Haven’t heard of a doodlebug before? Join the club. Doodlebugging is the art of building a raw torque pulling machine from the ground on up. Often times taking scrap parts from the bygone classics of hard working tractor trailers, heavy duty trucks and all sorts of things in between – these monsters go in for some extreme punishment alongside some real engineering surprises. Considered a mechanic’s dream, these trucks are often built from the skeletons of the classics.
Caterpillar V8 diesels, Detroit Diesels, Blue Goose, Internationals, tractor engines – all sorts go into making the powertrains of these concrete pulling beasts. And for good cause!Considered a mechanic’s dream, these trucks are often built from the skeletons of the classics.
Caterpillar V8 diesels, Detroit Diesels, Blue Goose, Internationals, tractor engines – all sorts go into making the powertrains of these concrete pulling beasts. And for good cause! The New England Doodlebug Association puts on a yearly bout where mechanics and farmers from across North America come to show off their latest creations.
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Here, we see the classic Detroit Diesel trying to pull what looks to be a 120,000 pound load of concrete blocks. There’s plenty folks out there that will try to show off YouTube
Here, we see the classic Detroit Diesel trying to pull what looks to be a 120,000 pound load of concrete blocks. There’s plenty folks out there that will try to show off YouTube videos of a Dodge Ram pulling a semi tractor trailer down the street. The one thing they don’t realize is – that semi has wheels. But when an equally strong Dodge 2500 with a 6.7 liter Cummins turbo diesel tries to pull a 15,000 pound shipping container – the game changes entirely.
So why are we seeing this massive 8,000 pound doodlebug with a Detroit Diesel engine hopping up in the air? It’s trying to move that 120,000 pound load in under a minute. That’s the challenge of doodlebugging – moving increasingly heavier loads in a very short period of time. It’s also why a Detroit Diesel is perfect for the job. So much so that at the very end it snaps the rear axle like a wet swig in springtime.
Let’s Check Out That Torque
The reason why Detroit Diesels keep being brought back to the top ranks is because their extremely powerful drive train just can’t be rivaled. Here, the driver is probably using a Detroit Diesel 149. It’s in the series of diesels produced in the mid 1960s. How can we tell? Because the later version included a turbocharged, intercooled V8 and 12 configuration that quickly spooled up to deliver 137.5 hp per cylinder. We’re guessing this is the 12V149. In which case, it has an optimal non-turbo kick of 600 hp and 1600 lb-ft of torque. That’s an amazing amount of pull. So much so that the rear axle lifts the rest of the truck up into the air rather than pulling that massive load of concrete forward. At 1600 lb-ft of torque, most commercial drivers would be allowed to take their cargo limit up to 60,000 lbs… That’s with wheels attached to their trailers. This Detroit Diesel was taking on a load nearly twice as heavy and immeasurably harder to move.
When building a doodlebug, though, there’s a lot of time and attention spent on making the chassis as bare bones as possible. It’s literally an ignition switch, a seat, an engine and a transmission if drivers can help it. The rationale is simple: every last horse needs to get driven to the back end if those concrete slabs are going to move an inch.
