Dancing tractor busts some sweet moves in a world first
IT’S not every day you see a tractor doing a wheelie, let alone dancing to classic hits of the ’80s.
But a few weeks ago Hatton Vale’s Ritchie Rae accomplished something he set out to do 30 years ago build and operate the world’s first dancing tractor.
The bopping wonder’s name is Tread Astair, or affectionately Tready for short.
“Tready is named after Freddy Astaire - a famous dancer in the ’40s and ’50s,” Mr Rae said.
“I decided to build it back then but life got in the way. I wanted to do it because it hadn’t been done before and I can’t believe 30 years later it still hasn’t been done.”
A dancer himself, Mr Rae will make the tractor dance only to songs from Hooked On Classics from the ’80s played through Tready’s custom-built speakers.
“I also built it because I couldn’t find a dance partner to go to the dances with,” Mr Rae chuckled.
“I’ve recorded music from that album because 30 years ago I thought ‘I can make a tractor dance to that, it’s got a good bouncy beat’ .
“I play a half a dozen of my favourites from that album.”
Mr Rae discovered he could get Tready to dance when he finished building it recently.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. I almost put it on the back twice but it’s got a safety cage so it can’t go far,” he said.
“It was such good feeling when I got it dancing.
“Everyone couldn’t believe it, when they see it do a drag that’s one thing, but then it stops and plays music and starts to dance.”
Before announcing his achievement, Mr Rae made sure he’d done enough research to ensure Tready was in fact the first tractor to
dance in the world.
“One or two can get up in the air and do a wheel stand on a 45-degree angle but I can do a wheel stand from here to Lowood – without stopping,” he said.
“A couple of other tractors can get up a bit of a jump but they can’t make it rotate and dance to music.”
Tready is a 40 horsepower “bitsa” tractor, with a safety fence, modified so it can rotate.
“I put a tank on the back. It
looks like a spray tractor from the farm,” Mr Rae said.
“It’s definitely different to drive.
“It’s quite unstable, you need good balance but I’m a retired helicopter pilot so I understand how to balance it.”