Built to win: K‑State tractor team claims silver at international competition
Regardless of the type of competition or adversity being faced, preparation is key.
This year’s Helwig Farms Quarter-Scale Tractor Team took that message to heart, leaving Manhattan knowing it had put in the work throughout the academic year to have another successful run at the 28th-annual American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers’ International Quarter-Scale Tractor Student Design Competition.
The confidence in their build lived up to the hype, as the K-State team took second place among the 23 competing teams for the third year in a row, finishing behind North Carolina State University.
“I called this year our ‘lawn chair’ year,” said Ryan Zecha, one of the team’s advisors. “The team rolled a completed tractor out of the trailer at competition and got out the lawn chairs. They put the tractor through a very thorough test program and didn’t experience any breakdowns at competition.”
The event, held May 29 -June 1 at the Expo Gardens Fairgrounds in Peoria, Illinois, challenges teams to design and build a quarter-scale tractor capable of handling three performance events, including a durability course, a maneuverability course and three tractor pulls. The teams also present a written design report and give an oral presentation to judges as part of the competition. K-State’s top scores came in the performance events, taking second place in the durability competition and third place in the pulls.
“We’re on the fourth year and iteration of the current transmission design,” Zecha said. “Consistent, small improvements have turned it into a robust and high-performing element of the tractor. Those same tactics have been applied to the frame, suspension and steering.”
Members of the Helwig Farms Quarter-Scale Tractor Team pose at the competition with the tractor they designed and built. From left: Gentry Duncan, Jeb Carlson, Evett Howe, Taylor Schroeder, Josiah Brezina, Joseph Kueker, Aubrey Paulk and Owen O’Halloran. | Download this photo.
Two years ago, the team had a completely different experience, meeting adversity in this same competition. In the end, they took second but required an on-site, temporary transmission repair, an overnight trip to Chicago for parts and the use of a K-State alumnus’ hobby machine shop to fix the tractor in time for the pulling events at the end.
Incoming club president Gentry Duncan, junior in biological systems engineering, Centertown, Missouri, said the team’s experience over the last two years paid off with this year’s build.
“A few things we do to set ourselves up for success include extensive prototype testing, including dyno testing, bump-track testing, pull tests and this year we were able to utilize strain gauges to measure loading on different frame components,” Duncan said. “In addition to many testing strategies, the team utilizes the experience of older students, faculty and K-State quarter-scale alumni to bounce around ideas.”
One challenge for this year’s team was to integrate a new engine from Kawasaki, which sponsored the event. The engine swap did require an adjustment, as the new engine changed to a vertical output shaft from a horizontal one.
“This is the first year the competition used an engine from a manufacturer that wasn’t Briggs and Stratton,” Zecha said. “The team was fortunate with the change from horizontal to vertical output shafts in that they were able to rotate the transmission 90 degrees and use the design as-is. It did drive a switch from a rear operator station to a front one, but the drivetrain adaptations were easy to overcome this way.”
With the result, the quarter-scale tractor team built on K-State's strong legacy in the competition. Teams from the university have accomplished top-two finishes in 20 of the 28 years the competition has been held.
Competing members of the 2024-2025 Helwig Farms Quarter-Scale Tractor Team include:
Jeb Carlson, senior in mechanical engineering, Joseph Kueker, spring 2025 graduate in biological systems engineering, and Owen O’Halloran, spring 2025 graduate in mechanical engineering, all from Hesston; Taylor Schroeder, spring 2025 graduate in biological systems engineering, Riley.
From out of state: Gentry Duncan, junior in biological systems engineering, Centertown, Missouri; Josiah Brezina, sophomore in mechanical engineering, Bellwood, Nebraska; Evett Howe, junior in agricultural technology management, Seward, Nebraska; Aubrey Paulk, spring 2025 graduate in biological systems engineering, Charlotte, Tennessee.
In addition to Zecha, advisors for the team are Ed Brokesh, assistant professor in the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Eli Sheppard, research technologist for the department, and Dan Flippo, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering.
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