A clip that’s making the rounds on social media show a John Deere tractor seemingly get pitted by Canadian Mounties (call them that to their face, they love it). Plenty of people are just taking this claim at face value, believing a Ford Explorer police vehicle can take out a farm tractor like that. But the thing is the claim is false.
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We’ll excuse social media influencers for falling for this story and not understanding what they’re seeing. Same with the general public. That’s why we want to help set the record straight: there’s no way an Explorer could PIT a John Deere tractor.
Most people live in cities and seem to think these farm tractors are like their kid’s little toy, which weighs nothing and might even have foam tires. The fact is this tractor the cop supposedly pitted probably weighs at least 18,000 pounds. Those tires are massive with tread that would chew up the body panels on a cop car. In fact, we’d love to see this Explorer after this incident.
Instead of a PIT, which the little and lightweight Ford couldn’t possibly pull off, what happened was the suspect allowed the tractor tires to get a little too close to the cop and they started to climb the SUV. Tractors aren’t exactly super stable, so it tipped. In other words, this guy did this to himself.
Had the Mountie not been driving right next to him this wouldn’t have happened. We don’t know if the cop was brave or dumb or a little of both, because this could’ve turned out much worse for him. Maybe he grew up on a farm and so knows tractors super well? We don’t know the backstory there, but in this case it worked out surprisingly well.
But the Canadian Mountie didn’t PIT the John Deere tractor. Anyone telling you it did doesn’t understand what they’re seeing.
Ever seen the police attempt a pit maneuver on a tractor? pic.twitter.com/QLVUvYqzb9
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 26, 2023