Frostypaw's Snow Tractor "Sitka"

The engine should be mounted 3 degrees to one side, to zero out the torque (paddle) effect of the prop. That should help on turning.

And nice work it Ruuuns, now safety measures can be put into account   

Oooohh, thanks for the help   !

Dked, the prop is tilted upward because of the suspension sagging. I don't know how much difference it would make, but every little bit helps!  I'll stick some washers underneath the two rear bolts to hopefully find a good angle threshold for balanced forward and downward force.  

Thunder, I never would have thought of that.  All the aerosans I've seen had parallel mounted props.  So since my engine rotates CCW from the rear PTO side, I would rotate the engine 3° to the right (if facing the rear)?  +1 on the safety stuff too, right now it feels like driving an Indian board track racer, once you get going it's hard to stop!

Supposed to get about 2-4 inches of snow this week, so much experimentation to be done!   

I wanna see some video! This is the coolest contraption I've seen in quite a while.  

I think it really should have a steering wheel and some sort of hood though, to me considered a tractor.   

I like the progress! This aint anything ive seen someone build before, i cant wait to see o a video of it running!   

Looking pretty cool.. Hows the power? Will it climb hills?

Has anyone mentioned that you might be a little crazy? How many spectators/innocent by standers/potential victims are present for your test runs?

I'd think it would be a community interest thing. ("Hey Mildred, lets go outside and watch this kid launch hisself into orbit in that contraption of his!")


   Gotta love your ingenuity brother!

Nice. Good to hear it works. A bit of thin body work ought to get it looking like a tractor. If you want light weight, you could consider plastic body panels. I was going to use some cheap kitchen trash cans and cut out the sides for my build, if I could find them in the colors I wanted. Just an idea.

Thanks guys!  

T-Dub:

All joking aside, I was originally going to have a steering yoke/wheel but it was a lot heavier and more space invasive in the vehicle.  I am planning a tractoresque hood design like a Bolens Husky Tractor.  Kinda like dis...

If it's disqualified I'm perfectly content with the given decision, I just figured if I'm building an aerosan with a tractor look I should try entering the contest lol.  

Stretch:  Power is pretty dismal.  With the current barebone configuration it can barely go up a 5-7° incline.  But I did design the chassis to accept a bigger prop and thus a bigger engine  .  I am kinda disappointed with this fact, so for now frozen rivers and unplowed roads are probably its current habitat.

Lawren:  When I was running laps on the road noone was out, then again it was 10°F outside.  I wouldn't mind a good ol' fashion homebrew snowmobile race though  .


Modified:  That is a pretty decent idea, but I already got some thin plywood for the skin.  It's not terribly heavy but it should stiffen up the frame a little.  I really want some aluminum flashing for an airplane look, but the junkyard didn't have any .

if its disqualified, i wouldnt worry bout it, it is a really cool build either way

Finally had some time to take it out on a river run.  It goes WAY too fast, ran out of balls before speed.  Jumped a snowdrift and busted the weld off of the rear ski mount.  I also made a 58" prop for it, just waiting for my sprockets and chain to come in.  Should lower the speed and give me some more oomf.  I also want to replace the skis with some Teflon soled wooden skis for more surface area and slickness.  I just hope the below freezing temps don't end before mid-March :/.



Dead deer lol


That's what I get for conserving welding wire...  

Burned up CVT belt I found from a snowmobile...

This gives me ideas for a johnboat......

Super neat. You could probably even get some summer time use out of it if you mounted some bicycle wheels. Or just mounted the engine and prop on the back of a bicycle.

do you have a video of you riding it around?

GenevaCustoms wrote:

This gives me ideas for a johnboat......

Dude... that's a great summer conversion for this thing! If I build the prop and engine in a powerpack module I can switch it between winter aerosan and summer airboat. Thanks for the idea!

Just saw the pics on the river run, looks super cool. You're crazy smart, you'll defnially do something great in life   

I can't get over how good the propeller came out for just carving it out of a 2x4.

Here's a quick vid from the river run.  

Sounds cool.