[AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!

garygoll at saa.net garygoll at saa.net
Wed Sep 29 05:08:16 PDT 2004


Go John Deere!!!

Gary

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Brandon Knapp lneuwirth at eriecoast.com
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 02:33:16 -0500
To: antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: Re: [AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!


That would have been a sight to see! YaHoo!

I'm glad to hear that the R is doing good for ya!

Brandon

-----Original Message-----
From: Duane Ledford <dledford at classicnet.net>
To: antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com
<antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Date: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 4:41 PM
Subject: [AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!


Our local tractor show was this last weekend. We are a small town, and the
show is not that big, but does draw a fair crowd. One of the features is, of
course, a tractor pull. The antique tractors pulled on Saturday night with
the classics pulling on Sunday afternoon.

My R was too heavy for competition. They said that in times past, there were
no tractors in that weight class to pull, so they did away with the heavier
classes. They did allow me to pull as the very last hook for exibition.
Saturday night I was kind of worried as I had not pulled before, and the R
had found its home in my shop only a few weeks ago. Was hoping that the
tractor would at least move the sled. I had nothing to worry about. Wasn't a
full pull, but pretty darn close.

The next day, decided to try it again. The last class to pull that day was
the 5000# open class. No speed limit, etc. They had weighted the sled down
pretty good in order to keep these "hotrods" from going on out the back
fence. They had succeeded in doing so except for three tractors.

Now, for the good part. Our local New Holland dealer supplies both the pull
back tractor as well as the blade tractor for these events. Good
advertisement, or so he thought. I had noticed Saturday night that as they
added more weight to the sled, that shiney blue New Holland tractor would
have more and more trouble gaining traction in order to pull the sled back
to the starting point. On Sunday, the sled was weighted even more for these
open class tractors, and it was quite an effort for that fancy new tractor
to do its job. It would spin and throw about as much dust as those
"hotrods", even with the rear end locked up.

On the last pull before the pull-off, that brand new 70 horse tractor just
couldn't do it. Just sat there and spun the tires. After much head
scratching, they decided to hook the blade tractor to the front of the
larger one and pull in tandem. That was a scary sight! Both tractors
spinning their tires, slowly going forward. If the larger tractor would have
happened to have gotten traction, it would have been over the top of the
blade tractor in an instant. I was sitting close to the starting line
waiting for my turn to pull. When they finally got the sled back into
position, I said that they should put a John Deere on there and show them
how it is supposed to be done.

After they put even more weight on the sled for the pull-off, the first
tractor went flying down the track in a cloud of dust, the pull back tractor
right behind. The next thing I know, someone is running up to me saying "
get down there and pull the sled back!" That shiney blue tractor couldn't
even budge the sled. Oh boy, I thought. Hope I didn't just put my foot in my
mouth! I got down there and finally got backed straight to the sled. (The
Armstrong power steering was giving me some trouble) Got hooked on. Put her
in first, opened the throttle a little, and slowly engaged the clutch. The
moment of truth had arrived. She chug-chugged like nothing was behind her.
Gave her full throttle and away down the track we went. Applause from the
crowd, and a few not so kind words about the pretty blue tractor. Got to
pull the sled four times that day. Three going one way, and once the other
way. Didn't pull as far as Saturday night, but there was a whole lot more
weight on the sled. Was within about 10 feet of where the "hotrod" tractors
made it.

All in all it was a pretty good day, for me at least. Don't know when the
New Holland dealer will live down the fact that a 53 year old John Deere out
did his nice new New Holland. Like I said, this is a small town. Things like
that are hard to live down.

Duane Ledford
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