How do you all work around the strength needed to handle some equipment? I need my husband’s help for so many things and even more now that I have a hernia. We came across this article
and thought COTH should chime in with your experiences:
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Good question for Bluey who is small (5’1"?) but will drive the bulldozer to plow snow
Interesting article.
I’m kinda who they’re talking about. I run the farm and am generally outside doing labor with implements 4-6 hours a day depending on season or weather. We have the tractor that’s one below the model in that article.
Some of it is making sure the equipment is oiled/maintained. The ROPS bar on our tractor doesn’t take anywhere NEAR 50#s to put up, but it’s the same size. The parking brake isn’t hard to engage. Yeah, attaching the PTO for the rotary is tough, but it’s a hell of a lot easier if it’s greased and not rusty.
I have the advantage of being TALL. But still, there are things (like the harness to carry the brush cutter) where I’m on the VERY smallest setting and could go smaller. And even though I’m tall, some things are still really set up for someone even bigger. The cotter pins that secure the lock pin on the ROPS bar on the tractor really need to be pointing down for me–but it doesn’t matter for my husband, who’s a few inches taller.
Being able to be consistent about it probably helps…I’m essentially at the gym for hours every day. It’s really easy to build strength. It would be harder to only do it on the weekend. Being stubborn also helps 
But probably makes injury a little more likely?
I think it’s awesome that they’re making equipment with women in mind. I hope that doesn’t turn into lighter use “ladies gear” versus the “real” guys stuff. Our stuff needs to be just as tough.
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Work smarter not harder! 
I agree with both suggestions above. I do it all on my own and just work hard consistently to stay fit. But I also spend a fair bit of time thinking about how to “work smarter” and come up with some pretty clever work-around. They may take a bit longer but they are worth it if I don’t get hurt and get to feel independent. My awesome Dad taught me to run the show on my own so I wouldn’t have to rely on a man to live my farm dream. My wonderful husband never sets foot on the farm side of the fence but he keeps the house clean so I can play outside all day.
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I always thought it was the equipment that evened the playing field for me. Never occurred to me that I was at a disadvantage. Never felt like the equipment didn’t "fit " me. Found PTO shafts and hydraulic hoses difficult at times, but not impossible to deal with.
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One of the first things that jumped out in that article was the pic of the rotary sitting on the ground and the rusty PTO shaft. Yeah, that’s going to be tough. Put it up on blocks when taking it off the tractor so it’s easier to reconnect, and store the end of the PTO attachment inside so it doesn’t rust.
Take care of your tools, they’ll take care of you 
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Yup, all of my tractor attachments are on crates or blocks behind the barn. I keep a plastic feed sack over the PTO on the brush hog.
My tractor is the ultimate Chick tractor, JD 2320. Hoisting a 5 gallon container of diesel on top of the hood is only hard when’s it’s full. I have a battery powered suctioning device that gives me the option of not having to lift the container up quite so high.
A great hammer & full can of WD40 is a must for getting implements attached and removed from the tractor.
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@SLW I am totally loling because we have the same tractor
Damned near bought another (additional) tractor recently–a 47 ish HP Case?–but it didn’t work out, and it’s fiiiiiiine. Because our little Deere has done yeomen duty and has no problem moving all the rock for the wall I’m building!!
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Exactly, size matters. 
Our place is small so I love being able to drive through a 4’ wide gate with the tractor. Yet when I knocked my GN trailer off the blocks under the jack, the tractor had enough “uumph” to safety lift the nose up and reset the blocks.
I’ve said the JD2320 is like having the team of local High School football players around to help lift, push & pull stuff BUT ya don’t have to feed them after the work is done.
You are generous, think more like 4’10", right down shrimpy.
I manage, having driven big farm tractors and medium sized bulldozers, yes, all those are made for bigger people, so I adapt with stools and cheater extension bars, like on the cattle chute.
When others are going to use the cattle chute, I take the extensions off, or tape a tennis ball on the end, so they don’t impale themselves.
My current tractor is a JD5085 and, yes, the PTO requires arms at least 1/2" longer than mine, really frustrating.
I hang the PTO shaft from the quick hitch with a baling string so it lines perfectly straight, then push and shove it as far as I can, then fight it to the death, or wait for a handy-dandy neighbor to come give it that last shove for me, embarrassing, but a nice smile, a Gatorade and thank you is always welcome. 
A friend that is an engineer for JD told me that they use a 5’ man for a minimum operator standard.
He must have monkey’s arms with hyper mobile joints.
There is no way any other than a giant with long arms can reach the transmission filter in the bowels of the dozer. 
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They have good points, but I think the answer would be to make the standard tractors more adjustable, not to design a whole new line of tools. I’m 5’3" and 105lbs. I struggle with attaching the bush hog to the tractor. However, I’m also small enough to crouch down inside the bars to get a straighter shot at wiggling the PTO shaft on. I’m never up against the backrest of the seat. My Kubota does not have the safety feature that makes it cut off if enough weight isn’t in the seat, but my JD riding mower does. I have a steep edge on the driveway and move over to balance on the uphill side, and I can only move over so far before the engine cuts out because not enough of my buns were in the seat. Before buying the Kubota, we rented a similar mid-size tractor, and it would cut off every time I put it in reverse and twisted in the seat to see where I was going. Overall, I feel like I do okay with my “man’s tools” other than attaching the bush hog and the weight in the seat safety features.
I have had this struggle many times. My favourite trick was tying a massive roundbale that was too heavy to dump myself to a tree while it was in the back of my truck, then flooring it and the bale going flying off the back
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I read that article and am a bit conflicted. Yes, I understand that it would be handy for things to be designed with women in mind but there are also reasons that some equipment is so heavy. Steel might be heavier but it’s also stronger. Some things have to weigh certain amounts to be safe and protect from roll overs, etc. I would likely be hesitant to purchase farm equipment that was marketed as ‘light weight’.
I do have the advantage of being a tall woman and I’m quite fit and strong. My husband works a week away at a time so I manage our little farm by myself when he’s gone. There are definitely a few things that have come up that I can’t physically manage myself but mostly I do alright. If I leave something to wait for him, it’s usually because I don’t want to do it or it’s not safe for one person to do alone.
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I find that I can do the work. I’m on the smaller side, but strong. I’m also patient. I can peck away at a huge task without fussing or griping. I’m better at putting things together and my smaller hands can reach into equipment more easily. It doesn’t bother me if I have to ask for help with a bigger item because I’m just as capable, or even more so, with the other tasks.
I was an engineering officer in the USN. I crawled into empty lube oil tanks for inspections and underneath our huge engines to repair things that only I could reach. I was an inspector for gas turbine engines later. They hated seeing me coming because I got into their dark little corners and found their leaks.
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I have not yet found anything I truly can’t find a way to do myself. DH might be faster or better at it, but he’s not always around and time waits for no man. If the gas can is too heavy and awkward, find a crate to stand on. Look for ways to make things easier! I would not be inclined to buy women’s tools, unless it was something only I would ever be using, and I don’t need two sets of everything.
I have a Kubota, not a JD - is the parking brake design substantially different? Ours is just a little lever you push while stepping on the brake, it takes less strength than the parking brake in my car.
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The next size down of the tractor shown in the article (the 2320, that’s a 3xxx in the article) has a little lever you pull up when depressing the brake. It’s not hard at all.
The ROPS bar is also…eh…15#? Definitely not 50#s.
That and the state of some of the other equipment in the pics makes me think they’re just not taking care of their stuff.
Or it’s all made up/way exaggerated for the article :-/
That tractor also supports a super easy PTO connect method according to the Deere page:
https://www.deere.com/en/tractors/compact-tractors/3-series-compact-tractors/3032e/
Which is kinda funny since it’s exactly what the article is talking about (an easy way for smaller/less strong people to do stuff) but they don’t have it and complain about how hard it is.
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I don’t want to nitpick these people, but I honestly am wondering why they are putting the ROPS up and down so much? It does seem like maybe their complaints are being highlighted as a plug to advertise the line of ‘hergonomic’ tools.
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Totally agree. We put ours up and down because we store it in the garage and it doesn’t fit with the bar up. These guys have look to have big buildings. What’s the deal :-/
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To me, the point isn’t that women can’t use some tool or manage to get X job done, but that some relatively minor changes in adjustability, sizing, or maneuverability can help a growing market and put fewer people in danger of physical injury.
Reminded me of this article, which covers a lot of different products- like how women are more likely to be injured in car crashes, because crash test dummies are designed around an average 5’7" man… even though the average woman is substantially shorter and has to sit closer to the wheel.
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