by Doug Harke

        Organized tractor pulling existed as an activity in rural areas since the mid 1960's when it began to be included in country fair venues in the Midwest.  My first sighting of a pulling tractor was at a gas station near Lafayette, IN when I was a graduate student at Purdue University in the late 1960's.  It was a Farmall M with a chrome stack and some obvious modifications including front and rear weight bars and wider tires.  Undoubtedly, the engine was modified and the drivetrain was bolstered to handle this extra power.  By the mid 1970's, extensive modifications were made for more power including supercharging and turbocharging stock blocks and then replacing stock engines with ones from the drag racing circuit or airplanes and helicopters.

Page from the 1976 Ertl catalog showing the three 1/16 scale pulling tractor models.

        Ertl recognized the appeal of tractor pulling and introduced three 1/16 scale toy pulling tractors in 1974.  All three models were based on recently retired Ertl tractor castings and this was a way to recover more investment in the tooling process which occurred more than a decade earlier.  None of the pulling tractors appeared in any OEM catalogs and were available only on the general toy market.  That is why you likely wouldn't find them at your local farm dealer but yet they could be found at the Tractor Supply store or the local hardware store.

            The "Flying Farmall" was the least modified of Ertl's pulling tractors.  It used the 560 body and added a chrome plastic cover to simulate a modified engine including a keg for cooling and a tuned exhaust manifold.  Probably there was a supercharger under the hood.  Farmall 560's were notorious for developing more than stock horsepower with minor modifications because the engine was essentially a detuned truck motor.  Problems with early 560's probably initiated International Harvester's decline into a financial abyss and eventual takeover by Tenneco in 1985.  Specifically, the 560 engine was just too powerful for the drive train which had been developed in the late 1930's and then used, with minor modifications, for the next twenty years.  Farmall 560's under heavy loads, such as plowing, often "shredded" the drive train and this scared potential buyers away.  International Harvester responded with a replacement set of case-hardened components but the publicity damage was done and it was irreversible undoing the IH, Farmall, and McCormick-Deering thirty-year reputation of strong drive trains.  What was a nightmare for stock farm tractors turned into a bonanza for tractor pullers.  They quickly learned that 460's for the lighter classes and 560's for the heavier classes were the way to winning.  Early Flying Farmall toys had a red metallic paint job and either regular 560 front wheels with cream rims or the small but wider gray rim fronts.  Most of the red Flying Farmalls have the 1X4 rear tires with chrome rims but do not be surprised if they also turn up with the wider 5020 style tires.  These two sizes of rear tires seem to be interchangeable on the three Ertl pullers with the narrow version more commonly used in early production and the wider ones more common on later production.  The most popular of the Flying Farmall's is the last version with maroon or purple metallic paint replacing the red metallic paint.  All of the maroon pullers came with the gray front wheels.  Various sponsor stickers were included with the Ertl pullers so that the young drivers could customize their tractors.

Later maroon Flying Farmall with some of the advertising stickers.  Note the large rear tires.

Big Ace puller with the more common plain decals and smaller wheels on both the front and rear.

           Flying Farmall's could qualify as Super Stock tractors with their "souped up" stock block engine but the Allis-Chalmers "Big Ace" was a modified puller with a Chrysler hemi V8 engine replacing the stock straight six.  The Big Ace was based on the discontinued 200 tractor body without fenders.  Chromed plastic inserts, representing the hemi engine, covered the stock six cylinder casting and a chrome air cleaner on the hood indicated a large four-barrel carburetor feeding the hemi.  Unlike the other Ertl pullers, the Big Ace came with the stock Persian Orange II paint job like the farm tractors. Two styles of decals designated the Allis puller. 

"Big Ace" puller with the 200 style hood decals.

          The ultimate Ertl puller was the "Mighty Minnie" with an Allison aircraft engine replacing the stock big block six.  Again, a chrome plastic insert modeled the Allison engine and the paint job was a metallic gold with either a lighter or darker tint.  A G1000 body, without fenders, was used as the basis for the "Mighty Minnie".  Besides the rear tire variations, both the MM and A-C pullers have either the smaller or larger gray front wheels.  Generally, the small front wheels are paired with the 1X4 rears and the larger ones with the 5020 rears but there are exceptions.  Apparently, whatever wheels were available were used at the time of assembly.

Ertl "Mighty Minne" with narrow tires.

         It is interesting to note that early modified pulling tractors replaced the original engine, in a farm tractor, with the a more powerful one from a dragster, airplane or helicopter.  Modern modified pullers use a dragster style frame which now holds up to six high performance V-8's or two aircraft engines.  The most recent Super Stock pullers are component tractors and are no longer "souped up" farm tractors.

Page from the 1976 Ertl catalog showing the FUN-E-ROD collection.

           Ertl also offered two "FUN-E-ROD modified tractors in 1/32 scale.  Both of these toys did not resemble anything real and were purely whimsical.  Besides being sold alone, they came in a set with just a wagon or a wagon and a plow. 

Ertl "Big Ace" new in the box with narrow tires.

        For a long time, these Ertl pullers brought $100 New-in-Box except for the red Farmalls which were much more scarce.  In recent years, prices have been closer to the low $200 range reflecting collectors' greater interest in tractor puling models.  If you choose to repaint one of the pullers, you can match metallic paint at your local auto parts store.  Parts dealers stock the IH style chrome rear rims used in all three models but there are no replacements for the gray front wheels.  Decals are available from Mark Wikner.

Les Sigrist 

The East Coast Partsman

TTT June 2003 Page 6

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