If the heart
of the Association is it's members...the muscle must be the
eliminator. Our eliminator was originally built and used by the
mini-tractor pullers from Colby. Later, Todd Rahm got the ATV Pulling Association
started and purchased the Colby eliminator and the old feed scale. They
took it to a shop to have it lengthened 2 feet, making a total of about 12
feet. The club pulled another year on the sled in this condition.
By now the
modified machines were getting more powerful and we con
stantly
needed to throw
more weight on the sled. Towards the end of the
season it was just getting too heavy. Everybody was wondering just how much a
single 3/4 ton axle could carry? After adding a truss under the axle to
keep the tires halfway straight, we were putting about 9 to 10000# on it for a
good blacktop pull. It was getting hard to stop the wheelers, even with no down pull
on the hitch! We needed a bigger eliminator.
In 199?, the club hired Morris Krall to make some modifications to the sled
and build a new scale from some digital stock car pads the club had purchased.
After stripping it down and looking at what needed to be done, it was decided
to go big. He added another 4 feet of length with tandem axles to help
carry the extra weight. A lot of extra metal was also added... just for
dead weight, so the clubs members didn't need to throw so many tractor weights
on. Air bags were added under the front axle to keep the pan a
s light as
possible, so the light classes could get started. The
air bags also kept the pan from ripping up the starting line on dirt
pulls. The dual axles with four brakes offer great stopping potential,
even with over 6 tons of total weight on the sled!
We'll be making continued improvements to the eliminator for
the future. Stay tuned for more news.
New for 2006 Season, the hydraulic powered SLAM BAR. We have a
electric/hydraulic pump that powers a cylinder that is connected to a steel reinforced
rubber pad that is timed to contact the pulling surface at a given point. This
thing really works well. We also have a dirt pan with a grader blade attached
to the same kind of cylinder setup. It contacts the ground at a steep angle to
penetrate the clay and stop the eliminator fast.
Here's a few pictures of the eliminator in action: