The Skid Deere

As if I didnt have enough going on I dragged my sorry butt out of bed early this morning to fight rain sleet snow and some sort of slush to pick up a john deere 445 (or whats left of it) I drove 2 hours or so with my mom to pick it up from a place she works for then got it loaded (I love the CAT c5000 forklifts) got it loaded tied down made it home before noon got it unloaded and everything then set her down to sit for maybe a month or two depending on weather.



Toasty!



Tuff torque rear end no rear steer but it does have a selectable locker!



Power steering?!?!



Hydro driveshaft



What used to be a locker pedal



Skeledeere

So for now this thread is kinda a place holder for when I get done with the massey I will more than likely work on this next seeing as timber season is fast approching and Id love to have this helping the massey along.
Plans are as follows:

Going to be primarly a log skidder the frame is pretty heavy so it could handle a grapple
Going to get a mil surp 4 cyl engine to run the hydralics and the tranny (hoping it didnt get burnt up)
She wont be green... Cat yellow (would be diesel powered but my mom said no and since it is going to be her tractor...)
Ag tires and whatnot front and rear
There is literally nothing I need to do axle wise front or rear other than rebuild and reseal everything (Did I mention I can rebuild hydraulic cylinders? used to do it for work)

Anyway well see how things go may change a few details but not much is going to really change.

That is one HOT deere!!! Most would see junk but you see a project! lots of cool features, only if it didnt turn to popcorn!

I dont see a reason any tractor should go to waste! If the frame is good it is worth saving!

Woah.... I hope it was free lol.

it was in fact around 20$ for gas lol maybe 30 havent filled it up yet totally worth it since the rear end is a fortune lol its also relativly unburnt!

Well fire does tend to go up. Id go through and replace all of tje seals. Hopefully nothing warped.

yeah seals and gaskets are getting replaced and hoses if all else I can still use the frame and mount up a 820

Fire sale! Literally

lol yeah

Alright guys bit of a update on this pile of steel and dreams. I have to get stuff out of the way basically so that I can start on the business end of my venture and there are two major things in the way of this at the moment...
There is what used to be a deere 445 and there is a 1.9L onan diesel, well they are getting slammed together and turned into a half track so that they will be out of my way and turned into something that will scare the sh!t out of the neighbors. I am under a bit of a time crunch so I am hoping to have this done before spring of next year.
Most of the fabrication is done already, since the stock transmission is strong enough (possibly) all I will be doing is extending the front end a foot or so to allow room for the engine and assorted whatevers that will be added. The frame will need to be reinforced and more than likely the rear will have to be extended but I will be getting into that in a later post but for now I have to survive cleaning the barn!

Any progress?

mostly sourcing parts right now gonna slap some skid loader tires on it and tracks once I get the barn cleaned out Ill start working on it since the weather is getting chilly

Cool. Trying to make space in my shop to work on mine. Barn will be full of hay. Not good for clean parts. Lol

Cool. Trying to make space in my shop to work on mine. Barn will be full of hay. Not good for clean parts. Lol. The skid steer tire/track combo will be cool. I wanna find a junk z-turn for a crawler project. If I was independently wealthy, this hobby would be a lot easier. But anybody can do that. Lol

debated doing something like that if you do maybe check out the scaled tanks website might find some useful info.

http://www.scaledtanks.com/news.php

Just saved it. Thanks Moose.

those guys have been at it a while building and designing their own transmissions I am on there but not as much anymore due to a lack of really wanting to build a small tank

It would be cool. But, something more useful is cooler. Around our farm it's, "No work? No eat." Fuel, hay, grain or meat. Lol

Its mostly a forum of older persons which is cool but their designs are more for show than for really beating on I like to peek at their fabrication methods and stuff like that see what they use where for body panels and other assorted things. But yeah right now I am trying to focus on stuff I need or would help around the house in the case of the massey and the skid deere its hauling logs and such I try to put practicality above play

Absolutely. Tips and techniques come in handy, no matter where they came from. I'm aways willing to learn better ways to do things. Kinda what this hobby is all about. I use it for stress relief. But my deere has been used for hauling cedar logs for post here lately. Next is a pile of firewood, from an oak I had fall. A lot easier than firing up my truck or big tractor. And cheaper than a fourwheeler.

Yup here lately been using the massey to pull logs out of the woods on the smaller trees all I gotta do is drop it top it and drag it out dont gotta cut it up or anything lol Im hoping with the engine and the tracks the deere will do that for me just with bigger trees!

Been thinking of a skidder trailer.lift the front end of the log up and chain it. Just gotta think.

I can't do something that simple lol I gotta build a grapple!