![]() ![]() In the 60s, most competitions divided the tractors into several weight limits 5,000 pound tractors competed against each other, with other classes of 9,500, and 14,000 pounds, for example. The inventor of one of the earliest sleds named the contraption the "Heartbreaker." As the tractor begins its pull, the weight is moved forward at a set rate, pushing the front of the sled farther and farther into the ground, increasing the friction that the tractor is pulling against. The sled starts out a pull with an effective weight of the sled plus zero. A moveable mass of up to 65,000 pounds (29,000 kilograms) starts at the back of the sled over the wheels. ![]() Basically, the sled is like a flatbed truck trailer with wheels at the back and a sled at the front. In the late 60s, a weight-exchanging sled was invented. ![]() "In those days, there were a few modifications done, but not too many. But, while that may have been a thrill for the spectators, it was a potential health hazard as well with tractors routinely rearing up under the strain of the pull.ĭan Stork (left) remembers tractor pulls at county fairs where the spectators became participants in ways that could have given new meaning to the term 'dead weight.' " that would be too hazardous, to have people stand on a moving tractor and sled," Dan says. Spectators were recruited to jump on the sled as the tractor moved down the track. So, organizers began to search for ways to progressively add weight as the tractor moved down the track. But as farmers began to modify their tractors, that didn't provide enough of a challenge and it was hard to distinguish the most powerful tractors. What was fascinating was to see machines that would "Pull on Sunday, plow on Monday."Īt first, the competitors pulled sleds that were loaded with a given weight as in the Rhode Island tractor pull photo at right. Event organizers at Bowling Green, Missouri and Vaughansville, Ohio found out the noise and smoke drew spectators.īy 1950, county fairs across the country featured tractor pulls. Nothing was said, but it was silently noted who "won" these calm competitions.īut there is one agricultural competition that is anything but calm the tractor pulling contest.Īs early as 1929, farmers began hitching their field tractors to weighted sleds and roared down a track to see who could pull it the farthest. When hybrid corn was introduced, idle conversation at the café would get around to how big a yield each farmer had. Going to church on Sunday with the family, a horse-powered farmer would probably check to see how straight his neighbor's furrows were. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |