Today was my first day driving a tractor at Farm School. In my life, I have driven various large equipment and usually enjoyed it. This was no exception.
My first tractor driving experience was on the International Farmall 140. It is an old and slow moving tractor, and it was a bit daunting the first time I climbed aboard. I have driven a standard transmission car for much of my adult life, so I assumed it would be easy to transfer those skills to tractor driving.
The first major difference I noticed was that I did not have to balance the release of the clutch with the engagement of the fuel. Throttle on a tractor works differently than the gas peddle on a car because it serves a different purpose. In a car, the gas peddle creates RPMs that translate into speed and the gear selection is there to efficiently translate the RPMs of the engine into wheel RPMs.
However, on a tractor RPMs represent power rather than speed. Thus gear selection is used for speed while the “gas peddle” is used for increased power (with some increased speed as a byproduct). In other words, if you want to go fast you need to put your tractor in a higher gear with enough throttle to turn that gear and then release the clutch. Unlike a car, the Farmall does not need to start in first gear and advance up through the gears to reach its fourth gear.
It then also becomes unnecessary to advance gears on the Farmall while moving. I came to a complete stop the few times I decided to adjust my speed. While stopped with the clutch and brakes engaged, I selected the higher gear then released and started rolling immediately at the faster speed. There’s definitely a lot more need for feathering the clutch and brakes when driving over varied terrains, but this engine-transmission relationship makes a ton of sense when driving through a field operating implements because it removes the need to have to keep a fuel peddle consistently depressed. Once your off the clutch and brakes the tractor is going to travel at consistent predictable speeds allowing the driver to focus on operating the implements and engaging with the land or crops.
You can click here to see a short video of the actual tractor I’m driving in this post’s photo.
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