homebuilt crawler

[Den1952]

Here are some photos of a homebuilt crawler that I have. I wish I could take credit for having built it , but I was probably about 10 years old thereabouts when it was built. It is based on a popular mechanix magazine from maybe the late 50's or mid 60's as I was told. The loggers in northern Wisc. built it ( probably in the late 60's or early 70's) and used it for skidding, later on another fella bought it from them and used it for several years. then he took it all apart and had other plans for it when I came across some of the parts, tracked down the rest, brought it home in 3 trailer loads and put it back together again.
The dozer has a 12 h.p. Kohler air-cooled engine, from there the output shaft goes to a double sheave pulley with a snowmobile centrifugal clutch on it, from there to another pulley which also has a small dia sprocket on it, leading to another sprocket then into the input shaft of a 3 speed transmission.
The master cylinders are from a 64 Comet as are the brakes up front, the back differential (and brakes) is from a 67 Jeep. I think the transmission also is Jeep. The tracks are from a rock crusher conveyor belt, with angle iron lugs bolted on 6" on center. The tracks are tire driven, I dont know where the steel loops bolted to the tracks are from.

 

[Den1952]

The next set of photos...

 

[Den1952]

these last two pics are of how the engine is coupled to the tranny with vee-belts, centrifugal clutch, sprocket and chain to the transmission.

 

[Willl]

Sweet. :thumbsup:

No clutch pedal ?

How is the engine connected power wise to the tranny ?, Belt ?

Same for the tranny to rear end power connection, chain ?

 

[Den1952]

The man I had bought it from said he used it for skidding logs and trees out of his woods for several years. When he would pull a full size tree uphill, he would have filled the entire rear bed with cement blocks then for traction.
I can only guess that this thing weighs about 1000 pounds. It is 4' 2" wide and about 8 feet long. there is some pretty heavy iron in the framework of this one. the 12 volt motor / pump works well with the dozer blade. The independent left / right braking works quite well , but surprising the thing steers better on snow and grass than it does on the gravel driveway. I think I may need to adjust the brake shoes a little tighter.?
simple to drive, at idle, pop it into whichever gear, then mash down on the foot pedal. first gear is about 5 m.p.h 2nd gear is about 10 m.p.h. and third gear screams along about 15 m.p.h.
geared down as this one is, it is easy to drag trees around with.

 

[Willl]

How is the engine connected power wise to the tranny ?, Belt ?

Same for the tranny to rear end power connection, chain ?

HeHe, you were posting the answers (last 2 pics) while I was typing the questions.

Track lugs look short. Get much loss of traction ?

 

[Den1952]

No clutch pedal. the drive train isnt moving at idle, and it slips into any gear with no grinding, and just sets there til you give it enough gas to engage the centrifugal clutch rpms. from the engine to the tranny in vee belts to sprockets and chain, which ends up on the tranny input directly. between the tranny and differential is a short driveshaft, probably from the jeep?
the final 2 photos are a little difficult to decipher, hope it helps a little.
I had a devil of a time figureing out how to put it back together again, I really didnt know where any of the stuff was originally set.

 

[Den1952]

ya, the lugs sure do look short. Now I am not certain if they were sized down to this height, or if they are simply worn down. It would take more than a few hours to fab and install all new ones for sure.!
Even as they are though, there is plenty of traction. so far I have only got it stuck one time, an embarrassment. I found a deep hole I forgot I owned ,in the marsh. I drove headfirst right into it, across the bottom and up the near vertical side on the way out. then the tracks were spinning in the mud alright. so close to getting it out under its own power , I just couldnt get that last 10 inches of progress to hit the balance point. a simple little tug with my atv winch brought the front end down , then it got itself out.

 

[Den1952]

I scanned through 30 years of popular mechanix but never could find the article which is supposed to have inspired this build. came close when I found an article about something named a go-devil. but it just isnt the same as this one.

 

[Hollow]

That is awesome!

 

[bcp]

I scanned through 30 years of popular mechanix but never could find the article which is supposed to have inspired this build. came close when I found an article about something named a go-devil. but it just isnt the same as this one.

Those old magazines (Popuular Mechanics, Popular Science, and Mechanics Illustrated) all had ads in them for tractor and dozer plans and kits. It might be from that instead of an article.

A good place to look might be using Google Books. You can set the time period you want to search.

Bruce

 

[Den1952]

and it is fun to drive too !
I think the guys that originally built it were pretty clever coming up with parts from so many sources, and in the long run, it has done a lot of actual work out in the woods.
I surely dont know how many of these types of things were running around back then

 

[Den1952]

A good place to look might be using Google Books. You can set the time period you want to search.

Bruce[/QUOTE]
ya, that is the method I had used trying to find the story behind this. I did the google book routine. quite time consuming, but you can guess how many other unrelated articles I ran across. wow , a gold mine of info in those old books !

 

[davedj1]

Den, that thing is awesome! What type of axles does it have?
Have fun with it

 

[unfinished]

Neat project! Thanks for posting. With brake steering does the opposite track spin twice as fast due to the planetaries in the differential? That effect must not be too bad in practice.

 

[unfinished]

Did a quick image search and found a couple pictures awfully similar.


From this page
Route6x6 Photo Gallery

"An unknown reader send in pictures of an OTTER "1972 Ferret with plow and hydros.PHOTO the one with a cab has 2 foot wide tracks and is a one af kind. the other PHOTO of a 1966 ranger" Looks a bit commerical to me! Thanks"

 

[DIRTROAD]

I love it. My goal is to eventually build something similar but using more modern parts and make it hydrostatic drive.

 

[Den1952]

such an uncanny resemblance. gotta be first cousins or something !
I had done a lot of google searching and didnt find the referrence to the article or plans, that the guys got it from, and here you find not one but two with a little bit of searching, wow.
thanks for posting the link and pics.
I measured the tracks at 12 inches wide, the tires being A78-13.
I wonder what engine the 2 "found" ones are using.
on mine , the rear end is from , most likely a jeep, other parts such as brakes master cylinders are from a chevy. It is a foot pedal gas throttle activated, and has yet another cable going down to the govener linkage area which can be pulled to cinch up the linkage , a redneck Cruise Control actually.

 

[Den1952]

On that second photo posted by unfinished, I notice the hyd cylinder mounted vertically,,, I wonder if it is a 2-way. I only see one hyd. hose though.
Would a 2 way be a better deal? the blade wouldnt float up at times, while pushing, could even have down pressure.

 

[Marveltone]

What an incredible find (and project). I would love to have something like that for skidding and pushing. Save wear and tear on the tractor, plus probably do a much better job at those tasks.

If you ever do come across the plans, or something similar, please be sure to post them.

Joe