Frankly my Deere, I don't give a John! (Tractor Trike. MBBO Class 2)

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I might have a go a making something along these lines for the steering:
120 devel gears.JPG


Health is really not great at the moment, but still planning on getting it done.
 
I might have a go a making something along these lines for the steering:
View attachment 87946

Health is really not great at the moment, but still planning on getting it done.

Ha! I can’t even begin to figure out how to make steering from these little bits. I’m taxed just putting something back together after cleaning it without have “extra” parts left over.

Hope you feel better soon, Luke.

furyus
 
[emoji3060] Happy New Year!!!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Thanks everyone!

The heat here has been oppressive, but still working on the trike, just more mental work than physical...

Tried to make a steering gear set up, but reached the limitations of hand tools and size restrictions within the tractor "body"

IMG_20190101_125800935.jpg


It would possibly work, but it would not be smooth enough for my liking, and there would no doubt be some excess movement/play in the joint.

Working on other ideas now... ;)
 
@kelvin hahnel gave me the parts I needed for the new steering idea this afternoon!

IMG_20190101_171653939.jpg


I sent some LED driver boards and a local specialty craft beer home with him to show my appreciation! :thumbsup:

Building a bell crank style set up using those mobility scooter tie rods, a bike front hub and some steel flat bar, but not today... Too hot!
 
So with the steering planned out, the frame needs to come next.

Really have not planned the frame at all...

I really want to nail that "worked hard and left in the paddock for years" look, so I started looking at what the rustiest steel and donor frames I had were and found my answer:

IMG_20190103_212109853.jpg


Most of you may not know what that is, but a few of the older members might, that is the bones of my first attempt at a super heavyweight cruiser bike, super wide bottom bracket, single sided hubs, motorcycle tires, tank for an airhorn...

It started out as a proof of concept for using 3 piece bottom brackets for single sided hubs, but, once I proved that would work:

DSC00166.jpg


I kind of lost interest. :(

Then RRB#08 came along and I had a plan to do the heavy weight cruiser idea bigger and better, and so BigJim was born:

P8010203.JPG


After BigJim was done, and worked so successfully, it seemed silly to go back to the old build which had some mistakes and design flaws.

It wasn't a total waste though, as you may be able to tell there were a lot of parts recycled into later builds, plus the single sided hub idea (which was the original intent of the build) has been used a number of times since. (Including the rear wheels on this trike!)

Time to allow some of that frame to live on!

Unfortunately some of that hard won patina on the steel will be lost through cutting and changing, but I am sure it will rust up nice pretty quickly after it is done.

On to the bench for surgery:

IMG_20190103_212247900.jpg


Angle grinder makes rapid work of thin wall box section:

IMG_20190103_213746797.jpg


Started mocking up ideas of how to reassemble the parts when I finally did this:

IMG_20190103_213950492.jpg
IMG_20190103_213955719.jpg


There is potential, I will need to spread those forks (?) a little to match the diff supports, and chop out that super wide bottom bracket, but the basic design is there...
 
Oh I remember too, Luke. I loved it and feel a bit sad at it's loss :cry:

I'd wanted to do a build with car wheels for ages and your 'big builds' were inspiration for me to finally do Sidebolt.

Good to see it be put to use though.:nod:

Glen.
 
I totally remember that beast! You and I joined the forum one week apart so I was watching that build. Should work great for the farmpunk effect!
Oh I remember too, Luke. I loved it and feel a bit sad at it's loss :cry:

I'd wanted to do a build with car wheels for ages and your 'big builds' were inspiration for me to finally do Sidebolt.

Good to see it be put to use though.:nod:

Glen.
I'm glad some remember it, it had potential, but I made some mistakes along the way, still I learned from it so it served a purpose! :thumbsup:
Sidebolt was awesome @Glen, enjoyed watching that build!

No progress today, 44 degrees Celsius here today, (111F) hot, dry winds from central Australia blowing too, so they called a total fireban which means no welding or grinding today.

A cool change is coming though, 24 Celsius tomorrow, (74F) and a fire rating of "only" Very High... :21:

fireban1.JPG
 
We have a basic frame!

IMG_20190106_181538619.jpg
IMG_20190106_181521590.jpg


Everything is only sitting in place at the moment, but it does mean I can start figuring where to fit the steering wheel and rods, drivetrain etc...
 
How does the steering on a pedal tractor work or is something like that what your planning on?
No idea how the old pedal tractors did the steering, never seen one in person...
 
No idea how the old pedal tractors did the steering, never seen one in person...
I believe some probably have little pinion gears like your picture or maybe even a u-joint. One common method is basically the same as a go-cart. Imagine the steering column having a short Pittman arm but with a direct link to the spindle arm instead of through a tie rod. Scroll down to step 5, same principal cheap and easy, common type.
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Peddle-Tractor/
 
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