The spirit of competition is alive as UW-Madison’s Badger Pulling tractor design team is gearing up for its sixth national competition in East Moline, Illinois. The competition, run by the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, requires each team to design and build a working tractor that is one-fourth the size of an actual tractor. The competition is run as if each team is presenting a proposal to company management. The goal is to get the design approved for commercial manufacturing.

In 1998, the team’s first year of competition, they won the National Championship. The team has placed among the top five every year since. This year’s team is hoping to bring the gold back to UW-Madison by changing things up a bit with new ideas like using a hybrid electric power train.

The 2003 UW-Madison Badger Pulling tractor design team.

“Our biggest goal this year is to get the hybrid electric power train we are using to work effectively and hopefully prove that it can outperform traditional mechanical or hydraulic power train vehicles,” said UW-Madison’s tractor team co-leader Patrick Uhlenhake. Each team is judged in four main categories. They include the written design report, team presentation, individual design judging and performance competition.

In the written design report, the team must provide design details on how the tractor was assembled and a list of parts that comprise the tractor. The report must also include a price estimate that explains how much it costs to build the tractor in a real-world industrial setting.

In the team presentation, the group must present their design process as well as the estimated cost in front of a panel of judges. Each team is given a strict time limit of 15 minutes in which they must convince the judges that their tractor is the best.

The individual design is judged on the design specifications and the tractor itself. Points are awarded in areas such as safety and manufacturability. In years past, the UW-Madison team won numerous awards in this overall category, including specific awards in craftsmanship and safety.

The performance competition is where teams show off how powerful the tractors are. Each team’s tractor is connected to a weighted sled and must perform in numerous events that test the tractor’s power and agility. The UW-Madison team placed second in pulling performance for the past two years.

This year’s team looks to build upon their successful reputation. The tractor design has been completed and construction is underway. Look for the Badger Pulling Team to have another successful run at the Quarter-Scale Tractor Pull Competition.