to shut it off when I got to the yard. Before that I had only drove the lawn mower. |
Posted By: HD6GTOM
Date Posted: 02 Aug 2021 at 11:52pm
| I was in 2 and grade. He was picking up small round bales bales. I was on a brand new WD45. I still have the tractor. I started bailing hay in 5th grade. |
Posted By: DMiller
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 4:50am
| Was 10 or 11 with dad letting us drive Grandma's 55 Chevy on back roads to 'Get used to driving', was 9 on farm at Greenville IL on the old Deere tractors with hand clutches, was 12 in the bale wagon truck on friends farm in Bachelor MO. Was on dirt bikes before 11 cannot remember exactly what definite age anymore. |
Posted By: thendrix
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 5:54am
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Drove a snapper comet around 10 or so. Case 485 was the first tractor around the same time. Then came a Case 1835B skid steer. This was all in the same summer. The next year was a 1991 F250 around the farm ------------- "Farming is a business that makes a Las Vegas craps table look like a regular paycheck" Ronald Reagan |
Posted By: Thad in AR.
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 6:31am
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We had a Ford Jubilee I drove quite young. First I remember was my dad working on a fence. He put the 4020 in gear, said don’t touch anything but the steering wheel and follow me. I’ve often wondered what would of happened if he had tripped or something? I remember at 8 driving his pickup following him on the combine and grandpa in the grain truck when we moved equipment. He bought a 930 case for me at 9 and had me disking and pulling a rod weeder. At 10 I was plowing with the 930. Always remember years later. I was teaching a neighbor kid to drive. He was around 12 or so. I had a one ton Ford. He loved to drive and shoot my 22 rifle. He and I spent a lot of time together. One day we went to town for a Sodie pop. Town was just a truck stop and PO. We had to cross the hiway to get to the truck stop. I told him go ahead you’ll do fine. Just as we started in the parking lot a cop car came sliding around the back of the store with lights and sirens going. We were barely off the hiway. He slammed it in park and bailed out. He ran in the store and locked himself in the bathroom. The cop hit the hiway and left in a hurry. It took me an hour to talk the kid out of the bathroom and he didn’t talk to me for a couple weeks.😂 |
Posted By: Tbone95
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 7:23am
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Age 5, tractor, Massey Ferguson 165, couple years later a jd 50 pulling discs, drag Age 9 or 10 maybe, mower, JD 110 or something like that Pickup, 1970 International, age 12 or 13-ish for certain in field stuff, fertilizer, fencing, stuff like that. Didn't go on the road until late age 15. Drive a combine? We pulled one until I was about 20 haha
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Posted By: Coke
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 9:15am
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Land Rover, left with a flat tire on the army base. I was 8-9 I think. Started it in gea,r it caught and just rolled on forward, flat tire and all. ------------- 1957 D17 Diesel w/ M&W Pistons |
Posted By: Coke-in-MN
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 9:42am
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Ah yes - remember the first Ford truck I drove - Neighbor had a 50 ford pickup but box removed and a wooden flat deck on it - he said to drive it out of the garage which had a pea rock floor . So I get behind the wheel - push in clutch - start engine - put the floor shift into gear - let out the clutch - kill engine . Do it over and the 3rd time he says give it some gas when you let out the clutch - So let out clutch whilst pressing hard on accelerator - LEFT 2 ROWS of scattered pea gravel around 30ft long and got stopper when truck got launched on top of his wheel borrow that was setting in drive - Dang them things flatten out when a truck hits them . Now before that had driven tractors , B John Deer , WC Allis, N series Fords , and a few others when picking up bundles when threshing - but a hand throttle on tractor was different than a gas pedal .. Next time i drove a auto was around 13 when brother let me drive his 40 Ford coup - had been a Ford 60 and he had put a supped up Ford 85 in it with a 39 Lincoln Zephyr floor shift. ------------- Life lesson: If you’re being chased by a lion, you’re on a horse, to the left of you is a giraffe and on the right is a unicorn, what do you do? You stop drinking and get off the carousel. |
Posted By: allisbred
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 1:21pm
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Neighbor has a picture of a D19 with no driver showing, pulling a manure spreader with my brothers and sister loaded in the back, going down the road. That was taken when I was 5 years old and I would have been standing on the right side holding the brakes working the power director at that stop sign in route to one of our rented farms 8 miles down road. My first accident happened with our 1963 2 ton grain truck on a nearby road hauling round bales towing (2) wagons, (18) rounds total because one of my tie ropes came undone and dropped (2) bales on the road about 5 miles from the home farm. I was just turning 7 years old and my mother was very upset with my father. I had gotten home and asked her to help go back over to get those bales( needed the loader tractor & the truck). My father was still baling and I didn’t want him to know what happened. |
Posted By: john(MI)
Date Posted: 03 Aug 2021 at 3:07pm
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Probably 10 or 12, Dad taught me how to disk, pulling it with the WC. That was our main tractor. ------------- D14, D17, 5020, 612H, CASE 446 |
Posted By: GARY(OH/IN)
Date Posted: 04 Aug 2021 at 1:31am
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Was 8 I think disking with WD and a year or two later hauling feed and water a half mile down the road to the woods in a 1939 Dodge pickup. Gravel and dirt roads in those days. Would feed on the ground first then back in and dump up to 10 ten gallon milk cans in the 100 gallon water tank. Dad bought a JD A for second tractor with hand lift cultivators around that time and would have to hang off the long arm to get them locked down and moving to get them up. |
Posted By: iowallis
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2021 at 7:18pm
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I guessing 5 or 6 years old. My dad had a 1958 IHC 4X4 and he would load up with bags of seed corn/soybeans. He would want the truck at the other end of the field and I would drive it there. He would put it in 4 wheel drive, low gear in the transfer case, 1st gear on the column shifter and pull the choke out a bit. He would get the truck moving, jump out and have me slide over sitting on my knees steering the truck to the far corner fence post. He said when I got within 10' of the fence turn the key to off and wait. Even though I was creeping along at a few mph I felt like king of the road and I'm sure I stopped way before 10' as I was scared of coasting and going through the fence. The "big deal" was the one field where I had to cross a small stream, maybe 5' wide and 6"deep. What if I got stuck!?!?!? What if the truck died while fording the river!?!?!? O'my! The things that could have gone wrong in the mind of a 6 year old.
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Posted By: FREEDGUY
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2021 at 7:30pm
7 years old and running the WD pulling a ground driven NI manure spreader, 8 years old running the D17 disking corn stalks in the spring, 9 years old running the same D17 pulling the moldboard plow. Never got to run any of the combines over the years until I was 40 years old and dad couldn't climb the ladder easily 
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Posted By: wade89
Date Posted: 06 Aug 2021 at 7:32pm
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4 on the lawn mower 8 I got to learn to drive the S10 in the field out the gravel road I grew up on. By 10 Dad would send me with the tractor or backhoe wherever we needed them ahead of Him with the dump truck or whatever He was driving. My oldest turned 7 this summer, makes me wonder how Dad trusted me so much at that age Haha |
Posted By: plummerscarin
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 6:00am
Iowallis, your story reminds me of a guy I knew years ago would do similar when putting hay out for cattle. When he got out, the dog would slide behind the wheel. Quite a sight. Don't know how old the dog was 
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Posted By: Gary (sw Wis.)
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 10:02am
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I don't know, I don't remember not driving. I do know I was driving daily for chores from farm to farm in a pickup truck on state highway at 11. ------------- 190XT - D17 - D14 - WD45 w/loader - WD - (2)B110 - 616H - 610 - B-208 - WD with 190 Mounted Corn Picker - All Crop 60 |
Posted By: Ted J
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 10:17am
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I was six when I drove the team back from the field to the barn. Scared the B-Jeepers out of me. About 7 or 8 when we go the first tractor. I too couldn't reach the clutch but that was the reason for the hand clutch on the 45. If I had to hit the brakes, I remember I had to slide over to that side to be able to push them in. Was 8 or 9 when I took the pickup (58 Chev 3-on the tree) to the creamery to dump the milk cans. ------------- "Allis-Express" 19?? WC / 1941 C / 1952 CA / 1956 WD45 / 1957 WD45 / 1958 D-17 |
Posted By: Ray54
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 12:48pm
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Dad had one of the first Chey pickups with the automatic transmission, cause it was cheap. Dealer got to have people test drive, but nobody was willing to buy it after a year. Ended up being a good truck an no trouble in the 10 years he had it. So I was just big enough to step on the brake to stop it when I would bring it home and drove the Cat D6 home. Almost 2 miles from the flat spot he always used to camp the tractor in the field to home. He would have it aimed the right way, start it and I had to pull it into drive and away I went down the canyon. Learned to handle a clutch on a Case VAO (had orchard fenders ) and spraying thistles. When my kids where small had Chey pickup with a real low granny gear, and the safety switch on the clutch petal was broke and by passed. When I needed truck move across the field, put it in low and reach in the open window and start them off in gear. Tell them just turn the key off to stop.
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Posted By: tadams(OH)
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 1:42pm
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at 10 I was driving AC CA pulling wagon for them to load AC round bales
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Posted By: FREEDGUY
Date Posted: 07 Aug 2021 at 6:26pm
DAMN DUDE, I will give you KUDOS for recalling "teams" of horses in your "era"  Thanks for that reply
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Ted J wrote: