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<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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 :-)</p>
Mark J<br>
Columbia MO<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/21/2019 11:37 AM, Alan Riley
wrote:<br>
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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!<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/21/2019 12:06 AM, Indiana
Robinson wrote:<br>
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<div>I started watching tractor pulls about 1953 or 1954...</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>.<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at
12:28 AM Spencer Yost <<a
href="mailto:spencer@rdfarms.com" moz-do-not-send="true">spencer@rdfarms.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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).<br>
<br>
When did tractor pulls supplant horse pulls in your area?<br>
<br>
Spencer Yost<br>
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<br>
-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>-- <br>
<br>
Francis Robinson<br>
aka "farmer"<br>
Central Indiana USA<br>
<a href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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