Wheelies bars help or hinder?

shawnm · Feb 11, 2014

I pull locally with a short Farmall 340 a few times a year. Two out of six pulls I had problems with the tires grabbing part way down the track and then the front end went sky high.

Would the drag created from the wheelie bars touching override the benefit of keeping my drawbar higher in this situation?

I only pullin 2nd high/low T/A for 4000 lb class and then 1st High T/A in 5-6000lb class.

Jeff Gravert · Feb 11, 2014

When you tip over backwards you will be hurt or killed. You
weigh out the benefits........ a quarter turn of the tire puts you
straight up and down......

Anonymous-0 · Feb 11, 2014

I like wheelie bars make pulling safe and when my tractor rares up and hits the bars it makes the front come back down unless its pulling very hard. just my 2 cents!!

Bouncer · Feb 11, 2014

(quoted from post at 18:43:40 02/11/14)Two out of six pulls I had problems with the tires grabbing part way down the track and then the front end went sky high.

am just going to put it like this, and you may think I am a jerk. How much do you value/enjoy life? If it were up to me, a tractor would not go down the track, stock or not without them.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 11, 2014

I agree!! I wont pull with out them. If you have your tractor
balanced ( i know that doesnt all ways happen ) they wont
touch at all, but when they do, youl be glad you have them.
Plus if you set them a little low, they help keep your front down
when you know your going to be light in the front.

VicS · Feb 11, 2014

I don't think you said you were pulling without
wheelie bars. Your question is? would it be better
to lower the drawbar, to keep the front end down.
Or to let the bars drag. Probably better to lower
hitch. Might shorten hitch to do same thing.
Better. Might find something you can take off rear.
100 lb off of back and put on front, best.

jim johnson · Feb 11, 2014

If you have never seen a tractor up side down on a guy believe me you don't want to. Get them made.

Robert Major · Feb 12, 2014

Hi
i think you got your answer , It's kinda like the I rev my motor to 3000 plus rpms, and I don't need a steel flywheel/ clutch and scatter blanket, it won't happen to me argument.

If you got the safety equipment, We won't have to read the sad news your friends posted about your half day appointment with the funeral home because you got killed in a flip over accident.or how bad your doing in hospital, or your familys struggling since you got seriously hurt, and can't work.

If you don't have them please, Get busy with the chop saw/ steel and welder if you can make them right. If not get a professional to do them. you will feel a lot safer with them,
and may not be so frightened driving the tractor, knowing if they are there and right ,the tractors not coming over the top on you.

please remember safety has to be number one over the distance pulled and winning, this is a dangerous sport at any level of competition.
Regards Robert

gtx1967jewison · Feb 12, 2014

A lot of pulls around here DO NOT ALLOW wheelie bars......

Robert Major · Feb 12, 2014

I guess that's their choice, But would like to know why. I think that would change pretty quick if there was an accident, and government safety and insurance company got involved.
Regards Robert

H-66 · Feb 12, 2014

Then they are being bullheaded and just asking for trouble. Any promoter who does not promote safety should not be in charge of a pull!!
Jim Henke

shawnm · Feb 12, 2014

(quoted from post at 22:02:54 02/11/14) I love my wheelie bars when the front is
too light or the track is sticky
The trick to good wheelie bars is the
angle of the pads.they should be level
with the ground with the tractor in the
full wheelie position. Some weld the
Pads level with the tractor in at rest
position and when the tractor rears up
the rear of the pads dig into the ground
unloadIng the rear wheels
. AT:

(quoted from post at 20:47:53 02/11/14) I don't think you said you were pulling without
wheelie bars. Your question is? would it be better
to lower the drawbar, to keep the front end down.
Or to let the bars drag. Probably better to lower
hitch. Might shorten hitch to do same thing.
Better. Might find something you can take off rear.
100 lb off of back and put on front, best.

Thank you Andy and Vic. I worded my question poorly and it was misinterpreted. The plate angle mentioned by Andy is something I didn't think about, but would make a huge difference with my low hp tractor.

I was wondering if I am better off to drop my hitch for the higher classes and keep the wheelie bars from touching or allow them to make contact and slide.
Right now I'm 20" high on the hitch and 18" from axle center. Unfortunately I didn't take notes of hitch height the first year when I didn't adjust back to 20" once the weight was added.

The first two years I didn't have this issue but last year it became a problem.

I'm running 300 lbs out front (24" from tin work as my rules say) whereas 100lbs the previous years with un-adjusted hitch height. Is there an easy way to calculate the leverage of hitch height?

Anonymous-0 · Feb 12, 2014

someone needs to exlain to those boneheads that tip bars are a safety item and not a performance one, that's why the old Fordsons had those splayed out fenders, to avoid tip overs which was a problem on early models and several people got killed on them untin Ford lengthened the fenders, I have bumped mine several times and it was nice to know I had them there to do what they are intended to do

JDGnut · Feb 12, 2014

Everyone needs to read the question and not only the title...

Lowering the hitch will help... but you also have to have enough down force from the high hitch to get you to the point in the track where you need the lower hitch.. It would basically be a crap shoot.. Usually people will lower the hitch if you don't have enough HP..

Also make sure the pads on your bars are not set up to dig into the ground when they touch. I have mine setup so all of the pad sits flat on the ground when the front is at its max height with a front lipped angled upward.

gtx1967jewison · Feb 12, 2014

I agree!

rpllr · Feb 12, 2014

Why not add a weight or two up front if you know it might
happen if the front gets too high your loosing hitch height and
will spin out soon after.

ss55 · Feb 12, 2014

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking if you would pull better if the front end never lifts except a few inches off the ground at the very end of your pull? In a stock class I'd quess yes.

Watch how the winning pullers go down the track and look at how their weight is balanced at the end. It sounds like you could add/shift more weight to the front end.

1965lonewolf · Feb 12, 2014

Believe me when i say it - put the wheelie bars on and adjust your weight on the front. I had a 8500 lb tractor flip on top of me and it wasn"t a pretty site - they shut the fair down and flew me out of there in a helicopter -

1965lonewolf · Feb 12, 2014

i second what Jeff Gravert
had to say , I did it about 7 years ago at a local fair, wasn't pretty and they flew me out in a helicopter aftering shutting the fair down for two hours - 8500 lbs on top of me, was out for 6 minutes, they jump started me and i came to and was alive . I had the steering wheel GO through my arm , smashed three finger , broke 2 ribs , cracked my pelvis in 5 spots and cracked an eye socket. PUT THE WHEELIE BARS ON AND NEVER PULL WITHOUT THEM - 1/4 TURN OF A TIRE AND YOUR IN A WHOLE HEAP OF @#$%^(* QUICKLY

whigg · Feb 12, 2014

at our club you can not pull unless you have bars on.I pull a
farmall C and a j.d. 50 and been up on the bars with both of
them.Thank god they were on. SAFETY FIRST

LCB · Feb 12, 2014

To answer your question on draw bar height lower one inch on my tractor equals about 100 lbs. How good track is can change this some. I lighten my tractor up some so I don't have to mess with drawbar height and that works best.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 12, 2014

I hope the person that has said on here more than once that it is impossible to tip a tractor that is chained to a sled reads these posts.

JDGnut · Feb 12, 2014

bdoll .. For sure.. We had one guy turn the same tractor over twice..

1965lonewolf · Feb 13, 2014

Then you don"t know what your talking about ! My wasn"t hooked to the sled but i have seem a ford 8 n in new hampshire do it while hooked to the sled and we had a big block v -8 in our club do it , left the line and about 6" out broke the hitch and went completely over - SO ITS NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO DO !!!

PretendFarmer · Feb 13, 2014

If you can put more weight up front, thats what I'd do.
The trick is to gage weather or not that weight is needed based on track condition. Lowering the hitch height will reduce draft.
I will also say, wheelie bars are definitely needed. I have hit the wheelie bars plenty of times when not balanced, even on our long chain pulls.
I got a bit better at balancing the tractor by the time I went to short chain pulls so I rarely hit them there but it happened. I see some guys with adjustable wheelie bars and they move them up at "fun pulls" to do some wicked wheelies and they still hit. A friend of mine had a tractor flip on him without bars so anyone saying they arent necessary, or any club that advocates against them is playing with fire.

A.P. · Feb 13, 2014

In answer to your question; you are normally better off lowering the drawbar than dragging the pads of the wheelie bars on the ground.

That being said, you are better off keeping the drawbar as high as allowed and adding weight on the front, on the belly bar, etc. to keep the front end down. The front end should just come off the ground at the end of the pull.

Lowering the drawbar is normally used in your lightest class because you may not have enough movable weight to put on the front to keep it down.

Anonymous-0 · Feb 13, 2014

I think I would have learned after once! We had a sneaky school teacher around here try to run a floater hitch on a WC, it almost killed his wife once and a good friend of mine another time trying to get the sled moving. This is one of those guys that always points out how everyone else is cheating!

Dblair · Feb 13, 2014

I've seen 2 go over, a Super H and a 450, also seen
a 60 Deere stand straight up and the puller still
got the clutch disengaged . All got away with it ,
if that wasn't a piece of luck . I put the wheelie
bars on mine .

M.Genrich · Feb 13, 2014

DONT BE FOOLISH.....PUT THEM ON.....NOW....

Wheelies bars help or hinder?

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