Operating A ZTR. What age?

ziti

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Would like to know how many forum members allow their sons or daughters under 18 to operate a ZTR.
 

reynoldston

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A 16 year old can operate a car on the public roads here in NY. Back on the farm as a child it just seems I was very young age operating farm tractors when I could reach all the petals, don't remember the age but I think it much of been around 10 years old or younger. It was all part of working/ farm life on the farm with the whole family. I would have to drive the tractor as the adults would be loading the trailer with fruit. By 18 I was operating all farm equipment many hours a day. Hooking up, driving, and repairing. I guess its the reason I hate operating a lawn mower now in my senior years. So I would say it all depends on the child.
 

Ric

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Would like to know how many forum members allow their sons or daughters under 18 to operate a ZTR.

I've got a grand kids that have been on a ZTR for as long as I can remember. The youngest is now just turned 16 and he has been mowing with a business and with a 72 and 60 and 48" Gravely ztr's since he was 11 or 12.
 

BlazNT

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My grandson has been mowing with me since 3 years old 6 now. On my lap running the steering with my help. Mow Hat(Hearing Protection) and eye protection. He also rides a 125cc 4 wheeler by himself. As soon as I think he can run the ZTR by himself he will be mowing and I will be weedeating. He can already hold the line very well. Better than my 30 yr old son.
 

bertsmobile1

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It is the level of maturity that is more important than the numerical years
Down here the biggest killer of children under 10 is now Quadbikes.
Your hipicampus ( must be spelt wrong ) is the part of the brain that assesses risk.
On girls it is fully developed by the the time they first menstrate ( same bunch of hormones ).
On boys it usually takes till the mid 20's through to the early 30's
This is why armies were made from young men who will do as ordered without assessing the risk of injury to themselves first.
Also why most idiot stupid accidents happen to boys.
There are also two important mechanical considerations.
1) the child will need to be restrained by some sort of seat belt
2) as you need both hands to steer their feet need to be able to contact the foot board so they can support themselves
 

Ric

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It is the level of maturity that is more important than the numerical years
Down here the biggest killer of children under 10 is now Quadbikes.
Your hipicampus ( must be spelt wrong ) is the part of the brain that assesses risk.
On girls it is fully developed by the the time they first menstrate ( same bunch of hormones ).
On boys it usually takes till the mid 20's through to the early 30's
This is why armies were made from young men who will do as ordered without assessing the risk of injury to themselves first.
Also why most idiot stupid accidents happen to boys.
There are also two important mechanical considerations.
1) the child will need to be restrained by some sort of seat belt
2) as you need both hands to steer their feet need to be able to contact the foot board so they can support themselves

I looked it up :smile: and It's spelled hippocampus and is a small region of the brain that forms part of the limbic system and is primarily associated with memory and spatial navigation. :thumbsup: In older people the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to become damaged and this leads to the memory loss and disorientation, basically Alzheimer's disease at least that's what they say. The article is quite fascinating.
 

BlazNT

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"spatial navigation" Who wrote that?
Oh never mind.
 

bertsmobile1

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It means being aware of your position and the position of other things in 3 a dimensional space.
It is why grandmar keeps on dropping her tea cup on the floor insted of placing it on the edge of the table.
Or in a mowing perspective the position of the deck that you can not see and how you move it to cut or not cut a bit of grass by movement of your left &/or right hand.
Down here they have a clever computer test for potential fork lift drivers as you use the same brain region to place a pallet in a rack 60' above your head that you can't see and then you have to lift the forks 1.5" while tilting foreward to remove them safely.

The human brain, well any brain for that matter is so poorly understood it is criminal.
Glad you found it interesting Ric
One of the greatest things the Obama Government did was setting up a massive brain study to plot the brain and what each & every par of the brain does and how it interacts with the other parts.
All other studies have been looking for a specific problem like which pat of your brain makes you fat.
 
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