FFA Benefit Pull - Central PA

Posted by Michael Shultz on March 29, 2006 at 13:01:37 from (209.50.135.49):

The Montour Antique Farm Machinery Collector's Association is Sponsoring a benefit Antique Tractor pull for the Danville PA FFA chapter on April 29 at Montour Delong Fairgrounds in Washingtonville PA. The Danville FFA is attempting to make this a family event, so in addition to the pull the FFA kids will be doing a youth safety day course from 10-1 for elementary aged kids on: animal handling, ATV and lawnmower safety, flowing grains, forestry and logging, PTO and Corn pickers, Tractor rollover, and Water safety/air quality. There will also be a pedal pull just for fun for the youth. Penn State University is also doing a Farm Rescue training for local emergency reponders and the general public will be able to witness much of their training, which should be very interesting. Then at 5:00pm local acoustic artist Van wagner will be performing a concert at the fair's stage pavilion. Van is a former Danville FFA member and sings a variety of original music ranging from bluegrass to blues. He has become very popular locally. His website is www.vanwagnermusic.com if you're interested in checking his stuff out before suggesting this event to your wife. And finally, we will be recognizing 18 students (assuming they pass the course) ages 14-17 for completing the farm machinery certification course that the FFA has bee sponsoring all spring - allowing them to legally work for people other than their parents.
I'll give you a basic overview of the rules that may be a little easier to interpret than the website:

All weight classes have several divisions - non cut tire, cut tire(tapered cleat, not front cut), 1939 and older, and several different open type classes(turbo, non-turbo, & car engine classics). Every other class is paced (example - 4000, 5000, 6000), while classes in between are non-pace(4500, 5500, 6500, etc.) - reguardless of cut or uncut. We've been doing it this way for about 6 years now and the pull continues to grow. Even the stockers like to open it up and see how fast they can go (most of the 1st timers stall before the 100' mark, but it's all in good fun:). I won't say that it's perfect as it relies a little bit on honesty, but there aren't many people around here that would sacrifice their integrity for a 30 cent ribbon. We don't put an RPM limit on anything - everything is by tire size and cut, pace or no-pace. We use a pace rope that goes approximatley 3mph. The flagman walks the rope, and the tractor's rear axle can not pass the flagman. The flagman will never walk faster than your front tire - if you go 1.5mph he lets the rope slip and walks beside your front tire - limiting "slingshotting" for the stronger tractors to the length of their wheelbase. The non-cut tire class is designed for farm tractors and show tractors - basically a division 1 or 2 NATPA type tractor. The cut tire class is designed for somewhat of a blend between NATPA divisions 3 & 4, but with no RPM limits. We keep the tire sizes small in these classes - 13.6x38 up to 4,500, 15.5x38 from 5,000 to 6,500, 16.9x38 from 7,000 to 8,500, and 18.4x38 the rest of the way up (might be 20.8x38 for above 14,000?). Open classes can run 18.4x38 tires with any cut all the way up through.

If you really want to check the web rules the website is www.mafmca.com - just follow the link for Tractor pulling rules and you should be in good shape. We can find a class for practically anything older than 1967 - if you have any questions e-mail me and I can try to answer them.

This will be the first time we try this, and I am very excited about it. The kids and I have put a tremendous amount of time and effort into planning this, and I hope to see many new faces. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me or give me a call at (570)764-3985, and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. I am one of the FFA advisors.

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