Tonight I got to interview the Cal Poly Pulling Team. They have an event coming up Sunday, April 16th. Great young kids with bright futures. Video Link
My son was on the ASABE team at Illinois. The last tractor he helped with had 5-16hp Vangard engines, a custom transmission that I think Tim Engler was involved in building and a Winters quick change rear axle. Used belts similar to blower belts to attach engines to a common shaft drive. The team won the pulling portion of the competition easily and the overall competition. One of the team members was pulling a stock ITPA garden tractor at the time, and another is Jacob Kessler who just pulled in Louisville. Really a neat competition, and the kids learned a bunch. They had T shirts made with a picture of their tractor and the logo "Fueled by gasoline, designed by alcohol."
My son sent me the rules every year to try and find the "gray" areas they could exploit. The kids had a true tractor puller mentality.
The Stanford tractor pulling club had an incident last week that embarrassed the university.
A national tech official was invited by the John Deere Society campus chapter to give a lecture about turbos and the new Nichols twd tires. A bunch of mask-wearing students interrupted him and wouldn't shut up so he could speak. Then the DEI official sided with the students.
It seems the tech official has voiced opinions that a tractor's engine should match the sheet metal. The students and DEI official feel this is discriminatory against tractors assigned Deere at birth, but who identify as Case-IH, Moline, Claas, or Fendt. The tech official was called tractorist and accused of Deeresplaining.
More to come.....
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2023 05:10AM by The Original Michael.
