homemade tracked vehicle.

[thatrandomguy]

Hi al.
im thinking about building a tracked vehicle.
it will be made out of scrap and lawnmower parts.

i am thinking about just using a lawnmower frame,engine,transmission and tires.

the engine is problably going to be a 12 horse or somehing, the transmission like a 5 speed and a C frame(problably from a toro)

for tracks i wil bent some pieces of metal and weld them on chains.
kind of like this:

the only thing that kind of concerns me is the steering.
because the lawnmower transmisson has an open differential im planning on putting brakes on both tracks so i can brake them independently.
but i think the problem i am going to run into is that it wil only power one tracks at the time.

im not sure what speed im going with, problably a 1 to 1 ratio.
im going to afroad with it and climb hills and such so it needs power, but i also want to have a nice topspeed, so im thinking about 10 to 15 mph and then in low gear i will have plenty of power.

it's just going to be a cheap, fun build.

Sander Albers.

[GrayMule]

That sounds really cool. Cant wait to see pics.
Are you talking about single track power while braking?

[gengine]

If you do individual brakes for steering, then you will have to do some sort of individual clutching as well. One axle locked up with the other trying to power you around is gonna have bad results. What about a pair of hydraulic drives?

[GrayMule]

or some centrifugal clutches, since its only 12hp -/plus, even though hydraulics would mean much more power for your 12hp or so

[pat32rf]

If its an open differential, with twin braking steerage, I don't see why he would need twin clutches. He would find that on a hard turn where one side is almost stopped, that the power to the opposite side would be greatly reduced while it was trying to spin at double the previous speed...

[GrayMule]

hmmm..never really thought about the double speed issue...ok, bad idea

[gengine]

Learn something new everyday!

[J_J]

If you do individual brakes for steering, then you will have to do some sort of individual clutching as well. One axle locked up with the other trying to power you around is gonna have bad results. What about a pair of hydraulic drives?

The Struck Magnatrac M-1800 uses a Peerless 4 speed transmission for the rear end, and uses brakes on each track to turn.

The clutch only disengages the engine from the transmission.

[smstonypoint]

Hi al.
im thinking about building a tracked vehicle.
it will be made out of scrap and lawnmower parts.

How hard can it be?

Jeremy Clarkson

[GrayMule]

lol