Have you ever fallen asleep while driving a tractor? I've never had any problem dozing off while driving anything. Today I was running the JD5500 with a rototiller and could barely keep my eyes open. I could just imaging waking up rototilling a path across some guys yard or out in the middle of a wheat field.

I went to sleep after 1am and woke up at 4am to go fishing. :rolleyes:

My BiL could sleep standing up, I'd be running the combine and he'd ride shotgun. We'd be talking and next thing I know I'm talking to myself. Goes same way w/ tractors, hoes, dozers or what ever else. Guy I work w/ on 3rd shift will fall asleep while running a diegrinder or even eating supper.

Never fallen asleep driving tractor. I think I would though if we had GPS. I mean, I have to be doing SOMETHING while I am sitting there. Either that or I would be drunk all the time! :D

Yeah I have several times, you work long enough and you will go to sleep. One year we were plowing all night and planting all day. Man I would fall asleep just about everyday.

Never fallen asleep driving tractor. I think I would though if we had GPS. I mean, I have to be doing SOMETHING while I am sitting there. Either that or I would be drunk all the time! :D

I could imagine that, running the tiller its going slow and nothing really to do. It was 90 deg out abd about 70 in the cab with the ac on. I should have opened the doors and been misserable.

Yeah I have several times, you work long enough and you will go to sleep. One year we were plowing all night and planting all day. Man I would fall asleep just about everyday.

On time across the street it was about 11pm when the guy started plowing and at 7:30 am the tractor was sitting there running for along time. They farm like 10,000 acres so Im sure they were getting behind on sleep.

Have not fell asleep yet but have gotten to the point where i open the doors and windows or get out and walk around for a few minutes to wake myself up. I got satelite radio and put it in the tractor it helps a lot.

Most of the bigger newer tractors have sensors that if you dont move for a while stops the tractor some actually kill engine some just kick trans to N

Most of the bigger newer tractors have sensors that if you dont move for a while stops the tractor some actually kill engine some just kick trans to N


With the hands free steering now thats probably a good idea. Should have it go into N and run a buzzer.

My grandpa did one time while running the swather and went through a fence and caught a chunk of sheetmetal in the reel :rolleyes:. Must have been in the fence row.
That was about the last time we let him cut hay.

almost did one day. i had waken up at 8 friday morning and had not slept at all that night, so 24 hours later saturday morning, i was hauling manure in the 7020 with the straight pipe and i had to keep talking and singing in order to keep awake. just glad i only had 2 loads to haul. as soon as i was done i hit the bed. hope i never do that again

Most of the posters so far are obviously too young to have ever had the privledge of cultivating corn. ;) In the 50's, at least at our farm, there were no herbicides or anything else to prevent weed and grass growth on small corn. Three days after planting, before germination, a weeder was pulled over the ground. This was fun. Go as fast as 4th gear in a Farmall H would take you. (not very fast) Then wait untill the corn looked like it was loosing the race with the weeds and grass and the cultivators were put on the H. The shovels next to the corn row were half-sweeps to prevent trash from covering the precious corn. Shields were installed for the first cultivation, also to prevent damage to the crop. This job is best done in low gear, about 3 clicks up from idle on the gas feed. There is no man alive, having done more than a few acres, who will stand up and say he never went to sleep on a tractor. :D
I firmly believe the increased yield of corn crops today, is mainly because kids like me are no longer sleeping on the job. :D

Finished up our harvest 2 years ago and got a call to help the neighbors out. We had already been up since 5 in the morning harvesting our own crop, and we agreed to help them out. added our 2 green combines to their 5 and went through the night to noon the next day. fell asleep once but thankfully we have 2 way radios that are loud. All of a sudden my radio was saying "if you keep going that way you'll go right over the edge of the coulee. woke up and i was about 80 feet off course.

A guy I used to work with on the farm fell asleep while cutting hay with the haybine. When he woke up the tractor was out in the woods headed for a huge maple. He had run about 1/4 of the way down the field and then drifted slightly off course for the other 3/4 of a mile to the end... the boss didn't think it was so funny when he got out there and started chopping.

Most of the posters so far are obviously too young to have ever had the privledge of cultivating corn. ;) In the 50's, at least at our farm, there were no herbicides or anything else to prevent weed and grass growth on small corn. Three days after planting, before germination, a weeder was pulled over the ground. This was fun. Go as fast as 4th gear in a Farmall H would take you. (not very fast) Then wait untill the corn looked like it was loosing the race with the weeds and grass and the cultivators were put on the H. The shovels next to the corn row were half-sweeps to prevent trash from covering the precious corn. Shields were installed for the first cultivation, also to prevent damage to the crop. This job is best done in low gear, about 3 clicks up from idle on the gas feed. There is no man alive, having done more than a few acres, who will stand up and say he never went to sleep on a tractor. :D
I firmly believe the increased yield of corn crops today, is mainly because kids like me are no longer sleeping on the job. :D

I never got the honor of doing this, but we use to raise sugar beats. My dad had to do the same thing with them. He HATED cultivating. It was one of the things that he just dreaded.

Except for the few years that they use to run the thinner through the field. You couldn't get a tractor to go slow enough with that damn thing. And one guy had to walk behind it to. It was suppose to thin out the beats if they were too close to each other to give them optimal growing space. At least that one had annoying buzzers to keep you awake!

I know exactly what TrailerproPop is talking about, having done the same thing. My grandfather always told me and my brother if we felt tired to stop the tractor, get off and take a short nap. He didn't want anyone going to sleep and falling off and getting run over. Those old JDs and Binders didn't have cabs so it was a real worry. Any time I would get tired I would stop the tractor at the end of the field closest to home so they would know I was napping and not having trouble and take a short nap. Still do when I get tired driving, it is not worth it to fall asleep and hit something or someone. Hell, I've even fallen asleep driving a motorcycle down the Interstate. :eek: Didn't run off the road but it did get my attention when I woke up.

Fell asleep standing up for 2 hours in the milking parlor before, pulled an all night the night before and was still drunk. Many a times in highschool, I'd fall asleep driving home at 3 am from the ex-girlfriends or a party and I'd wake up in my truck in the driveway with he sun shining in my eyes at 7 am, it was only a 20 minute ride, firgure that one out... But never on a tractor at least not on purpose

I just about fell asleep operating a D7 dozer. I never thought it would be possible having to run the track clutches and blade. I finally gave up and took a nap.

I never got the honor of doing this, but we use to raise sugar beats. My dad had to do the same thing with them. He HATED cultivating. It was one of the things that he just dreaded.

Except for the few years that they use to run the thinner through the field. You couldn't get a tractor to go slow enough with that damn thing. And one guy had to walk behind it to. It was suppose to thin out the beats if they were too close to each other to give them optimal growing space. At least that one had annoying buzzers to keep you awake!


My dad said when he was taking drivers ed his partner was a girl who lived on a large farm that grew tomatos. He said since she could push in the clutch she was on a farmal A all day. He said the instructer would yell at her for looking at the floor while driving. :D

dawn after an all night seed swathing like red clover is killer for me when the morning sky gets to showing up my eyelides close. never for very long . luckey i guess. my uncle fell asleep all the time on the tractor and luckily he was never killed.

I've done the head bob, a few too many times. Its amazing with a tractor or combine howling, that you could ever get to the point of dozing off. But if you get tired, you'll sleep no matter what's going on.

I've even managed dozed off sitting in the stands of a Nascar race.


Dozing off almost killed me a couple times on the highway. Put the car into a snow bank one night, missed a couple trees by a foot or two. Another time, heading south, went across to the north bound ditch. Snapped off a tele pole, when I came to, it was pointed north. Missed hitting the river by 200 ft.

If you tired, you have to stop and at least get a nap. Pushing to get it done does no good if you tear up the equipment, run down a bunch of crop, or get yourself or someone else killed.

Either work in shifts to keep going all night or set a point when your going to stop and sleep.

It isn't worth it. I've done the 3 weeks of 14 to 16 hr days, 7days, in a row. I've done the 36 to 48 hours without sleeping. No task is worth killing yourself. Advice from a smart assed kid that manged to get old and is starting to gray, stop and sleep when you need it.

I was foreman for a feedlot years ago, the most boooring job i ever did there was building up and packing the silage in a couple of big silage pits, with a big 4wh dr tractor with blade.
pushing up load after load and then driving around and around to pack it. mounds where up to 20' high when done.16 hr days for 3 weeks straight. it was almost impossible to stay awake after a few days. drove of the pile one day but got hung up with the blade on the way down on the concrete side wall. God i HATED that job, did it for 4 years in a row. started my own ranch after that, but vowed never to make silage again.

Most of the posters so far are obviously too young to have ever had the privledge of cultivating corn. ;) In the 50's, at least at our farm, there were no herbicides or anything else to prevent weed and grass growth on small corn. Three days after planting, before germination, a weeder was pulled over the ground. This was fun. Go as fast as 4th gear in a Farmall H would take you. (not very fast) Then wait untill the corn looked like it was loosing the race with the weeds and grass and the cultivators were put on the H. The shovels next to the corn row were half-sweeps to prevent trash from covering the precious corn. Shields were installed for the first cultivation, also to prevent damage to the crop. This job is best done in low gear, about 3 clicks up from idle on the gas feed. There is no man alive, having done more than a few acres, who will stand up and say he never went to sleep on a tractor. :D
I firmly believe the increased yield of corn crops today, is mainly because kids like me are no longer sleeping on the job. :D
while i wasnt old enough to be turned loose buy my self i do remember cultivating corn. with my dad and uncles in the late 80 early 90s.. by 93-94-95 we had sold all that and gone no-till

i do remeber dicsing, pulling the cultivator, buttom/mulboard plow, chisssels,

while i wasnt old enough to be turned loose buy my self i do remember cultivating corn. with my dad and uncles in the late 80 early 90s.. by 93-94-95 we had sold all that and gone no-till

i do remeber dicsing, pulling the cultivator, buttom/mulboard plow, chisssels,

Still have a the mulboard plow, haven't used it in years. Still have a row cultivator for the just in case the herbaside fails. Its comes out every once and a while for corn. Even have a row cultivator for 15" beans, it was used once.

I've come close on both tractor and truck, but never wrecked. It happens. My good buddy (codythom on dp) was comming home from hunting with his dad a few years back in Cody's old dmax. His dad was driving back home with him and both fell asleep. His dad fell into the median and the truck jumped an overpass hitting the other side concrete wall. Air bags didn't go off puting Cody in a chest cast for a couple of months. His dad pinched a nerve in his neck pretty bad too. He said if it wasn't a diesel and not having the f.e.r., it could have been a lot worse. I'll see if I can get him to post some pics of his truck afterwards... needless to say it looked like a taco and couldn't even tell it was a chevy afterwards. Luckily him and his dad are still here to talk about it.

Here is his post pertaining to the above post. Pretty Crazy! http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38859

Still have a the mulboard plow, haven't used it in years. Still have a row cultivator for the just in case the herbaside fails. Its comes out every once and a while for corn. Even have a row cultivator for 15" beans, it was used once.
been a while seen i saw 15" bean rows. uncles were running a bean drill 4-6"? for most of what i can remmeber. pulled it behind a IH hydro 100. that tractor was great at pulling stuff like cultivbators, drill, feed wagons, brush hogs, bat-wing mower, wagons, dont ask it to drag a plow through the ground tho.

Here is his post pertaining to the above post. Pretty Crazy! http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38859

That must be one mean bumper :eek: the bumper looks new.

I used to fall asleep driving after working night shift in -40 degree weather in the Alberta. What I would do is open up the windows so it was to cold in there to sleep. If that didn't work I would roll down the window and put my hair in it then roll it back up. It would tug and hurt like heck when my head bobbed.:eek:

you must have long ass hair dude! cold makes me sleepier. i put eye drops in and eat sunflower seeds or dip.

Yeah I have several times, you work long enough and you will go to sleep. One year we were plowing all night and planting all day. Man I would fall asleep just about everyday.

Been there done that. Had that happen with hay once too. We'd start cutting every morning as soon as you could see anything and bale till after dark. That cycle went on for about 6 days and on day 5 and 6 I was struggling to stay awake while baling.

you must have long ass hair dude! cold makes me sleepier. i put eye drops in and eat sunflower seeds or dip.

When its hot out all I want to do it sit down I get so tired. Once I get used to the cold I can work all day. I rebuilt the engine on my 484 this last winter. Some days its was -15, the coldest was -17 and I was standing in a foot of snow working on the engine with no gloves. Most days werent that cold, maybe 10deg. On the cold days I could go about 1 1/2 hours before my fingers wouldnt move anymore. It was in a building but the doors wont close anymore.

Not while driving the tractor, but have when baling hay at night. Sitting there tying off a bale once, I nodded off. Like to have jumped outta my skin when I woke up, figured I'd been sitting there with the bale going round and round for 10 minutes, judging from th epile of leaves on the ground beneath! Worked my way back ot hte pickup and called it a night.

I haven't but not for lack of opportunity. Unmuffled exhaust helps with that. I try to work on the overnight when possible.

Luckily, most members will not experience this because they are so lazy they will take 5 10-minute breaks in a 1-hour shift. :(