SUPER B - 60 MPH FIELD TRACTOR [2016 Build-Off Entry]

pretty much, its like a pneumatic cylinder and you are correct in that the internal pressure changes the spring rate, thats the main reason why i got them actually, because i have no idea what weight the front of this thing is going to end up as. There are damping circuits also, an analogue adjustable rebound circuit and a compression adjust dial.

The compression adjust is a bit strange because it is for a mountain bike, you essentially have 2 separate compression circuits, a very stiff one, and a more open one, the stiff one is preferred when you would be pedalling, and the more open one would be the preferred position for when descending or going over rough terrain. The shock switches between the 2 automatically, its technology derived from Curnutt shocks for Baja trucks years ago, its been adopted by bikes this last 15 or so years. the adjustment dial you have for the compression is called the threshold control, and it basically controls the riders preference to when the shock should change between these 2 circuits.

i had to wait till the best time/price too get these which was part of the hold up, there was no way i was paying anything like RRP LOL

Oh fancy! Can't wait to see some vids of this tearing around at 60mph!

Well guys its been far to long since i got near this tractor, if you have seen my other builds on  here or YouTube you'll know i keep busy lol, but, over the last few days i have been able to get started on it again - and hopefully keep at it until i'm doing donuts and annoying the whole neighbourhood

The garage has all been cleared out and stage 1 was to build up a new workbench, CHECK.



My start point for the actual tractor however, is the wheelbase and track width dimensions; 1200mm wide and 1300mm wheelbase - similar to the little B.  The mockup was to give me an idea of how much stuff needs to fit within that space, essentially; seat, engine, trans and the front end assembly which the front axle, steering and suspension mount to.

This front end assembly is the first thing to build, and my main objective here is to make it as compact as possible to allow room for the engine and trans, ideally i want to have the engine and 700trans as far backwards in the chassis as possible, but realistically i may need all the space i can get.  Heres the front of the swing arms going together last night..



The more eagle eyed of you may notice the billet flywheel, i had a change of heart about keeping the stock one and running better ignition units.  What i have learned from the little B is that when you give someone else a go on it, (which i do like to do), they generally prove to be not as good a driver as they think lol, especially when it comes to preserving the machine mechanically, i just had thoughts of someone getting on it - revving it to the moon - then the flywheel grenading and hurting them, so the v twin now has a billet wheel to go with the molkt carbs



I'll be updating this more frequently from now on as i push to get it done lol, stay tuned , JON

Got a bit more done tonight, the steering knuckle/stub axle assemblies needed welded up so i could mock up the front end;



my housemate called in a favour and got me the stub axle shafts lathed up on an automatic lathe, they are proper shiny lol



below we have the front portion of 1 swingarm held in the vice, theres still gussets to go on at the wheel end



when i mocked up the 2 swingarm halves together, the 4ft width looked wrong, i had been referencing my old notes from when i built the little b to get its width, (because its not at my garage at the mo), so i looked for a pic on my phone - i forgot i had actually narrowed it down to 3ft6, so now these 2 swingarms will need to be shortened to get the width right

Pretty high tech front end man! It sucks to get measurements round and have to cut it up lol

Well now, its been a while hasn't it?!

Hello again all, after a fairly busy 2016 where i essentially got.. not really that much, done to the super-b tractor, i have started back to work in earnest over the Christmas break onwards.  If you follow the youtube videos you may have seen some of this already, (i don't usually post them on here on account of my potty mouth), if you don't mind the occasional naughty word sure check out the link in my bio .

I was disappointed to have not finished it in time for the 2016 build off deadline, but i had decided that a 'spaceframe/tubeframe' chassis was the only way of making this thing work, so it was not an eligible machine anymore, so i concentrated my efforts on the design and onto my other machines for the rest of the year.  Congrats to all the ATLTF guys out there that finished off their builds, Doc for the win - and Redzz02 for that 360 drift on the drift missile, (nice lol).

Really i was hitting a lot of mental blanks with regard to the chassis design so the best solution in my mind was to just to start building with what i did know, this allowed me to try out a few new methods and visualise the design better - so the chassis work featured in these pictures and video may, (probably will), get modified/changed over the next few months, but i have decided to run with it for now to allow more progress on the rest of the build.

At the moment i am concentrating my efforts on getting the v twin vanguard to fire up and run properly on the new carbs - and for that i have mounted it to the mark1 chassis, and am building the steering column/wheel assembly which will house all of the electrical and throttle controls;



so this is the wheel/boss assembly, it is like the headstock on a motorbike/pushbike with the steering wheel mounted to the rotating spindle.  The 'head tube/outer shell will be welded to the steering column framework, when you turn the wheel it will rotate the crank mounted just below it, which will operate a draglink to move the steering.  a lot of work went into this piece so far, and it will form the basis for some of the next video where i can hopefully explain it better..



and here it is from the front, i have a couple of features on this tractor that i also have on the little b' drag tractor, the hand clutch lever modified to run as a hand throttle is one, and the little tachometer is another.  For this machine however i wanted all of the engine control features mounted to the wheel, so the tachometer is mounted to the wheel spindle, (instead of the dashboard like on the little b'), it rotates with the wheel!  the engine was also rotated 180 degrees, now unlike my green tractor - where i rotated the engine to give better weight distribution for better handling, i rotated this engine to give an extra 4" of centre distance between the front and rear pullys - to give more room for the clutch.  it leaves the carb intakes in a rather unusual place,...



Here is a recent picture of the mockup, it is mocked up with the axles 'bottomed out', to represent what it would look like with the suspension fully compressed, we did the mockup to work out the best position for the wheel so we could build the frame that holds it. So I've been building that frame now for the last few days along with the fuel tank mounting frame, i went and got the cables for the carbs and some steel for the exhaust, so when i get a bit more done ill post a bit more up about it. sitting in the mockup with the wheel in my hands has got me pretty stoked about building this again, the thought of it terrifies me... and thats exactly what wanted



i bang photos up on the instagram fairly regular too, keep an eye own @stuntmanjon for the low down

You could run that thing on farts with where the intakes are placed

Joking aside, looks really cool and will definitely scream

Looks nice! I didn't think the intake ports on those engines were that far apart, pretty neat carb setup.

Thanks guys, i got another couple of hours in the shed there, working away mister modified i watched back your video of the gtr four zero first test, how do you find the 700 trans for shifting on the fly, particularly downshifting? i know the official line from the manufacturer etc is that you shouldn't shift while moving, but it looked smooth enough in your video, does it give any problems?

i have that same tranny for mine but want to build a ratcheting shifter lever for it like on my white tractor, my worry is that it will encourage me to shift like a hooligan lol

STUNTMAN JON wrote:

Thanks guys, i got another couple of hours in the shed there, working away mister modified i watched back your video of the gtr four zero first test, how do you find the 700 trans for shifting on the fly, particularly downshifting? i know the official line from the manufacturer etc is that you shouldn't shift while moving, but it looked smooth enough in your video, does it give any problems?

i have that same tranny for mine but want to build a ratcheting shifter lever for it like on my white tractor, my worry is that it will encourage me to shift like a hooligan lol

Im curious aswell how the 700 handles shifting.

Shifting is ok, but I had an issue with the gtr belt turning a bit while the clutch was in and trans in neutral. So I would just knock it into gear. I think it ruined the shift keys. I recently lost all gears, it will jump and not pull. I think the shift keys are turning in the gears. Dirt racers use them in full size mowers so I guess they hold up good enough. I'm going to fix the belt drag issue and the transmission and try it again, see if I can be more careful this time. For me though, up shifting and downshifting was smooth and I had no issues until recently. Another problem I had was my drive chain jumping, I think this may have been hard on the shift keys also. Now the chain issue is fixed so I will see how it goes.

I recall reading on a lesser lawn mower forum a comparison between the 700 and Foote 3 speed. I dont remember now, one had beefier gears but the shift keys werent so good.

I havnt had my 700 or foote apart, but I had to wonder if a person so fab up a better set... or so something to make shift on the go easier.

I believe the peerless had the better shafts and shift keys, while the Foote had the better gears. To each his own I guess

Thanks for the feedback guys, a couple of good factors to take into account there, mm apologies if I had missed it but had you done a oil conversion to yours or was it running stock?

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

I believe the peerless had the better shafts and shift keys, while the Foote had the better gears. To each his own I guess

That sounds about right. I have both and Ill use both...