[beck]

There was a local truck pull tonight. It was only a mile away so I just had to go. Unfortunately there wasn't much there. Several broken driveshafts and one transfer case. There were a few Dodge 5.9 guys. One had a '91 2wd. He just wanted to see what it would do. It wouldn't pull the sled 10'. Another had lots of smoke. He wisely shut it down when it started to hop. He would have been another driveshaft victim if he hadn't. Another 5.9 was making a nice pull and getting it all to the ground. The rear u joint let go with a bang.
The most imipressive truck there was an older gas Ford. I have seen it pull before. It kicks butt, and I'm not a Ford fan. I don't know how big the motor is but it has lots of grunt. The chasssis on that truck seems to work so much better than anyone elses. I don't know what he has done, but it works! There was another local that just wanted to play. He had an '03 Duramax dually with just rear wheel drive. He was doing fine until his stock reciever insert broke. He wisely didn't put another hitch in and try again. If you are going to break a new hitch at the local discount store would be a cheap fix.

 

[Wyle E. Coyote]

Interesting. We have pulls around here and I can hardly recall ever seeing anything break. And many of the trucks I see are regular guys right off the street. Leads me to wonder about the track conditions or the sled and/or operator. Like my dad would say, "Something's fishy around here."

From what I've heard, if the track has a high clay content it can be sticky and be hard to get the sled moving. That 2wd truck should have had no more trouble than anyone else. And the fact that there were broken T-cases and driveshafts leads me to think that either those drivers weren't wise to let off before the "death hop" occured, or the track itself offered so much traction that the load on the drivetrain went beyond the breakpoint.

I too enjoy a good tractor pull. Maybe someday I'll be brave and hook up to the sled.

 

[beck]

There is a lot of clay in the ground here. All of the street style trucks have problems with driveshaft breakage here. The true pulling trucks don't have the problem. Most of the "modified" street style trucks have added rear ladder bars that extend all the way from the rear axle to near the front suspension. These guys have pretty restrictive rules on what can and cannot be done. These are what we term "bush pulls". They take place out in the country bushes.