Tractor Pulling News - Pulling-World.com

Sunday, February 28, 2021

News from the Dark Side of the Moon Pulling Team

The Dark Side of the Moon Pulling Team from Barlo in the Netherlands have announced that they want to sell their diesel powered 6 cylinder turbocharged John Deere engine of their tractor called ''Dark Side of the Moon''. After 10 years in the 3.6t / 7930lbs super sport / farm stock class and some conversations with their sponsors, the Dutch Team has decided to switch with their John Deere 4455 into the 3.5t / 7700lbs limited super stock class in the future. For that step, Dick Schokkin and his crew will build a completely new John Deere alky burner engine for the tractor and the John Deere will get some further changes and improvements during the next months. A start during the 2021 season is currently not planned, because the building of the new alcohol engine and the rebuilt of the John Deere 4455 will take some time in progress.

Just by the way, the old turn key 7l John Deere power plant on diesel fuel with more technical details is to find on our for sale page on pullingworld.com!

For further information, check here: https://www.facebook.com/kermitteam/

Euro Pulling Show

Tomorrow evening in the Euro Pulling Show Thomas Beattie and Andy Miller will discuss with NTTO president and Simply Irresistible Team member Marcel Hoornsman from the Netherlands about ''getting back on track in 2021''. The show will start at 7pm UK = 8pm CET on Facebook.

Livestream, check here: https://www.facebook.com/Europullingshow/

Achterberg cancelled!

The STTA (Stichting Trecker Trek Achterberg) has announced on their Facebook page last week that their pull in Achterberg, the Netherlands is cancelled for 2021. The pull which was usually planned for the 21st of May was cancelled due to the uncertain Covid 19 situation and restrictions in the next months.

The statement from the oraganization:

After much deliberation, we decided not to organize the tractor pulling competition again on 21 May. Recently, we have looked at various options as an organization, but with the current measures and uncertainty for the coming months, we are unfortunately forced to cancel the competition.

We think this is very unfortunate and had hoped to be able to organize a competition after last year's cancellation.

Stay safe and see you next year!

For further information, check here: https://stta-achterberg.nl/

or check here: https://www.facebook.com/Trekkertrek-Achterberg-1677774752470958/

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

The new Froggy Drakkar of the CDH Pulling Team

The CDH Pulling Team around Guy and Nick de Hoef from Bernay in France have built a completely new 3.5t / 7700lbs John Deere component limited super stock machine during the winter of 2018 / 2019. After around 10 years with the old John Deere called ''Froggy'' in the 3.5t / 7700lbs pro stock and the 3.5t / 7700lbs limited super stock class, the French / Belgium team decided to build a completely new John Deere limited super stock ride on component base. The CDH (Chauvin De Hoef) Pulling Team was founded by the de Hoef and the Chauvin Family in 2010 after the French No Limit Team (Froggy and Le Redoutable) went parted ways with the No Limit Pulling Team from the Netherlands at the beginning of 2010.

But the first Froggy was built in the workshop of Guy and Nick de Hoef as a pro stock in the fall of 2008. For them, it was the first pulling tractor with a hood. In the past Guy have built tractors like the quad Isotov turbine powered modifieds called ''Terminator'' and ''Baby Duck'', so it was a new experience for Guy and his son Nick and the rest of the French/Belgium Team. The team built on the new pro stock for around 8 months, before the new John Deere had its maiden voyage at a French Championship round in the summer of 2009. The old Froggy had a homemade steel wedge frame with a homemade 3 bar roll cage, a homemade steel sheet metal rearend with ZF planetaries and a John Deere 8520 hood. After the first passes in 2009, the John Deere was further improved and went very strong into the 2010 season.

But they decided to run only in the French Championship with the John Deere and registered the Froggy not for the Euro Cup. But the guys competed every year until 2014 at the Euro Cup pull in Bernay, France against the best European pro stocks and did very well there. The CDH Team also competed with the tractor 2 times at the European Championship. The best result was a great 5th place finish at the 2010 EC in Ekeröd, Sweden, only 1.45m behind the European Champion Johanna Herlevi with Doris from Finland. At the EC in Füchtorf, Germany in 2012, they finished again under the top 10 in 9th place. After the 2014 season and 5 years in the pro stock class, the French/Belgium team decided to switch into the limited super stock class.

The decision was made to switch into that new class due to the less competitors in France (Froggy was at that time the only pro stock in France) and the ever increasing levels and costs in the pro stock class in all over Europe. For that switch into the limited super stock division, the 8.3l John Deere engine was converted from diesel to alcohol fuel. For this fuel switch, the guys had some changes to make on the power plant. The engine received a Waterman fuel pump with a VSP (Veldhuizen Special Parts) fuel injection system and a MSD 8 ignition. Also for that switch, the cylinder head of the engine was a little bit changed, each cylinder got 3 injectors and a spark plug.

After all the changes were done on the engine, the team made the first passes in front of the sled but that was at the end of the 2015 French pulling season in Bailleul Le Soc.Nick de Hoef behind the wheel did 3 nice runs there and was very pleased with the performance of the rebuilt engine in the John Deere.
Shortly after that test passes in Bailleul Le Soc, the CDH Pulling Team had already started with the planning of a second component tractor for the limited super stock class, it was again a green tractor, but not a John Deere. This time it was a component limited super stock tractor with a Deutz-Fahr 7250 TTV hood. The Deutz got a homemade steel wedge frame with a newly constructed homemade 3 bar ROP (Roll Over Protector), a homemade hydraulic steering, a homemade sheet metal rearend with ZF planetaries and a set of new Firestone 24.5x32 Puller 2000 HP tires on Midwest aluminum rims from the USA.

Compared to the John Deere engine of the Froggy, the Deutz engine for the new Deutz-Fahr tractor is from the displacement a little bit smaller. For the new Deutz limited super stock, they decided to build a turbocharged 6 cylinder Deutz TCD 2013 L06 4V engine with a displacement of 7.6l on alcohol fuel. The engine received a machined Deutz engine block with a revised 24 valve Deutz stock cylinder head, a custom built camshaft from Patrice Beaudry from Canada, a homemade intake and exhaust manifold, a billet Holset HX 82 turbocharger with a 4.25 inch intake impeller wheel from Veldhuizen Special Products, a new counterbalanced Deutz stock crank, billet steel rods from KMB (Koebrugge Metaal Bewerking B.V.) with machined New Holland stock pistons, a MSD 8 ignition, a AiM Sports data logger and a Veldhuizen Special Products alcohol injection system.

After all the chassis steel and sheet metal work was done the tractor was painted in green/black and got the name ''Warrior'', like the stock tractor special edition of the Deutz-Fahr brand. The new Warrior had its maiden voyage at their home pull in Bernay, France in 2016. And it was a very good maiden voyage in front of their sponsors and fans and Nick de Hoef made at his first run with the new tractor a nice Full Pull.
At the 2020 Indoor pull in Zwolle, the Netherlands, Nick de Hoef made the last and final 2 runs with the old Froggy in the limited super stock class, which he finished in a nice 4th place.
After the pull, the old Froggy went to Kevin Haworth from Kirkby, Lonsdale in Great Britain. The tractor was already purchased by the brit at the end of 2019. The old Froggy was renamed into ''Ultimate Deere'' and the team competes with the John Deere in the British Championship. Kevin Haworth shares the driving duties on the tractor with his daughter Jade during the seasons. After the old 8520 was sold to Great Britain at the end of 2019, the French team started with the work on the new tractor. The old Froggy is still a good tractor but also more than 10 years old and things have changed during this time. Nick de Hoef wanted a other chassis which was also a challenge for the whole team to build this new chassis. Before they started to build the new component limited super stock, the team began with planning and the construction of the new John Deere on the computer. The whole component tractor was constructed on a CAD program.

The new limited super stock received a completely new developed homemade steel wedge frame with a new homemade 3 bar chrome-moly tube roll cage, a Cobra racing driver seat with a 4 point safety harness, a new homemade front axle with new BKT tires on new polished aluminum rims, a new hydraulic steering, new weight and engine brackets, new homemade steel wheelie bars and a new homemade sheet metal rearend with a newly constructed drawbar. All the sheet metal parts for the new chassis were laser cut and bent in their own company called ''AGNP Chaudronnerie''. The chassis was completely newly developed and looks on the front end completely different compared to their old John Deere. The new 3 bar roll cage on the tractor is built like on their Deutz called ''Warrior''.
With the completely new chassis, the team will have a better weight distribution and a better balance.

For the new limited super stock, they decided to use a John Deere 8400R hood and new rear fenders from K&K Specialties in the USA. The John Deere 8400R was the biggest standard tractor in the range of the John Deere brand. The 8R series was introduced by the US American company in 2013 and built in their US main plant in Waterloo, Ilinois in the USA until the beginning of 2020. The 8400R tractor was introduced in 2016. The John Deere 8400R is powered by an intercooled / turbocharged 6cylinder John Deere Power Tech PSS engine with a 9l displacement on diesel fuel. The powerplant in the tractor has 431hp with a maximum torque of 1806Nm at 1600rpm. But John Deere has already revealed the 3rd generation of the 8R series with a completely new facelift (new hood etc) at the 2019 Agritechnica in Hannover, Germany.

All the paint job work on the new tractor was done by the team himself in the company of Guy and Nick the Hoef. Due to the new main sponsor on the tractor, they decided to give the John Deere a whole different look compared to their old Froggy. For those new vinyl graphics on the tractor, they contacted Marco Mathijssen of M2iD from Roosendaal in the Netherlands. Marco designed the vinyl graphics for a lot of tractors in the Netherlands, like for the pro stock tractors called ''Lady Green'' and ''Rocky'' or for the super stocks tractors called ''Maximum Risk'' and ''Blue Thunder''. But that's are only quite a few of his projects which he has done in the past. But before Marco started with the concept work on the computer, the CDH Pulling Team didn't really have an idea for a design, only that the main sponsor Drakkar could clearly be present. This design was then born by combining Drakkar's corporate identity colors with the style that appealed to the team. In the end, it wasn't a traditional green John Deere, but he drew a very impressive new look for the brand new limited super stock!

With the company Drakkar, they have for the first time in their team history a main sponsor on a tractor.

Drakkar is a French company which is dealing tools and tool equipment for workshops and private uses.
Founded in 2000, a Breton entrepreneur decided to give new impetus to his company by creating a new brand of hand tools. This was the birth of Drakkar Tools. Coming from an agricultural background, he quickly understood the user issues. Thus, it favors professional, robust and accessible products for all sectors of activity. 10 years later, at the initiative of Marc Lavannant, purchasing director at Drakkar, a new brand emerged. This was Drakkar Equipment. It covers all requirements for workshop equipment: Presses, drilling machines, roller lifters, portable generators, etc. In those more than 20 years, the company has grown in France and their tools and tool equipment are available at more than 700 shops in the whole country. The CDH Pulling Team is not the only motorsport team which is sponsored by Drakkar. The French company also supports 2017 French hill climb champion Sarah Louvet in her Dallara F303 Mercedes Formula 3 and 85cc and 125cc motocross Paris champ Jeremy Penko.

The new rearend in the limited super stock received a homemade steel sheet metal housing with a Rockwell semi truck center section, a stock Rockwell ring and pinion gear with a revised Rockwell differential, custom built half shafts, homemade CNC-machined aluminum carrier housing with ZF stock planetaries and homemade CNC-milled aluminum brake calipers with homemade laser cut brake discs.
They are also using the completely same rearend in their Deutz-Fahr limited super stock tractor called ''Warrior'', which worked pretty well in the past.
The rear wheels on the new tractor are a set of new cut 24.5x32 Firestone Puller 2000 HP tires on new polished Keizer aluminum rims. The new Puller 2000 tires come from the company Firestone Europe, which is a sponsor of the team since 1992. The new Firestone tires were cut by the John Deere Pulling Team in Hurup, Denmark in the winter of 2018/2019.
Also completely new calculated and built in the tractor is the drivetrain. Compared to their old Froggy and the Warrior they decided to go a little bit different way this time. The John Deere got a new SCS 3 speed transmission from the USA with a billet steel driveshaft, a homemade centrifugal clutch with 4 discs and a Browell aluminum clutch bell housing.

The new Froggy Drakkar is powered by a 6 cylinder John Deere engine with a displacement of 7.6l and one turbocharger on alcohol fuel.
The powerplant under the hood has a machined John Deere cast iron stock block with Darton billet steel sleeves, a new counterweighted John Deere stock crankshaft with Veldhuizen Special Products (VSP) billet aluminum rods and pistons, a revised 24 valve John Deere stock head with bigger valves and stronger valve springs, a billet steel camshaft from Patrice Beaudrey (former owner of the Case IH super stock open called ''Crazy Canuck'') from Canada, a VSP alcohol fuel injection system with a Waterman fuel pump, a homemade stainless steel fuel tank, a homemade stainless steel intake and exhaust manifold, a billet VSP Holset HX82 turbocharger with custom built 4.25inch intake impeller wheel, a homemade aluminum oil pan, a Aviaid 3 stage oil pump, a MSD 8 Dual Coil ignition and AiM Sports data logger. With all those special built and revised stock parts in the engine, the power plant should be good for more than 2000 horsepower on alcohol fuel. Currently, it's the only John Deere limited super stock tractor which have a revised 24 valve stock cylinder head on the engine in Europe.

The new Froggy Drakkar was officially unveiled in his full look for the first time at the 2019 French farming exhibition SIMA in Paris, France. For a whole week, the tractor was exposed on the stand of their main sponsor Drakkar. But the new tractor was exposed without the engine under the hood because the new engine wasn't ready at that time.
Usually, the maiden voyage of the new Froggy Drakkar was planned for their home pull in Bernay, France in June 2019. But due to technical problems with the newly built up engine was that not possible and the maiden run was postponed to the BTPA round in Kirkbride, Great Britain. This 2019 season was more or less a test year with the new tractor to get all problems solved for the 2020 season. At the end of the 2019 season, the new ride ran already pretty well without any big problems at the pulls in France and Great Britain, which was very pleased for the team and their new main sponsor.

Usually for the 2020 season was planned to run on more pulls outside of France, like in Füchtorf and Riesa, Germany but that wasn't possible due to the Covid 19 pandemic. In fall 2020, they did with the John Deere limited super stock a couple of test pulls in front of the French sled in Bernay, where they tested a couple of improvements on the machine. Everything worked as planned and the component limited super stock ran very well.
For the future, the CDH Pulling Team has planned to compete with the new Froggy Drakkar in the French Championship and again on pulls outside of France.

For further information, check here: http://cdhpullingteam.e-monsite.com/

or check here: https://www.facebook.com/CDH-Pulling-Team-747874815356313/

Indoor Pulling Zwolle 1992 to 1995

Follow @pullingpics on Twitter

Monday, February 22, 2021

2012 Eurocup Tractor Pulling Herning - Denmark - Part 1 (Superstocks)

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Tractor Pulling Anholt 2021 cancelled

Today, the organization of the tractor pull in Anholt, Germany have announced on their Facebook site that the 2021 edition of the pull is cancelled due to the currently unknown Covid-19 situation and restrictions for this year. Unfortunately, it's for the second year in a row that the pull can not take place in Anholt.

Here is the official statement of the organization of the pull in Anholt:

Dear Pullingfans,

unfortunately, COVID-19 is still a topic for us these days. You will know yourself about the actual situation - so we probably don't have to explain, why there will be no MegaWeekend in 2021 as well.

To us, this is again not an easy decision but for sure the right one. The safety of our spectators is our first priority!

Anyway, we work on another project at the moment. We are not allowed to bring spectators to the pulling track - but maybe bring the pulling track to your local living rooms. We are in good contact with the local officials to work out a concept for an Online-Event.