[AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!

[G.Dombaugh]

Duane:
    Your story gives me a lot more confidence in my own JD (1952) R.  I have 
had it for about 4 years, but have never pulled it in competition yet.   All 
the local club members and friends keep trying to talk me in to competitive 
pulling, but I am not quite ready yet.  Frankly the R is probably more ready 
than I am... :-)
I would hate to end up like your New Holland Dealer... .lol
Great story...
Garrell
KS



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Duane Ledford" <dledford at classicnet.net>
To: <antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 4:24 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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