2019 Top Tractor Challenge, Mud Bog and Awards

I always thought mud bogs looked like fun. Its the getting filthy part I dont care for

TheBeal wrote:

I always thought mud bogs looked like fun. Its the getting filthy part I dont care for

Same. That's why I always put mud flaps on my mowers. The ones on my widebodies work superb! If anything got on me it'd have to be from the fronts.

Thrill-seekers love this type of activity.

I didn't realize that I actually came in 6th. Just a couple more horsepower and I'd be in striking distance of a podium finish. Time will tell how things will go for Team Simplicity during the 2020 season...

I had a great time at this event but breaking the pit open was probably my favorite part. Rusty was built specifically for deep mud while still being able to run super technical and steep trails so it was awesome to see all the tweaks and tuning pay off. Thanks again to Redzz02 for putting this on can’t wait for next year

@Creepycrawler You think you'll run your wheel horse again next year or are you planning on entering the modified AMF?

The wheel horse did pretty nice overall, I was impressed with how tight it can turn at slower speeds too. Seems to be a decent combination.

I really want to build a new tractor but most likely I’ll be on the wheel horse again, the Amf is a possibility also depending on how the rebuild comes out, I just don’t know if I wanna put my trust in a 600 peerless for competition use. Kinda one of those see how it goes things but the biggest benefit of running the horse again is just the seat time I have on it, I’ve been riding it for close to a decade and it’s hard to get that comfortable on a new machine on a short time frame. I will say I do feel like I was basically doing all I could do on rusty. It’s a tall tipsy mud tractor, it doesn’t look to bad in the vids but it definitely a huge handful to drive quickly. Some different tires and wheels all around would make a huge difference I think, and will most likely be what happens for next year. Sorry for the ramble

Do you mind the throttle situation being on the dash? I would like to have a throttle that I could operate with my hand but without the governor. Only issue being, with a steering wheel you gotta be able to turn it 360 and then getting to the throttle is an issue. The foot pedal is decent but on really rough ground your foot sometimes gets knocked around a bit more than your hands do. Studebaker's cub has a dash throttle/foot pedal combo I think which is a nice idea to kick it up a bit when you need it without reaching for the dash lever.

I wonder if you might experiment with some ballast weights on the wheel horse to get the center of gravity a bit lower. Maybe just a little would change the whole feel of it a bit. For example, some weight bolted to the front axle or something. Maybe somewhere's in the region of 15-20lbs.

I actually had a foot throttle on it for the TTC, I’ve ran the hand throttle for years thought. I prefer the foot throttle, by a large margin. I find it much easier to stabilize myself on the tractor with two hands on the wheel, it’s hard to stay on the seat when riding aggressively with one hand on the throttle, and I build the the hand throttle specifically to be held onto. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I overbuilt it to the extreme so that you could kind of hang off it as necessary, it’s has big adjustable stops so you can’t over close or over open the throttle if you are hanging on by the handle. It was a huge improvement over a typical hand throttle but I still like the foot better. But my foot throttle is also much heavier built and has a very aggressive foot pedal in order to help keep the foot on the lever. I also have it so that your foot goes flat and touching the belt guard so it’s easy to locate if your foot dies come off there’s no searching for it. Now the place I really like the hand throttle was tricky slippery hill climbs as it was easy to be precise with the gas, which is super important when your front end is basically floating all the way up the climb. I had the bike brake gas pedal like most everyone runs and I absolutely hated it. Foot liked to slide off it to easy and it didn’t like to stay in adjustment

I didn't even see it actually. Thought you still had the dash setup. My plan was to make something a bit heavier than the bicycle handle for my new build also. They're a little bit flimsy.