5 Reasons Why Truck Pulling Is Cool

5 Reasons Why Truck Pulling Is Cool

Kev

The more I look around on the internet the more I see custom pulling trucks popping up. I’m excited about this trend and am really excited to build one of my own. Some may ask why I’m so into building a pulling truck and I am here to show you. These are my 5 reasons why pulling is so cool.

 

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1. They Look Awesome
Part of what had drawn me into full-size pullers is the detail in the trucks. They are super clean and are built well enough to be entered into a car show and the same thing goes for the RC version. The people building them not only have clean builds but they do their best to make their trucks look as scale as possible. You can see tricked out 4WD pullers with narrow rear axles or perfect scale replicas of diesel tractors that have working smoke stacks.

 

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2. They Can Pull About 6 Times Their Weight
These trucks sure do look good but they are also pretty impressive when you hook them up to a sled. On average these trucks can pull about 6 times their weight on dirt. If you get them on carpet where the traction is increased, that number goes up considerably. This is all done with the help of various weights that are placed on the chassis, pulling hitch height, front suspension setup and a locked out rear suspension. Of course they are also geared much lower than the RC cars that you can find at the hobby shop. If you ran a truck without weight behind it you would see a top speed of only a few MPH.

 

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3. You Can Build Your Own Custom Rig
As I mentioned before you can’t buy these trucks at your local hobby shop so that means that you’ll have to look into building your own. There’s no need to worry because you have a few options for making this happen. If you have some basic tools such as a drill press and band saw you can make a few custom pieces and you have a truck. Don’t think that is something you can do? Well, then you can get involved in a pulling group such as the NR/CTPA and through the people there you can find a guy who will do it for you. Or you can go in a new direction and use a standard Axial SCX10 chassis and with a few simple tweaks have a pulling truck that you can call your own. When building a custom rig the possibilities are pretty much endless and you can go as extreme or as subtle as you want.

 

IMGP17094. You Aren’t Limited to a Pulling Sled
Sure it’s cool to go out with your new custom rig and hook up to a weight transfer sled and see how much weigh you can pull, how far you can pull it and how fast you can do it. Weight transfer sleds aren’t readily available but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use a simple piece of wood with a bunch of weight on it to see who can get their truck hooked and how quickly you can pull it a certain distance. Some trucks will be able to easily pull the weight while others may struggle to get the tires hooked up. Either way you and your buddies will have a blast trying to one up each other.

 

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5. It’s a Family Sport
The best thing about truck pulling is that it’s a family and friends kind of sport. Pulling doesn’t require a large area to make it happen so it can be done at various types of gatherings and pretty much anyone can do it. You hook your truck up to a sled, work the throttle and keep it between the edges of the track.

Now do you see what I am talking about? I have been gathering pictures and ideas for a pulling truck of my own and I can’t wait to get started. It’s going to be a 4WD puller with custom body work and paint and some trick details that I’ll make using my Zeus 3D printer.

All photos by NR/CTPA

 

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Updated: July 20, 2015 — 3:32 PM
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