Keeping antique tractors running — and safe

SHARON — One of the signature sights of the Northwest Corner in summer: a rolling farm field dotted with bales of hay. Another signature sight: quaint antique tractors, plowing those fields and moving those bales.

According to at least one area tractor expert, those old tractors are as safe and reliable as the newer  models — as long as some modifications are made, and caution is exercised.

“Old tractors are safe, as long as they’re not worn out,� said Roger Elwood, the owner of Sharon Auto Body — and of 40 antique tractors. He is on the Board of Directors of Ford Tractor Collectibles, and many of his vehicles have been featured in books and magazine articles about antique tractors.

He added one modification to that pronouncement about the safety of the older models: “They’re as safe as the operator.�

He and Dean Detlefsen, a technician at Sharon Auto Body, shared some suggestions for the safe use of antique tractors. If you do nothing else, they advised, have the tractor modified with an overriding clutch. The part itself costs about $50 and it should only take 15 minutes for a mechanic to install.

Often, they said, when you operate a tractor you are pulling something along behind it, such as a mower. When the operator of the tractor engages the clutch, power to the mower or other attachment is shut off. On newer model tractors and utility vehicles, there are safety overrides that are not built into the older models.

If the driver is unable to push in the clutch, power continues to go to the attachment, even if the tractor itself is no longer moving.

“You’ll sometimes see guys get into trouble while they’re mowing a field,� Detlefsen said. “They get into a corner and because the power is still going to the attachment it can actually push the tractor right over a stone wall.�

Elwood compared it to riding a bicycle down a hill. With older bicycles, if a rider was going down a hill, the wheels would sometimes get going so fast that the rider’s legs would be pulled faster and faster around on the pedals. New bicycles usually have a mechanism that allows the rider to coast, so that even if the wheels are turning quickly, the rider’s feet can remain immobile on the pedals.

“Even with an overriding clutch, the attachment might keep moving,� Elwood said. “But it won’t be powerful enough to push a tractor. Like on a bicycle, the wheels keep turning but they don’t force your legs to keep turning.�

One other safety feature that antique tractor owners might consider is a roll bar.

“But if you have a roll bar, you have to have seat belts,� Detlefsen warned. “So that if your tractor rolls over, your body doesn’t get caught between the bar and the ground.�

Some tractors advise that when the roll bar is folded down, the operator should not wear a seat belt, they said; but when the roll bar is up, they should wear a seat belt.

Whether or not your tractor has modern safety features, the two men warned that farming is a dangerous occupation and that tractors should always be used with caution.

When driving on a hillside, they suggested, an operator might want to widen the tractor’s gauge, to give it more stability.

“And with a field you’re not familiar with, you want to go real slow,� Detlefsen warned. That way the driver can keep an eye out for hidden stumps, logs, holes or other impediments. If it’s a small area, Elwood suggested, try driving backward, and looking out to the left and the right as you move.

“That way the mower would hit it first and would tend to stop,� he explained.

These precautions should be kept in mind for all tractors, the men said, not just old ones. They both praised the older models and, Elwood said, “Keep them running!�