My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone

[Garauld]

Willy - I looked at a bunch of pricey options and I had a bunch of free hardwood I could use to make wheels. They are all installed and I took Snowzer out for a ride and they appeared to work just fine. What additional support are you suggesting that steel sides would provide? FWIW, each wheel normally supports about 500 lb.

 

[airbiscuit]

Too bad you can't get air bags for your suspension.

 

[KubotainNH]

Would it be possible to do something simpler like a leaf spring centered upside down with the ends pushing down on the pivoting arm? Like the old school front suspension on a Ford Model A.

 

[Garauld]

I wouldn't think there's be enough room for leaf springs under there. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Garauld]

I've been playing around with designing an electro-hydraulic pressure control system for the brake steering. Instead of using a master cylinder for each rotor, I thought a small hydraulic pump could be used to increase the net pressure at the calipers. I set up a small test system (yes, that is a HF 12v drill motor) a while back and was able to see 3600 psi on my 4000# pressure gauge (see first photo). When I checked into the availability of another pump kit, I found they were no longer available. I bought another small pump and will be testing it out soon once I plumb it up (2nd image). The third image shows what a dual pump setup may look like. I envision using a roller chain setup connected to each steering arm to rotate a ball valve to control the pressure. Will it work?

 

[Garauld]

I ran the test hydraulic setup today and got over 3600 psi out of it. The poor little HF drill motor was not happy at all and was very noisy. I may buy a used 12v Dewalt drill and try it instead as I'll bet it has a bit more power and would last longer.

 

[Richard001]

You might want to check to see how much pressure the brake calipers will take. I don't think that they are design for such high pressure.

 

[Garauld]

I don't think that they are design for such high pressure.

You may be right and plan B would be to use lower pressure of say 2000 psi and use the two service calipers for additional steering friction. The service brake would then move to a new rotor and caliper mounted to the input of the front diff. I looked at calipers used on Audis and VWs that incorporate a manual parking brake lever which may be a useful feature. I think I covered this in an earlier post.

 

[MTGreen]

How are your wooden wheels working out?

 

[Garauld]

Due to a lack of snow here, I have only tried them out a little bit so it's too early to tell.