Weather and Stuff!

Yesterday, I had a customer come in and say he needed a bearing for a Ford
9N steering sector. I looked it up in the computer and he said his did not look like the one on the screen. I asked him did he have a 3 speed transmission. This is the easiest way to tell the determine if it is a 9N (Three speed transmission) or a 8N ( Four speed transmission). He said he had a 3 speed but his steering gear was different. Then he said " I have got it in the truck" I said " Lets go look at it!"
It was a steering sector for a Ford 601!!! All 601's have a 4 or 5 speed transmission. Then he remembered it was a 4 speed. Some days it is clear why I have no hair!!
Last night it rained somewhere between 2 and 3 inches in about 45 minutes and this was accompanied by a loud amount of THUNDER and a bright amount of LIGHTENING the whole time it was raining. it was probably the most rain we have had at one time in the last 2 years.
Our pond went from being almost dryed up to overflowing!


Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, Crazy customers and weather!

Tractor Pulling at Forts Pond in Pelion SC 5-22-10

I went to the tractor pull last Saturday and was a little apprehensive over pulling by National rules. Mainly due to having to slow my tractor down to pull Division 3. Over the past few years pulling here in SC and GA I have come to think there might be something to National rules. I have been in Super classes where the only thing that determined where you finished was how much money you spent on your motor. I have competed against $24000.00 engines with my little motor and won some of the pulls. However, mostly had my butt spanked. I had too much tractor to pull stock or at least I did not want to move down to stock and beat up on them. It is not any fun when the pull is not competitive. It is not fair to take a 150 Hp engine and pull against 80 to 120 Hp engines and they really don't have a chance of catching you. When money is the determining factor the time you get a motor built someone else will have a bigger motor in a couple of months and the circle never ends, round and round we go!! I do not want to be on the merry go round........
Forts Pond has a Division 1 class that is stock out of the field, a Division 2 class that is what we have been calling "stock", A Division 3 class that is stock RPM + 20 percent and a 7 mph limit. Division 4 is an open class 3000 RPM limit ,any gear no speed limit. So there is something for everyone and I do like Division 3.
I got 1 first place finish and 2 second place finishes. I was competitive in each class. I have been pulling 6000,6500,7000 lb classes because I could not compete any higher that this with the tractors that pull 7500 lb and above. Some of those tractors were 250 to 400 Hp with 6 cylinder engines and my 4 cylinder 150 HP engine just was not enough! I think now I can rethink the classes I am going to pull next time and maybe pull 7000, 7500,8500lb Div 3. My tractor pulled a lot better at 7000 on Saturday 286.19 feet vs 251.51 ft in 6500lb.
There are a lot of Antique Tractor Pulling clubs here in SC . Some of these clubs formed because they did not like the rules where they were pulling so they started there own club. Nothing wrong with that! However, some of these clubs had a lot of pullers and those pullers have left and now they are down to 5 to 15 tractors per pull where they used to have 30 to 50 per pull. It is mostly because someone has built tractors to win at any cost and there are super tractors pulling in stock classes and running the stock people off. There are a lot of pullers that don not want to spend any money to build Hp. They just want to go have fun and be competitive. But, The guy who has to win has spent the money to win and is probably pulling a div 3 tractor in a div 2 class or a div 4 tractor in a div 3 class. The competition has decided to stay home since there is no chance of them winning.
I hope Forts Pond can build a pull where there will be 80 to 100 tractors there to pull. I think it has the potential to accomplish this goal.
Larry there is a place for orange tractors and John bring that IH of yours I think you will be suprised

Eric Benton, A new place to pull, Come on and bring your tractor!!!

Tractor Pulling in Saluda SC on May 1,10

Saturday was a week ago , Pa and I went to Saluda SC for a tractor pull. It was put on by the Palmetto Tractor Club. The track was the best I have ever seen there. It was a power track!! The rules said that super tractors had to pull in 2nd gear and 2nd gear was a good choice for the track.
All in all it was a good day. Pa slept most of the way home!


Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, I would rather be tractor pulling!!!

UPS Freight Cost

Last Friday, I got the most expensive UPS Next Day Air package I have ever had delivered to me. The freight bill was $518.00. It was an engine kit for a JD 6076 engine. My customer had to have it the next day.

I just got off the phone with a customer in NC that bought a JD 3020 radiator from me in 2004 and he needed a new radiator for a JD 4020. I have one shipping to him today. We do a lot of repeat business and it is nice to look in the computer and see a history of orders and business. It makes doing business easier.

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, We like it when you call back!!

Home work!!

My wife and I spent the weekend putting new underpinning on the front of the house. The old underpinning was over 20 years old and had seen better days. We had to tear out all the old and install a new frame and siding. all I have left to do is build an access door. All the sore muscles are worth it to have it done in 1 weekend. Now I can go tractor pulling and not have to worry about working on the house!

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, House fixer!!

Tractor Pulling April 10 & 11

I went tractor pulling this past weekend. I pulled at the Sunny Plains Antique Tractor Association at St Matthews SC . There were about 60 tractors there on Saturday and 30 on Sunday. The weather was beautiful and the track was loose and had most of us scratching our heads to figure out how to get our tractors to hook and pull. Normally I run 600 lbs on the front weight bracket to hold the front end down. It only took 100 lbs to hold the front end down Saturday and Sunday. So it was definitely a looser track than we had seen at previous pulls. I had made some changes in the carb of Pa's tractor and it increased his HP just a little and we finally figured out he needed to pull heavier classes where his tires could hook up and pull instead of spinning.
Kenny, the track was better on Sunday!!
All in all it was a good weekend!

Eric Benton, Southeast Tractor Parts, Some time off for some R&R

Parts Shipments

One of the orders I had today had 247 parts that I pulled and shipped to one customer. It was a busy day! They were not very big parts but they were a lot of them. The order shipped today by UPS and should be delivered on Monday.

Eric Benton, Shipping lots of parts every day!!