NTPA Truck and Tractor Pull

It sure was fun to be right on the track Saturday evening at the NTPA Truck and Tractor Pull at the Rice County Fair. It has been many years that my job was to unhook the trucks and tractors from the sled after their pull. The Farm classes of tractors are my favorite even though the hood on the tractor is about the only similarity to the tractors I owned. It was a few years ago that semi classes were added.

The crowds in the stands seem to really enjoy watching the semis pull. They are incredible machines! They are not really sure how much horsepower they have because it is so high the dynamometer cannot measure it. The announcer said the best estimate is between 3,000 and 4,000 horsepower! The diesel engines I have in my truck and tractors top out at about 2100 RPM. The engines in these pulling semis max out between 4,000 and 5,000 RPM.

It is amazing they can inject enough fuel into the combustion chamber to get that much horsepower. It also takes a very big turbo charger to force in enough air to get the fuel to burn and produce power. There are also safety requirements that would contain engine parts if it were to blow up during a pull. That is nice to know because I am only a few feet from the truck!