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Novemberfest '96 - the Triumphant Return
11/22 Chris Barton, Chris Baylis, Matt Ciampaglia, Medora Hackler, Craig Lengyel, Liz Mancuso,
Paul Ricard, Graeme Robinson
Tractorfest '95 came to a premature halt when the motor blew up 621 days ago. The attempt to bring Tractorfest back to life in January '96 turned out to be in vain. After replacing the motor, I discovered that the transmission had seized. Over the summer a replacement transmission was donated by Chris Baylis, but was not installed until this month. Today the tractor assembly was completed and Tractorfest made its long awaited triumphant return. The fest began with a few yard laps and a quick spin in the woods. Then the SS Taco Bell was hooked to the tractor which acted as a trailer to seat more passengers. We resumed yard tractoring where the SS Bell proved to be a worthy addition to the tractor. The first attempt at baja canoeing came to a end while attempting to ascend the steep hill. The scooter, which acts as the trailer hinge, was seperated from the rest of the trailer. After getting stuck on some rocks while turning around in the dark, the canoe trailer was reassembled with a sledgehammer and tied together. It was tested briefly in the yard and then in the woods, where the SS Bell was ridden to epic proportions by Medora and Chris Barton. We ascended to the turnaround and began the descent. While crusing along through the moonlit woods in fourth gear, we experienced some technical difficulties. The canoe trailer could not withstand the excessive bouncing inflicted by the combination of the high speed and the rocky trail. The two 2x8s that connected the wheels to the scooter snapped in half, so we had to drag the wreckage back to the barn for repair which concluded the first tractorfest of 1996.
11/23 Chris Barton, Medora Hackler, Jeff Hnatio
Todays fest began with a jaunt in the woods. After ascending the steep hill, we took a left for some baja which included some tree destruction. This was followed by an impressive third gear stone wall crossing. During the tree dodging descent, we hit a big tree due to a slight miscalculation in navigation. The bumper successfully absorbed the impact, but one of the bolts was broken. After restarting, we plowed a trail through some thick brush, checked the mail, and went back to the yard to asses the damage. It appeared that the impact had also squashed a bit of the plywood that the motor sits on. After a breif period of brush removal, we took a break. We returned with an attempt to ascend to the summit of Mount Tractor by way of its steep west side. After getting stuck, running out of gas, and making several switch backs, we experienced technical difficulties. The motor stalled while winding our way to the summit with the carburetor slanted uphill from the gas tank. Three unsuccessful starts led us to the hypothesis that the gas was not able to travel uphill from the tank to the carburetor. This hypothesis was proven correct with a successful start from a less slanted position. We descended to the stone wall crossing while running over dead trees and logs in third. Just past the wall, we encountered some very large rocks which used full travel of the front axle pivot and gave a ride quality like that of a bull. We plowed through some more brush to end the fest.
11/27 Chris Barton, Matt Ciampaglia, Jeff Hnatio, Graeme Robinson, Pat Sweeney
Tractorfest is not complete without the occasional fest that is plagued with technical difficulties. After spending a half hour hooking up the SS Bell in the dark, we experienced a lack of power. The first hypothesis was slipping belts, but they were dry. This was followed by theories of bad compression, cold transmission fluid, and low tire pressure. A half hour of low speed yard tractoring went by before I decided to lower the transmission. It was at this time a nut was discovered missing from the rear transmission mount. The problem yielded an easy solution, but we were cold so we adjourned.
11/29 John Allison, Chris Barton, George Barton, Danielle Bruce, Matt Ciampaglia, Brett Freedman, Keithel, Joe Sparkes, Mike Veazey, Matt Vitale
Today's epic fest began with a bit of yard tractoring. Upon Keithel's arrival, we erected the new tractor "in progress" sign. After more yard tractoring and getting the mail, we got stuck on a pile of wood chips. Once unstuck, I failed to successfully back up the tractor with the SS Bell attached. During a second attempt, Matt C. jumped into the rear seat of the empty SS Bell which lifted the bow seven feet into the air and it rolled over on top of him. The third attempt was the charm and we were off for some more yard tractoring. Keithel was successfully launched from his shotgun position while driving over some fire wood. The tractor ran out of gas and we couldn't find any in the barn, so Chris went and bought some more. While Chris was gone the rest of us entertained ourselves with potato gunning, temporary SS Bell repair, and detaching the canoe trailer for some baja. After gassing up, we made a trip to the woods. We attempted the steep ascent of the trail with nine people on the tractor which was a passenger load of about 1,500 pounds. After recovering from one wheelie, we had some difficulties with the second. The wheelie lifted the front wheels about three feet in the air and the tractor turned to the right. Some people bailed and the front end came down with a pine tree wedged between the seat and foot peg on the passenger side. The shotgun passenger happened to be Matt Ciampaglia, and upon further observation we noticed that the two foot diameter pine was in between his legs and the floor was broken. The tractor was dislodged with the trusty come-along and we were off again, tractoring in the lightly snow covered woods. The baja began the removal of some small pines and George being tossed from shotgun. Some more trail formation followed and suddenly on the other side of the trees there was a small vertical drop. Chris yelled "bail" and proceeded to, while I attempted a shift from third to reverse to stop forward motion. This plan backfired as fourth gear engaged, so the rest of us followed Chris; except Danielle, who rode out the drop which turned out to be only a two foot loss in altitude. The tractor was quickly decelerated by a big tree leaving Danielle a bit shaken up. The tractor was restarted and we ran over some large logs and dead trees. Then Keithel pointed out that a piece of the front axle guide was bent, so we went to the barn for some tractor repair. During this time the cops rolled strongly by. After fixing the guide and raising the transmission for smoother shifting, we made the ascent back into the woods. This was followed by the always impressive stonewall crossing and the newly discovered "ride the bull" section. Mike was not able to ride the bull and was thrown from shotgun. Then we joyfully experienced an extended period of boneshaking baja. It included another fourth gear stonewall crossing where George cracked the dump body with his back, and an impressive in motion launch/remount from Chris while riding shotgun. The sun was setting, so we made one last trip up the hill for some baja and a descent of the trail in fifth gear. During the end of the fest Chris, Matt C., and George outlined a path with logs that descends through the pine tree section and ends at the stonewall crossing. We will have to try it during tomorrow's fest.
11/30 Jeff Hnatio, Matt Polizotto
The lone arrival of the wild Polizotto began today's fest. We ascended the hill and got stuck on a big log. With the aid of the come-along, we were able to continue our journey into territory that has been left unfested since festmas '94. We did some down hill baja, crossed the trail, crossed the stone wall, and rode the bull. Once we found our way back to the trail, we ascended all the way to the turnaround and took a right. As we descended, we drove over a very large log which bounced the front wheels a couple feet into the air. Then we crossed a stone wall that had not been crossed since summerfest '94. We took a right and found ourselves in unfested territory. We explored a little valley set between two small hills which were about 12 feet high. The come-along was needed to get back over the wall and we took off down the trail in fourth gear. During the descent we found ourselves bouncing excessively over the rocks due to the low passenger load of 300 pounds. The ride became quite humorous as we fought to hang on and navigate the tractor at the same time. Eventually we hit a tree and noticed Jeff Hnatio walking up the trail. The tractor needed a break, so we went back to the house and put up the tractor sign. Then we decided to ascend to the top of Mount Tractor, so we went to the turnaround and made a new trail to the summit. After a short break, we tractored the steep descent to the pine trees and traveled down the new path created yesterday by Chris and Matt Landscaping. The path was proven successful by greatly reducing the travel time through the area and providing bumpy fourth and fifth gear excitement. We shot over the stonewall and bottomed out the rear end on the ride the bull section. While checking for damage, we noticed a farm tractor ascending the trail. We attempted to push the tractor to a more stealth location but it got stuck on a log. The come-along was used for a third time and we jetted for home. We knew that we weren't in any danger of being caught by the primitive farm tractor.