THS
Bronze Member
I tried my first truck pull event today. I've been attending tractor and truck pulls for probably 30 years but I've never actually been behind the wheel in one. Talk about a RUSH!!!
Let me tell you one thing to preface everything: That eliminator sled is a lot heavier than it looks!!!!!!
I got to the event early (9:30am), didn't realize that my class was 2nd to last of the day. What a long hot day! 97 degrees plus high humidity. I drank over a gallon of water. So after roasting my butt off for six hours, it was time to weigh in. They had a 6000# and under class (stock), and a 6000# and over class (stock). I only put a half tank of premium in my 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 just to make sure I could make weight. I tipped the scale at 5895#. That's cutting it pretty close for my first try ever. I sure wouldn't want to be in the 3/4 ton and 1 ton class because I had a full tank of gas!
The first guy pulls up with a clunker Ford with the box almost falling off, he couldn't get the sled moving. Just sat and spun. This was a tough crowd too. He got booed and laughed at as he slowly pulled off the track. The next guy pulls up with a "stock" (yeah right) 1/2 ton Chevy, BF Goodrich A/T's all the way around. And I notice he has a cage/scatter shield around both front and rear driveshafts. Uh huh. So, am I in the right class here? He nails it to the floor and yanks that sled past the 250' mark with relative ease. I'm sitting there thinking "man, all I want to do is just get this stupid sled moving and I'll be happy!!" The guy that pulled first came walking over to me and said "good luck getting it to move. You've got street tires dude!"
So make me feel even more stupid why don't you?
It was my turn next. As I back up to the sled, I can already hear all the people with their "hey, that thing got a HEMI?" and "better get a FORD to pull it off the track when he bends it in half!" I already figured I wasn't going to do a full pull, but at that point I just wanted to make it BEYOND the heckler section... So I glanced down, checked my 4x4 selector, it's in 4x4 LOW. CHECK. I'm in the proper gear with my auto tranny, first gear, CHECK. The guy tells me to take up the slack in the chain, so I did. Boy, I didn't think it would feel so solid when it tightened up!!! Ok, there's my green flag! Go!!
I mashed it expecting all **** to break loose. I'm thinking that I'm going to just spin out, hit the rev limiter and everybody would laugh. Instead, it was like timing a drag race with a sundial. At least I got it moving! Let's just say an average man could walk faster than I was going. But at least I moved it I kept saying to myself. By this time I was just about to the 75' mark and I was running out of traction. 20" tires were probably the wrong tires to be using as it's harder to turn these big things. I didn't run out of power, but I did find out that you could squeal tires on hard packed clay. Just like the Dukes of Hazzard used to do. I wondered if that was ever possible, now I know!
My final distance was 105'. I ended up in 4th place out of 7 entries. At least I didn't place last! And I did have some Mopar fans at the other end of the run that were cheering me on once I got that far.
But now I've got the itch to do it again...... That 300' mark didn't look all that far away from my perspective......
Let me tell you one thing to preface everything: That eliminator sled is a lot heavier than it looks!!!!!!
I got to the event early (9:30am), didn't realize that my class was 2nd to last of the day. What a long hot day! 97 degrees plus high humidity. I drank over a gallon of water. So after roasting my butt off for six hours, it was time to weigh in. They had a 6000# and under class (stock), and a 6000# and over class (stock). I only put a half tank of premium in my 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 just to make sure I could make weight. I tipped the scale at 5895#. That's cutting it pretty close for my first try ever. I sure wouldn't want to be in the 3/4 ton and 1 ton class because I had a full tank of gas!
The first guy pulls up with a clunker Ford with the box almost falling off, he couldn't get the sled moving. Just sat and spun. This was a tough crowd too. He got booed and laughed at as he slowly pulled off the track. The next guy pulls up with a "stock" (yeah right) 1/2 ton Chevy, BF Goodrich A/T's all the way around. And I notice he has a cage/scatter shield around both front and rear driveshafts. Uh huh. So, am I in the right class here? He nails it to the floor and yanks that sled past the 250' mark with relative ease. I'm sitting there thinking "man, all I want to do is just get this stupid sled moving and I'll be happy!!" The guy that pulled first came walking over to me and said "good luck getting it to move. You've got street tires dude!"
So make me feel even more stupid why don't you?
It was my turn next. As I back up to the sled, I can already hear all the people with their "hey, that thing got a HEMI?" and "better get a FORD to pull it off the track when he bends it in half!" I already figured I wasn't going to do a full pull, but at that point I just wanted to make it BEYOND the heckler section... So I glanced down, checked my 4x4 selector, it's in 4x4 LOW. CHECK. I'm in the proper gear with my auto tranny, first gear, CHECK. The guy tells me to take up the slack in the chain, so I did. Boy, I didn't think it would feel so solid when it tightened up!!! Ok, there's my green flag! Go!!
I mashed it expecting all **** to break loose. I'm thinking that I'm going to just spin out, hit the rev limiter and everybody would laugh. Instead, it was like timing a drag race with a sundial. At least I got it moving! Let's just say an average man could walk faster than I was going. But at least I moved it I kept saying to myself. By this time I was just about to the 75' mark and I was running out of traction. 20" tires were probably the wrong tires to be using as it's harder to turn these big things. I didn't run out of power, but I did find out that you could squeal tires on hard packed clay. Just like the Dukes of Hazzard used to do. I wondered if that was ever possible, now I know!
My final distance was 105'. I ended up in 4th place out of 7 entries. At least I didn't place last! And I did have some Mopar fans at the other end of the run that were cheering me on once I got that far.
But now I've got the itch to do it again...... That 300' mark didn't look all that far away from my perspective......
