Hill Top Pullers

Our group of guy's known as "Hill Top Pullers" started off approximately 14 years ago with stock lawn tractors.

We first went to a pull in Rigaud, Quebec that we heard about. There were approximately. 20 stock lawn tractors. The Boys in Rigaud didn't have a pull sled, as we know it today, but used a horse stone boat made of wooden planks, bolted together, approximately 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. This was placed on a wooden floor, which was oiled to cut the resistance to start off the weight. The weights that were used on the stone boat were 12" cement blocks. The winner was the competitor that moved the most blocks the farthest distance.

When I came back from this pull in Rigaud I was excited enough to build a proper weight transfer to actually have some pulls her in Vankleek Hill, ON, which is my home town. We started to build early spring and, 2 months later, after many Sunday evenings, Holidays, and help from friends, we had a good working sled that made the garden tractor pulls more exciting.

Our first pull was put on at the Vankleek Hill fair and we had maybe 30 tractors that ran in several different, "Hp. Categories". The following year we did a stock pull at the Lachute Fair. We heard through rumors that some guys had organized a Lawn tractor and 4-wheeler pull at the Bedford Fair in the province of Quebec. We found out the date, loaded our weight transfer on a trailer and four or five of us headed off to Bedford. When we got there, we got a lot of interest in our weight transfer, because it was a lot better than the small machine that they were using. The pull started with their little machine and then we used ours for the rest of the pull. At this event we saw our first modified garden tractor, which was powered by a Honda V65 Motor cycle engine. When we saw it pull for the first time, we knew we had to build some tractors to compete with this type of machine.

We came away from Bedford with big ideas that winter, the wheels went into motion. My friend bought a Suzuki GS1100cc engine and a IH Cub Cadet tractor to put it in. I found a Kawasaki KZ1300cc in Ottawa that came of a wrecked bike. That winter we built 2 tractors. Roy had his tractor which was a Cub Cadet 70 powered by the GS1100 Suzuki, and my own tractor with the KZ1300 6 cylinders had a homemade frame out of aluminum. The summer saw us putting on another event in Vankleek Hill and we went back to Quebec to pay them a visit with our newly built tractors.

It started to be a lot of fun, and as the years went on Quebec got some more new tractors and some local guys built some more new ones, and things went on from there. More competitors came along; competition got harder and better. We have 3 different entry classes that weight at 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 lbs. Three years ago we built a new sled that is much more sophisticated and makes it less work for the organizer, because there are now "NO" weights that have to be loaded manually. This is now all done with 3 weight boxes and gears. The new sled has electronic measuring systems.

The future of the sport looks Bright!