Here are some pictures, everybody loves pictures. The second is one is one I took as joke to send to my buddy, it was his idea for us to put some pullers together for the competition next year.

 

Hard to see goin down the track with that pipe in the way. Hehehe. I'm not into pullin tractors so I can't help. I have a YT16H Ford tractor that looks like yours. It has great traction.

Noel

 

Hydros arnt the best for pulling. They take more power to turn, and i know some clubs do not allow you to move the hydro to slow it down or speed it up, as that would pose an advantage over normal transmissions. you have to push it as far forward as you want and leave it. As for wheelie bars i would say two inches up, wheelies rob traction, so you dont want it to go too far up. as for the 'open dif' dont worry about it, it wont be a problem, if one tire starts spinning lean over to that side and it should stop, you can also turn while wheeling that way, if you cant steer, lean to one side and it will steer the other way. Those old briggs have plenty of power, so my suggestion would be to go into the 751 to 950 class so you can swap weights around to your liking, and with the hydro, you can crawl and have plenty of power to pull in that weight class. A cut turf tire, if you get the right one, will out pull and cut ag tire. BUT an ag tire beats a non cut turf any day of the week, its up to you if you can find the right style and if you feel like spending several hours with a blow torch and a putty knife.

 

Hydros arnt the best for pulling. They take more power to turn, and i know some clubs do not allow you to move the hydro to slow it down or speed it up, as that would pose an advantage over normal transmissions. you have to push it as far forward as you want and leave it.

Can you explain what you mean by moving the hydro, and what it means to push it as far forward as I want? I don't have a working knowledge of this hydrostatic drive system as of yet. I come from a snowmobile, atv, chainsaw background, this is my first dabble into garden tractors with the belt driven system. I have also read that the hydro system leaves some to be desired for pulling, I am going to stick with this tractor though for the first year's event because it is free other than buying the tires it needs and a little fab work on the wheelie bar/hitch which could be swapped to a better tractor later. Also, this year at the pull, there was only one poor guy in the garden tractor class so competition isn't to stiff. You make a good point about going up one weight class, hadn't thought about swapping weights around to tailor to the conditions etc. Thank you

 

If anybody has knowledge about the tire size question that would be helpful, I am just going to run the tire stock/uncut to see how it works in our dirt. I would like to get a tire setup pretty soon as the stock tires are sun cracked an leaking and I would like to only "buy once, cry once".

Also if anyone has any input about the rear hub situation, seems like once you go up in wheel size, the wheels are no longer available in the shaft mount variety. Guessing i'm going to have to buy a 12" steel wheel, then cut it down the center to widen to the width I need, and then weld my shaft style wheel center from my stock 8" wheels into the new 5 lug wheel for fitment? Unless somebody knows something I don't which I am hoping is the case. Maybe there is an adapter hub?

 

From the first line of your rules....

Stock Garden Tractors

That tractor is a lawn tractor not a garden tractor, only suitable for mowing or pulling a small trailer or maybe leave sweeper. To be perfectly honest, you are wasting your time with that tractor, it's not built heavy enough for pulling.

Also as mentioned the hydro is not good for pulling, especially one used on a lawn tractor. you will blow it apart if you hooked it to a sled.

I would be surprised if they would even let you pull it on the track

 

From the first line of your rules....

Stock Garden Tractors

That tractor is a lawn tractor not a garden tractor, only suitable for mowing or pulling a small trailer or maybe leave sweeper. To be perfectly honest, you are wasting your time with that tractor, it's not built heavy enough for pulling.

Also as mentioned the hydro is not good for pulling, especially one used on a lawn tractor. you will blow it apart if you hooked it to a sled.

I would be surprised if they would even let you pull it on the track

Wow, you just whizzed in my cheerios and didn't answer any questions I had. I'm not trying to put together a world champion pulling tractor here. There was only one guy with a Garden Tractor this year at the local pull. A good friend of mine sponsored the event and it was his idea for a bunch of us to get some Riding Mowers and set a low budget on the build so we could just go have a good time and some laughs next year. I have some pretty good questions I asked above I'm hoping to get answers to, if you can offer any insight I would really appreciate it.

 

You could look at Brian Millers Pulling Page. Don

 

Aside from the wheels, I think Rule #8 answers a lot of questions.

Can you explain what you mean by moving the hydro, and what it means to push it as far forward as I want?

A hydro is operated by running the engine at/near full throttle. Then to operate the tractor the hydro lever is pushed from neutral (N)toward forward. The further toward F the stick is moved the faster it will go. The same stick moved towards R will make it go in reverse in the same manner.

 

Wow, you just whizzed in my cheerios and didn't answer any questions I had. I'm not trying to put together a world champion pulling tractor here. There was only one guy with a Garden Tractor this year at the local pull. A good friend of mine sponsored the event and it was his idea for a bunch of us to get some Riding Mowers and set a low budget on the build so we could just go have a good time and some laughs next year. I have some pretty good questions I asked above I'm hoping to get answers to, if you can offer any insight I would really appreciate it.

Sorry if you didn't get the answer(s) you want, not trying to be mean or the likes. I'm not going to tell you how to modified your tractor that is going to be unsafe for what you want to do, "fun" or not, that frame nor transaxle is built for what you plan to do.

 

Sorry if you didn't get the answer(s) you want, not trying to be mean or the likes. I'm not going to tell you how to modified your tractor that is going to be unsafe for what you want to do, "fun" or not, that frame nor transaxle is built for what you plan to do.

Fair enough, I didn't realize there was such a difference between the two categories. I certainly appreciate your input as I hadn't thought of the safety factor prior. Guess I had been thinking if that little dude only weighs X amount, and is only built to go 4-5 MPH, once the weight on the sled came forward I just figured the tractor would spin out, never really taxing the drive train/frame much. Thanks for your input.

 

I have to submit here that no tractor or vehicle built for the general public is deigned to be pushed to the limits. Tractor pulling the same as racing, hill climbing, mud bogging Is inherently an unsafe activity. All of these activities are based on the idea of pushing it till something brakes. The classes are set up to give more people a chance. If you try running a lawn tractor against a garden tractor it will be like a race between a Harley Davidson and a Vespa. Not much entertainment value for any one. Don

 

I guess I'll add this with the caveat that I know next to nothing about pulling:

The drive line and structure on a lawn tractor is designed to move the unit over a typical lawn and won't handle a lot of power or load. Most of that 12.5 HP was intended to go to a mower deck, not the transmission and axle. If you manage to get enough traction to harness the engine HP things are going to start to break.

Theoretically a garden tractor is designed for ground engaging implements and the drive line/frame etc are beefy enough to put all the engine power to the ground. I say theoretically because I don't believe many modern "garden" tractors are truly designed for non mowing work.

 

Obviously your ford isnt going to hold up to the likes of say a cub, but just go out there and have fun. People get too into it and it takes the fun out of it. Slap on a pair of ag tires and let her eat, if stuff breaks, it breaks. If it doesnt, great, hook back up again.

 

If anybody has knowledge about the tire size question that would be helpful, I am just going to run the tire stock/uncut to see how it works in our dirt. I would like to get a tire setup pretty soon as the stock tires are sun cracked an leaking and I would like to only "buy once, cry once".

Also if anyone has any input about the rear hub situation, seems like once you go up in wheel size, the wheels are no longer available in the shaft mount variety. Guessing i'm going to have to buy a 12" steel wheel, then cut it down the center to widen to the width I need, and then weld my shaft style wheel center from my stock 8" wheels into the new 5 lug wheel for fitment? Unless somebody knows something I don't which I am hoping is the case. Maybe there is an adapter hub?

Sorry got side tracked. With the hydro, you have a neutral, where it dosent move. If you push it forward, it goes forward. The farther you push it the faster it goes. More speed takes more power, so clubs dont let you to move the hydro back to go slower, so you dont run out of power. And They make ag tires in your size im sure, but like on my Hb-112 im running a over size tires for that rim size. Itll work to a certain extent, but the tread kinda turns into a half circle, instead of being flat like its supposed to be. You can lower tire pressure also to make the tread more flat.