Bullarto Vintage Tractor Pull, March 2015 - page 2 of 2
2016-01-25 Robin Whittle
rw@firstpr.com.au (Added a linke to a YouTube video on 2016-07-11.)
The Tractor Pull will no-doubt be on again on a Saturday in March 2017:
This is one of several pages concerning Daylesford and places nearby. The index for those pages is here: ../.
This page concentrates on Lanz Bulldog tractors. The first page is: ../06-bullarto-tractor-pull-march-2015
I really enjoyed the 13 March 2016 tractor pull too. I don't have
any photos, and the blue-gray Lanz Bulldog tractor pictured below was
not there. However, there was a similarly handsome Lanz Bulldog
model - a 1950 model P 50HP - and I have a video of it driving a
dynamometer. The sound and the flames coming out of the exhaust
are a special treat:
I had never previously wondered to
myself "How much would a tractor like this cost? Where would we
keep it?? . . . . Where would we get a full semi-trailer low-loader
float to move it around???"
But this is what happened when I encountered these magnificent Lanz Bulldog tractors.
These are single-cylinder
tractors, which run on oil of almost any kind, and apparently will run
on tar if it is heated up enough.
The piston runs horizontally and the cylinder head protrudes from the front.
It is not a diesel. The compression ratio is modest.
There is no spark plug, or even a glow plug.
Instead, there is a bulb of metal as part of the cylinder head, which
must first be heated with a blowtorch (or in recent decades, a gas
torch) and which sets off the explosive combustion of the fuel air
mixture, and remains hot enough from this to do it again in the next
cycle.
Once the bulb is warmed enough,
the engine is hand-cranked from the side (note the enormous flywheel)
with the valve gear open, so enough speed can be gathered. The the
valve gear is engaged, and fuel goes into the compression stroke for
the first time . . . and with luck, it fires and keeps going.
The high air inlet is a feature of these types of tractor. Perhaps it is to reduce the ingress of dust.
Here is a similar tractor, but
this one uses a diesel, not a hot-bulb engine. I think it is a
single-cylinder and it is clearly a kindred spirit of the Lanz Bulldog.
They blow smoke rings 10 metres or more into the air. I was unable to capture this in a photo.
The sound of their engines is very distinctive. Around 6AM one
Sunday morning in late 2015, I heard the sound as I lay
half-asleep. Someone was driving a Lanz Bulldog or similar
tractor through Daylesford: Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot-Poot!
The side panels are for
radiators. I recall that there is a water jacket with convection
circulation, rather than relying on a pump. The screw-on panels
enable control of cooling so the engine temperature doesn't fall to far
in cold conditions.
I understand that the steering wheel with its shaft plugs into a hole in the centre of the right flywheel cover.