DRUMHELLER, Alta. – For farmers it’s like watching a battle in Jurassic Park.
The combines are prehistoric beasts fighting it out. They lumber and groan as they smash away at a wheel or radiator in attempts to disable their prey before going in for the final kill.
It’s the annual Combine Crash.
“All your frustrations getting ready for the crash are turned loose on the other guys,” said David Keirle, who drove the winning beast, Smoke & Thunder II, a Massey Ferguson Super 92.
A well placed hit with the front of the combine can create a satisfying sound, said David Lee, Satan’s Crew driver and Drumheller farmer.
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“I love hearing the metal rip,” said Lee, who along with his pit crew spent more than 20 hours with a paint brush transforming the Super 92 into a battleship. The work paid off: His combine won the classiest combine contest.
Despite the determination to smash each other’s combine in the battlefield, behind the scenes the contest is a lesson in rural co-operation.
After the first heat, Jim Fabion’s Prairie Rat combine was towed from the arena. The drive belt of the Massey Ferguson 410 had disintegrated in the melee. The nearest drive belt was in Hanna, about an hour’s drive away, and cost $300.
Head back for more
But with a few modifications, an extra belt Keirle had for his competing combine was made to fit and once again there were three warriors in the battle.
“We help each other out,” said Fabion, who lets friend Tim Laughlin drive his beast. He prefers to watch Laughlin’s face in battle and then try to get the combine working again after each heat.
A week earlier the motor blew on his combine while he was getting it ready for competition. The crew got it running only the day before the Combine Crash, said the Drumheller farmer and mechanic.
Satan’s Crew may have had a fierce paint job, but the machine was knocked out of battle in the first two heats because of a faulty carburetor.
But just before the final grudge match, Keirle loaned Lee an extra carburetor and the two did battle to the end.
For Keirle, the smashing of combines is a summer diversion from his mixed grain and cattle farm.
“This is my summer entertainment.”
Social outing
Keirle said it’s a way to get off the farm and spend time with friends fixing up old combines.
The combine of choice is the Super 92. It’s small, has a reasonable amount of power, individual wheel brakes, a lower centre of gravity to prevent tipping and there are still plenty of parts around for repairs. The combine was popular with farmers in the late 1950s.
When driving around the province, both Keirle and Lee keep an eye peeled for combines in junk yards or near farmyards in the constant search for spare parts. The most sought after parts are headers and front tires, which take the most abuse in each event.
The usual strategy is to knock the side of the competitor’s header back into the front tire with the middle of the header.
“Then you go for a good hit and slowly start ripping them up,” said Keirle.
He once spied three combines parked in a farmyard, but made the mistake of telling the farmer he was going to use them for a combine crash. After that, the farmer wouldn’t part with them because they were among the first combines used in the area.
“There is a sentimental attachment to them,” he said.
Now he just tells farmers he wants their machines for spare parts.
