Tractors were historically engineered with massive, heavily weighted rear wheels designed specifically to prevent the machine from dramatically flipping backward and crushing the farmer.

A closer look

Tractors were historically engineered with massive, heavily weighted rear wheels designed specifically to prevent the machine from dramatically flipping backward and crushing the farmer. Early agricultural machinery possessed so much raw torque that if a plow hit a particularly stubborn rock in the field, the massive engine would literally climb up its own rear axle and overturn in a split second. Modern tractors still maintain this iconic, disproportionate shape to keep the center of gravity impossibly low, while also relying on complex computerized rollover protection systems. It’s a wonderful reminder that the idyllic, peaceful aesthetic of rural farming is actually heavily dependent on man’s continuous battle to tame giant, angry diesel machines that desperately want to somersault to their own destruction