Beginners pulling

This seems to go in stages- /years,, I got in it with a guy I worked for with a 3010 JD- back in prolly 1990,, done great but my heart was always with Allis- bought a rough straight 190- no turbo,, Kieth showed me tricks of watching the track , that ole 190 without a turbo won some trophys! Also made folks think -WTF !!!  Its been on and off here over the years-  Had a sweet 200,, that was nice pulling,, The Farmers Pull is going good , but they keep pushing the classes, speed, that takes power- when one flys apart- lots of liabity is on someone! 

Around this area the farmstock is by far the largest class in Antique.  The hot class while fun, only have a few tractors. 

I haven't been a beginner puller since back when NTPA was just getting started, however I've seen many clubs come and go because they expect the pullers themselves to carry the entire financial load. Spectators will never pay to watch hours and hours of large classes of tractors that need an egg timer to measure forward progress. Spectators want action. When a club has a good mix of both, Spectators will come pay to watch. Spectators can make the difference of a profitable pull for a club, or just a group getting together to have a pull once a year at the local county fair, where the fair will carry the financial load. Lately Bracket pulling has gained in popularity, which may be interesting for pullers (to have multiple pulls at an event) although the average spectator gets dis-interested very quickly seeing the same puckita, puckita, puckita or there goes a M, there goes a M, there goes a M,,, for an hour or more per class or heat.  Spectators get excited with a good group of maybe 6 or more tractors that move with some speed and are closely grouped bunch along with varying makes and models.  

We never have trouble drawing a nice crowd. The majority of our tractors are true farm stockers @ 3.5 mph with a small hand full of what we call Farm Stock Plus that are limited to 5.0 mph. We actually pull both divisions at the same time. For example all 3500 pound tractors pull in the same class. Any tractor newer than 1959 but at least 30 years old is automatically placed in the Farm Stock Plus class. If any of the older tractors break out & run faster than 3.5 they automatically get bumped up from Farm Stock to Farm Stock +. Any tractor running faster than 5.0 mph is disqualified. This is easy on the transfer sled and helps keep our insurance reasonably priced. Our rules are pretty basic: 20” draw bars, no cut tires that can be one size over stock, 10% over on rpm’s, Farm Stock is mandated to use either 1st or 2nd gear, Farm Stock Plus any gear is allowed. Oh yeah our annual club dues is $30 and our hook fee is only $5/hook. This has worked well for us for over 20 years & we continue to be an active vibrant club regularly gaining new members. It’s common for several pullers to travel 300 miles or more one way to participate. We typically have our pulls in conjunction with different local festivals or fairs and they normally pay us to move our equipment and provide the trophies…So we never charge an admission & keep things alcohol free & family friendly. When things get rowdy, it’s usually a bunch of little kids in the stands, yelling “Go Grandpa”!🤭

Edited by Kip-Utah - 23 Jul 2024 at 10:17am