I’ve been working longer stretches (4-5 hours) on a tractor this year, but only every 4-5 weeks or so. It cripples my knees 
Anybody else have this problem? I can drive all day in a car or truck, but get me bouncing around in a tractor going back and forth across fields and I need the handrail to climb down the steps to get out. Looking for seat adjustments that might have worked for somebody, or some sort of portable, removable modification that I can make. A day later and if I stand or sit for more than half an hour I’m still feeling the crippled knees. Help. Please!
Get that seat as high as you can and still be able to brace against the motion of the tractor…it should help. Worked 12+ hours a day harvest time for years in the tractor and got two wrecked knees and after I raised the seat, there wasn’t a problem. Supposed to use the handrail for safety even if there are no issues; falling from a tractor is just as painful as falling from a horse 
2 Likes
Thanks. I will try raising the seat! Yes, I always use the handrail, I guess what I meant was that even if I were stupid enough to not use it, I couldn’t have got down. I totally would be stranded inside the cab.
Yup; been there, done that!!!
Seat adjustment advice is good.
Ensure that your clutch pressure is correctly set. You may be just working too hard. But some tractors require that so you might not get any help, there.
Dismount every 45 min. or so and walk for a few minutes. Works on horses and on tractors to relieve knee pain.
Ibuprofen (or some like substance) is your friend. Use it IAW label directions (and that includes restrictions) and it will help without causing unreasonable side effects.
Or, if you’ve got some money, get JD6000 series tractor with their clutch-less shifter. While you’re at it, make sure you have the air conditioned cab, too. When someone questions your spending so much money tell them you can give it to Deere or you can give it to your local orthopedic surgeon and a couple of physical therapists. If they don’t understand that then don’t waste your time on explanations!!!
G.
1 Like
For me, super short as I am, lowering the seat helped, so I didn’t have to reach so far for the clutch.
Also, in the old tractors with fixed seats, I used a little wooden stool so my feet had somewhere to rest.
Do not keep driving a tractor that hurts your knees like that.
The bursae in your knees will degenerate, maybe even get leaks and cause many troubles for years to come.
I ended up with permanent huge Baker’s cysts on the back of my knees.
Do whatever you have to do, even hire someone else to drive or do the work with their tractor if you have to, just don’t mess with your knees like that.
1 Like
This afternoon, I drove bouncing betty bush hog for 3 hours. Never a thought about my knees. Do you have a hydrostat that requires you to press a pedal to drive ? or a throttle pedal ?
I set the hand throttle and just keep steering. Do try raising your seat so the knee is not so flexed.
Another thought. Do you have a suspension seat that is constantly flexing your knee ? You might try increasing the tension… less shock absorbing but less bouncing and knee flexing.
1 Like
Thanks all. I think it’s a combination of seat height and suspension. I am the tallest, longest legged person that operates the 2 tractors I normally get put in .
I’m pretty sure it’s not the clutch - both knees, plus I use the clutch only for stopping and starting. The majority of my time is spent running flat out across fields chasing the hay chopper with an empty forage wagon and running full wagons back to the bagger. I use the button controls to change gears once I’m running in both the blue and the red tractors. Boss uses the tractor with Vario transmission to run the chopper … which is fine because I was never good at video games lol
I do use hand throttle a lot of the time.
Yes to cabs on both and A/C which I keep cranked.
5 weeks from now when the next cut of haylage should come off, I will go out early to play with the seat in whichever machine I get put into.
Thanks again for all the help!
Editing to add that I can spend half a day on the antique White pulling shrubbery which requires a lot of clutch and foot throttle use and not get sore. That seat has nada for suspension so I think the seat adjustment diagnosis is spot on .
Assuming, then that they are Ford and Case and real tractors and of a decent size. Anything fairly recent, 30 yrs or less, will also have an adjustment for firmness of ride so crank that up too so the bouncing is less.
Yes, newer (<10yo), large, real tractors - Case and New Holland. Thanks, I’m going to spend some time farting with every little seat thingy I can find before I get down to work next time
Ford/NH…is kinda splitting hairs!!!LOL
There should be an adjustment on the Case behind the seat, and no clue about the NH
1 Like
There should be a big knob in the front for firmness, a slider on the side for forward or further back and lower a setting for height.
The back rest may have it’s own adjustment for higher or lower and leaning back more or less.
The seat arms may also adjust.
The steering wheel should have an adjustment to bring it closer or further away and also one to raise or lower it.
Tweaking a combination of all that may help you.
2 Likes
When one of the blue ones goes into the shop for maintenance, I pick my boss up or drop him off at the NH dealership 
Thanks for the tip on the Case. I should be able to figure out the blue one. There are like humpty different thingamahoojits protruding from various bits of the seat. I need to take the time to figure them all out, and I will, because jeez Louise, I can still feel my damn knees when I sit too long today
1 Like
Yeah a friend of mine works for a Ford/NH dealership, and the change over to just NH is recent.
Sounds like adjusting everything will help…keep us apprised of how it goes
Well, 1996, but I guess that’s recent in tractors
