Prancstaman's X1 Scorpion

upnorthkid wrote:

let me know i need parts. i have one that needs to be fixed let me know

Whatcha mean "You got one that needs to be fixed"

i have a 82 sears lt 10 thats got the same trans axil . if you have a spar or have parts let me know. i know that that had those axils on sears and murrays to , i have a murray and sears with the same axil , the sears axil needs to be fixed. thanks

the same one as yours build dose

Sorry people for the lack of updates. But my schedule is almost cleared up to where I can get back to work on this project by May 2 weekend or the weekend after. Planning on starting up the 11hp Briggs motor to make sure it's running right. Plus a detailed description on the rest of the drive line, done with drawings since I still have to build it, with an inside look of what I did to the Peerless gearbox to use it in this build. Pretty simple what I did to be able to use the gearbox. What I have been doing is just cleaning the rest of the engine parts to get the motor completed in between my regular jobs around the house. Just simply wiping down the parts, sorry no pics yet. I'll have one when the engines all together ready to run.
Thank you for every bodies support and interest in this build.

Hay People
Got the engine together finally. In order to test the engine I needed an engine test stand, nothing fancy, just something to strap an engine too, to run it. In the pics I show off the little engine test stand and then the engine on it. I made it literally with just parts laying around. I also made a vid on how I made the engine test stand and the engine running.

Hay People,

I found insperation in a movie friday night to give a big push on the tracks this past weekend, sorry no description on gearbox or driveline this time. The pics speak for themselves. with the videos to show what I did. I got 12 done all together. Not a whole lot but it is starting to look like something.

Did a little more work. I'm up to 26 track plates completed and tore apart the tracks to paint the plates flat black and reassembled what I had. I think I'm up to around 30lbs so far. Tell me what you think.

Thats gotta be the most simple and effective tracks ive seen. Looks like it flexes good too!

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Thats gotta be the most simple and effective tracks ive seen. Looks like it flexes good too!

Thanks. I thought it looked pretty cool with the twist. I was actually trying to flip the whole thing over to get a shot of the cleats but did this. When I was looking at tanks on there track design I came across this WW2 snow troop carrier and noticed the chains on the tracks. Don't know if that was the actual design but gave me the idea and went to Home Depot to look at their chain and the spacing on them and came up with the 2/0 chain. Its made like a chain ladder actually but that didn't occure to me till after I came up with it, LOL.

Hay people,
Just movin along on this. I draged the chassis out Sunday to clean and paint the frame up since it's been sitting outside for 3 years in the weather. Nothing special here, just a dollar a can paint ( flat black ) with a wire wheel on a drill. Saturday I welded more track plates, up to 35 I think. The pic 2nd from the bottom showes the table all burnt up from welding and the box of plates for the other track. The last pic on the bottom showes all the plates that need to be welded for the first track, OH BOY!! I have a harber freight 90 amp welder, and finish welding the track plates is reaching this welders limit. I weld the guides on in batches and then do the cleats with the bolts on and the welder is hot to where it trips the heat safety switch if I keep going, so its weld the cleats on and wait a half hour to cool. So this is giving me time to do other stuff, like chores. I can also do other stuff on this now too.

Hay people,

Sorry, no pics this time, just 2 videos. Videos show a better vision of what I'm trying to achieve on this build. Also a better idea and the parts I'm using on how I plan on steering this thing.

Pics will be later,lol.

I think this build is going to be really good! It looks great!

MatthewD wrote:

I think this build is going to be really good! It looks great!

Thank you. Glad you like it.

one hell of a build, i hope you finish it by the dead line looks awesome so far!

redzz02 wrote:

one hell of a build, i hope you finish it by the dead line looks awesome so far!

Thanks man. I think the paint will be drying when the deadline hits I'm afraid. The hardest part so far is the tracks, repetative bordome. I think everybody had little vision on how it was going to look the way the frame looked, and my hand drawed picture don't do it justice, lol. Me throwing that track on there was a last minute idea that I just had to do. Thanks for your interest, much appreciated. I'm liken your build too.

Alright! One track done! Looks pretty good. Wouldn't it have been easier to just leave the differential open in the transaxle and brake either side to steer? Or do you think the differential wouldn't be heavy enough for that? I apologise if you went over this before and I missed it.

mr.modified wrote:

Alright! One track done! Looks pretty good. Wouldn't it have been easier to just leave the differential open in the transaxle and brake either side to steer? Or do you think the differential wouldn't be heavy enough for that? I apologise if you went over this before and I missed it.

No problem, I love talkin about this stuff. It would have been easier to keep the diff open and have brake steering, is what you call it, and yes, the diff is strong enough for that kind of steering. I seen it done on those scaled tanks for paintball and there around 1000 lbs. I've watched vids of real tanks with that kind of steering and I noticed that they was always jerky when turning or can be unpredictable when turning or going strait, I'm thinking the diff multiplies the turning for the outside so your actually speeding up the track which is why it's jerky, which takes more power, which is hard to control at high speeds. Plus what if you get one track stuck on something or loose traction, the result would be the same as a car with an open diff, just one track would spin, seen it happen. I chose the locked axle so this would not happen, just like a 4x4 with lockers on both axles, even though you loose traction on one track, both tracks will still spin. But later on, I will try the open diff with brake steering just to see if it is actually what I expect. All I have to do is switch out the welded axle with a open diff axle, since I have 2 more transaxles for parts, and disconnect the belt tentioners going to the track sprocket axles.

I'm thinking with my setup, when I turn, the outside track speed stays the same, engine power can stay the same since I'm only needing it for one track to turn and not speeding up just to drive that track too. Should be easier to control with what I plan on using.

Oh, I see. Guess that makes sense. Especially in slippery spots where one side would spin. This way when everything is engaged, everything stays locked up.

mr.modified wrote:

Oh, I see. Guess that makes sense. Especially in slippery spots where one side would spin. This way when everything is engaged, everything stays locked up.

You got the right idea. My track drive setup has been around since the first tracked vehicle, very reliable and very  simple.

While working on the tracks, inbetween the welding and the welder cooling, I was able to make brake rotors. Since the steering and braking is going to be the main way of driving and steering this, brakes are going to be priority. I was originally going to run drums but after building my mini bike, drum brakes suck, and the drums I had picked out are smaller then a mini bikes. So it's rotors and calipers. This update is of making of the brake rotors. I got the metal from work, my boss (what a good guy) let me have this piece of metal he was going to scrap. I think he was afraid to ask me what I was going to use it for, I think he learned not to ask questions, LOL. The metal is actually a steel metal door off of an industrial size band saw that was getting scraped. It's about 1/4 inch thick steel, the things got some weight to it, but a good piece of flat steel plate to cut parts out of. Plus in the background are the tracks I'm working on, 3/4 of the way complete by the end of the day. Should have the tracks done by Sunday noon I hope.



These are the tools used to draw up the rotors. Note how the rotors are not round but a series of flat spots on the perimeter of the circle. This made it easier to cut the metal. The rotors don't have to be perfectly round since the brake pad is riding on the sides and not the outside edge. Just has to be a perfectly flat surface on the sides to be reliable. So first I center punched the center for the compass to sit in and drawed the circle which is a 7 1/2 inch rotor. Used the protractor to evenly space the lines coming from the center which are 30 degrees per line. then on the perimeter, the 30 degree lines intersect the perimeter, I drawed a strait line from one intersecting line to the other to come up with the 12 sides on the perimeter of the rotor. Next I measured the bolt patern on the hubs, then transfered that to the rotor patern, last is the center for the axle shaft to go through.



A closer look of both rotors before I cut them out.



Both of the rotors cut out from the metal door. I next drilled a series of holes next to each other on the line of the center circle to be able to take a screw driver and hammer and chisle out the center for the axle shaft to go through. Then drilled the holes for the hub bolts to go through. Didn't do to well here, had to use a round file to hone out the holes for the bolt pattern to work. Not to pretty but it worked. Then debured the rotors. Final outcome is 2 homemade rotors that bolt to brake hubs that spin with no wobble, in turn means there will be no pulsating in the brakes. If balancing is nessasary, it can be done later with the rotors on the axles.



The Brake rotors completed sitting on the hub.



This will be the next video I do. This pic is a preview of the drive sprockets for the tracks, in there roughest form. Guess where the metal came from.



A couple of pics just for motivation, LOL. From the day of the video mockup.

Once the main work on the tracks is done, the rest should be a breeze. Looks like it's coming along though.

mr.modified wrote:

Once the main work on the tracks is done, the rest should be a breeze. Looks like it's coming along though.

Thanks, And the tracks are done. I'll have a breef update on the tracks in my next vid. I got all the parts welded and painted Sunday  the 12th, an hour before it started raining. I'm hoping to have a rolling chassis by the end of the month if not sooner. Now it's time to spend some more money, Oh boy. You don't even want to know that part, LOL.

Hay people,
I'm working in the suspention today. I make attachment points for the suspention which are the orange square tubing on the underneath and is reinforcing the chassis for the tracks and protecting the engine. Watch the video for tech tips on frame building and mounting the tubing to the frame.











This is a peak at my next video.

looking great my friend!!

MTD2fst4u wrote:

looking great my friend!!

Thank you, glad you like it.

Do you think the plastic wheels will hold up where they ride on the axle? I guess greased up a bit and given the number of them it won't be so bad. Weight spread out over a bunch of them. Some field testing with the X1 should provide some answers. Looking good!