Hay People, Had some time today, and knew what needed to be done. Knocked it out in a couple hours. I was just going to relax when I got home, nah. Made the next parts which was the swingarms for the track tensioners.
Dug around for some metal, found some square tubing, should work OK but is thin walled. Found some spacers to weld to the bottom for a pivot point. Measured the length. Cut the tubing and welded the spacers on.
Measured and center punched for the adjusting holes for the linkage.
Drilled out the adjusting holes on swing arms. Then drilled out first the mounts for the swing arms (easier to hold) before cutting out the pieces.
Everything drilled out, cut up, and matched up. I number everything because everything was made by hand and only goes together one way to work. What needed trimmed was trimmed with a hand grinder. And the hardware, 3/8" bolts and nylock nuts.
The 2 assemblies before I put them in.
The sun was going down, the bugs were out, but I managed to weld them in, both of them. I only got a pic of the one side, the bugs were buggin and I just wanted to go in for the night, LOL.
A view from the ground wheels where the linkage will be run, from the wheel area up to the swing arm. I noticed that it's not a straight shot from the attachment point on the lower A-frame up to the swing arm. Will have to notch the A-frame up top there or put a bend in the linkage. We shall see.
That's it for today. Next is the linkage rod from the lower A-frame up to the swing arm. Will just be a 3/8" rod with bolts welded to it for the clevis's to attach to. The issue that was mentioned will be dealt with when I make the linkage. I just wanted to get away from the bugs tonight.
Hay People, An update on Google's doings, LOL. As far as I can tell, Google has been dormant up until a week or so ago. They sent a photoreconnaissance vehicle to the area to gather intel on a recon mission. Roof mounted camera, driving through the neighborhood. The wife was out front talking to the kids and spotted it, as was I. It drove right by the compound. Luckily the gate to the compound was shut. Any visuals of my doings was hidden.
Here is a sample pic of their recon vehicle.
The wife thinks they got her in a few shots though, LOL. We shall see on that.
If you spot this vehicle, DO NOT RUN!! Simply wave "HI" to it and let it pass by. "THEY" will expose you, so cover up your project by shutting the front door, close the gate, or shut the garage door if you have to. "THEY" are getting wiser, as so should we!
Hay People, I finally finished something. The track tensioners are done along with the rear suspension is beefed up a little also, since I tied the two together. I left off with making the swingarms. Yah, I had to remake those because they was wobbly.
Onto the pics. It's a 3/4 inch steel rod from a fence gate. I'll use this for the ling from the A-frame to the swingarm.
Not my best junk, but a BFH worked great.
Welded bolts on 1 end to mount eyelets and bent them up.
Played around with some paint and did a quick fade on them. Then mounted them. The attachment point on the bottom in the bolt on the A-frame that holds on the bogies. Then on top are 2 holes for adjusting as needed on the swingarm, and a bolt goes through sideways for attachment to swingarm.
This is the other end of the workings. To the right on the arm, square box with round hole, is the mount for this swingarm inward in the frame. Then the left side, the rod pushes forward onto the track tensioner wheel. The kinda center part with the square hole is where the new link will attach to. Needed to be in that spot or it will hit things.
Now I need the link from the swingarm to the track tensioner wheel arm (above). This link also needs a spring on it so I can preload the tensioner setup, dampening, and more suspension down force. Springs are pretty stiff and I can change them out or ad to them as needed. Made from a mower tie rod, pipe and flat stock. And it telescopes. I added a mount on the other end later to attach to the swingarm.
I remade the swingarm since playing with the setup would kick to the side and loose forward movement. Used flat stock steel, drilled adjusting holes, welded the pivot on the bottom, to replace the red ones. To keep it from wobbling, I added a second piece of flat stock outside the pivot point and bolted it in. I pretty much made it wider, no more wobble.
Done. I couldn't get a good pic of the setup I just made. Found an old drawing from a while ago though. Shows the basic idea of what I just made.
I was planning on relocating the top rear shock mounts but I think I will hold off on that to see how this setup works first. No big deal to move them but would like to get some tooling to make my own air shocks that are shorter for that. Next step is to put the rest of the drive system back in it. Reusing most of the old parts, a lot of cleaning, and just need to make spacers for the axle shafts. Then the controls for the new clutch system and brakes. Might be a while on that, LOL. Later...……..
mr.modified Veteran Member
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Age : 34 Join date : 2013-11-02 Points : 7187 Posts : 2910 Location : New Jersey USA
Hay People, Been a while for this one!! Looking at the dates of the posts, more then a year since I worked on this. But guess what, LOL!!
Yup, got it going!! More or less. Still have issues with it but it is working for the most part. Made some vids, took some pics too. Just have to edit them. Plus I want to make a little intro vid. It will blow your mind, LOL.
Hay People, Sorry for the wait on an update for this. I'm doing something different and was fighting my editing software the whole time to finish the videos. I will post the videos here so you all can see them before they go public tomorrow night. 3 videos total. I posted a sneak peak video on Sprockets garage which is a really short video from one of these. If you seen that already then you know what is coming, LOL.
The videos are posted in order from which they were made, from top to bottom. ENJOY!! 1
2
3
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Age : 49 Join date : 2016-09-06 Points : 15757 Posts : 11035 Location : Oklahoma
@MightyRaze At first it felt like it was goona roll back but I got use to it and started to play with it more. That's where the standing on the back came from. So I can hop off if it went too steep. It will drag the rear end framing before it goes completely back. I can tell I'm riding on the sprockets by the feel. You can feel the ground bumps because there is no suspension on the sprockets.