Tractor Driving with no experience?

msc1

Hi,

I am flying out to Oz next month, tickets booked. Unfortunately Ive just been diagnosed with mild arthritis (in my mid 20's!!). This is a problem as certain types of work will make the condition worse i.e., fruit picking, construction laborer etc. I have been told that tractor driving would be ideal. The problem is I have no experience nor have I driven one before.

How does one go about getting such a job with no experience? Is there a course I could do that would help? Is their a particular licence I need to get in order to drive a tractor? Any advice on this would be hugely appreciated!

Zambia

Driving a tractor is normally part of a job and not at job in itself.

astonaidan

Dont totally agree with the tractor normally part of the job, I know guys doing wheat harvest and that only involved driving tractor, not sure 14-16 hours sitting in one place would be good for arthritis though

msc1

Cheers for the feedback! Yes I've seen job adverts where driving a tractor is part of a job requiring a host of other activities including fencing, farm hand etc. I've also seen adverts for jobs which seemed to involve just driving tractors. I have come across one or two job adverts for drivers where experience was only "preferential" but not essential. This gives me hope!

Does anyone know if I have to apply for a special licence for tractor work? Does anyone know of a good course I can do when I get over there that will give me a good chance of getting a job and perhaps some useful safety tips?...I can imagine that working with such equipment without knowing what you're doing would be pretty dangerous!

Astonaidan, you are right about the arthritis but I only have very mild osteoarthritis in a single joint (the wrist). However I don't want to aggravate this with some repetitive job like fruit picking. Driving should be okay.

sponge_bob

LOL mild arthritis in the wrist:rolleyes:

i have arthritis with over 20 yrs in my hip and ankle and have worked on sites all my life, concreting, steel fixing, shuttering, labouring and iam also a carpenter by trade so i have been doing that aswell. while it has been a hinderance i can't say it ever held me back. loads of people have arthritis and lead normal working lives it just isn't as easy for them as it is for those who havn't got arthritis.

anyhow the good news for you is that damp weather conditions/climate tend to agrevate arthritis. while hot dry conditions tend to suit it better, so in a climate like australia's after a few weeks you won't even know you have arthritis and you can get back to doing whatever it was that gave you arthritis in the first place;):D.
couple a hundered years ago the cure for arthritis, if you could afford it was to move to a drier climate which you are doing:D.

also take a spoonfull of cod liver oil every morning that is very good for it but it tastes horrible. i have also discovered other fish oils in a local health shop which claim to be just as good but with only a portion of the taste, eskimo oil and paradox if you can get them they too are very good, a bit dearer than the cod liver oil but way easier to drink.

on the whole tractor thing, tractors are easy to drive then iam from the country and have been around tractors/machinery all my life so it comes kinda naturally to me. i guess if you have a city or town backround then you may not have been so familiar with these things while growing up.

PirateShampoo

I did my 3 months by sitting in a Water cart in Darwin for 6 months doing pretty much nothing.

greenprincess

If you have an Irish driving licence then you have an irish tractor licence. I got a job driving a combine with no experience you just have to be a hard worker and willing to learn fast! There are loads of jobs that are just tractor driving (apart from basic maintenance). See if someone will teach you how to drive a tractor over here any experience is better then no experience!

Mellor

Do you have an irish licence?

msc1

That's great spongebob that arthritis hasn't held you back in any way. What kind of arthritis do you have? Ive just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis a few weeks ago and dont know a lot about it. Doing research on how to look after it. As it is degenerative disease I thought that if you continue to use the joint it will continue to get worse. This hasn't been the case with you?

With regards to the full licence Mellor, no i have not. I only have the provisional licence. Will it be worth my while obtaining a full licence before I go over (hence delay my trip) or just chance my arm and hopefully the farmer wont ask me for my full licence. Is that possible?

In terms of experience with tractors, I have friends who drive tractors and Im going to get some lessons off them. As you say greenprincess, any experience is better than no experience!

sponge_bob

msc1 wrote: »

That's great spongebob that arthritis hasn't held you back in any way. What kind of arthritis do you have? Ive just been diagnosed with osteoarthritis a few weeks ago and dont know a lot about it. Doing research on how to look after it. As it is degenerative disease I thought that if you continue to use the joint it will continue to get worse. This hasn't been the case with you?

With regards to the full licence Mellor, no i have not. I only have the provisional licence. Will it be worth my while obtaining a full licence before I go over (hence delay my trip) or just chance my arm and hopefully the farmer wont ask me for my full licence. Is that possible?

In terms of experience with tractors, I have friends who drive tractors and Im going to get some lessons off them. As you say greenprincess, any experience is better than no experience!

i obtained my arthritis through injury broke both my hips and my right ankle when i was between the ages of 12-14 unde rwent several operations as a result up until i was about 18 as a result i was dignosed with arthritis in my right hip when i was about 21/22 and my right ankle a few years later.
so not much help to you really.

AngryHippie

without a licence, you would not be insurable, without insurance, a farmer should be pretty hesitant to let you up on machinery, without experience, i.e being able to hop in, back it up connect the machinery unassisted and start to operate, I can see some pretty obvious pitfalls coming up,
It depends on the farmer, and what the work involves, but I'd reckon at the very least the lack of a license might hold you back.

msc1

I think you're right AngryHippie, some very obvious pitfalls coming up. I am now planning on delaying my flight by about 8 weeks and applying for my full licence here in Ireland. Since I have the time I may do a fork lifting course or something like that as well just as an extra option. Cheers for all the input!

AngryHippie

if you get a chance to get a go on a tractor somewhere do it, you'll learn what everyhting is pretty quickly, hook up the 3 point to a few bits and pieces and hitch up a trailer a few times, everything else is a bit particular to each individual piece of machinery and nobody would expect you to just do it perfectly first time, but knowing where all the controls are and what they do is a must. have a quick squiz under the hood too, for dipstick oil filters starter motor battery and hydraulic oil, they are easy enough to find once you've figured it out, but some farms would expect you to pretty much pre-start a machine before you use it, some on the other hand will be using clapped out old stuff that will need little bits of tlc here anf there