The Evolution of the Tractor Seat

One of my Farmers favorite sayings is “You can’t get anything done if your butt’s not in the seat.  I have learned that when I volunteer (haha, as if I really have a choice some days) to drive a tractor, I have to be committed to staying in the seat for the whole day.  No running errands, no hair appointments, no going out to lunch with friends, or other fun stuff a girl likes to do. Otherwise, I will hear the “You can’t get anything done if your butts not in the seat” phrase.  So, as I was going back and forth in the fields this summer, I got to thinking about tractor seats, because my butt was in the seat…..a lot! And when you are traveling at 2.2 mph and sometimes as fast as 5.5 (woohoo, speeding along), for up to 10 hours a day, you have a lot of time to think.  Anyways, back to tractor seats.  They sure have changed.  They’ve gone from hard, cold, (or hot, depending on the day) flat pieces of metal, to cushioned ones with backs, to cushioned ones with heat and safety features.  We have quite a variety of tractors here on the ranch, so I went around and took a few pictures of their seats.  Let’s start with the old metal seats.  

The old seats were pretty much a flat piece of metal slightly molded to fit someone’s behind.  Not sure who’s, cuz it wasn’t mine.  This next tractor, I have spent many hours with my “butt in the seat” of it. It was my hay raking tractor for years.

This seat has a spring.  Which could be a good thing in a rough field.  I found, however, that it’s not always a good thing.  Here’s my why……

You are traveling down the county road heading to the next field. Since you are traveling on the road, you naturally have it in “road gear”.  In case you are wondering, this is the “fast” speed in the tractor.  As you are traveling down the paved road in road gear, the spring goes into action and the seat starts to bounce a bit.  So, you are traveling along,  you have a nice little bouncy bounce with the seat going on, you are enjoying the beautiful surroundings, then all of a sudden you realize there is a hill ahead of you.  Tractors pick up speed going down hills.  And the bouncy bounce becomes a bit more bouncy the faster you go.  Before you know it, you are hanging on to the steering wheel (cuz there is nothing else to hang on to!) for dear life, praying that every time your butt springs up off the seat, it lands back down on the seat and not off to the side! Or worse! Not at all! I learned that just because you are traveling down the road, you do NOT have to have the tractor in “road” gear.  The slower you go, the less bouncy bounce goes on, and that is waaaayy better. Believe me!

Now this is a picture of the seat in my Farmers new tractor.  It is really, really nice. It’s easy to adjust up and down, forward and back, and it is even heated.  On those cold, freezing days, its nice when your “butts in the seat” in this tractor.  This cab even has an extra seat so I can ride along with my Farmer or he can ride along with me and give me how to (or how not to 😉 ) instructions.  The one thing I really do not like with these new tractor seats, is the safety features.  The one I really do not like the safety feature in, is our swather.   It shuts the machine off when your butt leaves the seat.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a good safety feature. Only sometimes, it is very irritating.  Let me give you my why……… 

After you have had your butt in the seat for hours,  it gets tired.  The natural thing to do is to just lift yourself and shift a bit.  Wrong!  Not in the swather!  If you lift your butt, the tractor shuts off.  Dead.  Dies just like that.  Almost throws you through the front windshield!  So I have had to learned to adjust my butt creatively.  I adjust myself by lifting one butt cheek at a time.  It works.  (When I remember it do it that way)  I have had more issues with this seat and machine but that’s for another blog.  It has nothing to do with keeping my butt in the seat. However, my Farmer disagrees.  

Anyways,  that’s it for my tractor seats.  I hope you enjoyed it.  If you have a tractor seat story I would love to hear it.  Leave me a note about it in the comment section.   Until next time,  I’ll be here…..Livin’ the Life, the Farm Life that is……