[VTTractorguy]

Hi everyone. I have a 2013 1025r which I use on my 10.5 acres here in Vermont. My driveway is about 500’. I grade the driveway 2 – 3 times per year with a 48" Frontier box blade. It takes me 1 - 2 hours each time.

I have a not so nice neighbor, who has taken a strong dislike to my tractor. When I grade the driveway, she writes me nasty emails saying how the noise bothers her a lot.

In the above photo you can just barely see her house through the woods to the right of the pine trees.

It's pretty wooded up here, so I can't imagine it is THAT loud. But she acts like I am driving her out of house and home. She even went as far as to quote local town ordinances indicating commercial excavation equipment shall not be used during off-hours or Sundays. I doubt this tractor qualifies as ‘commercial excavation equipment.’ I don't grade during off hours, however; I may have done a Sunday here or there.

My questions are:

• Do you folks have neighbors who give you a hard time about tractor noise? If so, how do you handle it?
• Do you know if the 2013 model is any nosier than later models? I suspect what she is hearing is the box blade dragging as much as the tractor engine.

I want to be sensitive to her concerns but I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks.

Stewart

 

[SRG]

Tell her to pound sand

 

[Sundancer268]

Tell her to pack sand, you live in a rural area and not a city with noise ordinances and I am sure the DB level off your property would not even trigger a city level complaint

 

[kylew]

Tell her to get a real problem? 🤔🤔 😆

 

[ClydeLogan]

Not worth it. Send her emails directly to spam. Delete without opening them. Block her on your phone. She sounds like the type of shrew who will not personally confront you.

 

[Upset264]

She doesn’t have enough to worry about. Tractor on. BTW it looks like you do a great job on that driveway.

 

[VTTractorguy]

LOL. Well, all that is EXACTLY how I feel. I’m just trying to be the reasonable one.

Her driveway, my driveway and another neighbor’s all meet at one point, and we share a 200’ section down to the main road. When the shared section gets rutted, or snow needs to be moved, I take the 1025r down there and grade or move snow. I’ve never asked for compensation of any kind from anyone. Never crossed my mind. I just do it. The other neighbor is great. He does the same thing with his tractor. I going to remind her that by property deed, all three of us are bound by law to pay for the maintenance on the shared section. All the years we’ve lived here, she and her ex-husband (no wonder she's divorced) have never lifted a finger to do any maintenance on the shared driveway. I may send her a bill for fuel and maintenance costs for the past years I've used my tractor.

 

[JimR]

Send her back an email and let her know that even while driving your "noisy" tractor, you can still hear her farting over there.

 

[Ezgo]

You have a great driveway !

 

[ClydeLogan]

Next time it snows, you and the good neighbor could each clear 67 feet of the common driveway. Then send her an email that you have done your shares, and that she needs to get her ass and shovel down there to clear her third.

 

[BWTX]

send her a link to isobuds..

 

[SulleyBear]

Joke her if she can't take a ........, well you know what I mean. That woman is a loon. No, the tractor isn't too loud and no it doesn't make a lot of noise. I will say that the box blade on that type of stone does produce the sound which resembles fingernails on the chalkboard at times.....

I run my tractor all of the time in our neighborhood and no one ever says a word. In fact, I plow snow for nearly 30 of my neighbors and that's usually at 3am and no one has ever complained. And I am the head of the HOA that they would complain to. Trust me, if they were afraid to complain to me, but even voicing any concerns about the noise, It would get back to me.

This woman is going to wish she had been nicer one day when she needs your tractor to do something to make her life easier.

You know the old saying, "Some would Beeotch if they were hung with a new rope".................it certainly applies to your neighbor.

 

[MF231]

LOL. Well, all that is EXACTLY how I feel. I’m just trying to be the reasonable one.

Her driveway, my driveway and another neighbor’s all meet at one point, and we share a 200’ section down to the main road. When the shared section gets rutted, or snow needs to be moved, I take the 1025r down there and grade or move snow. I’ve never asked for compensation of any kind from anyone. Never crossed my mind. I just do it. The other neighbor is great. He does the same thing with his tractor. I going to remind her that by property deed, all three of us are bound by law to pay for the maintenance on the shared section. All the years we’ve lived here, she and her ex-husband (no wonder she's divorced) have never lifted a finger to do any maintenance on the shared driveway. I may send her a bill for fuel and maintenance costs for the past years I've used my tractor.

Start sending her Past Due invoices with OVERTIME for after hours plowing and grading of the driveway!….

or just block her calls /emails and keep on being a good neighbor.

 

[MTB98]

I’m so glad I live where I live. All my neighbors have tractors. Some have really large tractors and machinery and run 24/7 certain times of the year because that’s how they make a living. Never would occur to me to complain that they’re running their combine at 11pm. Or the the grain dryers that run all night and day in the fall.
Carry on with your tractor work.

 

[MF231]

As for the noise we are on 5 acres along with the neighbors to each side. They both have SCUT Kubotas. That they maintain their places with. If I had a severe migraine and went and stood on the property line it might bother me. But if I had a severe migraine, I would probably be inside laying down and wouldn’t hear anything.
One neighbors rig has more of a whine, almost sounds like power steering pump.

 

[myrna]

Maybe it the time of day that you are grading? You could be waking her up to early in the AM before she normally gets up. However, I don't think that the noise level of your grading is loud enough to bother anyone inside their house.

 

[JD4052M]

First of all, your driveway looks great. You have a beautiful piece of property there.

Addressing the problem - Your neighbor sounds like one of those people who hides in there house behind a keyboard and sends people complaints because their lazy a** has nothing better to do. In layman’s terms, a Karen on steroids. She’s off her rocker just a little it sounds like. There’s a lot of other words that have crossed my mind that I will not repeat here. But in reality, you’ve been helping her out for a number of years and she’s too much of a biotch to realize it.

If I was you, I’d get the good neighbor and his tractor got to your driveway where it’s closest to her house. Then you both make as much noise as possible and see if she comes outside to throw a fit. A tiller in the gravel would do the trick…jk. Ok so maybe the tiller isn’t the best idea. Unless it’s worth damaging the machine to prove a point lol. Use this advice at your own discretion

In all seriousness, just keep on keepin’ on. Ignore her complaints and live your life how you want to. If it bothers her that much, she can get the hell out. I’m lucky to have neighbors who don’t mind if I mow at 8:00 on a Saturday morning or 8:30 in the evening. I’ve mowed many times when the neighbors were having a party and nobody ever said anything.

 

[sdavilla]

Ignore her. Best way to handle it. I do that with my bad next door neighbor. Won't go into it, I'd be typing all night.

 

[Kennyd]

Get a new email address

 

[rjm240]

I have always been one to just because turn the screws a bit tighter on this type of neighbor just for a bit of fun. But as I age and mature my perspective changed a bit. A couple of thoughts. Mental illness and loneliness are real. I don't know which one she has bit is one or the other. I might find a way to invite her over for a barbeque get to know her a little bit. Let her know how your tractor is therapy for you. I can't imagine your tractor really is of any concern to a normal rational person. Something is wrong with her and you might be just the right person she needs to befriend. I dunno why but she is crying for attention. Just a different perspective.