Farmall M or Super M for pulling

[PullerM]

Greetings,

I have enjoyed watching tractor pulls for years. I recently purchased a 48 M Farmall. My first pull I placed 2nd out of 3 in the 5500 class. The M that won the pull pulled a good distance past where I stopped. I say at least 50 ft. if not more. The tractor that placed 3rd was behind me by about 6 ft. It got me to wondering how the first place tractor out distanced the other 2 by so much. On my pull, I stopped when my right tire broke traction. My tractor ran well. Any opinions as to what I could do to my tractor without spending a fortune, or should I look around for a Super M?

Thanks,

Puller M

[Eugene]

Cheap stuff:

Maximum tractor weight for your class. Good portion of the added weight on rear wheels. Maybe 100 lbs more of the rear wheel weight on the right rear tire.

Good engine tune up. Throttle set/adjusted so that when the hard part of the pull starts the engine rpms drop back/down to and hold the maximum engine torque.

Getting expensive stuff, engine work/compression.

[MiCarl]

I don't pull but belong to a club that pulls and know a bit of what those guys do:

They weight the tractor to its maximum for the class. Many of the weights can be moved side to side and front to rear to maximize their traction for the conditions. Tires and tire pressure are critical.

The guys that are really serious use a magneto and ditch the battery, generator and starter. That lets them put the weight back where they need it. Of course they crank start them. They also ditch all accessories (pto, belt pulley, lights etc.) for the same reason.

And of course if you have a tire start to slip you apply that brake to transfer torque to the other tire.

They pull every opportunity they get. There is operator skill involved and developing it takes lots of practice.