Last weekend I attended the Big Bird Pull in Central Square, NY. It’s named this due to it’s proximity with Thanksgiving. The event is one of a few yearly events put on by Dave Engle of the Radio Controlled Pullers of Central New York. It’s held at his place, also known as “The Hanger” because it resembles an airplane hanger. To find out more info about their operation, visit their Facebook page.

With 55 entries, they had a decent turnout of vehicles for this year’s Big Bird Pull. We saw some new faces, and some old ones as well. It’s great to see new people making it out here and giving r/c tractor pulling a try. It’s not for everyone, but it sure is an atmosphere like no other. There’s no yelling about who hacked who on the track like you sometimes find in racing. The club is communal and will help each other out if someone is having an issue. It’s very laid back. At each of their events, they break for lunch after round one and you definitely get your monies worth for the event in the food alone. Everyone brings a dish to pass and you get a really dialed meal out of the deal. Pulling costs just $5 per entry.

Anyways,  here are some shots from the day.

This is the track. It’s around 30′ and built out of heavy steel framing to make it portable (they take this track to the Grand Nationals pull in Oswego every summer). The red straw seen here is at the Full Pull line.

Below we have some shots of the 2WD Box Stock class. You can pull any 2wd truck as long as it is completely stock, including pinion gear. The Tamiya Midnight Pumpkin and Lunch Box variants are by far the most popular due to their low gearing. They are the most optimized for pulling of most stock vehicles. We’ve also seen Stampedes and Blackfoots in this class as well. This is a great entry level class. You can be Ready-to-Pull for under $200 new.

Oops. Pulling isn’t as easy as it looks. Sometimes depending on your weight distribution a vehicle will hook one direction and cause you to go out of bounds.

A 2wd Modified Truck.

Some 4wd Modifieds.

There are a lot of stock Tamiya Clodbusters in the Dual Motor Box Stock class.

Then of course we have some big gassers that show up. The tube you see is dragged with the sled and pulls the exhaust fumes out of the building.

Obviously these hulks pull a lot more weight than say the Digger class for example.

After Round 1 we stopped for lunch. Full Turkey dinner! What other r/c event has that? Sure, some you can win frozen turkeys, but c’mon.. this is awesome!

During lunch break I decided to break out the new Axial Deadbolt. We just reviewed this truck if you missed it. Well, they’ve been talking about getting a “crawler” type class going here for a while. Having the AR-60 / Wraith axles on it, the AX10 Deadbolt would fit right in here. So we did a little demo with it.

Chris Graff had tried pulling with his Wraith in the past and made a few little basic hitches. He gave me one to try it out. All it is really is a simple plate with a hole on it that bolts to the rear axle with 2 screws.

Rear axle:

Rear axle with hitch installed. This is probably the simplest bolt-on piece in the history of r/c upgrades.

Now we can hook the sled up and go!

All hooked up.

Here’s a short little video of the whole experience:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhhNc_oKU5o[/youtube]

Now below we have some random pics from walking around the pit area.

The Digger! Since fellow puller Kris couldn’t make it this time, I pulled the Digger on my own. This thing is pretty awesome. Find out how to build your own here.

The Tamiya Montero Wheelie is still doing great. Read all about the build here.

So with that, another great Pull is in the books. I want to thank everyone that came to the pull and made it a successful turnout. Great to see some new faces as well. I’m already looking forward to the next one (which is January 18th, 2014 by the way). If anyone has any more questions about Pulling in general, this particular club, or the next event, please head over to their Facebook page and give it a “Like”. They’d be more than happy to help anyone get started.