Demolition derby with farm combines

Each year the town of Lind, Washington, holds a demolition derby — with combines. I must attend this.

2007 Derby Gallery [Lindwa.com via Go Sleep Go via Oh Gizmo

[#1 posted by dacker , May 13, 2008 9:01 AM]

Yep, they do that out here, west of Portland, Oregon as well. It's amazing, when you consider new combines cost over $100K!

[#2 posted by License Farm , May 13, 2008 9:25 AM]

I can't wait for the year when everything goes Maximum Overdrive and the combines smash through the penny-ante concrete barriers and chicken wire fence. Eat 'um up, yum.

[#3 posted by Paul Coleman , May 13, 2008 9:58 AM]

Oh man! This is all kinds of awesome. It'd be even better if they did it in a stand of wheat.

Still, for my money, tractor square dancing is more fun to watch. Even if it is a lot lamer.

[#4 posted by ROSSINDETROIT , May 13, 2008 10:32 AM]

This is messed up. The economics of farming make it cheaper to buy or lease a new combine than maintain and repair an older machine, hence the glut of surplus working machines. Add that to the long list of stupid outcomes of the economics of farming due to the distortions of public policy.
That said, I could watch videos of tractor pulls all day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUujH1Z87pc&feature=related

[#5 posted by DarthTurducken , May 13, 2008 10:53 AM]

This is lame and epic at the same time. My mind cannot comprehend. I am undone.

[#6 posted by drumiller , May 13, 2008 12:22 PM]

*blink* My cousin was one of the driver/handlers in the last couple years, and got interviewed for the Playboy 50th Anniversary Issue, which pretty much put the derby on the map. He also financed his entry and some of university through a parts bartering program for older combine parts.

IIRC, these combines are destined for scrap anyways, they occasionally cosmetically/mechanically appear functional for farming, but are not.

The sad thing is that older combines are more reusable than recent models because of vendor spec lockin and using IC more than mechanical parts (ala car manufacturing), making repairs and tinkering that much harder.

[#7 posted by Freddie Freelance , May 13, 2008 8:33 PM]

The Kankakee, Il, County Fair has also done this often over the past 10 years; unfortunately this year they're doing Extreme School Bus Figure 8 Tack Racing instead.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , May 14, 2008 9:52 AM]

sorry, this just seems like one of the many peaks of American indulgent waste. Several tons of agricultural equipment that according to above posers you can't get parts for or fix, so it's practical to just junk them? All the howling about how farmers can't make a living, no bloody wonder. This is far more obscene than GTA IV, but I doubt any bunched-panty powermongers will be including a mention of it in their spittle-blowing struts.