The Sled Dogs have arrived.
Despite travelling for 26 hours and 25 minutes from Saskatoon, the Sled Dogs were one of the first to arrive in Peoria, writes Allison Graham, co-captain for the crew.
“We were the second team to arrive, with only the Modesto Junior College team from California arriving before. Throughout today the rest of the teams arrived, with 29 arriving in total. Old friends from competing teams were reunited and rivalries kicked back up again,” she said in her May 30 email.
“There was the usual flurry of activity throughout the night in the hotel parking lot as some teams rushed to get their tractors ready for tomorrow’s technical inspection and those all ready to go cruised the lot getting in some extra testing hours and bragging rights. It will be interesting to see all of the tractors out at the track tomorrow morning.”
Last year, the Sled Dogs placed sixth among 26 teams from universities across North America. A record number of teams are competing for top honours this year.
Each team designed and constructed a fully functional tractor. During the four-day event, they go head to head in four main categories: pulling performance, team presentation, written design report and design judging.
The Sled Dogs’ tractor has a custom steel frame, 31 horsepower big block engine from Briggs and Stratton, custom made fibreglass body panels, transaxle and CVT from a John Deere Gator with electronically controlled linear actuator for the CVT, 66 inch wheel base and a gross vehicle weight of 800 pounds. The custom made LCD display is a key tractor component this year.
Read Also
NFU says proposed plant breeders’ rights come at farmers’ expense
The National Farmers Union is pushing back against changes to the Plant Breeders’ Rights Act that would narrow the scope of farmers’ right to save seed or propagate crops from cuttings and tubers.
During their trip, students have the opportunity to connect with industry. They toured John Deere’s Harvester Works in East Moline.
“The team got to see how JD builds their largest line of S series combines in the largest combine plant in the world,” she wrote.
Despite competing against each other, lasting bonds are made as teams pitch in to help each other overcome technical problems.
“The U of S team reconnected with the Florida team we made friends with at last year’s competition when we helped them fix some electrical issues and they cooked us authentic grits and fish fry in return. We’ll have to see if we can work out another meal trade this year again.”
