About This Career

Diagnoses, adjusts, repairs, or overhauls farm machinery and vehicles, such as tractors, harvesters, dairy equipment, and irrigation systems.

This career is part of the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources cluster Power, Structural and Technical Systems pathway.

A person in this career:

• Maintains, repairs, and overhauls farm machinery and vehicles, such as tractors, harvesters, and irrigation systems.
• Dismantles defective machines for repair, using hand tools.
• Records details of repairs made and parts used.
• Reassembles machines and equipment following repair, testing operation and making adjustments, as necessary.
• Cleans and lubricates parts.
• Tests and replaces electrical components and wiring, using test meters, soldering equipment, and hand tools.
• Examines and listens to equipment, reads inspection reports, and confers with customers to locate and diagnose malfunctions.
• Tunes or overhauls engines.
• Repairs or replaces defective parts, using hand tools, milling and woodworking machines, lathes, welding equipment, grinders, or saws.
• Drives trucks to haul tools and equipment for on-site repair of large machinery.

Working Conditions and Physical Demands

People who do this job report that:

• You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
• Work in this occupation involves bending or twisting your body more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
• Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
• Requires getting into awkward positions
• Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
• Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
• Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
• Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
• Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
• Work in this occupation involves making repetitive motions more than one-third of the time
• Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time

Working in this career involves (physical activities):

• Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
• Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
• Judging how far away an object is, or which of several objects is closer or farther away
• Using muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring
• Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
• Detecting sounds and hearing the differences between sounds of different pitch and loudness
• Seeing clearly up close
• Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
• Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
• Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying objects
• Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring

Work Hours and Travel

• Seasonal work