pulling 426 twin turbos

A standard D21 weighs over 9000 lb with no driver and no fuel. We wanted to pull our D21 in the 9000 lb class and we wanted to be able to optimize front to rear weight distribution to match track conditions. We stripped or rebuilt unnecessary parts to lighten the tractor but that didn't leave us with enough weight to move. Then Dad focused on the cast iron front axle support. He hired O.B. Dell Welding in Pittsfield to create a steel frame front axle support covered with sheet steel shaped like the original part. I painted the support with a coat of thick orange paint. After the paint partially dried I threw sand on it. After the paint completely dried I lightly sanded it and painted it again. I repeated these steps several times over a period of a week and ended up with a front end that looked just like cast iron. This took at least 250 lb off the front end and allowed us to move more weight front to back. It took competitors quite a while to figure out how we could run more weights than they could. Finally one of them knocked on the "cast iron" front axle support and realized it was hollow so our secret was out.

Tractor pullers in the late 1960's and very early 1970's used "torque toppers". A torque topper was activated by a toggle switch that injected propane into the intake manifold. Flipping the switch would instantly clear the heavy diesel smoke and provide a horsepower boost. I believe these were first used by truckers to give them an extra boost going over mountains. Predictably, this got dangerous as pullers began injecting too much propane and occasionally exploding an engine.  They were outlawed in the early 1970's by a rule prohibiting tractors from using pressurized tanks, except in tractors using propane exclusively. I'll post more over the next few weeks as time allows. - N.D. Harrison

 

 

 

Here is a face book link to the article