MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) "1"

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AllisKidD21 wrote:

Forgot to mention I never mounted the shocks. Might still do it, not really sure. Starting to feel like this thread is kinda dragging on, might as well not make it over 30 pages long. It has been fun though. I still wanna do some suspension mods and dual throttle controls and other junk, but if I do anything like that it'll be mentioned in a video or something. Now I might as well start doing some more work on the Ford and the GT6000, hopefully we can turn those into great machines! Haha.

I would like to ask everyone to disregard that last post of mine. I have been in a bit of a slump for the last month or so where I feel like I can't build anything but pure junk. I was feeling particularly down today so I went crazy and started questioning the continuation all of my builds, especially this one... But obviously, I'm not gonna do that. I would like to progress on this build to make it better then it curently is, as for my other tractors. Although this one might not get too much crazier because I have already done alot to it, but whos knows, hahaha. Anyway, I would like to apolozige for the weird post of mine earlier today and I hope to carry on messing around with tractors as I love to do!

Thanks.

We all get there man.  I completely understand.  I was starting to get the same way back in July with my build, but you guys helped me out of the slump.  Anytime you need any pick-me-up, let me/us know and we can see what we can do!  Man, with the cool stuff you do, I can see this thread hitting 50 pages one day!

Thanks a bunch mighty, I appreciate it. I'm not sure how much longer I wanna go with this one, but every time I think that, I come up with another crazy idea, hahaha. I'm definitely gonna keep messing with tractors though, it's way to fun to stop now hahaha!

Glad to hear youre out of the junk funk...or junk slump...idk. Probably junk funk

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

junk funk

AllisKid's own music genre?

Hahaha, thanks CQ. I think junk funk sounds about right.

Well I had my front end apart a bit today, just kinda checking things out and re-greased my spindles.



Then I modified my outter 3-link bars a bit so that they could rotate in the middle and allow it to actually flex.



This joint in the middle nows acts as a point of rotation for the outter bars when the front axle flexes.

And it worked pretty good!! As you can see haha.









Much better! I also made a little "RTI" ramp of sorts with a long 2"x 4", hahaha.



About 12" with all four on the ground! It could go up further for sure but since I wasn't sitting on it there wasn't enough wait to hold it down. So I'm assuming if I drove it up, we'd really see 'er flex hahaha. Let me know what ya think!

Excellent!  Is your bumper bending too?

You were talking the other day to make it more utility got any plans for that?

Thanks! I'm not really sure what's up with that to be honest, I think the grille might have come out of place a bit (It's only held down with a tarp strap haha) but it could just be a wierd picture too. I have no idea, hahaha.

Also I was just saying that I wish I had put in in the Utility section... mostly so people wouldn't expect it to be some sooper fast speedy thing, because that was never the plan for it haha.

looks like a healthy coating of mud there.

Yes it seems to have a good layer of mud on it at all times anymore, hahaha

It's to keep it warm this winter!

Yeah, that sounds about right!

12 inches+ of flex is alot, good job. Where did the joint you put on come from?

Thanks prancstaman! The outer 3-link bars are just four outer and two inner tie rod ends from a mid 2000's F150.

OK, I see now. The rubber bushing thing threw me off.

Yeah haha, they work pretty near perfect for this setup. Also, I'm not sure what rubber bushing you mean?

Not sure if it is rubber, but from the tie rod on the frame, then the cup looking thing (that might be rubber). I think it's how you connected the tie rod to the rod. From your 2nd pic posted.

Oh! Yeah that's the inner tie-rod joint. That part would normally thread into the rack on the rack and pinion, but I threaded another outer tie rod end on it so I could attach it to the frame. The inner tie-rod joint is actually where the rotation happens in this application but I placed a washer up against the joint housing and welded it to to shaft. That way the joint can rotate, but it wont try and flex.

So I'm thinking about slapping some new front tires on this thing. I've wanted to put something narrow amd knobby like from a racing quad on the front, I think that would look sweet and perform pretty well. I really love the look of the tires Doc had on the front of MULE 2, I'm not sure of the brand but he said in his thread that they were 19x7-8. I did some looking online and this is what I've decided on.



They're Duro Thashers, and they come in 19x7-8 size. Hoping I can maybe get a pair through the shop or something. If not maybe I'll try and find something similar.

Looks good, I'd definitely get those! But would the front axle and frame handle it?

Yeah I think it would, they're only 19". If not I might have to do some more bracing AKA break out the angle steel, hahaha.

I think he meant clearance wise. Maybe get 20s and run a little lower pressure. That’ll help your suspension too

Oh, clearance wise I'm not sure hahaha. I dont really wanna go any bigger with the fronts, 19" is pushing it for what I want it to look like. If I get these Duros I definitely will run them at a fairly low PSI so they'll conform to objects pretty good when I'm crawling over stuff and what not.

Bust out that angle iron! Those tires look cool!