Tracking Down Tractors: Preserving Pulling’s Past
Tracking Down Tractors: Preserving Pulling’s Past
While promoting events, growing the sport, and ensuring truck and tractor pulling has a bright and impactful future is a large aspect of my mission in association with Beer Money Pulling Team, I believe it is just as important to look backward as it is to look forward. And, I’ll admit it, vintage pulling and the history are a huge personal hobby of mine as well. I’m fortunate enough to be a third generation pulling enthusiast, and am lucky that my father kept track of the photos he has taken over the years. This has led to the creation of our “Pulling Through the Past” series on the Let’s Grow Pulling Podcast.
This weekend Full Pull Live launched their all access vintage series. Naturally this was right up my alley, as I was able to dig into The Lion’s Super Pull of the South from 1998. It’s both fun and important to track the legacy of vehicles and drivers. Some pullers pull the same vehicles for decades with little change- take Jim and Paul Holman’s 4 Play for example. The timeless wonder looking the same it did in 1998 as it does now. Some pullers step away and then come back. Some vehicles fade into obscurity, are sold, parted out, or lost to time. It’s a shame, but understandable. Pulling hasn’t always been as mainstream as it appears to be now, and record keeping systems have only gotten better overtime. It is easy for many vehicles to change hands and slip through the cracks over the years.
It is also quite an adventure to try to retrace those cracks, climbing through the timelines to determine what happened to pulling vehicles, and where (if anywhere) they exist today. I was able to do this with the Watson Brothers’ Mean Green John Deere a few months ago, where I tracked this semi-forgotten machine’s path from LD Nation to the Watson Brothers to Doug Roberts, telling its story and utilizing social media to piece it together.
This brings us to the curious case of the black striped D-21 from eastern Iowa called Orange Machine. This one has been a journey, folks. I met Shaun Reed this summer while working with the Outlaw Truck and Tractor Pulling Association. He pulls a Light Limited Super Stock and would hook up to pull in the Light Super Stock Ag class with us from time to time. It’s a sparky White converted to alcohol with a ton of potential. Evidently, Shaun has a long history in pulling as he messaged me recently with a request. Could the folks at Beer Money Pulling Team help him track down his father’s original pulling tractor? I informed him I had had some success with similar ventures in the past, and was confident we could find out what happened. The search was on over the next week, and the results are (mostly) in. Here is what I have found out.
Gary Reed built a hard running, beautiful narrow front Allis Chalmers D-21 called Orange Machine that pulled in the 7,000 and 9,000 pound class in the early 1970’s. There is video footage of him pulling in 1974 to be specific. Now, let us just take a moment to realize the innovation at play here. A D-21 weighing 7,000 pounds fifty years ago would have been quite the accomplishment. Not long after the ‘74 season the tractor was sold to a man named Roy Becker. This was as far as the trail had been tracked by Shaun.
Naturally I began the hunt for Roy. Regrettably this puller is no longer with us, but his name does pop up over the internet quite a bit. A well known puller from Iowa, Roy seemed to have pulled with Iowa Tractor Pullers and East Central Iowa Tractor Pullers quite a bit. Fortunately, he is survived by a couple of sons. I reached out to one of his boys, and also cast out my net to some of my go-to guys in southeast Iowa who know a lot about pulling. The trail went pretty cold, pretty quickly. Roy’s son, James, was able to get a hold of me, and quickly took up interest as he, too, wanted to know what became of Dad’s tractor. We were now researching for two families, but one tractor tied them together.
I learned that the tractor kept the same name. It was campaigned as Orange Machine under the seat of Roy Becker. However, a curveball enters the story, as according to the sources it appears Roy put the tractor up for sale as early as 1979, but continued to pull a tractor called Orange Machine II well into the late 80’s. The son believes Orange Machine II to be the same tractor as Orange Machine. We also learned that the rolling chassis of Orange Machine was sold to Arlin Jensen at some point along the line, and the rest was parted out to various pulling families in Iowa.
Arlin Jensen. This piqued my interest and seemed to reignite the spark of the trail. I had pictures of both Overdraft and Overdraft II, Arlin’s pulling machines, in my personal vintage photo collection. Upon examining them, I noticed an immediate similarity between Orange Machine and Overdraft II. Both of these tractors were Allis Chalmers D-21 black stripes. The noteable construction edition stripe painted down the exterior of the hood. Case closed. Mystery solved. Orange Machine became Overdraft II. This was my hypothesis. Ah, but nothing is ever that simple. The Becker boys can distinctly remember Orange Machine II sitting in the shed until the early 90’s. It is also believed that Orange Machine II and Overdraft II pulled against each other. We have proof of Overdraft II existing as early as 1981, thanks to some programs and yearbooks. It is also believed that Orange Machine and Orange Machine II are the same tractor, just reworked editions. The conclusion of which would be that despite the black stripe similarity, Orange Machine and Overdraft II are NOT the same tractor.
When did Arlin buy the tractor from the Becker family? Did he own two D-21’s at the same time? Is there a direct lineage between Orange Machine and Overdraft II? Did he keep the Becker rolling chassis or sell it? Well really, there is only one person with the answer to these questions. I needed to call Arlin himself. Now, how does a second year announcer from Northeast Missouri get a hold of a pulling legend from Western, Iowa? The best I can tell, his last hook was in 2017, and it was, very fortunately for me with the Outlaws. I’ll call our headquarters. Do they have his contact information? No, but they know the pulling association that might. A phone call was placed to the Iowa Tractor Pullers Association, and bingo! A phone number was procured.
Does the answer lie with Arlin? Will we track down the remnants of this vintage machine? Does it still exist? What became what? We are hopefully one phone call away from the results.
Part II coming next week.
Green Flags and Tight Chains.
Pulling is fun.
Mike Eitel
Beer Money Pulling Team
Engagement Specialist
660.342.0206
