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

   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
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#561  
Thanks for the feedback. There are a lot of 2-part rubber casting compounds on the market that can be bought that range from very soft to very hard. My first thought would be to fill the tires with a fairly hard mix. My cad program calculated the tire volume to be about 2.5 gallons per tire. These rubbers cost about $100 per gallon making that plan a no-go. Even fiberglass resin with hardener is $60 per gallon which is still too pricey.
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone #562  
The guys with old cats send them somewhere to have them foam filled. The reason the rears gave you greif is I'd guess that the rear of this machine is heavier? When you get the blower mounted on your machine, then the front idlers might give you greif.
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
  • Thread Starter
#563  
I thought about foam also. I will check to see if they can be done locally. Thanks for the nudge Arly. ;)
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
  • Thread Starter
#564  
Yesterday, I checked in at the local tire store that can get tires foam filled - they ship them out. The attendant says my wee-little 4.80-8 tires would probably cost in the range of $150 - $200 per tire. No thanks.
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone #565  
I believe the idlers for the trail bully I operated where $1000 each. Couldn't you get wheels already with filled tires? Not sure they be tough enough
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
  • Thread Starter
#566  
I have not found solid or filled tires in the size I need. We'll see how the inner tubes work out and go from there...
So today, I got my prototype rev limiter circuitry bench tested OK and tomorrow I hope to install it onto Snowzer to test. I plan to limit it to 4000 rpm before starting to cut out the injectors one at a time. ;)
 
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   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
  • Thread Starter
#567  
Today after a few fits and spurts, I got the rev limiter installed and it works well. I have it set to start to de-energize individual injectors at 4000 rpm at 300 rpm increments. Here's an image of the module guts. Basically, the yellow wire is the tach feed from the ECU that the Pico microprocessor evaluates to determine the rpm. If it gets too high, it fires the appropriate relay(s) to turn off the injector(s).

Rev Limiter.png
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone #568  
What are we doing about the the HD tire situation?
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone
  • Thread Starter
#569  
I am seriously considering making some wooden tires over the winter. There's a big pile of good seasoned maple planks up at my mom's house that I could use for making them. A design consideration is I could form the sidewall contours to whatever I want. Got snow in MI Arly?
 
   / My Senior design project - a "Swamp Thing" tracked vehicle clone #570  
I am seriously considering making some wooden tires over the winter. There's a big pile of good seasoned maple planks up at my mom's house that I could use for making them. A design consideration is I could form the sidewall contours to whatever I want. Got snow in MI Arly?
We have some predicted here over the weekend but we'll be out working on our trails. Not enough to worry about and likely not stick around.
 
 
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