The Greatest Show In Diesel

Scheid Diesel’s 2017 Extravaganza

- Jason Sands

People ask: what’s it like at the Scheid Diesel Extravaganza? Every year, it gets harder and harder to answer that question in a way that encompasses the experience in Terre Haute, Indiana. An estimated 15,000 participants and spectators attend SDX every year, and this year’s competition was fiercer than ever. Scheid’s Extravaganza kicked off on Friday, August 25th, with the Purdue Diesel Club’s Show N’ Shine, a manufacturer’s midway, and dyno competition. Sled pulling got started at 11 a.m., where a number of pullers would try and qualify for the PPL’s big show later that night. On the dyno, the rollers were spinning throughout the entire day, where a number of street trucks surprised us with four-digit power numbers.

Sled Pulls

There are a few big differences that happened with the sled pulling competition in recent years, the main changes being the morphing of the 2.6 and 3.0 turbo classes into 3.0 and 3.6 smooth-bore turbo classes. Open driveline rules (Rockwell and SQHD axles) were also allowed, which kept breakage to just a handful of trucks. While common-rail power plants have done well in the past, updates to 12-valve technology have boosted mechanical trucks back to the top, as all of the winners were mechanically injected. The classes at Scheid are as diverse as they can be in diesel competition. In addition to the 3.0/3.6 trucks, there were Super Farm tractors, Hot Rod Semis, and the top dogs of the diesel truck pulling world--Super Stock diesels. Both nights also saw exhibition runs by the impossibly loud Wagler Performance two-wheel drive Super Modified truck. “That thing ain’t no diesel,” was a common sentiment, but it is--albeit with a big screw blower in place of normal turbochargers.