Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Tractors

In my younger days I often drove tractors between farms in Oxfordshire and due to limited overtaking opportunities it was commonplace for tractors to pull over and let backed up traffic through, not anymore it seems. Yesterday I drove down through a notorious tractor hotspot called Lincolnshire and three times got behind tractors for miles of 20mph travel. One guy must have had 1/2 a mile or more of traffic backed up over a 10 mile route and passed numerous opportunities to let traffic through. A sign of the times I guess?

There's a farm near me that rent land within a 30 mile radius to grow vegetables. The owner has instructed his driver's NOT to pull over for traffic because of wasted journey time.
They won't even go off-road or slow down if you're unfortunate enough to meet them on a narrow country road!!

Perhaps we're more polite over in Gloucestershire - tractors pull in regularly to let traffic past.

Ironically I was traveling through there yesterday on the A17, a major through route, and suffered exactly as you describe. One smaller tractor/trailer was raising the dust with one wheel on the verge so at least most could squeeze past in fairness. I know it's a busy time of year for farmers but although I travel this route regularly it was the worst I've seen encountering maybe half a dozen in a ten mile stretch.

Unfortunately it’s a daily occurrence for me going both to and from the office - no tractor pulls over, not one. Kinda get used to it so have had to adjust my mindset to avoid significant anger… one good thing about the acceleration of Ernie is that I can take advantage of the slightest opportunity to overtake without putting anyone else at risk…
HB

Silage time is similar when contractors are involved.
Horseboxes......when in Police Ops I had a call about one causing holdups and not pulling over. They were headed from a horse event in Aberystwyth and were on the A458 headed eventually to Wrexham area. I had the call from a car stuck behind. There were near misses with frustrated cars overtaking. We got a car to intercept them at a lay-by and pull them off the road. The driver failed an attitude test when spoken to by not caring and self centredness. They were given a FPN for their driving ( along the lines of inconsiderate driving, obstructing traffic or similar). There was a VERY long queue behind them estimated at a mile by the officers. Utter a*******s.

I don't understand why a horsebox should have been holding up the traffic to such an extent. On straight roads, our Disco & Trailer combo cruises at its legal limit very happily.
When we ran a 7.5T lorry, that would also cruise happily at its legal limit.

I do go a lot slower on roundabouts and corners though. There are 3 people offering advice on that point when I get it wrong. Fortunately, only one of them can talk.

Fortunately, our trips through the fields of Lincolnshire have not been too badly affected by tractors when we take the horses that way. In my experience, most have pulled over once the queue behind them became substantial.

Think there maybe two possible causes to tractors not pulling over which I always used to do when I was a farmer in the distant past.
Tractors are faster than they used to be so the driver doesn't feel he's holding people up too much and the amount of traffic on the road now means that you would spend so much time pulling over and when you did you would have a job to pull out again, easier to keep going!

Tractors are also far bigger & trailers longer making over taking not so simple. I would say in Suffolk they generally pull over.

I used to be quite keen on tractors - but not any more - I`ve become an ex-tractor fan.
However, I do agree that having followed a tractor in Wales a couple of years ago for over 30 miles, I did feel that he could have pulled in occasionally to let traffic go past. I normally assume tractors are going between farms etc. and can cope with the delay as they have an important job to do, but on long distance journeys they should pull in from time to time.