I agree 100% TJ. By the time I pay fuel, gate fees for my wife and I and the kids, then the concessions, you can't come out ahead period. Around here, most of the crowd shows up to watch the trucks anyways...
I'm not trying to make any money doing this, but it would be nice to cover the expense of getting there or even the gate/entrance fee.
I wish I could do as you stated and just not show up for the pulls that don't pay, but there just aren't that many around.
I'm thinking along of the lines of contacting all the pullers in this corner of the state and trying to form a small pulling organization. Actually have some rules, we could tech the trucks at the pulls, and have a fixed payout at each pull.
Just an example, a local pull would be required to pay $200 first, $150 second, $100 third in order to have the organization pull at that location.
Simple rules... 8000 lbs... 2.6" class or 2.8" class (don't think they could pull two classes with payouts, but could be wrong)...
