When it comes to pulling, one of the things that’s lost on a lot of people are the differences in the classes. The video we have for you below today features the Hot Farm Tractor class which is probably the most BangShifty category in the pulling world. I’ll speak in generalizations here because of the fact that there are variations among different organizations about weight, cubic inches, and some subtle stuff like that, BUT, speaking generally this is what the Hot Farm Tractor class is all about.
The machines weigh between 9,000 and 10,500 (again, generally speaking) depending on who’s rule set you are running under. The tractors are limited to a single turbocharger and here’s where it gets really good. There are lots of restrictions on stuff like the intake and exhaust manifolds. They have to match the family of engine being used in the tractor and basically have to be modified stock versions of those pieces. Knowing what we all know about engines, especially turbocharged ones, lots of the magic in these Hot Farm mills come from the tweaking, massaging, and internal modifications to the intake and exhaust manifold to make the turbo work better and make its boost enter the engine more efficiently.
In this particular video, the organization is pretty light on the driver protection rules. The tractors all have a roll bar, some mimicking the stock ROPS that the tractor came with and many of the driver’s don’t even have a helmet on. That seems a little wacky to us but it is neat seeing the drivers as we would have seen them pulling back in the day, right?
Some series demand that the tractor be “complete” in the sense that the chassis, body, axle, transmission, and engine have to come from one manufacturer. Others seem to allow cross breeding of the engines but the rest of the machine has to follow the factory program.
Our favorite thing here is that these tractors were literally tractors at one point and now they are hot rods built under restrictive rules and make stupid power. This is great!
