It is important to keep track of your finances.

It is essential to monitor your financial situation. to shaft that’s gonna drop this down and it’s gonna stop the tractor okay

This is an absolutely preposterous tractor and it’s pulling something—all these people are in these stands to watch what’s called a tractor pull because it’s awesome. The winner is whoever pulls this sled the farthest before getting bogged down in the dirt.

Let’s learn about this incredibly complex physics problem from people you wouldn’t expect. Let’s go get smarter every day. Hey, it’s me, Destin! Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. This is my buddy Chris. I’m going to just stop him and see what’s going on.

So, what are you doing?

Barricades from one tractor to another. Is this where the tractor pull’s gonna be?

No, this is where it used to be. This is the old Tanner tractor pull. Okay, where’s it going to be? Moulton Elephant. So, we’re moving it from Tanner to Moulton essentially?

Yes, you’re literally building a tractor pull from the ground up using all the stuff they used to do, right? Correct.

All right, Chris is off the forklift now.

What’s a tractor pull? Different classes of tractors so they’re built to different specifications. Pull a sled that’s going to be set to the specifications for that class and the sled—like it’s just friction on the dirt right, so like the furthest distance wins?

Yes, I mean it’s their hobby. They do this instead of bass fishing, really?

They’re deer hunting, they’re owning a deer count, really. That’s what they do. They get out here and build a hundred thousand dollar tractor and let it go down the track. And then once you plow up the dirt, you got a whole crew that just, there’s a crew on site that will put it back together between each pool.

So, to learn about the sled part of a tractor pull, I drove three and a half hours to Gibson, Tennessee.

Are you Brian?

Yeah, hey, I’m Destin. Nice to meet you, man. You know where Jim is?

Uh, it runs somewhere easy. All right. He got the tractor sled? Does he have the tractor sled?

He doesn’t. Who does that?

I do. You do that?

He said I could come up and talk to somebody about how it works. Is that you? You the guy that I should talk to you about that?

Yeah, what do you want to know?

I wonder how it works. I came from Alabama. Y’all gonna do a tractor pull down in Moulton on Saturday and I want to come see how it works.

He said I could come video about, see if I can figure it out, figure it out. Yeah, we won’t put it up here because it looks complicated, no?

Yeah, it ain’t complicated, is it? Is it out here? No crosstalk. Oh, okay. Let me know.

You know how when you meet a really smart person and they don’t want you to think that they’re smart? That’s what just happened, and I know that because I’m from the South.

All right, so I’m gonna go over here and see what’s up. He says across the street.

You Jim?

Are you Jim?

Yeah, I’m Destin. I’m the guy that called you from Alabama. How are you doing?

Well, I’m gonna be telling people around here you’re from Alabama. Why is that? What will they do to me?

Well, it may not let you out of town. I like you already, Jim.

Jim, what’s our carry piece today? Is that a 380?

No, maybe a 9 3 380 single stack.

Have you met Brian yet? I just met Brian. Yeah, all right. So, is this it? Yep, that’s awesome.

Are you gonna pull it out, Brian? We met briefly. I’m Destin. I’m still Brian. You still Brian? I’m still Brian. All right. They’re being patient with me.

Yes, this is the sled. People hook up to that side, yes, and they try to pull you? Yes, and you’re in that cab right there? Yeah, and your job is to stop them? Yes, okay.

When you get ready to roll down the track, whatever class you’re going runs, how many weight you run in there, and then this box right here runs up to the front. This box with When I got my license, I pretty much started driving right away. The throttle is on the right, correct? Yes sir. When pushing it forward, do you just slam it and hold it, or are you throttling it to manage your traction and RPMs? You push it to a certain point in RPMs and then let out on the clutch. The key is to try to hold it at a certain amount, but once you get going you can go full throttle. The roll cages are welding works of art. Once you start down the track, the only things you can control are the clutch and throttle. It’s really about the prep work before going down the track. You can adjust tire pressure, hitch height and movable weight. With a big block John Deere, you’re limited to that because it’s so hard to get weight out of them. With a small block, they start out with more movable weight, so they don’t have to worry about that problem as much. Having a big block is a personal preference thing. Ideally, you want the front tires to be about 8 inches off the ground and never move.

When the truck was pulled, it seemed like it was a little soft. It was time for the races and I was the unhooker guy. I had never done it before, but I was given three practice runs. I was nervous, but it was awesome. All the prep work was done on the track and the stands were completely packed.