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If semi tractors do well at the pulls?

K

kevinstuff

Member
Have been to a few tractor pulls and at the end of show the semi tractors pull ,Now I don't know what class or weight they
are pulling , but it seems almost all of them make a full pull, 1 year they even had cement trucks pulling , Now I am not
a farmer, but could semi tractors be used for field work? they seem to have plenty of power , has anyone done that
 
A few companies have made tractors from semi components. The early articulated ones like Steiger and versatile maybe ? BIG Budd too.
 

I think the big issue is gearing.. Geared too high to really do any field work.. Not that it would be a feasible option.

I used to run a Terra-Gator, and what I can say is they used many of the same components that the Kenworth trucks (like I work on daily these days) use.. Major difference is the Terra-Gators had planetaries on the axles to change the gearing.

Brad
 
Also the surface of the track is very compact and offers some pretty good traction. Field dirt you want fluffy , track is not.
 
You may be surprised to learn the sled was completely re-set after the last tractors pulled or otherwise the semi,s wouldn't move it and wouldn't make much of a show. At one show around here, they have an "exibition" pull where anyone with anything can hook to sled to "get the feel or get the "bug" which ever way you want to look at it. It's also an education for the sled operator but everything from a cub farmall to a JD 6030 will all pull to within 10' of the same spot. The man in the sled controls all.
 
Not a chance, even with low enough gearing they are way too much ground pressure especially on the front axle. A semi tractor bobtailing especially will get stuck in the slightest bit of mud.
 
By the time you got done modifying a road truck to efficiently and effectively put the power to the ground in field conditions, you would have something virtually identical to a tractor of equal horsepower rating, but you would've spent about 4X as much getting it to that point.

Road trucks do not do well in field conditions with their small narrow smooth tires and gear ratios suited to rolling down a paved road at 70MPH vs. pulling a 40' field cultivator through soft dirt at 7MPH
 
Hi A few Guys did it back in the U.K probably in the late 70/ 80's and after. I remember seeing stories in farming magazines when I was a kid. I think now if a guy wants that kind of machine, you just go buy a JCB fast trac thats designed for the purpose of being a field machine with 3 point 4wd/ pto and a highway unit.

They have been around since 1990, I was at the launch in London U.K that year. it's more use than a semi tractor in most field conditions, hauls on the highway without needing all the licenses and tests like a semi tractor outfit does in some country's, in some ways it's still jack of most trades, as it's not a loader tractor really. If you want to see a fastrac and get the idea youtube it. There used to be a German machine called an MB trac to that was a similar idea to, but they stopped building them quite a few years ago, so JCB has all that new machine market.
Regards Robert
 
What you are saying makes it. Love to watch a couple videos on Utube where those supper Pullers with jet engines, Five chevy blocks, tank engines, and even rotary airplane engines pull. The weight on the sled just goes Swooop, up to the end and those pullers just keep going.
 
That makes sense , the semi tractors put on quite a show, but because of the variable on the sled, maybe a John Deere 4020
could out pull the semi tractors ?
 
The gear train in a truck is built for relatively low torque high speed operation. The engine might hold up OK but everything from the engine on back won't hold up. Under a constant high torque low speed load the power train in the truck would fail fairly quickly. If proper oil coolers and pressure lubrication were added to the rear ends and transmission it might be a different story. The Deere 8010-8020 was a good example of attempting to turn truck components into a tractor without proper modification.
 
What some people are forgetting is some of the early 4x4 tractors used semi components. There have been a few guys that have converted semis to tractors. Farmshow magazine has featured some. The key is those guys swap out the original drive axles for a heavy duty Clark or similar axle that uses out board planetaries same as what some of the big 4x4 tractors use. The out board planetaries are the key because they give you the gear reduction needed for field speeds.
 
(quoted from post at 11:32:49 04/20/16) Not a chance, even with low enough gearing they are way too much ground pressure especially on the front axle. A semi tractor bobtailing especially will get stuck in the slightest bit of mud.
Click to expand...

A short chain up onto the fifth wheel and that front axle weight is back on the drivers if the track is good.
 
White/Oliver used a Caterpillar truck engine in their big tractor but it used tractor components behind the engine. Engine worked OK as long as you remembered the engine liked higher RPM.
 
Everything is built for a purpose.

Case in point: I once sold a 350 Chevy stock car engine to a drag racing fellow. He thought he was going to blow everyone's doors off 'cause he had a genuine stock car engine in his drag car. Instead, he got his doors blown off.

Why? Because a drag car needs torque and hp at low rpm, coming off the line. The stock car engine I sold him was cammed and built so it didn't really start turning on till it went past 5,000 rpm. It was in its element between 5,500 and 7,500 rpm, not at low rpm.

Semi tractors are built for one purpose, farm tractors for another. Why try to mix them?
 
We are well aware that many tractors use truck components.

That's a whole different animal from driving a truck off the road, into a field, hooking up to a plow, and turning dirt.

I don't think a typical semi tractor off the road could pull much more than a 2-bottom plow due to traction. HP isn't everything.
 
With all that aside, with 15-20 tons in the back of a tandem dump, and with the power divider locked and both differentials locked, even I myself am amazed at what you can pull. I can pull more with my loaded tandem then our grader, just because the grader will spin out from not having enough weight. With some sand on the road, I pulled a similar 68,000 pound loaded tandem up and out of a snow filled 4' deep ditch with the underbody stuck in the side of the ditch. The road was covered in about 2 inches of hard pack snow, just that little bit of sand and we had it out. Weight makes a huge difference.

Ross
 
My Big Bud 320 uses a 13 speed fuller roadranger and a Cummins 855 both components that can be found in semis. The difference is my tractor uses a pair Clark axles with out boards that reduce ground speed down to 12 mph in the top gear. If you put a similar axle on a semi with lots of weight you can make a tractor out of a semi.
 
A few years ago I was at a local tractor pull. It was an evening event and was finishing up about 10pm and a guy wanted to pull his semi tractor. This was the semi tractor he used to haul his farm pulling tractor to the pull and also his ride to the pull. He got about half way down the track and there was a huge pop and sparks flew out from underneath the tractor near the clutch area. It was a cab over semi tractor. So I am sitting there thinking that this guy has no way to get home or get his pulling tractor home. It was a Saturday evening. I am guessing that Sunday was a long day getting stuff fixed so he could get his equipment home.
 
they do ok, if you have enough weight on the back to stick them to the track, otherwise the thing will spin out, also if its just an old beater they dont last long, like any puller, the more money you sink into it the better you do
 
Jeep had a 'Ag' version awhile- PTO, pull hitch or 3 pt- sold some and were usable about like a Ford N for some things. Extra tranny for low speed use. Love and Fridays from Michigan were usable on road or some low speed farm work- Dodge drive train with extra tranny, meant for the orchard and veggie growers as wagon haulers in field and roads to canneries. Daimler has their farm tractor/truck/utility that has hitch's front and back, PTOs and tops speed of 50 mph or so on road. Old conversion of Ford A, AAs with dual wheel back axle and extra transmission in line for low speed, usable for plow, disc, drag and wagon hauling, not good for cultivating. Versatile from Semi components has the extra transmission with truck axles, some of the military axles have reduction gears at ends as well. A matter of gearing, implement use and maybe just using what is available or for the specialty user or law loophole grabber. Remember IHC made trucks and tractors with some of same engines. Other way around- take a MF2165 European model that has a front axle with brakes and a double over drive transmission- some UK and Netherlands(?) farmers use them on roads at 35 to 50 mph, a German poster noted some rigs on German road derived from the farm tractors hauling trailers and wagons at 80kph-- considering the German tractor picture that looked like a old Jeep FC pulling a field cultivator, the crossovers in Europe give some examples. RN.
 
Considering that your average Semi tractor is about 18000 lbs, and most tracks are pretty hard... A farm tractor with the same weight and the right tires would probably keep up just fine. Most of the pulling semi's have a hitch setup that transfers enough weight to lift the front, as tractors do. Quite a few years ago, I was a at pull where the local Freightliner dealer had an exhibition truck they had built to show off. They made several pulls throughout the day on Saturday showing their stuff. On Sunday one of the local logging contractors showed up with an off road Mack. The Freightliner hooked to the sled and made a decent pull to the end of the track. Next that Mack hooked on the sled. He took off, past the end of the pulling track, and since this was also a horse track, hung a left and did a lap! Of course that Mack probably weighed close to 40000 lbs.
 
i've seen pictures, on this site even i think... a few years ago of semi's with tractor tires (kinda looked like combine size diameters) on the back. i think they also had weight added too.

you would definitely want a low rear end and would probably never shift ranges in the field.

with traction they could be handy for some field work like discing but bad for other things.

in theory you could pull anything with anything but pulling a plow with a ford escort would just be silly. but, in theory, you could do it.
 
Pic
a224322.jpg
 
Not really on point, but many eastern Washington alfalfa hay growers use pickups to pull their rakes and balers (engine balers). Much easier to find help if they can have all the comforts of home. Most work is done at night, to get enough dew to keep the leaves on the alfalfa, so extra lights installed, in case the operator wants to take a second out of his texting and music to see what's going on.
 
I was at a show once where they allowed you to pull with anything on their stoneboat. One guy was pulling with a B model Mack single axle flatbed, empty. He did as well as a JD R.
 
Power is not an issue. The biggest disadvantage is traction. Semi trucks are quite heavy on the steer axle : light on drive. Also : highway tires would be near useless on loose ground. A person could change tires and add dead weight over the drives , but , the steer tires will still sink in unpacked ground. The pulling events I have seen: trucks pulled from the fifth wheel. At 46-48" height (or more ) that is a lot of down pressure from the sled. I have seen trucks pulling and the front tires be 2 feet off the ground at half track, on. No down pressure pulling a disc.
 
Yup it sounds like a great idea till something like that happens! I was at a truck mud bog and truck pull and was laughing about the guys later in the day after beer clouded the thought process taking there daily drivers thru the mud pit. One guy going thru in an s10 with extension cords hanging off the ladder racks and his chop saw and tools sliding around the bed!
 
traction and very poor ground clearance not to mention a draw bar at proper height hydraulics 3pt. pto. sure you could rig up any of these but why it's a road tractor it is what it is.
 
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