The results are in. Congratulations to second place finisher Wayne Ratzlaff!
As you can see in the picture the rope is a 5o foot, 350 horsepower rated rope!! Valued around $600.00!!
Thanks again and I wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy 2011!
Call me if you get stuck.
Thank you for the blog, Kate. Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year!
Well’ let’s reinforce the stereo type that farmers are morons…
Yea I was the most popular moron placing my 1/2 million dollar piece of equipment in the mud…
yea…
350 horsepower rated rope?
Damn. I’m taking the 4-cylinder hamster wheel out of my Hyundai and putting that under the hood!
That will work, right?
Congratulations Wayne.
Congrants Wayne and Merry Christmas. That is a badass tow rope and more than sufficient for how bad you were stuck. Then again knowing when to stop digging is half the battle.
@stupid
Lighten up pal. The contest was about showing how tough last falls’ harvest conditions were.
Thank you, Farmers and Ranchers of North America, for all your hard work and dedication in providing for all of us the finest, most plentiful and wholesome food in the history of humanity.
Wow, those are some pretty dire muck-related situations there! Made me lulz. Merry Christmas all!
The saying goes:
“IF YOU ATE TODAY, THANK A FARMER”
Congratulations, thats an expensive tow-rope, don’t get it muddy.
I voted for Murray Treble.
Ah well, as we say, there is always next year!
Now that’s a nice piece of rope. ~:D
Okay, question for you rope fans: How can one rate rope by horsepower?
Tractors are rated by HP. The rope is (roughly) rated by how big a tractor you need to break it. Rating by thousands of pounds for a tow rope is not useful in the field, you never know how many pounds of pull you have because you aren’t -lifting- the load, you’re dragging it out of the mud.
I’m a rope nerd. ~:D
I’ve got it’s little baby brother in my jeep for ice fishing.
I’m jealous, beauty rope.
Congratulations!
Wouldn’t chain or a heavy duty winch cable work as well? Of course, with chain there is the chance of shrapnel if the chain breaks, but are there other advantages to using rope? In the Army, some of our trucks had winch cable, and some did get sunk just as deep in mud or snow.
This contest was cool, but should have been judged by the clowns that did the extracting of the clowns that did the stucking. The winner would not have won, barely stuck in construction terms. Kate, you had far worse stuckees further down the list than the winner. I am sure you were not the judge, because I am sure you have been stuck worse than the winner just recreational gopher hunting in Sask, let alone when you go for the “big” game deers there in Sask.
rmgk, one word: WEIGHT. A 50 ft chain that strong is freakin’ heavy. Also rust, dangerous flying metal, breakage, etc. But mostly weight.
About the best strength to weight deal is a nylon strap, but they get -expensive- in the lengths and strength being talked about here.
rmgk, second after weight is energy. (force x distance)
A good tow rope or strap has a lot more stretch than a cable. That 350hp tractor can hit the end of the rope at 5 mile an hour and keep pulling until whatever is attached to the other end decides to follow.
may ur bolts and rivets not shear.
Merry Christmas to SDA readers
Horsepower-rated rope – so there’s an implicit speed (since power = force x speed)? Any idea what that speed is?
Merry Christmas to rope physicists everywhere…
rmgk
Yeah…the artillery guys get more stuff stuck than any…I can identify with the WW2 Russians having their biggest towed tubes on tracks.
Yeah chains are heavy and dangerous when you find that weakest link….however steel cables nasty habit of whiping is shared by the nylon “snatchem-straps”.
The reason nylon ropes/straps are popular is their shock obsorbing properties which can be lethal….usually the steel fittings on the ends fail first. I saw the results….the portion still attached to the strap…had gone in the back window and out the front taking the steering wheel with it—fortunately the occupant managed to duck.
“Give a man enough rope and he’ll hang….” it on his tractor for towing. Merry Christmas
Proof that the best photo’s don’t always win.
Where’s the obligatory link to the Corb Lund video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCcWzLAcv4o
Steel fittings on nylon, major no-no! Double-plus ungood! Hook always breaks first!
I like knots. Knot breaks, there’s no flying chunk of jagged metal aiming for your head. I spliced up some slings too, slings are nice when the stuck item has no dedicated pulling points.
Us rope nerds like lots of attachment points, more opportunities for crazy rigging. Its not a stuck, its an adventure! ~:D