Februari 2006. A new challenge was introduced
at the last meeting of LowLug
in Oss (21-1-2006) : Lego Tractor Pulling. A Tractor has to
pull a weight that increases while the tractor pulls. The tractor that reaches
the larges distance is the winner. The next picture shows the general idea:
The pressure on the sledge (3) increases when the the mass (10) moves forward during the pull. A number of Lego examples were found on Brickshelf:
An
example of a tractor and puller on Brickshelf
Another
example on Brickshelf
In this Lego tractor pulling contest, the scale was fit for
MiniFigs. Therefore, the size was limited to 8 studs width to 20 studs length.
Power was limited to one Lego motor. Before the event, a discussion
was started on the Lowlug forum to get an agreement on the rules and to find
a practical solution to control the weight. Mahjqa
came up with a clever idea and created an animation to demonstrate his idea:
.
Dryw Filtiarn voluteered to realize this idea for the event and his result is shown in the next picture..
.
So, the increasing weight in a conventional puller in a real life tractor puller event was realized by a swinging weight. The force that is needed to make the arm on the tower swing, increases with the swinging angle. The wormwheel prohibits that the arm swings back when the tractor stops and is disconnected.
My strategy was to make a tractor that was a heavy as possible by using Lego loads from Lego ships and trains.
This strategy appeared to be not the best. My tractor was beaten by a Tractor with the sme wheels and tires and less weight. The difference was in the gearing and the resulting speed. Speed matters!
The next picture shows a line up of all te tractors at the event.
A search with the keyword "Oss" on Brickshelf will result in a number of galleries with pictures of a large number of MOC's.
