Farmall M Full Track Conversion

[redneckdan]

Anyone ever seen a Farmall M done up with full tracks? I've seen the half track conversions before. Wondering someone has done a full.

I have a 1951 M in reasonable shape. I was greasing yesterday and discovered the left front wheel pivot tube is close to failure. Grease was squirting out cracks. The pivot tube had snapped before and been 'repaired'. The circumferential weld had given way along the lower side of the HAZ and the gussets that were installed are failing.

My use for this tractor is brush hogging 2-3x a year and firewood skidding in the winter. My property is mostly tamarack swamp, stays pretty wet half of the year. The ground is fairly uneven though no hills. My concern is if I rebuild the front am I just going to snap it off again when I hit a hummock?

I am thinking I could pull the front end and make a front axle beam that would fit into the mounts for the factory axle. I would run torque tubes back to the rear axle castings. Tracks would be recycled rubber conveyor belting and C5 channel cut and welded into grouser shapes similar to the commercial half tracks that were offered.

 

[300UGUY]

Anyone ever seen a Farmall M done up with full tracks? I've seen the half track conversions before. Wondering someone has done a full.

I have a 1951 M in reasonable shape. I was greasing yesterday and discovered the left front wheel pivot tube is close to failure. Grease was squirting out cracks. The pivot tube had snapped before and been 'repaired'. The circumferential weld had given way along the lower side of the HAZ and the gussets that were installed are failing.

My use for this tractor is brush hogging 2-3x a year and firewood skidding in the winter. My property is mostly tamarack swamp, stays pretty wet half of the year. The ground is fairly uneven though no hills. My concern is if I rebuild the front am I just going to snap it off again when I hit a hummock?

I am thinking I could pull the front end and make a front axle beam that would fit into the mounts for the factory axle. I would run torque tubes back to the rear axle castings. Tracks would be recycled rubber conveyor belting and C5 channel cut and welded into grouser shapes similar to the commercial half tracks that were offered.

I think the weakness would be steering. Full track vehicles have the clutches on both sides, so one side or the other can be powered. Haly tracks leave the steering to the wheels in front.

 

[redneckdan]

From what I have read, the M half track conversions relied some what on the cutting brakes depending on the terrain conditions. A full track conversion would rely totally on the brakes.

 

[TomSeller]

Pictures please. Like that old iron.

 

[bcp]

Or you could use it to power a side-wheel paddle boat.



Bruce

 

[redneckdan]

Could do that, brush hogging and wood skidding would be difficult...

 

[buickanddeere]

There are no known "home conversions " of a tractor to a crawler that top the fit finish and engineering . Of a JD model 60 crawler built by TS.

 

[DJ54]

There are no known "home conversions " of a tractor to a crawler that top the fit finish and engineering . Of a JD model 60 crawler built by TS.

Have you seen his latest..?? JD 60 with functional MFWD. He has it, and the 60 crawler at a local plowing days today, and plowed with both. And I forgot to take my camera...

 

[buickanddeere]

Have you seen his latest..?? JD 60 with functional MFWD. He has it, and the 60 crawler at a local plowing days today, and plowed with both. And I forgot to take my camera...

I have had the honour of driving the crawler and seen the 4WD in it's early stages . All around outstanding.

 

[DJ54]

Found a short video of Tim's 60 crawler. I can't remember if the rear diffy, and undercarriage, is off a a 1010, or 2010 crawler.

https://youtu.be/c7RS5sDRIUg

Talked to a buddy of mine this morning who had Tim do some work on his tractor a couple years ago. He sent him a video of him plowing with the 60 MFWD. I checked Youtube where I got this, and nothing posted there. I'll have to see if he still has it, and will forward it to me.

 

[BHD]

this may be a dumb idea just came to me, so I it is not that thought out but as I type It looks like a possible workable Idea,

make a Half track, and for the front axel of the have track use a 4x4 rear axel, and for the front use the steering axel of the 4x4, with a direct drive line between them and steer with the front steering axel it would be powered via the tracks, thus you would have a "full have half tracks with powered front axel, adjust the front wheels to axel match the tracks,

years ago I was a set of tracks made out of tractor tire rears, with the side walls cut down and running over standard tires,

 

[DJ54]

Thank goodness someone had a camera yesterday. He posted more than several pics of the guy's plowing. Here are a couple of pics of Tim's creations.

 

[art]

We do a lot of grooming trails for winter use and for use of the early two track machines we used mogul masters design and added cylinders to the hitch to turn the units on hills. Early model farmalls did not have good enough brakes to turn a tracked machine for long. The half-track sytem made them a real animal in there day and was built by Arps manufacturing.

 

[farm boy00]

We do a lot of grooming trails for winter use and for use of the early two track machines we used mogul masters design and added cylinders to the hitch to turn the units on hills. Early model farmalls did not have good enough brakes to turn a tracked machine for long. The half-track sytem made them a real animal in there day and was built by Arps manufacturing.

Pictures by chance

 

[redneckdan]

this may be a dumb idea just came to me, so I it is not that thought out but as I type It looks like a possible workable Idea,

make a Half track, and for the front axel of the have track use a 4x4 rear axel, and for the front use the steering axel of the 4x4, with a direct drive line between them and steer with the front steering axel it would be powered via the tracks, thus you would have a "full have half tracks with powered front axel, adjust the front wheels to axel match the tracks,

years ago I was a set of tracks made out of tractor tire rears, with the side walls cut down and running over standard tires,

That is an interesting idea.

I was thinking today maybe use a truck axle across the front of the tractor then hook two Mico master cylinders to the brake cylinders on the axle. The master cylinders would be located in place of the steering wheel. Pulling the left side master cylinder would brake the left front wheel and hopefully stop the left track. It might require a cogged front wheel to keep the rear wheel from driving the track around the braked front wheel.

Lots of ideas rolling around while taking my morning constitutional on company time. Currently working on the three point retrofit. Just ordered cylinders today. Gotta snap some pictures.

 

[redneckdan]

Some shots of the 3pt hitch base. C5 on each side anchors the lower links and sway stabilizers. C4 across the gear box top (bolts down with the 3- 7/16" bolts) has tie backs to the C5 on the axles. The top link tabs and lift arm pivot rod will get welded to this channel. I probably will stiffen the tie backs some more. Right now their purpose is really just holding the assembly together when I pull it off the tractor fir accessing certain welds.






Started on the tabs for the top of the lift rams and the leveling links. I will take them to work tomorrow and use a mill to groove them for root and fill passes.

 

[redneckdan]

Got the other ends of the lower links welded on tonight. Ground a nice bevel with a CBN wheel then a root with fleetweld plus then fill and cap with excalibur. Light grind between passes to check for pin holes and any stray flux.



I need to feather the top and bottom in yet. I didn't have any strap that was perfect width so I went a half inch taller and will grind the step.



Cut the blanks for the lift arms from C5. Need to get a 2" annular cutter tomorrow to cope the ends for the pivot tubes.

Cut and squared the pivot tubes from 1 1/2" SCH 80.