[AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!

[Duane Ledford]

Garrell,

Well one thing is for certain. You probably do not have any need to worry 
about spinning out. Even without the wheel weights, I think it would take a 
pretty muddy hole to cause one of those heavy dudes to spin out. Hooking 
last was a plus for me on Saturday. Really late at night, much smaller crowd 
to embarrass myself in front of. If it had been a poor pull, I wouldn't have 
even thought about it on Sunday afternoon. It was really fun, but I don't 
think I will get into it competitively. Not enough money or desire to work 
over a perfectly good tractor in order to stay even with the pack.

Duane
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "G.Dombaugh" <gdombaugh at 1kms.com>
To: "Antique John Deere mailing list" 
<antique-johndeere at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 2:30 PM
Subject: Re: [AJD] John Deere Saves the Day!!!


> 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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