Testing Tractors for the Worldin LincolnSure, these guys are tractor geeks, but every farmer in the nation relies on them. By Curt Arens |
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Engines roar at full throttle and the smell of exhaust fumes hangs in the air as rubber meets pavement under a clear blue sky. Among the quiet, tree-lined avenues and quaint brick buildings of the University of Nebraska East Campus in Lincoln, passersby driving the East Campus Loop are treated to the sights and sounds of the oval track.
But you’ll never see this track on ESPN, and NASCAR fans might find it
disappointing. This track of roaring engines is not set up for racing, or even
for cars. Here, the top speed is less than 20 miles per hour… because
this track carries tractors.
Since 1919, when the Nebraska Tractor Test Law took effect, university engineers
have been testing tractor performance for the world. A representative of every
model of tractor rated at 40 horsepower or more sold in our state must be tested
at the Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL).
With more urban dwellers setting up their homesteads in the countryside, tractors
of all shapes and sizes have taken on new responsibilities on the landscape
and in the business world, and smaller-horsepower tractors have taken on renewed
importance.
Today, NTTL is the only officially-designated
agriculture tractor testing lab in the Western Hemisphere, elevated to worldwide
status as a sanctioned testing station for the Paris-based Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development. There are other active testing facilities
in Europe and Asia, but for U.S. farmers and tractor owners, it all comes down
to the concrete track in Lincoln.
The idea for official tractor testing was hatched in 1916 when an Osceola farmer
named Wilmot Crozier bought a lemon. Tractors were new on the farm then, just
beginning to replace real, live, oats-powered horsepower. Manufacturers made
some compelling sales pitches that were more than a little deceiving.
Crozier had hoped his new tractor would replace his mule team, but the machine
gave him so much trouble that he demanded a replacement from the manufacturer.
The replacement was no better. Next year, he bought a different brand of tractor,
but it too let him down miserably. Finally, he bought a three-plow Rumely Oil-Pull.
To his delight, it could pull a plow with five bottoms through his fields.
When he was elected to the Nebraska State Legislature in 1919, Crozier’s
bad experiences led him to co-sponsor the state’s original tractor test
law, which required that no new tractor model could be sold in Nebraska without
a permit. And a permit could only be obtained after one of the tractors had
been tested by the University of Nebraska Agricultural Engineering Department.
The results had to match up to the manufacturer’s published claims. There
were some other tractor trials in Nebraska and other states before this, but
nothing this organized.
In 1920, the first official test was conducted at the world’s first tractor
test station. A Waterloo Boy, a precursor to the modern-day John Deere, was
the first model examined. The lab tested 69 models that year; overall it’s
done more than 1,900 over the years.