Sandy Hope received his John Deere 1948 tractor from his father, who had it in storage for 20 years.
When Hope retired, a member of the Fraser Valley Antique Tractor Pullers Association (FVATP) invited him to sign up and use it for tractor pulling competitions.
"And now I'm hooked," Hope said, who has been tractor pulling for 12 years now.
The famous tractor pull in its traditional format includes multiple weight classes ranging from tiny "garden tractors" up to big farm tractors.
In the tractor pull, a tractor hauls a large sled, with wheels at the back, that has a significant amount of weight on it. The weight doesn鈥檛 stay still, either 鈥� it moves forward during the course of the pull, so it weighs down the portion of the sled that drags on the ground, increasing resistance the longer the tractor lasts.
The competition is an old tradition at the Aldergrove Fair that returned last weekend.
"I enjoy the people [of the club]," Hope commented.
Bob Wright, who has also been part of the association for about 12 years, owns three John Deere tractors which he brought to the tractor pulling competition at the fair 鈥� two from 1954 and one from 1955.
"I [enjoy] taking them out," Wright said.
Hope said there's "nothing that runs like a Deere" tractor.
The origins of the began in early 1980, when a group of Fraser Valley farmers discussed how well their old tractors could pull farm equipment.
As tends to happen with farmers, there was a lot of discussion and not much agreement so they decided created FVATP to settle the disputes.
It was a challenge 鈥� added weight on the sled moves to increase the load on the drawbar with the objective of making it harder and harder to get to the end of the course. In other words, getting stuck before the end.
To rectify this, the club built a large sled with a moving weight for the tractors to pull in nine different classes based on the weight of the tractor. The objective was and still is to get to the end of a course approximately 100 yards long.
Now, over 40 years later, the club is still thriving thanks in part to an initiative started in 2014.
The group become a regular attraction at local exhibitions including the Aldergrove Fair.
