[AT] When did tractor pulls become prevalent?

Tue Jan 22 05:12:22 PST 2019

At the first few tractor pulls I saw, in the late 1960's in Indiana, 
they still had folks lined up every 10 feet on both sides of the track, 
stepping onto the sled to progressively add weight. We thought the 
county fair pull was really up-town when they hired the mechanical sled. 
Even then, there was a definite art to getting the pre-loading and 
gearing right for each weight class. It was standard procedure, back 
then, to add weight/move the weight faster, and restart the class, if 
the first 2 or 3 entries were full pulls.

For safety reasons, the human-loaded pulls were paced by a 3 mph 'pace 
tractor' - if the puller got ahead of the pacer, that ended the run. 
There *might* have been some 6 mph modified-tractor events but that's 
pushing it in terms of asking folks to jump on a moving sled. As for me, 
I was never 'ballast' but I did spend some time, back in the 
manual-measurement days, throwing the cord across the track from the 
measurement line to the stake they jammed in the ground when the sled 
stopped. As I recall, one guy stuck the stake/crowbar into the track, I 
threw the rope out and stretched it to the sideline, and a third person 
measured forward from the last 10-foot marker. Then another eager young 
buck ran the distance measurement over to the announcer's box.

Those early pulls were labor intensive, to say the least! Automatic 
sleds and laser measurement have really made it easier - not to mention 
safer! Even local/regional pulls now often have big-screen TV replays 
(like NHRA drag racing) for the crowd.

Story from a Jefferson City, MO pull a few years back...7000 lb 
superstock tractor violently blew an engine at the end of its run...they 
did slo-mo on the event on the big screen and I could clearly see a 
connecting rod (minus the rod cap) flying through the air. The announcer 
handled it thusly, completely deadpan: "Well, gosh-o-hecky-darn, that'll 
cost him a dollar or 2.98 to get fixed." This was the most violent 
engine failure I have ever seen at any motor sport event, including 
years of Indy cars, sprint cars, and nitro-burning dragsters. I guess 
farm tractor engines really don't like being spun up to 7000-8000 RPM :-)

Mark J
Columbia MO

On 1/21/2019 11:37 AM, Alan Riley wrote:
> The first tractor pull I saw was at a circus (not a fair) in the early 
> 1950s.  It pitted a Ford 8N against an elephant.  Boy, I was a mad kid 
> when the elephant started dragging the 8N backwards!
>
>
> On 1/21/2019 12:06 AM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
>> I started watching tractor pulls about 1953 or 1954...
>> I never saw horse pulls here at all. When tractors fully replaced 
>> horses here mostly by about 1945 - 1946, the horses pretty much went 
>> away.
>> The tractors I saw pulling were pulling a dead sled in a muddy lot at 
>> county fairs. Back then most of the pullers were tractor dealers and 
>> rules were pretty loose.  Tractors like Fords, Fergusons and Allis 
>> didn't usually do too well since their big work advantage was due to 
>> the hydraulics. Tractors like Deere 60's, Farmall M's and Oliver 88's 
>> tended to prevail. At first they didn't seem to have classes and a 
>> TO-20 Ferguson might end up pulling against a tractor at nearly 
>> double its weight, with 50% more HP and double the amount of rubber 
>> on the ground.
>> At the local fairgrounds they decided to pour a large concrete slab 
>> to pull on and it almost did in the pulling. Dealers pulling new 
>> tractors and most farmers refused to pull on it because it literally 
>> ate the tires down visibly in one or two pulls. They then went back 
>> to dirt. It was some time before the progressive sleds took over.
>>
>>
>> .
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 12:28 AM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com 
>> <mailto:spencer at rdfarms.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     When I was a kid, the small local fairs that I went to all had
>>     horse pulls. I never saw tractor pulls.  This was on 1960s.  One
>>     fair in particular I can still see in my mind’s eye quite
>>     clearly. It’s damn impressive to see a team of Belgians(Belgian
>>     is my memory anyways) go at a nearly immovable object.  A front
>>     loader/bucket would show up, and put weight on the sled,
>>     eliminating teams until one was left.  My memory is of two horse
>>     teams.
>>
>>     I would normally suspect my experience was slanted toward Amish
>>     as I was born and  raised in my formative years in Pennsylvania;
>>     but we didn’t have a lot of Amish communities as I was on the
>>     western side of the state, not towards the middle (ie
>>     Lancaster).  Even so,  it was after a my father’s job relocation
>>     to Georgia as a 12 year old before I ever saw a tractor pull.
>>
>>     I’m sure they were around much earlier than that, and my
>>     recollection is probably tainted by sampling bias (which fair’s
>>     my family took me,  geography, etc).
>>
>>     When did tractor pulls supplant horse pulls in your area?
>>
>>     Spencer Yost
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>>
>>
>> -- 
>> -- 
>>
>> Francis Robinson
>> aka "farmer"
>> Central Indiana USA
>> robinson46176 at gmail.com <mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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