Here we are, at the end of January already. It seems like just yesterday we (Team Soup) were checking out the local pulling scene for the first time at the 2011 Big Bird Pull. Last time we only went to watch. We liked what we saw, and the group of guys in the club were really great to us, so we decided to give pulling a try.

I picked up a Tamiya Mitsubishi Montero Wheelie (same chassis as the Lunch Box & Midnight Pumpkin) to run in the 2wd Box Stock class. You can find the full build up on that truck HERE. One of the club’s members sent me a hitch to use on the truck. At the last minute we also decided to convert Project Overkill (RJ Speed Digger) to pulling mode for Digger Class. This involved swapping out the hubs used for foam tires, gearing down, swapping motors, and running different tires. We borrowed all these items from the same awesome fellow who sent us the hitch for the Montero.

To make this post easier to follow, I’ll sum up the event first, cover how the Montero did, then the RJ Speed Digger, and then post the rest of our coverage photos and video.

The Hanger Pull is the Radio Controlled Pullers of Central New York‘s first event of the year. It usually draws a bigger crowd, but with the Hanger being in a remote area, and most people driving hours away it was tough to make it out in New York’s lovely winter weather. The roads were pretty bad on our way up as well, but we made sure to leave early. For the record, The Hanger is roughly a 1.5 hour drive for us. Not too bad I guess. It’s been worth the trip both times we went up. I’m unsure of the final entry count for this event, but I think it was roughly half of what the Big Bird Pull was.

Overall it was a very fun time. There was good food, a few laughs, and good pulling action. There weren’t many gas/nitro trucks. We started at 10, stopped for lunch, and the first 2 classes were done by 3:30 (that’s 3 rounds of qualifying and the Pull Offs). The other classes likely finished shortly after. We had to leave before the other classes finished due to another commitment. I can honestly say we are very much looking forward to the next event, which is their Dirt Nationals on April 14-15, 2012.

Go to the next page to continue reading through our coverage.