Long distance tractor drives

Whatsccoking's thread about driving his new 7060 40 miles prompted me to start this thread. I guess that I would like to hear some stories about how far tractors have been driven. My wife and I used to participate in a radio station sponsored tractor drive, usually around Bismarck ND. That drive varied year to year, but about 30 to 40 miles. Had a brother in law that swore there wouldn't be anything left of the tractor after driving it that far. But, in a 10 to 12 hour day of going around a field at 5 to six MPH, a person puts on a lot more miles then that. My son drove my 8550 home from a repair shop that was about 60 miles away, and it was no worse for the wear.
The tractor zoom guy tells of allis chalmers driving there first rubber tired tractor from Minneapolis to Chicago in order to promote the rubber tires. That was prior to the tractor races they had with rubber tired tractors. I have heard several times about the tractor races, but just the other day is when I first heard about the Minneapolis/Chicago thing.
I never participated in this drive, but a guy from Oaks ND put together a tractor drive one time that went from Oaks clear up into Canada, over several days. If anyone is around yet that was in that one, I would like to hear about it.
And finally, well over thirty years ago, when I was just getting my feet wet with allis chalmers, I met a couple Allis legends at a bar/restaurant in Wibaux Montana; Jim Ringsrud and Arlan Bunn. They were telling of driving a WD or Wd45(don't remember which one for sure) from somewhere in Idaho clear to Eastern ND, or western MN. If memory serves me correctly, I think that it was Jim himself that drove it. I think extra tall tires were the only modification to it, to give it a little more speed.
Anyway, if you have tractor drive stories, or can ad to the ones I mentioned, please do. Thanks, Darrel

The winter of 1979 tractorcade to DC would have to be the grandfather of all tractor drives. Here’s an article about it.
https://www.farmprogress.com/commentary/remarkable-farmer-tractorcades-of-the-late-1970s-revisited

AC7060IL wrote: The winter of 1979 tractorcade to DC would have to be the grandfather of all tractor drives. Here’s an article about it. https://www.farmprogress.com/commentary/remarkable-farmer-tractorcades-of-the-late-1970s-revisited

I too started thinking about tractor drives reading that thread. I help my brother with hay production on two farms that are about 30 miles apart, and we finally are getting enough equipment to not have to run things back and forth too much. We did have a couple years we would road tractor/baler combinations a couple times a year though. I think my longest distance was when I was working for a custom hay operator. I stacked big bales with a JD4440 and a Pro-Ag bale scoop and had a drive in the middle of the day one day from north of Coulee City WA to east of Othello WA stacking bales on both ends. Google says it is a distance of 65 miles on the highway, I think my route knocked a few miles off that. It also happened to be my highest bale count day of the season, 350 bales stacked 4 at a time.
The other thought I had was about the distange you drive working ground. When I used to spend a lot of time in the cab doing field work I would do math to help pass the time, and to figure out when I needed to stop for fuel as my 7060 did not have a working fuel gauge. Speed in mph times working width in feet divided by 8.25 equals acres per hour. Rough math tells you that if you are running a piece of equipment with a working width of 16 feet across 160 acres you drove a bit over 80 miles at field speed.
Thank you Darrel for starting this thread.

Ted

My trip today was totally worth it. Drove through 10 inches of water rushing across the road. There was a radar setup outside a little town i drove through showed me doing 21 mph. 2:45 min to do 40 miles, not afraid to do it again. That was with two inspect stops

Edited by whatscooking - 15 Aug 2026 at 5:28pm

whatscooking wrote: My trip today was totally worth it. Drove through 10 inches of water rushing across the road. There was a radar setup outside a little town i drove through showed me doing 21 mph. 2:45 min to do 40 miles, not afraid to do it again. That was with two inspect stops

I was on the Oakes to Canada drive.  300  miles in three days, about 25 tractors from 9 states.  Did 100 miles a day, about 11mph, was my first one but after that we did several more, from 230 miles to 275.  They were all to a GOTO show, the original organizer is no longer with us.  I could tell you more if you want.  We did that one in 2004, one in 2006, and then 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.  My estimate for those is about 2000 miles.  In the same period I did several that were from 40 to 80 mile one day drives.  Was a great time and met new friends we still have today.

My Dad and I also did the 300 mile caravan from Oakes, ND to Portage La Prairie, Manitoba Canada in 2004 on a 1939 WC Hi-Crop. We hauled the tractor from Cedar City, UT. The organizer & lead tractor driver was Jim Roney. Jim drove the same WD45 tractor,  that is the one that previously had been driven from Rigby, ID to Rollag, MN. Labor Day weekend at 92 years old Dad will be leading a 25 mile tractor caravan from Cedar City to Parowan, UT for our county fair. Dad has organized this event for more than 20 years. Our family typically has around a half dozen tractors participate. The day of this event is actually Dad’s birthday!

Actually going on a short ride today with a small group of ORANGE tractors to get some lunch. Finally, a day this week without any rain !!

In 2009 the GOTO caravan drove to Madison SD.

I sat along the hwy and watched them go by.

I don’t remember where they started at though.

I also did the Madison to Albert City Caravan, with Dad & my boy. Dad also did all off the other ones that Jim mentioned.

Will add some, yes, I knew about the last one that Nick did, just getting too old for them.  The 2012 drive was for the GOTO in Montevideo MN, due to the closeness to Hutch we went to a farm near New Prague Mn to start.  That made it a 2 day drive, about 130 miles.  Then in 2013, the GOTO were on the east and west coasts so several decided to complete the run.  We made a trip for Montevideo back to Oakes ND.  Was just a fun ride for some of us that had done all, completed the circle, a 3 day ride, we stopped at several of the participants places for a stop to see where they lived.  From all the drives we have made life long friends.  Thanks

In 2005 a a caravan called the Ride Home originated in Sand Lake Michigan it proceeded to Ludington Michigan then caught the ferry, the S S Badger to Manitowoc Wisconsin.  I live in the Green Bay Wisconsin area and I trailered my 1954 WD45 to Manitowoc.  the group overnighted near Manitowoc.  The next day we left for Milwaukee.  We had a police esscort into Milwaukee and joined up with some of the local Allis people.  We all convened at West Allis, and that night we caravaned through a sliver of the Allis Manufacturing plant.  That night we parked our Tractors and slept in a YMCA.  The next morning we fueled up our tractors and with a Police escort left Milwaukee with a destination of Union Grove Wisconsin where the show was.  It was a great experience.  Perhaps the organizer of that ride will chime in, His first name was Lynn.  He presented each of the participants with a cap that was inscribed with the words The Ride Home, I still Have that hat

Back in the late ‘70’s early ‘80’s we pulled Gehl 920 self unloading wagons about 4-5 miles between farms all day long during haying season. Used a Farmall 400, Farmall Super M vast majority of the time.

On the Oakes, ND to Canada caravan, Carmen Steen hauled his WD45 with a Chevy Suburban. Then he loaded the Suburban on the trailer and pulled it with the tractor for the entire 300 miles. He even slept in the Suburban! Another fellow did something similar, hauling a full-size pickup with a WD45. The second guy even rigged up a brake controller to use the electric brakes on his trailer.

Edited by Kip-Utah - 20 Aug 2026 at 12:54pm