Holy Cow Tractor Pulling Team

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Ft Wayne, In
This is the Allen Co Fair, but is actually in Huntertown, IN, a northern suburb or Ft Wayne.

First thing Saturday, I start pulling parts from the tractor. I choose to work in the trailer so I didn't have to figure out how to get it out. I take the tire off and dismount it. There is no damage to anything other than the valve stem is torn from the tube. I get another tube from Russiaville Autotechs, our only repair shop. It is not a big shop, be he does a heck of a business in tires, particularly buses and farm tires. One problem down.

Stacey is calling around about racks. Everyone stocks it and they are easy to obtain on Monday. I stopped at the NAPA store and determine that is a manual steering rack from a Chevette. So, the parts were plentiful at one time, but when was the last time you saw a Chevette on the road? As a result, no one stocks them. On a whim, Stacey called Ralph Banter to see if he knew of a source for them. He just happened to have a used one from Bruce Slagh sitting on the shelf. Since Ralph lives about 1/2 between our house and Ft Wayne, I tell him we will be there in about an hour with the tractor. I get the tractor chained down while sitting on blocks and we head out. "You might be a redneck if your pulling tractor is on blocks on the way to a pull..."

Bruce's rack bolts right in to my tractor and in an hours time, we are nearly done. The front is all together, but it is hard to work in the trailer, so it is together at least enough to back it out safely. We get to the pull and finish up by aligning the front end and torquing all the bolts. A quick check of the previous nights data and a quick assessment of the tractor, and we are ready to go.

Our friends from Kendallville take us to dinner and it was nice to relax for a while. Thanks Brad and Shannon.

Back at the pull, we fire the tractor and turn it around to check the steering and all looks good.

The track is a little soft and also doesn't pack as well as I would like. Watching the Super Stocks and the TWD trucks, it looked like running either line was a bad thing because either side wanted to suck you out of bounds. My main concern was the left side because I knew my right brake was marginal and if I started left, it would be all over.

The first three tractors, Feiss, Boyer, and Stahl all went more or less down the center and stopped more or less about 265. They seemed nose heavy and just weren't getting a hook.

So I placed the sled on the left side of the track and aimed to the far right. I figured that would give the biggest possible arc before I needed the right brake, if it went that way. I came out of the hole and picked the front end up, but it wouldn't carry there and dropped back to just barely skimming the ground. I had decent ground speed because of the hole shot and made a nearly straight pass to the right hand side cone at the finish line. My distance was about 305. As I got out of the throttle, there was a lot of smoke coming from the front left motor and what appear to be the #4 exhaust pipe. I shut the motors off.

We stripped most of the teeth off the blower belt. Back at the trailer, we read the data recorders and found the fuel pressure on that motor fell off. I never lost boost pressure, so the teeth sheared off after I got out of the throttle. About 1/2 a second before the end of the run, I saw a sudden 100 degree increase in EGT on #4 and again another increase after shutting the throttle off. I either burned a piston or got a head gasket. The EGT temps didn't look super high, so I am hoping the damage is minimal. The good news is, I think I have everything I need to fix what ever is wrong with #4 and I can swap fuel pumps on the front motors, so that will get me going for the HSTPA hooks on Wednesday and Thursday. The problem is that we have 2 GN hooks this weekend in Ionia MI, and we need the other motor, so the issue will be getting a fuel pump in time.

Noblesville, IN
We tracked the problem from Greentown down to a pair of bad spark plug wires. When the motor attempted to fire, it was actually sparking the wrong plug due to a bad wire and high humidity, and that caused the motor to try to spin backwards. Anyway, it was a cheap and easy fix. I am disappointed that I did have to time at Greentown to find the problem as obviously it could have been fixed in the pits. However, in talking with Wayne Krider, who won that pull, he blew 4 head gaskets and torched a head because he made part throttle pass due to the poor track conditions. So, maybe not running was not a completely bad thing.

Anyway, We get to Noblesville and draw an test hook. This track is not the best surface, but the track crew there does an excellent job for what they have to work with. The problem with our class and our high tire speed is we tend to tear the track up a little with each pass and it just doesn't want to pack back together. So, an early hook it desirable.

I chose a spot on the left side of the track and made a good hook. Towards the end of the track, it started to drift left and I rode the right brake for a while to keep it straight. My distance was 315. They talked about resetting the sled, but decided against it. Next was Ed Stahl. Like me, he drifted left, but could bring it around and DQ'd. Boyer bounced a little but otherwise made a straight run and finished about 289. Todd Feiss was a little nose heavy and also bounced a little, and ended up about 250. Wayne Krider made a good looking pass, but was late in the class and finished at 281. Then Don Deane brings his turbines to life and makes it out to 302.

In the pull off, I see how the track is going away, so I thought I would try the right side. As soon as I picked the front end up, I started going left. I tried the right brake, but I could not get it to turn, and was headed out of bounds. In my mind, I was saying "ease out of the throttle, ease out of the throttle..." but my arm had it own idea and said "snap the throttle closed quickly". As the front end came crashing down, my brain again said "that wasn't easing." We ended up bending the steering rack and breaking off one end. We also tore the valve stem and had a flat front tire. We finished just inside the left boundary at 198.

That left Deane to make an easy run to a certain victory. Deane also decided that since he only needed a 200' pass to win, he was going to also make an easy run to save his equipment. Well, that plan didn't work as the tractor never hooked up and ended up at about 100 or so.

So, they carried us off the track with a wrecker and we spent better than an hour figuring our how to get the tractor in the trailer. Later we discovered that the wheel seal on the right planetary failed (either during the first run, or right at the start of these second run. This allowed gear oil to coat the right brake rotor.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Greentown, IN
The new Belts that Gates sent were just a touch too long and could not be fully tightened, so we put an old style belt back on. The weather did not look good for this pull. It rained at home and off and on a few times on the way to the pull. The pits were soft and most of the pullers parked outside to avoid getting stuck.

The track didn't look too bad, but there was a large puddle at the starting line. They graded off the slop on top and made a pretty nice looking track, but then rolled it with a vibrating roller and the track was as hard as concrete.

As the pull started, we attempted to warm up, but every time I turned the mag on for the front motor, it would pop really bad. A pop indicates something is burning somewhere that it shouldn't. Generally it is caused by ignition, like the timing way out, spark plug wires reversed, or something defective. The other possibility is something in the valve train, like a bent valve, broken cam, etc. So, we started working on parts at a feverish pitch. We swapped mags, points boxes, spark plugs, but all for naught. We simply could not get the front motor to start. At this time, the class had already started. If I had the time, I could have swapped front motors, but it takes a couple of hours to un-install and install the couplers and there wasn't time. So, we opted to bump the sled with only one motor running.

The first three tractors had already gone by the time we got to the track. But, it didn't matter who went, the story was the same, there was no starting line and no hole shot. Basically, the tractors hooked to the sled and spun the tires while the sled inched forward. At about 100', the tires bit and the vehicles started to pick up speed, but it was too late at the point. Most of the tractors ran very little nose weight so they could get the sled moving, and then really carried the front end high and hard a hard time controlling them at the far end of the track.

A disappointing time for us, especially since this was our home town pull and there were lots of our friends in the stands. All in all, I am not too disappointed in not pulling on this track. Wayne Krider won, but took out a head gasket doing it.

I hope they have us back next year. I really think this has the ability to be a really good pull, but they need a rubber tire packer and a little help from Mother Nature.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Belt Update
I have been working hard with Gates trying to solve this problem. Since I have been working with this, lots of people have asked, are you sure you are using 13.9mm pulleys with 13.9mm belts. I know I bought the top pulleys myself from Littlefield and the bottom pulleys were what was on it when I bought it from Bill Vories. I have no reason to believe that Bill didn't buy the right pulleys. But, I would always ask, how to I measure them? No one ever could be me an answer other than send it back to them, or compare it to a known pulley.

Well, I have been talking with the engineers at Gates over the last couple of weeks, and again, they asked about the pulleys. Again, I asked how to measure them, and they sent me a spreadsheet that calculates pulley tooth pitch. I measured both my top and bottom pulleys and, lo and behold, they are both 14mm pulleys.

So, at this point, I know I have mismatched components. On the rear engines, the space is very tight. The rear engine coupler drives through the blower pulley, so I am limited in what I can do. I asked gates for their recommendations, and they either had or made some non-standard 14mm belts in the 65mm width that I use. (You can only buy 75mm width belts from RCD). They are shipping me 4 belts and they should arrive this morning. They are a little longer, and I may be an issue in that I may not have enough takeup on my idler, but hopefully I will be running them tonight at Greentown.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Kendallville, IN
My concerns about the track being too dry didn't come through. The track crew put a lot of water on the track and it looked like this sand track would be in pretty good shape.

The 6SS tractors kept blowing it out the end and after 4 sled resets, they finally had the sled tight enough to stop them. As the class progressed, the track seemed to get better and better and the sled continued to pack the dirt. The FWD class build a road just left of center.

First up was Mike Krause on his triple turbine tractor. He blew it out the end with the back of the sled well past the 300' mark. The sled was reset again. Next up was Wayne Krider. He lost a belt about 1/2 way an ended up with a distance of 257. He turned it down. We pulled next. I had again changed fueling scheme on the front motor, moving more fuel to the hat injection. Like Wayne, we also broke a belt about 1/2 track, and finished at 256. Schoenemanns Wild Ride was finally sporting 3 engines and finished way back. I didn't get to see the pull. Stahl tried the right side of the track. The tractor sounded good and looked good, but he finished a few feet behind me. Muffy, on a differently colored Boss Hoss, still had engine problems and didn't make the 200' mark. Krause and Deane both made great looking passes on their turbine tractors, but just finished a few feet a head of me at 263 and 261. Ed Boyer made a great pass, but the track was going away and he couldn't even match my mark. Finally, Wayne Krider came back with a new belt and only improved his distance by about a foot, and didn't change his finish position.

So, the advantage I has hoped with the new fuel system wasn't there, and a broken belt to boot. I will go back to our Tomah setup at Greentown and that should end our Belt Woes. I have a collection of broken belts currently in the Engineering Department of Gates, where they are doing a failure analysis. It is always interesting to see what the designers have to say, vs. the pullers and engine builders that are so called "experts." So far, Gates has been concentrating on how the belts are being shipped and stored.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Paris Traffic Circle
Many of you have heard stories of my travels to Paris and the ridiculous traffic circle right outside the hotel. This week, Google released a program called Google Earth that lets you navigate satellite images anywhere in the world. So, I found the traffic circle and printed it out. This image is a little large for the blog, but I didn't want to shrink and lose detail. My apologies for those of you with dial-up (like me).

So, the large interstate looking thing that runs top to bottom is the periphery. That is the loop around Paris, much like I-465 around Indianapolis. The French don't seem to number their roads like we do. Right in the center of the picture is the traffic circle. At 11, 1, 5, and 7 o'clock, there are roads that fork into both a ramp to/from the periphery and a frontage road. Running across the picture is Avenue Jean Jaures. The Holiday Inn we stayed in is the oval shaped building pointed to by the N compass point. It is on the south side of Jean Jaures. The Egg looking building is the Cite de Music. In front of the museum, you can see a line of trees. There is a road there with parking on both sides. That road connects to the traffic circle, but only buses can drive there. There is an entrance for cars off of Jean Jaures. If you look at about 10 o'clock, you will see an articulated bus that is stopped perpendicular to the flow of traffic! At about 3 o'clock you can see two articulated buses parked next to each other. It was at this point that there were several traffic lights. Sometimes, one of the lights would turn red, and some of the cars would stop, but others wouldn't. I never figured out how those lights worked. We traveled through this circle once each way between the plant and the Hotel. The plant was located about 6 miles off the forked road that exits on the top right hand corner of the picture. One thing to notice, the articulated buses are just like the ones here in the states. Look at the size of the cars compared to the buses. They are just tiny. What you can't see in this picture is the motorcycles. between every fourth or fifth pair of cars, there was usually a motorcycle. Apparently lane splitting is legal there, like it is in California.

A couple other things you can see. There are no lane markings on the circle. It is just like a large open lot. Also, it is not asphalt or concrete like the rest of the roads, but cobblestone. And lastly, underneath the periphery, there is a hole in the ground and if you look down in it, you see yet another interstate below ground! I don't know where the cars came from or where they came out, but the road was always busy.

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