[AJD] Pulling discussion

[Dean VP]

Don:

Most of the antique tractor pulls around here are intended and run to have
fun, but there are some pulls who attract the 'proFessional" and some
competitors who have no other objective but to win. Some have over $10,000
into their engines alone and still try to make believe they are running a
stock Antique tractor. That spoils it for everybody. 

My position all along has been: Lets have two separate categories, those of
us who want to pull our stock antique tractors and a those that have
"improved" or "modified" the stock antique tractor. Unfortunately most of
the pulls are organized and run by the "Professional" pullers and don't want
to be bothered with us purists. When 20% over stock or much more on RPM's is
accepted and often the norm, you know the problem. It is all such a ruse my
wife and I have mostly quit pulling. But there are some good "fun pulls"
left and we try to get to them. Weight classes in the "fun pulls" are
important to us so that we are comparing apples to apples. We don't have any
problem with a little friendly competition as long as the participants are
competing fairly. That is where the rub comes in. 

I was very unhappy with my 60 the first few times I pulled it. I later found
out I was running about 20% or more under JD specifications on top RPM.
Fixed that and had a whole new tractor with competitive performance. 

The weight classes you are running your tractors in must mean you have added
some wheel ballast and/or wheel weights.  Do you have the front frame
weights on too?  In the past I wasn't able to put the front frame weights on
the 60 and still stay under 6,000 lbs. I think I have figured out a way to
have 200 lbs on the front now.  200 lbs that far forward makes a real
difference. What is your maximum hitch height allowed? 

If you are using standard JD drawbar hitch height, the front end doesn't get
quite as light. Here they allow a hitch height maximum of 21".  That is
higher than some other areas. I've had to play with that in order to find
out what the optimum height is w/o weights on the front. At standard JD
hitch height I spin out way too fast. 

Hitch height is totally dependent on the sled chain attachment point and
length of the chain so no one specification is universal. Seems like around
here the chain is quite short and the chain attachment point is quite low on
the progressive sleds. We have way different ground on the pulling tracks to
deal with here vs AZ and ours are quite often wet.

I find it interesting to analyze the pulling environment and try to get the
most out of a stock tractor. So I guess I like competing with myself too. I
sure have found out that more HP isn't always the answer.  

Dean A. Van Peursem
Snohomish, WA 98290

I'm a walking storeroom of facts..... I've just lost the key to the
storeroom door 


www.deerelegacy.com

http://members.cox.net/classicweb/email.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:antique-johndeere-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of
Don Shehi
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 8:06 PM
To: 'Antique John Deere mailing list'
Subject: RE: [AJD] Deluxe fender question



Dean

In this northern part of Arizona, ..........SNIP