Antique tractor pulls.

[Thomas]

For those that attend also pull I like to read your thoughts.

Here in the northeast most antique tractor are consider 20 to 25 years old to pull.
Do you think its fair (example) that 49 Farmall will pull against 1980 JD?
Do you feel limitations should be set...Years up to/HP/Man.vs Auto tranny etc..

Watching JD LP720 & Massey 98 turbo (or even smaller weight classes) chew and dig for every inch,than 1980 JD 4000?? w/ease power up and blow by...for they have more advance tech in motor & tranny...not much fun to watch.

Its nice to see the youngsters pick the brains of the older antique pullers...ones that still do or have pull w/30's,40's,50's tractors...also the older puller giving advice.

I feel and somewhat see in time yesterdays older iron will show little interest come to tractor pulling events if some new rules & regs. aren't change.

Looking forward to your views.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

For those that attend also pull I like to read your thoughts.

Here in the northeast most antique tractor are consider 20 to 25 years old to pull.
Do you think its fair (example) that 49 Farmall will pull against 1980 JD?
Do you feel limitations should be set...Years up to/HP/Man.vs Auto tranny etc..

Watching JD LP720 & Massey 98 turbo (or even smaller weight classes) chew and dig for every inch,than 1980 JD 4000?? w/ease power up and blow by...for they have more advance tech in motor & tranny...not much fun to watch.

Its nice to see the youngsters pick the brains of the older antique pullers...ones that still do or have pull w/30's,40's,50's tractors...also the older puller giving advice.

I feel and somewhat see in time yesterdays older iron will show little interest come to tractor pulling events if some new rules & regs. aren't change.

Looking forward to your views.

I'm not sure what sanctioning body (and their rules) your local pulls are under. Most have classes broken up according to age, with 1959 or 1960 as the break point. Older is antique. Newer would be "classic", "farm stock" ,"super farm" , "pro stock", ect... The antiques would have weight classes as low as 3500 lbs. on up to maybe 7500 in 500 or 1000 lb increments. The newer, bigger tractors usually start at a much higher weight break. Say 5500lbs and up.

Personally, I LIKE seeing the tractors of the 1960's and 70's pulling. I LOVE seeing a sharp 1066 IH blowing black smoke and running down the track, sled in tow. Just don't think it's good to see them competing directly against something from the 40's. And my pet pieve with tractor pulling? Letting the same tractor pull 8 times in one class with 3 or 4 different drivers, then slap on a few weights and pull it 6 times in another class. That gets kinda BORING for the fans. 1 hook per class per tractor would suit me just fine.

There are HUNDREDS of sanctioning bodies. Every one plays by different rules. That's to keep "outsiders" at a disadvantage mostly.

I've been to a few pulls that use a "percentage" instead of weight classes. They figure either weight pulled or distance pulled divided by weight of the tractor. Highest percentage wins. I've pulled in a few of those myself. Best part about percentage pulling is, you don't have to strip weight off or add weight to the tractor to get to a minimum weight for the class. Just "run what you brung".

Get a rule book for the sanctioning body you plan on trying. Study it. Realize that tractor pulling is like old time stock car racing. "Cheating" isn't cheating if you don't get caught. Most of the top contenders bend the rules as far as they can get away with. That's not even considered wrong. When you see a "stock" 1949 FarmAll M turning 4000 RPM, pulling 12,000lbs down the track at 10 MPH, it isn't quite a stocker. Some of these guys are SERIOUS. Serious rule benders!

My FAVORITE form of pulling has sorta disappeared. We used to have a "farm class" pull at our county 4H fair. No modifications (other than "turning up the fuel screw" on a few diesels), stock everything. Farmers would unhook the baler and bring it to pull. It was more a social event than a competitive pull (for most of us anyway). It was a percentage pull. Lightweight 0 to 5000lb, middle weight 5001 to 10,000lb, and heavyweight, 10,001 and up. There was a "most weight pulled" trophy, usually won by the heaviest tractor there. Local Massey dealer blew everyone away for years with an 1155 (Perkins v8 diesel) weighted to almost 20,000lbs. Between that one and a 6030 Deere belonging to a farmer from just up the road from my parents, the black smoke would cover the 4H grounds for hours afterwards!

AH! The good ol' days!

 

[Thomas]

Thank you Sir for your view.

Iagree w/you on rules & regs on tractor classes when it comes to pulling!!

Indeed the 4H days...from the fields to track...gotta love it when operator leans the fuel on JD R and plays the throttle and flames from the stack a long w/black smoke and gets a full pull.

 

[Hard Knocks IV]

I used to pull at a track where they normally pulled antiques 1959 and older but 1 benefit pull a year was open to any tractor as long as it made the weight class. There was a 3.5MPH speed limit. Never once can I remember a newer tractor out pulling an older one. Several reasons for that probably as the antique pullers were more educated on how to set up their tractors and weight distribution. Also many with newer tractors thought all they had to do was to show up to beat 'the old junk' so to speak. Also here a tractor can only pull once in a class. Also the speed limit negated any power advantage.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Our antique pull was a disappointment this year. At the Ozark Empire Fair they ran the garden tractor pull and the antique tractor pull at the same time. The garden tractors were next to the grandstand, and the antiques were on the outside. Every time an old tractor would start really working, some single cylinder super stock would fire up and completely drown out the music of the old iron.

The best pull of the day was an absolutely pristine John Deere B. Now, he may not have won, but he sure put on the best show. On the inside track, a John Deere 140 with absolutely minimum modification beat 95% of the field of heavily modified "super stocks". Everyone else was trying to get to the end as fast as they could before the inertia wore off. The 140 just sat on its haunches, grunted and pulled the sled right on down the track. I think another 40 pounds on the back, and he would have pulled the sled out of the gate.

 

[Thomas]

There was a 3.5MPH speed limit.

Now there a good idea...for I seen some sled operators take rough ride.

Thank you for your view Sir.

 

[scott_vt]

The antiques would have weight classes as low as 3500 lbs. on up to maybe 7500

Personally, I LIKE seeing the tractors of the 1960's and 70's pulling. I LOVE seeing a sharp 1066 IH blowing black smoke and running down the track, sled in tow. Just don't think it's good to see them competing directly against something from the 40's. And my pet pieve with tractor pulling? Letting the same tractor pull 8 times in one class with 3 or 4 different drivers, then slap on a few weights and pull it 6 times in another class. That gets kinda BORING for the fans. 1 hook per class per tractor would suit me just fine.




Get a rule book for the sanctioning body you plan on trying. Study it. Realize that tractor pulling is like old time stock car racing. "Cheating" isn't cheating if you don't get caught. Most of the top contenders bend the rules as far as they can get away with. That's not even considered wrong. When you see a "stock" 1949 FarmAll M turning 4000 RPM, pulling 12,000lbs down the track at 10 MPH, it isn't quite a stocker. Some of these guys are SERIOUS. Serious rule benders!

My FAVORITE form of pulling has sorta disappeared. We used to have a "farm class" pull at our county 4H fair. No modifications (other than "turning up the fuel screw" on a few diesels), stock everything. Farmers would unhook the baler and bring it to pull. It was more a social event than a competitive pull (for most of us anyway). It was a percentage pull. Lightweight 0 to 5000lb, middle weight 5001 to 10,000lb, and heavyweight, 10,001 and up. There was a "most weight pulled" trophy, usually won by the heaviest tractor there. Local Massey dealer blew everyone away for years with an 1155 (Perkins v8 diesel) weighted to almost 20,000lbs. Between that one and a 6030 Deere belonging to a farmer from just up the road from my parents, the black smoke would cover the 4H grounds for hours afterwards!

AH! The good ol' days!

Hey Farm,
How about the 2500 lb class, there are some real good pullin Super A tractors out there that can dominate that class

Amen to the Farm Class, bring it in from the field !!!

Go to have a good time and socialize with people that have a common interest !!! I mean what the heck you gonna do with a bunch of ribbons anyway

Oh yeah, Im with you on runnin one tractor in one class !!!

 

[Thomas]

Our antique pull was a disappointment this year. At the Ozark Empire Fair they ran the garden tractor pull and the antique tractor pull at the same time.

Must of been hard for those that wanted to see both events...hmmm...and to see A/T puller in blue jeans & baseball cap not standing to far from puller w/fire suit & helmet...ahhhh yes the good ol days.

Garden tractor pulling hasn't really caught on in my area as most...some country fairs do offer garden tractor pulling for the tadpoles tho which is nice.

 

[jeffinsgf]

...Must of been hard for those that wanted to see both events...hmmm...and to see A/T puller in blue jeans & baseball cap not standing to far from puller w/fire suit & helmet...ahhhh yes the good ol days....

Just to be clear, they were side by side. The left foul line for the garden tractors was about 6 feet from the right foul line for the old iron. You could see both, you just couldn't concentrate on the antiques, because the GT's were between you and the action.

 

[jimg]

Here in WA for the pulls I attend the rules are roughly like this:
classic: '61 to around '76
antique: '60 and older

Classics start at 8000# and go to about 18000# by 1000# increments. They must be factory stock exc for the exhibition class which can be basically anything (lhotrods, etc). Antiques start around 3500# and go to about 9000# by 500# increments. From there to 12000# (or so) they go 1000# increments. There are some weight subclasses in there on the lower end which I dont fully understand. I think theyre in place so very old or specialized tractors can compete. Antiques w/i a weight class only run against tractors of similar age. That is, a 5000# tractor built in '45 wouldnt run against a '60. As w/ classics the tractor must be factory stock.

Our pulls run in two lanes w/ only one active at any given time so the action is nonstop. When one lane is resetting the other is running. If you look at the photo forum you can see some of what shows up. I like the idea of factory stock vs anything goes. Its more interesting to see the older machines as they were. Also some really sharp restorations show up to play.

Lawn tractors also run but Im not sure what the rules are and they pull in a completely diff event so theres not a mix of tractors and lawn mowers on the infield together.