Perhaps nothing is more iconic for farmland play than the tractor pull.
A new variation is the diesel truck pull.
Here in Indiana, it seems 90 percent of the vehicles on the road are pickups. A few are jacked up with crazy-big tires, but most are real work trucks.
And all have diesel engines…because they pull, they last, they get the job done.
We went to a diesel truck pull! Our handicap parking hanger even got us a free parking spot in the “pits” alongside those who came to pull…right up next to the track!
Most of the puller trucks had some type of modification for the event. We saw guys bolting on special bars to handle the extra stress on the rear axles, and it seemed everyone had a special exhaust system. Still, all but a couple trucks were driven to the event.
This wasn’t just a show-off event, either….there was money being awarded to the top finishers in each class. Although one young man pointed out to me that money wasn’t likely to be much of a motivation, since many owners had $70,000 tied up in their trucks and first place was bringing $1,000. “You could easily break something that costs more than the prize money,” he said.
So this is serious fun….
Talk about serious…a neighbor to the track stopped by with his new $600,000 tractor! Ryan thought he’d hop up and check out the cockpit…
The serious truckin started about the time the sun went down. These trucks had some significant modifications for the event and arrived on trailers.
The final event was for semis that had been very specially modified. Most obvious was a large box in place of the fifth-wheel…which carried massive weight to give the rig traction. These major engines put out major smoke!