I don’t think it was the steel wheels, it was the cleats. They are several inches long and are designed piece the ground for better traction.
Kind of like walking over hardwood floors with baseball cleats.
Here’s a pic of said cleats:
Now, here’s a pic of a steam tractor from about a century ago, on steel:
http://oldtractorpictures.com/veryoldtractors/
The one pulling stumps had the type of cleats that, if that were what was on the roads, I’d agree that it could/would tear up the roads in short order. But bar clears on rubber belting around steel? It’s not as bad as the DA would like to imagine.
Here’s another shot of the old “real steel wheels” of that day;
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i8/dgwparfitt/images2/Lauson_Bergeijk08.jpg
Those, I could believe would rip up the pavement. As I’m looking at the bar cleats on rubber belting around a steel rim, I’m unconvinced of claims of road damage. Looking at the pics of the old-style steel wheels with those wicked spikes... I’d need no convincing to believe that they’d tear the hell out of a paved road.
As the court case said “Lack of evidence” supported the claim of damage to the roads, and the ordinance ignored other, PROVEN causes of damage to roads, like big grain carts that are wildly over-weight on a single axle.
No, they’re not. They’re “bar cleats:”
OK, I think I see what is going on here. I’ll explain for all you city folks who haven’t been in farming communities where the Mennonites show up.
Many farming communities in the midwest are notoriously jealous of anyone else’s success. Many of the people in the community will have been farming for two, three or more generations and they’ve come to think of themselves as “the best farmer(s) in the county” or some such. Many of them are highly competitive with other farmers to see who can get the best price for their crops, the newest paint in their equipment shed, farm the most land (even if most of it is rented ground), etc. You should hear the tongue wagging that happens when someone buys TWO new pieces of ag equipment in one year. Holy crap, you’d think the guy knocked over a bank and was on the lam.
All that’s well and fine. Not exactly my cup of tea, but human nature being what it is, I understand it.
Now, into this come the Mennonites. Allow me to explain about the Mennonites, for those of you who have never had them move into your community.
You’ll have a couple Mennonite families move into your farming community, often from quite a ways off. They won’t move to the cities or even suburbs, because they live an agrarian life in small towns. They want no part of the big cities, or even the McMansion suburbs. They might shop in said places, they might have to go into big towns to get supplies, hardware, etc, but you’re not going to see too many of them living there. So you’re in a small farming community and a couple Mennonite families move in.
Next thing you know, you have a couple dozen families, then a Mennonite church (which they will buy or build, according to their financies, need and available buildings) and then things really get going. They don’t shun the outside world, they’ll go to producer meetings, county meetings, etc... but aside from important meetings, they keep their noses to the grindstone.
This last bit is the important part. They don’t waste their time watching TV, surfing the web, going to movies, or other nonsense. They work, worship, eat, sleep, raise their kids, care for their stock and that’s about it.
Do I really need to spell out what happens to a group of folks who work instead of watching TV? They succeed like nothing most people have seen recently, that’s what.
Suddenly, folks look around and notice that the Mennonites are doing better than a lot of the “big operators” previously thought to be the hot farmers in the area. The church is helping finance the expansion and purchase of land, equipment, etc, and the congregation is also an available labor pool for times when the Mennonite producers need some extra help.
Now the BTO’s (farmer lingo for “Big Time Operator”) in the area start getting PO’d. These Mennonites are buying up the land.... with interest paid to their church, not a bank. They’re farming it with equipment, just as the BTO’s are, and because the Mennonites don’t shun technology in farming, they’re getting yields on par with modern BTO’s - unlike the Amish, who will never achieve anything but 19th century yields with their shunning of technology, including pesticides, diesel-powered ag equipment, electrical powered processing equipment, etc.
Now the BTO’s *and their relatives who might be in county government* (because most modern farms have the wife working in town, and many wives work in the county government, the local schools, etc) start getting PO’ed ... and they look for ways to hamper the Mennonites in what they’re doing.
This tire reg clearly appears to be one of those moves that I’ve seen or read about in farming communities where the Mennonites show up.
