Traction or engine mods?

[buickanddeere]

Decided at the last minute to partake in the garden tractor at the local fair.
Took one of the kid"s 110 JD garden tractors that still had the mower deck on it. Plain factory stock 8HP engine & rpms. Factory rims wearing stock sized tires which happen to be ATV BearClaws.
My 9 year old instead of staying at the pulling track decided to attend the midway rides instead. Made for one mighty steamed father who watched his kid wander back 2 minutes after the last 800lb class pull. I had already taken too much time away from other tasks assisting at our fair.
An hour later they announced a 1000lb class. Thought what the heck and happened to find the 9 year old kid at the same time.
Warned child should he happen to wander off with his buddies again.. It would not be good for him.
Went back to the pit area and borrowed some weights. Tossed them under the seat and hung one off the front mounting frame for the mower. Just taking a w.a.g. for front/rear balance.
Track was loose wet gravel.
Eight other tractors in the class, all with souped engines etc.
Nine year old crawled the 110 down the track in creeper gear with the 8HP lugging down.
Went 205 ft for 4th place in a class of nine pullers. Winning distance was 225ft.
Beat five souped tractors that the flag man had to trot to keep up with. They pulled 179 to 197ft.
HP doesn"t matter if you don"t have good tires, proper air pressure, proper drawbar length and weight balance.
I wish we had had another 70lbs to be max allowable weight. 3rd or even 2nd place would have been possible.

 

[Two Tone]

I know the feeling about kids wandering off at wrong time. Just remember in 6 months time he will still be talking about his first pull and will have forgotten about the midway.
tt

 

[Anonymous-0]

the way i see it, go for the mods, because like we used to be...if you take how good of traction you had..and gave you some speed and power, you prolly would have won. we used to prove this alot, we pull it until it died, not slipping a tire, and end up 2nd/3rd sometimes won..now that we have enough power, we win....not all of course..but we won the most this year then ever....power is first, traction can come later.
jmo....(just my opinion)

 

[Gearnut]

That is a great story ! (steamed father made me laugh out loud)

 

[Anonymous-0]

I agree with you Glen, I have a 51 John Deere 'A' that is tweaked enough that I can pull in 2nd gear most of the time in 5,500 and 6,500. Twice this year I was on a power track that was sucking the HP out of every tractor and I thought to myself...I might pull farther in a tall gear but I have no chance of 'winning' unless I go creeper. The first time I finished first out of 24 tractors and the second time I finished 2nd out of 18 tractors. Tires, balance, drawbar etc. rule.

 

[Evan Williams]

You wouldnt happen to be Southern Boone County's famous "Hartsburg Hammer", would you?

 

[RandyB(MI)]

You guys need to have a talk with the guy above that doesn't understand what compression ratio means but is ready to throw a 9" crank , heisler head and other mods at his "A" for pulling.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Yes Frankenstein...it's me...did that story sound familiar?