ANTIQUE CLASSIC SLED RULES

Earl-IL

Well-known Member
I haven't pulled for years. I have been going to pulls & watch how lazy the sled operators have become. I have noticed only one operator has tried to adjust his sled. The size & HP of all these tractors makes it impossible for the Antiques, Classics, Old School to pull on the same sled. You cant go 270-280 feet down the track & the sled guy drops the pan & the wheels of the sled comes off the ground ,most guys go another 10-15 feet. On the btm of that pan there is all kinds of anchors & angle iron, diff. on the pan sizes. Maybe all the pullers are happy. I know, I can stay home. I just think it can be improved.
 

Many times as I have backed up to the sled the operator is getting down to make his adjustments, he'll do one side and I'll do the other. Maybe since you have not pulled in years adjustments are getting made that you are not aware of. You may want to talk to some pullers.
 
I have seen the same sled at big tractor pulls stop everything from 300 horse farm stock to 3,000 horse super stock tractors. All at the 300-320' mark. I only get to one antique pull a year and my fair isn't even doing that. I would guess the real problem is the running order of the pull. 3,000 speed limit, 3,000 open, 3,500 speed limit, 3,500 open, etc, etc. The operator would spend more time bouncing back and forth on setup than the pull actually took.
AaronSEIA
 
You are right sometimes. But most sled operators will leave the back of the sled up (where the grousers are) on the slower and lighter tractors. Then as the tractors get heavier and faster let the back down a little at a time. With just a slick bottom would take more than a truck could carry to stop a big heavy fast tractor. And would be hard to launch also.
 
What you seem to be describing is know as a "drop pan " sled. Designed to stop the heavy, high horsepower tractors and trucks. I pull one of those occasionally. Operator is instructed to NOT allow pan to "drop" . Most can activate or lock out the drop action. Sleds used only for antique/classic pulls : I don't see the drop pans.
 
I have been to 3 pulls this year. I saw a bigger tractor, not antique tractor, pulling a sled wed. eve It was a 6000 lb.class multiple turboed tractor the track was really good and the guy was light on the front ,when that pan dropped that tractor bounced & almost turned over.
 
Their are a number of sleds still around for Antique tractor pulling.
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The drop sleds (slammers) have taken the "pull" out of tractor pulling. I know thats what it takes these days to stop the high HP tractors, but a lot of the operators find it easier to continue slamming and not having to add weight to transfer, this has made a "sling shot" affair out of it. NA classes esspecially have been hit hard by this crap. At one pull this year in the 12000# NA the operator transfered very little weight and just relied on the "slam". One puller pulled first in 4th gear, got slammed, the front end came up and the tractor died. That same puller came back at the end of the class ran next gear higher, got slammed, front end came way up and died, but due to the momentum pulled far enough to win the class. That tractor is normally a middle placing out of 12 tractors.
Pulling was fun and a challenge when weight was being transfered steadily along as you pulled, you could take a less HP tractor and win now and then with some experience and luck. Just had my fill of the drop sleds!!!
 
Thank You, This is my point. You did a better job of explaining of what is going on. Sled Rules.
 
That's what ruined "farm stock" pulling. Make the sled heavy from the start and you'll separate the almost stock from the "cheaters". Sometimes all the rules don't mean squat if the sleds not right. When I pulled ( 12000 to 16000) farm stock when the sled was right I could beat most hotter tractors while running half theirspeed. Now they set them for speed and don't want to change. Make those hot ones run slow and thell melt
 
This topic is one I've wanted to vent about for a while. I've seen a group of guys that run together a few years ago. All have 4430 Deere's or ssimilar. They all try to run c3 or higher(quadrange) on these heavy (proper farm stock) sleds. All have nearly the same tractor, vbut you'd think they'll gear down after watching their buddy choke out early. Nope, too proud. Most of these guys never been on a tractor with anything behind it other than a sled. Like a fish out of water. This is not a rant about john Deere guys by the way!
 
I pull a fraction of what I used to because of this very topic. RPMS is the game and when you're competing a two cylinder against four and six...you're at a disadvantage from the start. It's usually a drag race for 200 feet and a pull for about 15. Drop pans are a detriment to antique tractor pulling. A lot of the pulls around here are moving to 6mph "run whatcha brung" and its leveling the playing field. However, it's still a 6mph free-for-all with a 15ft pull on the end. I remember back in the day, with a good ol'heavy transfer sled, watching JD A's and G's in 10,000 or 12,000lb class slowly crawl past a big turbo'd tractor's holes time and again. Man,they had weight hanging all over them things! Anyway, I see more pulls going to 3, 3.5mph, 6mph, 8mph, and 15mph. They'll run cut and non-cut tires for each class, the 3mph classes are usually small tire. No RPM limit. Match your gear and tractor to the mph and go. Still not the same as the old days but certainly levels the field. I'll give the drop pan sled one pro...they dont seem to break as often as the old chain driven homemade transfers.
 
I assume that you watched the Farmer City pull on Saturday night? That was a prime example of a big drop sled on a sloppy wet track. First class out was 5500 antiques. Suppose the sled was set as light as it could go. And of course it just kept getting better and better as the class went. What I didn't get, is why they used the big sled for antiques, when the mini rod sled was there that pulled antiques for years.
Then i watched the YouTube video of then Indiana pulling league and there 5800 lbs modified class from Saturday night. Noticed once again that they had poor sled settings. When you go to the end of the track and the box is all the way forward you should have enough weight to stop the tractors, without having to pick the front of the sled pan up a foot off the ground. That makes all the tractors stop with in a couple feet of each other.
They was doing the same thing at Danville in the farm stock and NA class. And I noticed it at Rankin in the NA class. The whole tractor class was within 10 feet of each other. It's been very noticeable the last few years.
I for one, as an antique puller, and a spectator for the bigger tractors would actually like to see a true weight transfer sled being used, Or maybe they can take the time to actually set a drop sled and make it work as it should. I think I'm going to start asking a lot of questions on how these drop sleds are built and how you can go about setting them. There is a couple of drop sleds I have pulled on and I really like and think the operator does a great job. One of them is heaven bound, and the other is mean green. But those yellow sleds have me scratching my head more often tthen not. Other then that I don't have a lot of experience with other drop sleds. But if you want a true antique sled that is a weight transfer device, you can't beat the old Allis Chalmers sled. Am I right?
And I know I'm not the only one with this opinion either. Maybe just nobody wants to admit it on the internet yet.
But anyway that's just my opinion, and my penny for the thought.
But it is definitely going to start making my decision on what pulls I'll be attending.
 
No I didn't go to Farmer City it was Hot & I decided to stay home. I didn't go to Crescent City Sunday because it looked like rain. I sure missed the pork burger at Crescent.
 

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