The Evolution of "SPIDER TRACTOR"

[kentuckydiesel]

When I bought my tractor last summer, it was a basic '95 John Deere 5200 MFWD with a 540 loader and forks. It was missing it's front driveshaft and it's pto shifter linkage, it looked a bit rough, and it was flat scary on any kind of side-hills due to the tires being set in at the narrowest setting.

 

[kentuckydiesel]

The first thing I needed to get done was to set my two-piece wheels to the widest setting possible and liquid-fill the rears. We're on 30 acres of hilly ground and need to be able to get around all of it. Once I got that done, the rear tires were about 84" outside-to-outside. It was much more stable...stable to the point that we named it "SPIDER TRACTOR". I also replaced the missing front driveshaft and PTO shifter linkage, plus touched up the paint a bit.
I'm used to running 100hp +/- 2wd tractors, so I didn't get too excited about the having the MFWD working, but man does it make this smaller tractor MUCH safer on steep downhill decents.

Around this time, I did some research and found that this engine was offered with up to about 60hp, still naturally aspirated and having all the same parts...just different pump settings. Given this, I went ahead and turned the fuel delivery up...giving me around 60hp.

I don't have any pictures from last summer when I first did this stuff, but here is one from this spring before I started the next set of modifications. (On a side note, I got the 14' wheel-transport disk behind the tractor from a friend who had it in a tree line for 15yrs...he only wanted $40 for it and a manure spreader than needed the drag chain fixed. I took it home, greased it up, and went right to work!)

-Phillip

 

[kentuckydiesel]

We're about 1mile from the Ohio River, which means that our ground can be pretty wet. It was this spring, when our ground was completely saturated with water, that I decided I had had enough of my worn out 13.6-28 rear tires. I had run into a few situations where the tractor just wouldn't go up a hill that I needed to be at the top of, not to mention the fact that that the 13.6s were actually too small to be running with the 9.5-24 fronts according to the JD tire chart.

I did a bunch of looking around for a set of tires (at a decent price) that would have deeper tread and better flotation than my current set. Eventually I got pretty lucky on a set of 18.4-26 R2 (rice and cane) tires and wheels that had come off the back of a JD combine. I drove about an hour, plunked down $600, and drove home with a set of basically new tires...no measurable tread wear at all!

Unfortunately, the new wheels were 1-piece welded, so I couldn't spread them as wide as I wanted to, and lost some stability (temporarily).

-Phillip

 

[kentuckydiesel]

Ever since I bought this tractor, I really wished it had come with a bucket. The forks are useful, but I really needed to get some gravel and dirt moved around. Although I could have bought a bucket, I just couldn't bring myself to do so since I run a fabrication shop. Eventually I found the time, got some 1/4 thick steel that we had sitting outside, cut out the sections I needed, and welded it all up.

I ended up making the cutting edge out of two staggered pieces of 1/4", then ran about 3 beads in the staggered sections to create a smoother angle on the top. In doing this, I allowed the cutting edge to bow upward slightly in order to create some "pre-load" so that once the bucket was broken in a bit, the edge would end up flat (which it is now) I also made the JDQA type pins and brackets to mount to the loader.

 

[creekbend]

Well done.:thumbsup: Nice job in regards to the bucket.

 

[kentuckydiesel]

Now that I had the bucket made, my next order of business was to spread the rear wheels back out, regaining the stability that I had lost with the new wheels. At this point, I was running 1400lbs of weight on the 3pt hitch, in addition to about 700lbs of liquid per rear tire, just to keep the tractor from trying to flip itself over with a full load in the bucket.

I started to make a set of 5" spacers, but never seemed to find the time during the day to get them completed. One evening a thought came to me...I bet the centers from my 28" two-piece wheels might fit into the outer part of the 26" wheels. SUCCESS!!! I slid them in, and welded them up. No big deal! Ended up getting an 8' 2" width with this setup.

-Phillip

 

[kentuckydiesel]

With the larger tires spread so wide in the back, I just couldn't help but think the tractor looked a bit goofy. Hmmm...spreading the fenders might help!
Made up some quick brackets, and spread each fender out 10" (which also gives me a larger operator's station).

So that's how it sits today, and man will this tractor work. I was actually using it to clear cedars (with the loader) from my front hillside and ridgetop over the long weekend. Very stable and has great traction! Was nothing for it to push a large pile of trees down the hill. I also dug a 20'x25' pond/stock-tank below one of our springs yesterday...made quick work of it.

Plans for the near future: 12.4x24 front tires, 3-spool hyd valve for loader+grapple, set up the factory joystick/valve to control top and side link cylinders on 3point hitch, add another 3-spool valve to run 3 pairs of SCVs for use with batwing mowers and such, add Belly pan, and forestry-style FOPS.

-Phillip

 

[schweizer]

Awesome! It does sort of look like a spider, too.

 

[PhysAssist]

Awesome! It does sort of look like a spider, too.

Agree with both!!

Nice work!
[thumbsup/]
T

 

[PhysAssist]

Agree with both!!

Nice work!
[thumbsup/]
T

Where are you in Ky?

I spent a yr in Barbourville back in the 70's...

Beautiful country, I bicycled through Daniel Boone (?) State Park and spent some time in the hallers too...

T