ben2go
Gold Member
Awesome post.
DIY Home built compact tractor
- Thread starter GT2
- Start date
Awesome post.
Is it ok to ressurrect this awesome thread by Hijacking? I only saw it because some people have recently bumped it & Azza68 asked a question about making a tractor out of a nissan patrol & then bcp has made an awesome post about Jeep "tractors" which i am yet to read all the way thru - so, what the hey, let my first post here may as well be about my Patractorol project (which is project #57 at the moment, so it's a way down the list, seeing as all these projects are often requiring a nutha project to happen 1st 
)
So - I bought this ole patrol for $450, turbo diesel, and more rust than one would be foolish enough to try & fix. This was just after we bought 11 acres of steep rocky hill with scrub & bush. I wanted to build a shed down the bottom & my neighbour said - "nup, too wet when it rains. & there's a flat bit up in that scrub which won't take much work, i'll bring my loader to flatten the scrub so you can see". But i couldn't wait (too keen to knock stuff down), so 10 minutes after my neighbour was offering to bring his loader i took a detour with my patrol bush basher knocking down lantana & grass way taller than it as well as a few trees in the bargain. Man i cleared some land with that thing in the next few months (& built my shed there) - that rig was soo good that the following year I bought anutha for the same price (it was for my birthday & prolly my best birthday present ever!) & is still my favorite daily driver farm rig that tows my grader attachment etc. The first patrol had been parked for a while & had never let me down so I figured I would give it a new lease of life as a tractor - Patractorol.
So at that stage I had the thing stripped down and was trying out seat positions and thinking up steering scenarios (trying to keep as much stock as possible but being able to sit up in the middle. Anutha thing I had was a 10 speed box out of a Nissan Caball which would make the project a winner if i could get low ratio & 4x4 together. More later
)So - I bought this ole patrol for $450, turbo diesel, and more rust than one would be foolish enough to try & fix. This was just after we bought 11 acres of steep rocky hill with scrub & bush. I wanted to build a shed down the bottom & my neighbour said - "nup, too wet when it rains. & there's a flat bit up in that scrub which won't take much work, i'll bring my loader to flatten the scrub so you can see". But i couldn't wait (too keen to knock stuff down), so 10 minutes after my neighbour was offering to bring his loader i took a detour with my patrol bush basher knocking down lantana & grass way taller than it as well as a few trees in the bargain. Man i cleared some land with that thing in the next few months (& built my shed there) - that rig was soo good that the following year I bought anutha for the same price (it was for my birthday & prolly my best birthday present ever!) & is still my favorite daily driver farm rig that tows my grader attachment etc. The first patrol had been parked for a while & had never let me down so I figured I would give it a new lease of life as a tractor - Patractorol.
So at that stage I had the thing stripped down and was trying out seat positions and thinking up steering scenarios (trying to keep as much stock as possible but being able to sit up in the middle. Anutha thing I had was a 10 speed box out of a Nissan Caball which would make the project a winner if i could get low ratio & 4x4 together. More later
Patractorol 2
I went and collected the Caball Gearbox on the back of me suzzi
So i worked out that i hit a bit of a lump in the road with the Caball 10 speed box. The box is fairly identical as the patrol box, but the place on the back of the patrol box where the transfer case goes is the same place as where the hi lo dual range 10 speed part is on the caball box - so I need a divorced transfer off an early cruiser or something. Then i can get the project rolling again & will be on the lookout for wheels (if the nephew leaves his GQ here too long those 35's might get "borrowed")
The next thing will be to find a PTO to hang off the side of the box to make some hydraulic energy to plumb around for a few accesories.
At present my daily driver MQ has to tow this thing around from the towbar for road maintenance duty (at least it can be reversed with the solid bar - it used to be on a chain and you had to plan your turning circles)
This thing i refer to actually has a name - the dragalong
Shown here upside down while it was having teeth fitted which were made from an old sway bar spring steel & also shown with the old bridle
Nuf sed - Hijack over. After all this was never going to be a "compact" tractor - It would rollover on my hill. And it still may, seeing as i plan to put another front diff on the rear to allow 4 wheel steering (should be fun at speed).
Wonder if GT2 is eva gunna come & take his thread back?? Was a good read even if those wheels turned out green (musta been a cheap deal on green paint :laughing
I went and collected the Caball Gearbox on the back of me suzzi
So i worked out that i hit a bit of a lump in the road with the Caball 10 speed box. The box is fairly identical as the patrol box, but the place on the back of the patrol box where the transfer case goes is the same place as where the hi lo dual range 10 speed part is on the caball box - so I need a divorced transfer off an early cruiser or something. Then i can get the project rolling again & will be on the lookout for wheels (if the nephew leaves his GQ here too long those 35's might get "borrowed"
)The next thing will be to find a PTO to hang off the side of the box to make some hydraulic energy to plumb around for a few accesories.
At present my daily driver MQ has to tow this thing around from the towbar for road maintenance duty (at least it can be reversed with the solid bar - it used to be on a chain and you had to plan your turning circles)
This thing i refer to actually has a name - the dragalong
Shown here upside down while it was having teeth fitted which were made from an old sway bar spring steel & also shown with the old bridle
Nuf sed - Hijack over. After all this was never going to be a "compact" tractor - It would rollover on my hill. And it still may, seeing as i plan to put another front diff on the rear to allow 4 wheel steering (should be fun at speed
).Wonder if GT2 is eva gunna come & take his thread back?? Was a good read even if those wheels turned out green (musta been a cheap deal on green paint :laughing
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Renze
Elite Member
You guys down under get the weirdest fleet combinations of Euro, Asian and American vehicles... America gets some Jap trucks which they dont sell in Europe, but no Euro trucks, but down under is the only place on earth where they get vehicles from all 3 continents..
You guys down under get the weirdest fleet combinations of Euro, Asian and American vehicles... America gets some Jap trucks which they dont sell in Europe, but no Euro trucks, but down under is the only place on earth where they get vehicles from all 3 continents..
Yup, we get everything here. Around the time I hit a roadblock with the gearbox I went to look at a Belarus 900 or so tractor (pretty much the same as what bfreaky is using for his backhoe) for $500. Not many (almost no) people were encouraging about this deal but parts price & availability wasn't too bad. Seeing as it didn't go as advertised and air cleaner was full of leaves with a tide line indicative of water too - I offered him $200 which may have been cheeky, but I think it's still sitting there now. Moral of the story... We even get Belarus' down here (but nobody wants them :laughing
Renze
Elite Member
They weigh 4 ton, 3.5 of it is steel. at current summer holiday scrap prices (when factories are down), thats still 560 euro.... Dont know how the Aussie dollar relates to the euro, but 500 is already cheeky
treetopflyer
New member
Last post by GT2 was AUG2011. I'm sure if there was progress he'd post, but here's a bump all the same.
ben2go
Gold Member
I believe he was having some pretty bad health problems.He may not be around any longer.I really hope that is not the case and he is living it up.
Renze
Elite Member
Yes now you say so... he told he had been electrocuted (??) at work, and suffered from skin necrosis on his legs ever since and spontaneous bleedings were a daily thing.. It puts our own everyday struggle into perspective :-/