The Evolution of "SPIDER TRACTOR"

[kentuckydiesel]

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

I'm in Oldham County, which is about 45min northeast of Louisville. It is beautiful for most of the year...but man is it hot and humid from late spring to early fall!

-Phillip

 

[Bob77064]

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.

Allen Couinty here.

 

[Mistyridgefarm]

Nice work! I have a 5300 and would sure like to know how you turned up the power?

 

[jmc]

You guys with fab shops are the envy of about everyone else here. You should start a thread about yours- equipment, type of work, pictures, etc.

How did your tractor end up with a missing front drive shaft when you got it? Did it have anything to do with the mismatched front and rear tires?

 

[kentuckydiesel]

Nice work! I have a 5300 and would sure like to know how you turned up the power?

There were a two different brand pumps that came on these tractors. If you can look at the tag and tell me what brand, I can give you the info to turn it up. Only downside is, on the 5300, you will only get small power increase above stock. Really need a turbo to see the next level (and change pistons/rods out for the ones for the turbo engines if you want to do it right). I plan to do that in the near future.

-Phillip

 

[kentuckydiesel]

You guys with fab shops are the envy of about everyone else here. You should start a thread about yours- equipment, type of work, pictures, etc.

That would be quite an undertaking...it's my family's 120+ year-old business. Over the years we have collected a lot of equipment for our assorted product lines. Some of the highlights would be: Decoil/cut to length line, 30+ presses, 3-4 press brakes, 4 shears, bending rolls, slip rolls, roll formers, full World War II-era tool and die shop, a couple big radial arm drills, weld shop with stick, mig, tig, hand-held plasma, and oxy-acetylene capabilities (mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum), spot welders, metal band saws, etc, etc. Toward the end of June I will be bringing in a CNC turret punch/plasma machine which will punch/cut up to 1/2" thick mild steel.

How did your tractor end up with a missing front drive shaft when you got it? Did it have anything to do with the mismatched front and rear tires?

Tires were barely mismatched...and despite all the talk around here, tires generally wouldn't be enough to mess up a driveshaft unless you had some very special weight/traction circumstances. The driveshaft cover was obviously broken as there were still parts of it attached to the front axle and the MFWD gear box. I'm assuming someone ran over something which bent the front driveshaft so badly that it couldn't be used.

-Phillip

 

[kebo]

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

Obviously, you don't plan on trying to drive that tractor through any narrow gates, or go down any narrow trails!!! :laughing: Great job with it so far, that bucket looks like factory (minus the paint)!! Lot's of ingenuity being used on this tractor, that will certainly make it pretty unique for your personal needs. Good luck with all the other customization on it. I just wish I had my own fab shop to customize mine a bit!!

 

[kentuckydiesel]

Obviously, you don't plan on trying to drive that tractor through any narrow gates, or go down any narrow trails!!! :laughing:

It actually works great. A 10' gate is about the smallest I've ever dealt with, short of one built for people/horses only. I never make trails any smaller either. My truck is a good 8'6" wide and probably 20' long, so that's pretty much the size standard.

-Phillip

 

[alchemysa]

Isn't there a rule against guys who own fab shops posting?

 

[kentuckydiesel]

Isn't there a rule against guys who own fab shops posting?

Guess it's not really a "fab shop"...it's a manufacturing company. We have our own product lines, (rather than making things to order for outside individuals/companies) and our product lines have absolutely nothing to do with tractors.

-Phillip