I'll start...
Edit - Iam ninjad from Egil... damn.
I've already driven shorter distances of up to 80 km in my job as a farmer on our company. But never with the "vintage tractor" but always with modern machines.
My first real tour was therefore not until 2021 and at that time with my
Zetor 5011 (with trailert Zetor 2011) and a rented caravan on the K50 coupling.
It was around 2x 160 km and I traveled directly with friends who were also there with their Zetor and caravan. With a maximum of 25 kmh you are a traffic hazard in Germany and if there are 4 such vehicles on the road at once, overtaking is also difficult. But contrary to my fears, there were considerably more thumbs up than middle fingers from overtaking drivers.
Otherwise the trip was quite unspectacular, there were no defects with my Zetor 5011, the route was easy to drive in one day.
The destination of the route at the time was the 5th Zetor meeting in Thuringia (Germany).
Hooked on this tour, it should be even more in 2022. It was 500 km, which I again covered with friends, divided into 3 daily stages. Again with the Zetor 5011 and caravan, again only 25 kmh maximum.
I had to learn that 45 hp with a caravan is very tight for the tractor with a caravan when crossing the Harz Mountains on steep inclines, sometimes I had to drive in 3rd gear and always full throttle so as not to have to shift down any further. So the suspended front axle, the very good radial tires at the rear with only 1 bar air pressure and the air seat (Grammer MSG 95 A 732) that had been retrofitted shortly before turned out to be a blessing. No back problems at all, a really nice tour.
The goal of the tour was the 6th Zetor meeting in Dorsten (Germany) near the Netherlands - Renze was also there at the time ...
In 2023 I unexpectedly found a Zetor 7340 Turbo and it was still exactly where we were at the 6th Zetor meeting in 2022. So I had to come up with a plan on how to get the tractor the 500 km to my home.
So my dear wife drove me to the bus station in Leipzig at 7:00 a.m. and I first drove the 500 km on a Flix bus to Dorsten - the worst bus ride of my life - first no air conditioning, then it was on full power (resulting in a nasty summer flu) and the emergency brake assistant kept intervening because the Polish bus driver was under enormous time pressure. Scary...
When we arrived in Dorsten, the contract was drawn up, an oil change on the Zetor 7340 and a delicious kebab pizza was eaten. Then it was already 9:00 p.m. and I was already driving home with my new purchase.
It was dark, it was raining and a thunderstorm raged in the first half of the night, but I made good progress (30 kmh) also because there were hardly any cars on the roads.
At around 6 a.m. I arrived at the top of the Harz and was able to enjoy one of the most beautiful sunrises after a really long night drive. At that point I had been on my feet and on the road for a total of 23 hours...
From 7 a.m. onwards the tiredness set in really badly and I had a few unpleasant situations where luckily I was the only one on the road. After such a long time you drive like you're drunk from tiredness - please don't try that, that was pretty stupid of me!
At around 1 p.m. I arrived home, completely exhausted with chills and fever and just fell into bed.
I'll never do another tour that long in one go again.
In 2024 I went to Bavaria with the new Zetor 7340 and caravan for the now 7th Zetor meeting. about 290 km and drove the route in one day. It was July and sweltering hot...
Let me put it this way - it went quite well, but the route shouldn't have been any longer for a day's driving.
And since you can't get enough of it once you've started, new plans for 2025 are already underway and, if necessary, technical adjustments to the Zetor 7340. This is to be converted to 40 kmh so that you can drive around 35 kmh without having to drive at full throttle all the time. Because that's a real pain in the ears with the hours.
