Another Homemade Tractor

frostypaws · Jul 2, 2013

Lately its been showing its age after 4 months of abuse, skidding timber, clearing scrub etc. Steering is almost shot, I would like to convert it to full track but I don't have the resources or time. Ah well, I'm still young :laughing:! Yeah, it won't be in any showrooms anytime soon (talk about a college budget :thumbdown: ).

Pretty crappy video

If there are any questions I'll try to answer them the best I can...

Kernopelli · Jul 2, 2013

OK....very awesome!!! I want to know specifics about track design. drive sproket and if you have it set up with drive/wheel brakes or other method to assist in skid turning?

Good job! I love these home brew track machines!

TomSeller · Jul 3, 2013

Creative. Always impressed with projects like yours.

frostypaws · Jul 3, 2013

Kernopelli said:
OK....very awesome!!! I want to know specifics about track design. drive sproket and if you have it set up with drive/wheel brakes or other method to assist in skid turning?

Good job! I love these home brew track machines!

Thanks!
The track pad/grouser is made out of 3x2x3/16" angle iron that I found at the scrapper bolted to doubled up conveyor belt (which I got for free from a post-office :laughing

with 3/8"x1" carriage bolts from Menards. The guides are made of 3x1.5" rectangular tubing from an old project and to add some more height and to protect the Tempa-Spares, 5/16" round stock was bent and welded in place. The sprockets were made from cutting down old tire rims (I believe it was 15" rim) to the appropriate diameter for the correct pitch. A piece of 4"x1/8" flat bar was welded and bent around it to form a wheel and the sprocket teeth were made by cold forming 2"x3/16" flat stock into a slight radius (this was done by hammering a stamp onto the flat stock while it was in a crude die). The teeth were then welded to their appropriate distances for correct meshing. With regards to the drive axle, there are no brakes on it, it was given to me for free from a friend and didn't come with brakes. This is the main reason why the turning radius of this thing is horrible, its more of a 3/4 track than a half-track!
Hopefully these pictures will help...

cmore · Jul 3, 2013

Neat!

KubotainNH · Jul 3, 2013

That's cool. Would like to see it pulling something.

muddstopper · Jul 3, 2013

Not sure what kind of rearend that is, looks like a dana60 out of a dodge truck To assist in your steering, you might try sourceing the brake drums and backing plates from a junk yard. Get the ebrake cables while you are there. If the rearend is a open differenial, you can use the ebrake cables to brake each wheel individually which should make one side lock and the other side spin. Might be hard on the brake pads, but should work and last for a pretty good while. You could also get a dual mastercylinder, add a couple of foot pedals, one for each side and put hydraulic brakes on it. Wont be power assisted brakes, but pretty simple and not to costly, and it will help with the steering greatly.

davedj1 · Jul 7, 2013

Very neat! I like the track and drive system, simple yet functional.
What motor are you running? Did you build the frame from scratch? What did you use for hubs for the center wheels and is there any suspension?
I want to build a tracked vehicle so I'm quite interested.
thanks,
dave

frostypaws · Jul 8, 2013

davedj1 said:
Very neat! I like the track and drive system, simple yet functional.
What motor are you running? Did you build the frame from scratch? What did you use for hubs for the center wheels and is there any suspension?
I want to build a tracked vehicle so I'm quite interested.
thanks,
dave

Thanks for the comment! The engine is a 1953 Chevy inline 6 216ci that I fixed from the junkyard with two inline transmissions one stock from the engine and another old three speed. Yep the frame is completely made from the ground up using 3x3 box tubing. The hubs and spindles are bolt on units from some homemade farm trailers from the junkyard, they were welded onto the frame. I'm sorry I don't have any more information on these but they are painted green so maybe they came from John Deere implements? There is no suspension on the track unit for simplicity, the front end is allowed to oscillate about 4 inches like a normal tractor to aid in traction over rough ground. I wish you luck on your build, my friends told me I couldn't do it and it would cost me a fortune, 3 months later and $500 later this was the end product. I hope in the future to use a version of this track system to make a "little" hi-drive dozer, maybe after I graduate :laughing:.