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New home for No Fear

Already during the summer of 2021, the single Rolls Royce Griffon V12 powered light modified tractor called ''No Fear Stage 3'' of Benjamin Frahm from Neckarrems in south Germany was sold to a new owner in the Netherlands. Benjamin usually didn't want to sell the tractor, but when a newly formed Dutch pulling team came to him to ask for some RR Griffon parts, he decided to make them an offer for the whole tractor. After some talks with them, the Dutch team decided to purchase the light modified tractor. Benjamin sold everything to them, also the spare RR Griffon engine, all the spare parts, and the MAN semi-truck which he has transported the tractor to the events in Germany.

Benjamin Frahm competed with the tractor from 2017 until 2019 in the German Championship. The light modified tractor was originally built by Frank Bartholome during the winter of 2013/2014 and ran under the name Le Coiffeur Stage 8. Frank won with this machine the German Championship title 3 times in a row from 2014-2016. Frank also achieved with this tractor twice the 3rd place in the light mod class at the European Championships. That was at the 2014 EC in Bouconville, France, and in Brande, Denmark in 2015.
At the end of 2016, Frank Bartholome sold the tractor to Benjamin Frahm. Benjamin's best finish was a 3rd place in the German Championship point standings in 2018. 

In that year he also shared the driver's duties with the old owner of the tractor Frank Bartholome. Frank still helped and supported a lot him on the single Griffon.
After his good 2018 season, he had decided to compete only on a few events in 2019 due to a lot of work in his own company. The decision to sell the tractor was difficult for him, but due to his lot of work in his own company called ''LEWI'', the time was currently not really there to work on the tractor and to drive a full season.
The new owners of the tractor are the newly formed Shackleton Pulling Team from Landgraf in the Netherlands. 

The Team around Bram Ploum actually had purchased the old Red Lady 2 modified chassis in May of 2021. The plan of the team was to put on the old Red Lady 2 chassis a RR Griffon V12 engine. The Griffon power plant was already in the workshop of them but they needed some spare parts to get the engine running. They contacted Frank Bartholome, but he had already all Griffon parts sold in the past. Frank sent the dutch guys further to Benjamin Frahm, where then the deal was later made for the whole tractor. The old Red Lady 2 chassis have the team already further sold to the Silberfuchs Pulling from Germany. 

Bram Ploum and his team are currently working on the tractor to get it ready to run for the 2022 season.
The Shakleton Pulling Team has already announced its plans for next year. The new Team will compete with the alcohol-fired Rolls Royce Griffon light modified tractor in the NTTO National Championship in 2022.
After the sale of the No Fear, Benjamin told me on the phone, he will concentrate more on his company and his family for the next 2-3 years. That means he will take a sabbatical from the pulling sport and he will not stop with the tractor pulling sport completely. He has already some plans to return on the pulling tracks with a new pulling tractor in the future. But for which class is currently not sure. We will see what comes out in the future.

2021 Lucas Oil Super Modified Tractors pulling at 300 Raceway - Farley, ...

New Fendt 930 Vario limited super stock from Germany

Christian Kaisers member of the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck from Sonsbeck in Germany, has built a brand new Fendt 930 Vario pulling tractor for the limited super stock class. The 33 year old German, together with the Trecker Treck team Sonsbeck worked on that new project for around 3 years in his workshop and has finalised now the new machine during the summer of 2021.
Christian Keisers started to interest in tractor pulling during his education as an agricultural machinery mechanic about 12 years ago in 2009. In 2011 Christian joined the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck and he was involved during the building of the 4.5t sport class Massey Ferguson tractor called ''Miss Fergie''.

Shortly before finishing Miss Fergie, the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck decided to build a 3.5t sport class tractor for Christian.
After a lot of talks with the Bad Romance Pulling Team from the Netherlands which have a Fendt 936 Vario for the 3.6t super sport class, the team changed the type of the engine and with Jurrien van Geer of JGGH engine & transmission solutions and Bennie Vreemann of Vampire Gears they have met two great gear specialists from the Netherlands for the sport class project.
The guys built a Fendt 930 Vario tractor with a 6 cylinder turbocharged MAN engine on diesel fuel.
After 2 years of work, the tractor made its first steps at the German Championship round in Stemwede in 2013. That 2013 season was very instructive for the team with the newly built Fendt, which they have learned a lot about the new technic of the machine. After only one season in the 3.5t sport class, Christian and the team switched with the Fendt into the 3.6t super sport class. The reasons for that were, that the class was pretty new in Germany and ran with the same limits as in the other countries. That was with the closeness to the Netherlands pretty interesting for them.
In 2014 the tractor became increasingly reliable and the performance could be increased continuously. This was largely due to the data logging system from Scheepers Motorsport. With this system on the MAN engine, they recorded some pressures, temperatures, but also the exhaust gas values via a lambda probe right from the start.
In 2015, after minor problems at the beginning of the season from Edewecht, the team had a veritable streak of victories. The tractor ran really well and was very reliable. In the end, Christian won the German Championship title in 2015 and finished on a great runner up position at the first EC for the 3.6t super sport/farm stock tractors in Brande, Denmark. After the season the tractor was sold to Finland, where it is still very successful today under the name "House Hurricane".

After Giftzwerg was sold to Finland, Christian Keisers and the team had the goal to build a new Fendt tractor for the 4.5t super sport class, which they started with planning immediately on the computer.
At the championship celebration of the Dutch Proud Eagle Pulling Team in winter 2015, they were then offered a Fendt 515 Favorit from the 4.5t Level 2 sport class from the Netherlands. This was bought and should bridge a bit of the time until the new tractor is ready.  The new Fendt got the name `` Frechdachs '' and was completely rebuilt in the end. In 2016 they drove with it in the hobby sport class. Alongside the Frechdachs, the team also worked hard in the background on the new Giftzwerg.

For the 2017 season, the Frechdachs with its MWM engine was completely rebuilt and the competition continued with the Fendt in the 3.5 and 4.5t level 2 sport classes.
At the end of 2017, the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck put the 4.5t super sport project on hold. Because troubles with the MWM engine in the Frechdachs cost them more time than they have expected. During this time Christian and the team got to know Thomas Küppers of Küppers Motorentechnik from Dinslaken in Germany. With the support of Thomas Küppers and his company, the susceptible MWM engine was completely rebuilt where the team learned a lot more about the technic of the MWM power plant.
That work on the engine then paid out, with a lot of wins and very strong results during the 2018 season, they won the German Championship title in the 3.5t sport class and finished on a strong runner up position in the German Championship point standings of the 4.5t sport class.

In the winter break of 2018/19 Christian and the team have resumed the work on the new Giftzwerg. More and more they dealt with the limited super stock class and the fuel alcohol.
During the 2019 season, the Frechdachs was sold to a new owner from Osnabrück in Germany. But the Christian competed still successfully with the Fendt 515 Favorit in the German Championship until the end of the 2019 season.
After Frechdachs was sold, now it was time for the new project again. But the question was alcohol or diesel / 3.5t limited super stock or 4.5t super sport?

Due to the positive experience with Scheepers Motorsport in the past years, which has been dealing with the ignition and injection of gasoline engines as well as the programming of engine control units for years. The team decided after a few discussions to take the step and build a tractor for the limited super stock class.
Another reason for this was the less interest by the teams in Germany to build a 4.5t super sport tractor in that time. Some years ago 4 german teams were interested to build a 4.5t super sport machine. But that interest dropped to only 2 teams that were still convinced to build one.
Now we come to the technic of the new Fendt 930 Vario pulling tractor.

Basically, the new Giftzwerg was similarly built up to the old Giftzwerg 3.6t super sport. The team uses a MAN D0836 engine which of course had to be changed at almost every point. The engine fits into the hood because it was built in combination at Fendt. But the engine-gearbox combination is a Schlüter.
The new Giftzwerg limited super stock got a homemade steel wedge frame with a machined Fendt stock rearend, a homemade 3 bar steel roll cage, a homemade hydraulic steering, a completely new constructed sprung front axle with independent suspension, newly constructed weight brackets and a newly built homemade hitch and tow hook.
Compared to the old Giftzwerg super sport tractor, the driver's position on the new tractor is significantly narrower and lighter. Maybe the biggest question by the fans and people is, why have the team decided not to build a component tractor, because most of the teams currently building component tractors for the class. 

They made a conscious decision against building a component tractor because it was especially important to Christian that this tractor really existed. From Christian's point of view, component tractors are a bit of a modified pulling tractor with a hood. The guys are fully aware of the fact that they also accept major disadvantages as a result. A stock Fendt transmission is heavier and, above all, is less efficient, compared to a much lighter and smaller custom built transmission in a component tractor. But it will work anyway.
But in order to be able to react quickly, the german team already have a lot in stock to be able to convert the tractor to a component limited super stock.
The new Giftzwerg received a Fendt 930 Vario sheet metal hood and Fendt 930 Vario sheet metal/plastic fenders. The hood and the fenders are from the 3rd Generation of the Fendt 900 Vario series. The 3rd generation of the 900 Series was introduced in 2002 with the biggest tractor in the line, the Fendt 930 Vario TMS. At that time the tractor was available in 4 further versions as 916, 920, 924, and 926 Vario TMS. The abbreviation for TMS is ''Tractor-Management-System. The gearbox in the Fendt is an own developed infinitely variable ''Vario'' gearbox with the code ML 200. 

Fendt introduced the Vario gearbox in 1996 at the first Fendt 900 Vario series. The stock tractor was powered by turbocharged water-cooled MAN D0836 (it is the same engine which they are using for their new limited super stock) with a displacement of 6.8l capacity on diesel fuel. The power range of the engine varied in the 900 series at that time between 198 hp (916 Vario) and 310 hp (930 Vario). The 3rd 900 Vario generation was built between 2002 and 2006 at the Fendt headquarters in Marktoberdorf, Germany. In 2006 the 3rd generation of the 900 Vario was replaced by the completely new 4th generation.

But back to the Giftzwerg. On the original hood, the team had to be done some small changes due to the different position of the exhaust pipe on the pulling machine.  All the sheet metal work around the tractor was done by the team himself, which took a lot of time in progress.
Another great thing about the new ride is the green paint job. The Fendt limited super stock wasn't painted in the original green colors, but with a darker green color, which looks very aggressive on the tractor. Also very nice is the airbrush painted dwarf (translated in german ''Zwerg'') on both side shields of the hood. Maik Püllen of the company ''Starlack'' from Kevelaer in Germany has done the design and the paint job for all the parts on the tractor.

For the optimum grip on the pulling tracks in Germany, Christian has purchased a set of new cut Firestone Puller 2000 HP tires in Denmark. He has purchased the cut tires from JD Motorteknik (John Deere Pulling Team) in Thy. The rims for the tires are homemade and were built by Christian himself. In the past Christian Keisers has built many sets of rims for other pulling teams, especially for sport and super sport teams in Germany in the past. The drivetrain in the tractor received a stock ZF gearbox and a Schlüter clutch bell housing. The complete ZF gearbox was bought from the Dieselross Pulling Team in Belgium. The Belgian team around Gert Stessens competes in the Dutch Grand National Championship with a Fendt 930 Vario in the 3.5t/7700lbs pro stock class. The ZF cast iron gearbox housing is machined and received some stronger custom built gears and shafts. With those better gears and shafts, the gearbox is more reliable compared to the original ZF gears and shafts. The Schlüter (Schlüter was a former tractor manufacturer from Germany) cast iron bell housing was modified too. 

The cast iron bell housing was machined on a milling machine and a new homemade steel liner was fitted into the housing. With the liner in the housing, the tractor can run without a shatter blanket around the clutch bell housing. In the bell housing working a homemade 12.5 inch centrifugal clutch with 4 discs.
The new Giftzwerg is powered by a new rebuilt turbocharged 6 cylinder MAN D0836 alky burner engine with a displacement of 7.6l. The MAN D0836 power plant comes out of a Fendt 930 Vario gen 3 tractor and made around 310 hp. But the engine wasn't only used in the Fendt 900 series tractors in the past. The 6.8l engine also has been built for semi-trucks, busses mobile cranes, construction machinery, and special vehicles. 

The D0836 engine is still being built in a further developed form by MAN Truck & Bus in Munich, Germany. The power ratio of the MAN D0836 varied between 198 and 340 hp at 2100 rpm on diesel fuel. But that is way too less power for the competition in the limited super stock. So the engine for the pulling tractor was modified and converted from diesel to alcohol fuel, which will give the engine much more power.
The power plant in the pulling machine has a machined MAN D0836 cast iron stock block with billet steel crankshaft, billet steel sleeves, billet aluminum rods and pistons, a revised MAN D0836 cylinder head with stronger valve springs, a billet steel camshaft from Oomen Diesel Service in the Netherlands, a homemade intake and exhaust manifold, a billet Holset HX82 turbocharger from Columbus Diesel Supply in the USA, a homemade oil pan and fuel tank and a newly developed EFI system from Scheepers Motorsport in Germany.
The MAN cylinder head was prepared for a better airflow by Marten Wolters from the Netherlands. Currently, in this form, Christian and the team will run the engine and the cylinder heads with water, which makes sense to them in order to be able to complete longer runs on the dyno. Another expansion stage with "dry" heads is in progress and should be installed if everything is going well on the power plant. 

The new billet steel crankshaft for the engine was CNC-machined by the Belgian company ''Nuyts'' from Zandvliet in Belgium. The company did a lot of custom built crankshafts for tractor pulling competitors in whole over Europe in the past. The billet steel crank in the MAN engine is much stronger compared to the original MAN crank. The new billet Toolox rods were cnc-milled by Charles Koebrugge of Koebrugge Metaal Bewerking (KMB) from the Netherlands. Koebrugge Metaal Bewerking also did preparatory work on the blanks for the new aluminum pistons. The blanks for the pistons were produced by the German company Mahle in Stuttgart. For the pistons, they received a lot of support from Thomas Mathmann of the Dschinni Pulling Team from Everswinkel in Germany.
Already on the 1st of January 2021, the engine ran for the first time in the tractor. After that everything was examined and a new to-do list was created. Everything has been completely disassembled, examined, improved and of course, painted.  
The last thing on the to-do list is the EFI system. Now they have to teach the EFI what it has to do. With the EFI system, they can control the whole engine. 

For example, after a run of the engine, they can read out with a laptop or a tablet all the temperatures of each cylinder or the boost pressure. Also, they can adjust at each cylinder the amount of fuel. Getting a cylinder too hot in the engine during a run, the system switches ignition and the fuel of the cylinder off and saves the cylinder from expensive damages.  

Scheepers Motorsport has not only built for the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck those EFI systems in the past. Also, the new limited modified tractor of Sascha Mecking with 2 turbocharged V8 engines received an EFI system from Scheepers Motorsport.
For the future Christian Keisers and the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck have planned to compete with the new limited super stock in German Championship and also on some pulls outside of Germany in the future. 

Also Christian hopes he can beat with his new Fendt all the IH and John Deere pulling tractors in this class in the coming years.
The maiden run was usually planned for the 5th of September 2021 at their own organized pull in Sonsbeck, Germany. But due to a bunch of technical problems with the newly built MAN engine was not that possible. Christian Keisers did some test runs on the hub dyno at Scheepers Motorsport before the home event. First the head gasket broke twice and then they had troubles with the main bearings of the power plant. But those two troubles were pretty soon found out. The problem with the main bearings was, the bore hole of the oil channel to the main bearing was too small. And the head gasket went broke due to the groove was too deep into the sleeve machined. Christian Kaisers currently working on it to solve those problems for the next test run on the dyno. The first passes of the new Giftzwerg in front of the sled are planned for 2022.  

Christian Kaisers and the Trecker Treck Team Sonsbeck would also like to give a big thanks to Gert Stessens of the Dieselross Pulling Team, Thomas Mathmann of the Dschinni Pulling Team, Mark Püllen of the company Starlack, Scheepers Motorsport, and all other companies for the support!

For further information, check here: http://www.trecker-treck-team-sonsbeck.de/

or, check here: https://www.facebook.com/Trecker-Treck-Team-Sonsbeck-1578064832420925/?ref=page_internal

 

2021 Grand National Champion Modified

R.I.P Claus Radtke

On Monday, shortly after Christmas, we were hit by a sad news in our pullingworld Facebook group. On the 27th of December, we were informed by the death of the former German super stock competitor Claus Radtke from Tostedt. Claus passed away on the 26th of December 2021 at the age of 76. Claus competed in the 80s and in the 90s with a Ford super stock tractor in the German Championship. The Ford super stock machine was called ''Blue Chicken''. He was known as a fair competitor and also helped other pulling teams when they had troubles with the technic of their pulling tractors. Another point which was Claus known, he built all his parts for his Blue Chicken by himself. But he also built parts or engines for other teams in the past. Claus had rebuilt the turbocharged Rolls Royce V12 Merlin engine for the German modified pulling tractor called ''Gold Digger'' or built the turbochargers for the mod tractor called ''Osterdoc''. That was only two of his many projects at that time.

The development of his own diesel fuel injection pump for his super stock tractor Blue Chicken was another exciting project by Claus. He, together with the Stratmann brothers (owners of the super stock tractor Little Red Rooster) developed this own fuel pump. Claus also received the nickname ''Diesel Papst'' in the German pulling sport.

What few people know, Claus Radtke already tuned diesel engines to the point of vomiting before tractor pulling. That was his daily job. He developed and built diesel engines for boats. At the time he developed and built the most powerful diesel engines for the marine sector. For example, he had equipped Sheikh Fahad Al Thani's yacht with engines in the late 70s / early 80s.  

Then he also equipped yachts and racing boats for Tullio Abbate. But back to his hobby tractor pulling.

After the engine blew up at Blue Chicken in Anholt, Germany 1998, he disappeared from the super stock class and the German pulling sport as an active competitor.  

But he wasn't completely away from the pulling sport, Claus was always to find as a spectator on the pulling events in the north of Germany, like in Haßmoor. At the beginning of the new century, he started to rebuild his Blue Chicken, but not as a super stock again.

He wanted to return with the Ford tractor as pro stock on the German pulling tracks. 

He spent many hours in the workshop on the pro stock project and he was almost ready with the tractor, but due to his high age, he decided to selling the tractor to the ABC Pulling Team from Cloppenburg in Germany. 

After the sale, he still supported the ABC Pulling Team with the rest of the work on the tractor. 

The Ford tractor finally returned to the pulling track as Wild Turkey in 2012.
The pulling sport in Germany has lost a great man with a lot of passion for the sport. For sure he will be missed by the German teams and the people in the sport.

We wish his whole family a lot of strength to cope with this loss.

 

2021 Grand National Champion Mini

Secret of the Valley sold!

The 4.5t/9920lbs John Deere farm stock/super sport tractor called ''Secret of the Valley'' of Jurrien van de Geer, Geert de Heus and Maarten Imminkhuizen from Overberg in the Netherlands has a new home now.

After a very successful short Dutch Championship season with the John Deere 7710, the guys finally won in their last season with the tractor against the much stronger component super sport tractors surprisingly the 2021 Dutch Championship title. 

Already at the end of September, the team announced on their Facebook fan page that the tractor was sold to a new owner in the Netherlands, but not to who.

But 2 weeks after the Indoor Pull in Assen, the Netherlands, the Secret of the Valley was brought to his new owner in the Netherlands. The 7710 John Deere was sold to Rene Kokx from Gilze in the Netherlands. The new name of the super sport machine will be Sound of Dynamite and the new owner has the tractor currently registered for the 4.5t super sport promoniveau in the Dutch Championship in 2022.

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

 

2021 Grand National Champion Pro Stock

2022 NFMS Pull competitors are known!

check here: https://champpull.org/pullers/ 

2021 Grand National Champion Light Unlimited

A Merry Christmas!

The whole pullingworld.com Team wishes all readers, sponsors, and Pulling Teams a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! 

We would like to give a big thanks to all the pulling teams, drivers, and our sponsors for their support during the 2021 season. Without the information, pictures, and the help of the teams from all around the world, it wouldn't be possible to make a website on this level!
We hope the great cooperation with the teams, drivers, and our sponsors will continue in 2022!