Mostly scrap built (but still awesome) land plane

[NS Gearhead]

I noticed that those commercial tongue-pulled graders are hinged, but are made rigid with an adjustable link in operation.

I think I'll take 1/2" out the the "riser" in the tongue and see how it works then. Not much to loose... it'll take me 15min max.

After looking at it again, I think I had it set up perfectly on the garage floor, but my weight on the bike made the rear settle a little causing it to lower, pulling the tongue down, lifting the back. I suppose I could just set my rear shocks to max stiffness and try that first....

 

[Mendonsy]

I suspect you will find it does need to be somewhat adjustable. The tongue will push down more on your ATV as the load increases. You'll probably have to adjust it a bit depending on the soil conditions to get the results you want.

 

[jenkinsph]

I suspect you will find it does need to be somewhat adjustable. The tongue will push down more on your ATV as the load increases. You'll probably have to adjust it a bit depending on the soil conditions to get the results you want.

I agree with Mendonsy.

 

[NS Gearhead]

Hmm, well I could do something. No biggie.

Married the jacks to the casters


Dug out and blew off 1" of grinding dust off my bender. LOL


Made some terrible bends... though getting better with each one. I use shims to keep them from squishing. I had 1" down pat, but 1.5" is all new.


and after lots of measuring, cutting, grinding and welding came up with this




Here is is with a piece of 1" square tubing under the tire


Here it is with the tubing removed


I either have to weld the "socket" into the jack, or somehow tighten up the pin... maybe drill and go to the next size up with tighter clearances.

 

[NS Gearhead]

Hmm, after looking the pictures over I see that I welded the socket on wrong. I made it so the pin goes in side to side and it may have been better up and down.... but then the slop would be front to back instead of side to side.

 

[jenkinsph]

Nice work and a good effort but I think you are working on adjusting the wrong end. What you need is an adjustable link to adjust the tongue height. A heavy duty electric actuator would be good if you can't use a hydraulic cylinder.

 

[NS Gearhead]

Oh I know... this was in the original plan. I'll use a turnbuckle style link to adjust the front.

 

[jwmorris]

Looks like you need a longer round pipe welded to the jack that has a better fit from its ID to the OD of the part you made or you could cut another set of holes at 12 and 6 o'clock and weld some nuts to the tube so you can lock it in with bolts.

Either way doesn't look right to me, generally you want to mount a jack as close to the bottom as you can because it is stronger that way. They mounted it that way so you would have maximum height change from "up" to "down" with little consideration for strength because jacks like that are designed for applications with very little toungue weight.

If it were me I would:

A. Weld it on there, never going to need to swivel it.
B. Add an identical part about 10-12" below so it is supported at the top and bottom.
C. Both of the above
D. Tear up the sheet of paper I wrote the idea on.

Trailer jacks are ok for keeping something held up but are not designed for the side load. Also the part that keeps the center tube from rotating in the outer is not much stronger that what it takes to keep the tube from spinning as you crank on the screw to change height. They are also "sloppy" so you are always going to have toe in or out and likely both as they rattle around.

Your machine doesn't look like it will see "industral" use so you may be fine but would have been a better design if you mounted the wheels on a swing arm and raised and lowered the swing arm with a jack. Think 4 wheeler but put a jack where the shock goes.

Or like Jenkins said mount them solid and make a Clevis out of your toung where the "Z" meets the "V" and add the jack there to raise and lower from that end.

 

[jwmorris]

If you mounted the tires to a section of material like you used for the sides and made it pivot from the front, you would have something much more solid, no need to make so many bends, and only need one jack.

Along the lines of this concept but on a larger scale.

So, if you have the pivot at the front of (guessing) an 8" wide section of material, weld a lever that goes straight up (you could add gussets for strength) come off the front with something similar. Now you can mount the jack horizontal connecting the two. At this point just extend the jack handle and you can adjust it from seated position on your 4 wheeler.

 

[NS Gearhead]

Yeah, I agree that mounting it up high on the jack wasn't a good idea... creates too much neg leverage. I guess I just had it stuck in my head that I wanted to use the factory mount. However, I'm not going to scrap it all and go a different route. I'll make it better. I've got some ideas. Your way doesn't allow for building a crown in the driveway I wanted them independent.

Trying to make something that works and looks good isn't easy, but I like to challenge myself. My buddies make fun of me for being "fancy". LOL