What's Harder on Hearing, Tractors, Mowers, or The Who?
3,981 views · Published 1 November 2018 · 5:50 · Indexed 30 September 2026
Channel: Tractor Mike · 2018 · Howto & Style
Last week's video looked at three things most people don't ever pay attention to when purchasing a tractor...how the operator sits on the platform, where the fuel goes in, and how loud the thing is. The latter point received a lot of comments, prompting me to want to do a follow-up to find out whether a small tractor, a farm tractor, a zero-turn lawn mower, or my loud guitar playing was harder on the ears. I'm 60 years old, and in the last year, have started to notice I'm losing some of my hearing. It makes sense, I've been around equipment all of my life, and also love loud rock music...listening to it and playing it. So, I decided to take my newly-downloaded app that checks dB levels and see what was doing the most damage to me. Turns out they all are. In the video I first tested a Massey Ferguson 362. It's a farm-designed tractor, in other words, it was designed to do harder work and is built a lot heavier than a compact tractor. It has a Perkins engine and has a PTO rated engine speed of 2200 RPM. In other words, that's how fast the engine needs to be running to get the horsepower out of the tractor that it's advertised to have. Next, I tested a New Holland TC40. It is a "compact" tractor, and, like most tractors that size, has a higher PTO rated engine speed than the Massey, making it's horsepower at 2600 RPM. Next, I tested a Scag Cheetah lawn mower with a Kawasaki engine. I use this mower all the time and love how it rides, with a seat suspension, and how it cuts. I'm less thrilled about how loud it is, and have suspected that it may be the heaviest contributor to my hearing loss. Finally, I play in an elderly boy band, and we play loud. I went down in the basement to the jam room, and cranked up the amp to about where I have it when we play. The results didn't surprise me too much, the Scag was the loudest implement, peaking at 97 dB. Second was the Massey at 94 peak decibels. The New Holland peaked at 92 decibels, and my attempt at recreating Woodstock by playing Baba O'Riley by the Who, peaked at 92 dB. None of those levels are very good for your ears. My takeaways from this really non-scientific test with a very small sample size is that 1) mowing grass is dangerously loud and I need to wear hearing protection when I do that, which can be once a week for a prolonged period of time, 2) a compact tractor can be louder than a farm tractor, even when the latter runs at a slower RPM. Finally, 3) I'm not really that good a guitar player but it's hard to tell when you turn it up really loud. Bottom line to all of this is machinery can seriously damage your hearing, and we need to be wearing ear protection when we're around it. Too late for me, but if you're new to tractors, maybe this advice will help you. SUPPORT THE TRACTOR MIKE CHANNEL: https://www.patreon.com/TractorMike Visit the Tractor Mike website: http://asktractormike.com/ Subscribe to YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/tractormike?sub_confirmation=1 Visit Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Ask-Tractor-Mike-312112962245304/ Buy Stuff I Use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/tractormike Copyright 2018 Tractor Mike LLC
