Video: Have You Ever Watched a Tractor Pull Before?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/X2_48aPpMt8

Don't get us wrong, we enjoy good old drag racing as much as the next person, but we have to admit that pulling a giant, heavy sled when you do it seems to add another level of excitement to the equation.

To get a better idea of the sport, competitors are tasked with pulling a sled down a track that normally …

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I've seen them pull, but I've also watched real tractors pulls with farmers using the same tractors they plow with at a county fair.  I've also watch "lawn tractor pulls" with a little "lawn tractor" sized pulling sled.  The most interesting one had a lawn tractor with a Honda Gold Wing motor in it!

In reply to djsilver (Forum Supporter) :

I like the sound of those lawn tractor pulls.

I used to watch these on ESPN decades ago when they televised motorsports.

You have never seen a catastrophic engine failure until you have seen a top level pull tractor let go at full scream.

A few years back I got to watch the NC State Fair tractor pull from the ferris wheel. That was a fun perspective.

Now THIS is a tractor pull.

Duke said:

You have never seen a catastrophic engine failure until you have seen a top level pull tractor let go at full scream.

 

I built tractor pulling  engines in the '80s.  We did have some impressive carnage.  When you've got a big block twisting to 8k rpm and the tires unload bad things happen.  Spectacular, but bad.

djsilver (Forum Supporter) said:

I've seen them pull, but I've also watched real tractors pulls with farmers using the same tractors they plow with at a county fair.  I've also watch "lawn tractor pulls" with a little "lawn tractor" sized pulling sled.  The most interesting one had a lawn tractor with a Honda Gold Wing motor in it!

There's a guy locally who has a lawn tractor for Mini-tractor pulling. It's powered by a small block chevy.......

Many, many years ago I watched a tractor pull at our local fairgrounds in Lachute, Quebec. The tractor pull was in front of the grandstand/horse track/show ring. The whole area is strung with those triangular plastic flags, all zig-zagged across the track. No problem until Art Arfons lines up his tractor, which was powered by a jet turbine and had the exhaust turned 90 degrees, straight up. All the plastic bunting catches fire, it's all strung from a wooden grandstand that's a hundred years old. Luckily, one of the events that night was a demo derby and bucket brigade competition, so the local fire department had a pumper truck on site. A few years later vandals set a fire under the grandstand and hundred year old wood burns very quickly.

I've seen a tractor with either five, or seven BBC engines (I don't remember which). One was longitudinal and the others were mounted at right angles to the tractor center line. I couldn't see how they were all connected, but it had to be pretty impressive.

During almost every youtube rabbit hole I go down, somehow I always end up at tractor pulls...

What's funny about tractor pulls is the cheating. (there's always cheating in motorsport). But in tractor pulling, some cheating centers around the most creative ways to add weight to your tractor. 

Stuff like things that look like body panels are actually tanks full of water, etc. 

Also, you can tell the new drivers because they don't know not to try and restart an engine immediately after it stalled with the nitrous on full blast.

I couldn't see how they were all connected, but it had to be pretty impressive.

You could just run a solid rear axle from a truck with the driveshaft being the output, and then do a chain/sprocket setup with an inverse of that diff's ratio to  transfer it to the input of your transmission.  Seems legit.. in my head..

in particular watch the white semi blow it's engine and the engine fall right out of the truck.

ive watched truck and tractor pulling various times in person up here in Edmonton and it's always fun. The 2wd drives are usually the most exciting as they lift the front end and tired of the ground as the weight moves forward.

the orange blossom truck

art arfons  green monster jet tractor 

Funny car pullers 

This guy is local to me.  He swapped a Turbine into a John Deere Putter

.

Meh.  They’re going it wrong.

THIS is tractor pulling:

I saw a tractor pull at the Cow Palace in S.F. when I was a kid. I was blown away by the turbine-powered tractor that did a full pull and looked like it would happily have run off out the end of the building and kept going.

But the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the noise of the multi-engine tractors. If you were walking along a corridor outside the main arena it was painfully loud, but when you got to a doorway you'd lose your balance from the sonic assault.

Over in Poutine land (Quebec)  they prefer truck pulls, this "town" is basically a junction of two roads with around 1000 people there normally but hosts a big event every year with around 60,000 spectators and competitors (Notre Dame du Nord if you are interested). 

In reply to MotorsportsGordon :

in high school in the 70's I bought a T-shirt after seeing Art Arfons run his Green Mondter jet at the strip in Union Grove, WI.   Might have pictures somewhere. 
 

Seems like yesterday....

Norm Hess drag raced a very fast and consistent Mustang in the 70s and early 80s.  He was a crowd favorite because he ran a 300 inch six cylinder.  He faded away, but turned up a few years later, using the 300 in a mini tractor.  I watched him get the first pull at an event, and he yanked the sled out so fast they geared it up for the rest of the runs, then he got a re run at the end, when he was the only guy to yank the sled out the end again.

In the OP video, the number of people without hearing protection in the "warm-up" was astounding to me. I only saw one person wearing earmuffs and didn't spot any earplugs around all those open headers. Is hearing damage manly or something? 

Mezzanine said:

In the OP video, the number of people without hearing protection in the "warm-up" was astounding to me. I only saw one person wearing earmuffs and didn't spot any earplugs around all those open headers. Is hearing damage manly or something? 

Yep, but I think most don't realize *HOW* loud they are. My family didn't when I saw my first at 8.

Duke said:

You have never seen a catastrophic engine failure until you have seen a top level pull tractor let go at full scream.

HAHA PISTON GO TO HOME PLANET