[AT] Tractor Pulling

[Dean VP]

My wife and I were into pulling for a while. Not in a serious way but for
fun without spending anything to hop them up etc. Stock.  We first started
pulling my 1941 JD H which is a long ways from a monster puller. Fit into
the 2500 lb class real well and did reasonably well.  Then I gained enough
weight that I could no longer keep it in the 2500 lb class so I suggested my
wife try pulling. She took to that like fish to water. She was a farm girl.
She really got a kick out of it and won more often than I did which only fed
here like of the activity.  The H was bone factory stock. The only think I
did was played with rear tire pressures, hitch height and length within the
pulling rules based on track conditions. Through a lot of experimentation I
got pretty good at making changes based on whatever the track conditions
were at a given pull.  One pull where I didn't get things set quite right
she still won. The track was very sandy with loose small rocks etc. on top
of hard clay.   Traction was going to be difficult to get.  So I raised the
hitch up to the highest I had ever set it and she started off down the
track. Well... I had made a mistake the front wheels came off the ground
about 6" almost immediately.  That is a no no in pulling for several reasons
including the loss of hitch height and loss of steering capability. But...
that didn't bother my wife, whenever the tractor drifted off in the wrong
direction she would feather the correct brake and get it back on the
straight and narrow. Usually when one starts using brakes it is all over.
But she had the feathering down to science. Still don't know where she
learned that other than possibly watching other pullers. But to make a long
story short she did a complete and full pull.  No other tractor in that
weight class did a full pull so she won.  So it took me messing up and her
good driving skills and she won.    If she wasn't hooked on pulling before
now she really was. 

So since the H became her pulling tractor I had to find something different.
My only candidate at the time was a 1953 JD 60, which are not known as good
pullers,  but what the heck it will give me another tractor to learn how to
set up. The 60 was the very first antique tractor I had ever purchased back
in 1998, had been setting out in a field for 20 years and was stuck.  We
also moved to our retirement acreage the same year so it did not get a lot
of attention the first year because there was so much work required on the
place but I did get it soaking.  I had a bar on the flywheel and every time
I went anywhere close to the barn I would pull on the bar to see if it had
come loose.  Well almost a year later one day the flywheel moved a 1/4", I
was stunned, it wasn't long before I was able to get a full revolution. But
the noise coming from inside the cylinder and pistons was not a happy sound.
So eventually I took the head off and pistons out to see how bad things
really were. To mu surprise things were not as bad as I expected so I did
nothing more than hand hone the cylinder walls, put new rings on the pistons
and ground the valves which really wasn't needed. But in the process learned
that this tractor did not have very many hours on it. Got it running and it
ran really well. Took it to an antique tractor show and had the opportunity
to put it on a Dyno and was very disappointed. I was getting less than 30HP
on a tractor rated new at around 39HP or so.  SUM Ting Wong!  Again to make
a long story short I found out the linkage between the governor and the
carburetor was set wrong. Boom instantly, I had 40 HP on the dyno the next
time I checked.  The PO had told me he never like the tractor because it was
so gutless and didn't use it much. Now I knew why. 

So now I thought it was time to pull and surprisingly did way better than I
or anyone else expected.  I had installed 13.9 x 38" Firestone 22 degree rib
tires on it and they were a perfect match for the tractor.  I could maybe
have done even better off I could have kept the front end down more but that
was possible to be solved with hitch adjustment.  Wow, My wife has a decent
pulling tractor and so do I. We had fun pulling for a few years, never did
anything to enhance the results other than mess with tire pressure, hitch
height/length and weight location.  All within the rules and what was
standard JD offering. Butt... all good things must come to an end.   Then we
made a mistake by beating the shows pulling chairman in our respective
weight classes on a Saturday. The next day of the show the pulling chairman
started cheating to win and made a complete ass out of himself and upset my
wife so much she was totally turned off on pulling.  We didn't have to win,
in fact we didn't win that often but often enough to make it fun.   But in
one foul swoop winning became so important for the pulling chairman that he
was going to do anything to win. That was all it took for both of us.  We
never pulled again. It was no longer fun for either one of us.  We didn't
want to be part of that kind of organization and in fact resigned from the
club over it.  We are now still interested spectators at tractor pulls but
don't participate.   There is no such thing as a stock antique tractor pull
any more. Most if not all have been hopped up or modified extensively and
whoever has the deepest pocket usually wins.   Interestingly, I have pulled
again in AZ recently only to find out if the tractor was producing adequate
HP, it wasn't. Still trying to figure that one out. In AZ they do pulls way
different. They do a percentage pull. The compare the weight of the tractor
vs the weight of the progressive sled at the time the pull comes to an end.
I've seen the sled vs tractor weight approach 190% on some extreme cases but
usually much less. The smaller tractors seem to get a higher percentage than
the bigger ones unless they are all hopped up.   Seems to create less
friction amongst the drivers and less unfriendly competition which is good. 


Dean VP
Snohomish, WA 98290
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and gospel of
envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."
..Winston Churchill...

-----Original Message-----
From: AT <at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com> On Behalf Of STEVE ALLEN
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2020 11:52 AM
To: at at lists.antique-tractor.com
Subject: [AT] Tractor Pulling

In my reply to Dean, I might have come across as harsh on tractor pulling.
I thought I should clarify my thoughts.

First of all, if it's your tractor, do what you want with it.

Second, I sort of enjoy watching pulling IF the tractors are antique/classic
and not modified.  It can be fun watching the various marks vie for the
title.  

But the fun is instantly lost if the tractors are modified.  The question
then is no longer which brand or which style of tractor can win the day but
rather how much money the owner has to create a Frankenstein's monster.  I
just have no interest in them personally.  

There are only so many antiques and classics left.  I prefer to see them
preserved.  I don't mean put on a shelf--I like to see them used but not
abused.  Preserved means stock, or nearly so (if original parts aren't
available), not hot-rodded or morphed into something else.  

Just my two cents, long after the end of the gold standard ;-)

The "original" Steve Allen
_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
AT at lists.antique-tractor.com
http://lists.antique-tractor.com/listinfo.cgi/at-antique-tractor.com