If you live in a snowy state, you’re probably familiar with the rumble of a tractor rolling across the street at 4 a.m. Here’s Mainesome of us vans there are clever names, like “Sled Zeppelin” and “Grit’er Done”, but the trend of naming tractors has spread nationwide.
When given the opportunity to propose and vote on the name of a government vehicle, the public often takes the opportunity to come up with the most obnoxious thing possible. Miss “Boat McBoatface?” However, some communities have had great success in collecting tractor names. We first told you a few years ago about Interesting Scottish Tradition, going back to 2006, about allowing students to name their plows and sand trucks “gritter”. The kids came up with names like “Spready Mercury,” “Gritney Spears,” “Gritty Gritty Bang Bang,” and “Snowbegone Kenobi.”
Other snow removal agencies quickly embraced the idea, and the Ohio Department of Transportation just announced the eight winners of this year’s contest to name tractors for the Ohio Turnpike:
- Ctrl-Salt-Delete
- blizzard witch
- Plow Chicka Cay Wow
- You’re Killin’ Me Squalls
- Big LePlowski
- Snowstorm of Oz
- Ohio thaw enforcement
- Cleopathtra
Minnesota DOT is another local pioneer in asking for help with names and says it has received more than 24,000 entries in 2020 and more than 11,000 in 2021. “Darth Blader” is one of the names that has risen to the top. in the lead, and in Vermont, there was a plow called “Scoopy Doo.” The Green Mountain State has named 10 of its 50 plows with other names including “Scoop Dogg” and “Betty Whiteout.” The Michiganders took their tractor-trailer contests in a classic rock-inspired direction with the “Jon Bon Snowi” tractor.
While the names are fun and attention-grabbing, they are also meant to raise awareness of the work that tractor drivers have to do in bad weather. Officials hope the contests will help improve safety by making people more aware of plow marks on the road.
If you live in Minnesota and have a creative name in mind, still time to enter this year’s contest. The state will accept submissions through Friday and says it will narrow the list down to 50 names to vote on in January. No political or vulgar names will be considered, so don’t go for easy, low-hanging fruit; come up with something original.
