{"id":523,"date":"2011-01-24T16:58:39","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T21:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.org\/not-your-fathers-john-deere-"},"modified":"2011-01-24T16:58:39","modified_gmt":"2011-01-24T21:58:39","slug":"not-your-fathers-john-deere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/2011\/01\/not-your-fathers-john-deere.html","title":{"rendered":"Not your father\u2019s John Deere #sww11"},"content":{"rendered":"

 
Nope, this tractor is quarter-scale, stripped down for competition, and optimized to ride a one-inch wheelie down the 200-foot pulling track. In the Midwest United States and increasingly in the South, grownups have leagues where they compete on these things like it was bowling or softball.<\/p>\n

\"Aggiepullers\"<\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s cheaper than drag racing,\u201d laughs Texas A&M University student Tyrell Love, a member of the school\u2019s
<\/a> Texas Aggie Pullers<\/a>, who brought their competition tractor to SolidWorks World 2011<\/a>. The team competes in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE<\/a>) quarter-scale tractor program, an earthier alternative to more celebrated Formula 1-style and hybrid car competitions. <\/p>\n


<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI first joined because it was a fun way to get involved and meet people,\u201d says Derek Kovalcik, now a senior. Soon, he dug into the activity and learned the design, manufacturing, problem-solving, and sourcing aspects that prepare a student for a career. Since the Aggie Pullers dream of getting the tractor into commercial production, there\u2019s even a customer service angle.<\/p>\n


<\/a>
\"Aggie<\/a> The most dramatic part of the ASABE tractor competition is the pull down a 200-foot track. Longest distance wins. Torque and speed are both important. The tractor does 8 or 9 mph now, but the team hopes to improve the speed to 33 mph in the 2011 design. In addition to length of pull, judging figures in the less glamorous aspects of product development, including maneuverability, sound (quieter is better), safety, serviceability, manufacturability and ergonomics.<\/p>\n

Overcoming adversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get a little peek into the world of designers and engineers and why they do what they do,\u201d says Kovalcik. The tractor is modeled entirely in SolidWorks, including the Briggs & Stratton<\/a> engine. \u201cIt\u2019s really
<\/a> user friendly,\u201d he says of the software, \u201cand you can do so much more with it, like the simulation.\u201d<\/p>\n


<\/a> The world of designers and engineers includes unforeseen circumstances not entirely unlike the ones the \"Aggie<\/a> Apollo 13 luminaries<\/a> spoke of in general session. For instance, the tractor frame once broke while in transport after the trailer rumbled over a rough road. It was just more practice overcoming adversity, and something the team wishes they'd simulated before the fact.<\/p>\n

The Aggie Pullers are diverse and involve a wide range of majors, including petroleum engineering. And it\u2019s not all guys. Aggie Puller Elizabeth Marley, a senior, is an example. \u201cI\u2019m used to being the only girl,\u201d she says. And she\u2019s used to doing hard work. She grew up in Roswell, N.M., on a farm producing corn, barley, alfalfa, cotton and sheep. She manages the irrigation system back home, and, yes, drives the tractor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love playing with power tools,\u201d she says. \u201cMy teammates taught me how to weld the other day. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Nope, this tractor is quarter-scale, stripped down for competition, and optimized to ride a one-inch wheelie down the 200-foot pulling track. In the Midwest United States and increasingly in the South, grownups have leagues where they compete on these things<\/p>\n... Continued<\/a>","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":2606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,86],"tags":[19,554,567],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-solidworks-world","tag-solidworks-2","tag-solidworks-world-2011","tag-texas-am"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}