Tater's "OH Deere 116 dragster" [2017 Build-Off Entry]

Looking pretty sweet! To think you were worried about the 50% mark. You may have been at the 5% mark with all the work you are doing on your build!

I wasnt too worried about the 50% thing because I knew how much was involved. everyone else was telling me to not do too much pre build

I got one frankenfender ready to go to the body shop to get the ugly knocked off of it. It will be awhile before I get to that stage and will have my work cut out for me with all the cobbled up sheet metal.



This is how far I had to stretch the fender to get it to look right

I'm jumping around alot on this build (thats the ADHD kicking in). Tonight was hammering on the fender to get it straight. Then on to finishing up some welds and cutting off one of the TX mounts. I discovered shortly after I tacked on the mounts that one mount was 3/16" off front to back and 1/4" high. That makes the back tires not align with the fronts perfectly and the left front corner was carrying all the weight. I'm gonna use more than an eyeball and a defective tape measure this time.

This is a view I hope I dont see too often, but it even looks kikass upsidedown.

Finished up the TX mount and added the lower outer frame bars. I had to put the tires back on it to check the alignment. It is better but still not perfect. Turns out the front axle is 3/8 off left to right. All of this stuff got tacked before I build the frame table. I put it on the hillbilly race scales ($10 walmart digital bathroom scales) while still on the frame table. It is showing a little over 500 without the body. It has the back axle at 330# and I can squat it with one hand, so I doubt the accuracy on this. I cant get a good read on it until it hits the floor. I dont have room to put the scales where they really need to be.

It is officially a roller now. All but a few brackets for controls/drive, trimming the body, final steering and the floor pan are left.
Then gussying everything up for paint.

That looks wicked!!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That looks wicked!!

I second this

Looks cool man! I like it!

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That looks wicked!!

I second this

All in favour say "I" hahahaha!!

I over simplified the last post. wiring, GT hood and grill, TNT and modifications needed for that and half a dozen things I have not accounted for are on the list too

AllisKidD21 wrote:

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That looks wicked!!

I second this

All in favour say "I" hahahaha!!

I

Man I love how those exhausts look. Darn sweet!

I!!!
This is friggin sweet man! I think you've already won my vote!

Lookin good.

Im not sure if I missed it, but how did you get the rolled lip on the body?

That is 1/2" emt conduit. It lines up perfect so I can lay the conduit on the welding bench and run the plasma cutter head flat down the side of if to cut the notch. Free handing the radius is a bit of a challenge. It slips right over the 24ga with a little tap from a rubber hammer. It is held on with a few tack welds. I need to decide how I want to do the joint where the horizontal meets the vertical. Not sure if I would like a sharp mitered corner, so I might do a radius out of bondo

Working on the most complicated 14" on the whole machine. This is where all the good shlt happens. Twisted belt, clutch/ brake pedal and linkage, throttle, CVT and linkage, hand brake and linkage, tx shifter, starter switch and kill switch... and I need to have enough room for size 14 boots to run it all. The hand brake and clutch linkage needs to cross where the belt needs to be and I dont want to have to take those loose to replace the belt. All the stuff I came up with in my head doesnt look right staring at the real thing.

I'm interested to see how you do the CVT setup.

me too. I have to pull off a twisted belt, cvt and a clutch in about 30". I might have to do the cvt at a 45 to make it work. all the linkages interfere with changing the belt. This doesnt fit in any current race or pull classes, put I would like to keep the belt change to under 5 minutes

I am starting to rethink the 4" wheel spacers since this build may wander into the pulling world, I would like to do axle extensions but this TX has the 11 spline aluminum hubs. I have a 633 with keyed axles on the swamp donkey, but I cant cannibalize it for this build. Has anyone found a good steel collar that fits these? I cant find squat.

I have something to go with now. I take a pic of what I am working on and change my background pic on my pc at work. I can make it look like I am working and stare at it until I come up with something. I now have a good structure to anchor the CVT and levers to. As an added benefit, I also have a good place to mount the battery under the dash. I can hide all of it with what resembles a console, but instead of being between the seats, it is between your legs. I had to jump in and try it out. Everything feels comfortable and still have plenty of foot room to work the pedals.

I added up the number of levers, cables and pedals this thing is going to have. I dont think Apache helicopters have this much crap. For starters... starter switch (yeah I had to go there), throttle and choke. Then there is the drive system. The clutch pedal controls the clutch (duh), brake and the CVT. It will have an "OH sh*t" hand brake that doubles as a line lock. I had thought about a lever to control the CVT by hand, but that is kind of redundant and may not be needed. The r-1-2-3 on the peerless, then there is the high low shifter. Dont forget I am gonna run an operating mower deck on this, so that will require something to engage that. I dont plan on having a height adjustment for the deck.... its gonna be 4" or nothing. Its gonna take a good drummer to drive this damn thing. I almost forgot, you need to steer it too.

Sounds like a hand full! Hahaha. Not sure if you mentioned it, but what are you doing for a throttle? Like a pedal or hand lever thing or something?

right side foot pedal

Oh ok. I figured it would be a foot throttle but I wasn't sure.

.

There is always one of those somewhere.