Chris's **Tracta-Cooler** [2017 Build-Off Entry] [Finalist]

Over View; What I will be putting together is a motorized off-roading cooler!! The cooler will be lifted with full suspension with a transmission.

Front end - I will be using a EZGO TXT Front end. The front suspension will be designed on a 3 link set up

Steering - Mix of golf cart parts and go kart parts.

Frame - Ladder style made out of 2x2 14ga square tubing.

Rear end - 1" live axle. Will have 8" mechanical brakes. The suspension for now will be based on a swing arm design.

Power Plant - Tecumseh 6.5 Power sport horizontal shaft.

Transmission - Peerless 700 5spd.

Body - Will be a marine fishing sized cooler to ride on. I am planning on making my own fenders and dash. I haven't decided if I will make them out of metal or fiberglass yet.  

Bumpers - I will be making my own custom bumpers front and rear.

Controls - For now I will be using foot controls for gas and braking. I will probably use motorcycle parts for these. Shifting I would like to put in the dash panel and haven't worked that out yet.

I believe that is everything in a nutshell for now. I do not know if this idea is going to work, as I have never built anything from the ground up before. I just got into the tractor game this past June and I am still learning a lot everyday. Also I would like to thank the people that have already guided me in the directions I am in and the future people that will assisting me with this project.

I will try to keep this updated as much as possible if you're interested in following the process. I will also be posting updated to Facebook (City Slicker Builds) and YouTube (Redneck City Slicker Builds)

I have been looking forward to this build for a long time, as I want the challenge of a one off creation and building new friendships along the way.

Happy building!

Should be a beast!

Interesting....Good luck to ya!

Ok to start off the build I am working on making the frame for the Tracta-Cooler. What I am using is 2x2x14ga square tubing. When I ordered the tubing I had them cut two sections at 7LF and one section at 6LF.

At this point I am leaving the two 7' pieces at that length. I do not know how long the cooler will be over all, with mounting the trans and motor behind the cooler.

To begin the frame I cut two sections of the 6' piece at 13.5". I then tack welded them in at each end of the 7' pieces to make a large rectangle. As the build progresses along I will be adding more cross members to the frame to support it better.

Here is a video of how I did everything.

I have made a little headway on the Tracta-Cooler over the weekend. I have the front shocks mounted to the frame and the front axle.

For the frame I welded on two shock mount tabs, one on each side. Then I took the rack and pinion off the front axle and cut the existing shock mounts off. We measured for center on the axle then out to the side where the shocks go from the frame. We then welded those two tabs on and put the shocks in to see it under the frame. To be able to work on the Tracta-Cooler at its correct height, I build to supports to go under the frame to rest on. With the supports under her it makes it so much easier to work on things and visualize the machine.

Now that I can start working on the 3 link suspension, I fabricated two center frame mounting brackets. I took a piece of 1/8" plate and cut out two large pieces out of it. Then I proceeded to cut down some 2x2x1/8" tubing I have laying around into basically angle iron shape. After the brackets got to the size I needed I welded them to the plates. To drill out the brackets for the bolts to hold the heim joints in, I was able to borrow my neighbors bench top old drill press. Found center on the brackets and drilled them out. Once all that was done, I found the space on the frame I wanted to mount them too and tack welded them on.


Yes I cleaned the brackets up after taking this pic.


Here is a video of the fabrication of the brackets


Next up will be to make the brackets to mount to the front axle for the 3link.

Finally a update to post on the Tracta-Cooler!!!

I have been working on the front axle suspension. I can finally say the 3 link front suspension is done. Shout out to Doc Sprocket for helping me with some hang ups I had. I have been fighting this thing for awhile now. I thought I had it just about completed then had to tear it all down and start over again with the mounts and locations. I am not sure if you guys want a extremely detailed write up or just look at pictures and see what I have done. On this one I will post pictures, let me know if you want a detailed write up step by step of the suspension process.

To start here are the brackets I made to mount the heim joints in 1"w x 2"l x 1/8" is the material.



Here are the front axle brackets I had to weld on.



Here is a pic of the cross members and the links under view




These are some pic's I snapped of the progress of the suspension.








Here is a quick walk through video of the 3 link suspension.

I am far from an expert on multi link suspension geometry, but it looks like the top link isnt right. It would work for a culdi-cruiser, but if you maxed out the suspension, it would bend the shocks. I would do a truck bar thing with heim joints and scrap the panhard. You asked for input and I gave it.

I still have some fine tuning to do. My garage floor isn't level making it look like It's more off than it is. I need to put a load on it before I make anymore adjustments to it. I know I need to shorten the panhard some to pull the frame to the left some. Then start adjusting the links. If it's still not right then I'll have to go another route. But all in all this thing is going to max out wide open at 15mph. I won't be flexing the suspension to much with it, not unless I get a wild hair. My butt will be sitting at almost 4' off the ground.

the floor doesnt have anything to do with it. Take the shocks off and raise the axle. If the caster changes, it will trash the shocks

Now I gotcha, I misunderstood what you were saying in the last post. I thought you were talking about the frame and axle not being a 100% aligned and the side right side of the frame looking higher than the left. I will unbolt the shocks tomorrow and check it.

Is there a fancy drawing that says what the angles and what not should be for suspension like this?
I saved some parts to build a 3 link setup... I dont want to have to rebuild it 60 times.

the biggest part is the pivots need to be symmetrical. shat binds up if it isnt

I dont have any good pics of the front end of the swamp donkey handy, but it has a sodomized truck bar set up.

Tater,
Im not sure I understand (sorry Im a dope sometimes lol) We dont want the front axle kicked out so far? Looking from the side, we want to see the shocks strait up and down?


Anywho...

Are those tires from BMI karts? If you dont mind my asking, how much was shipping?

it does have a 3 link in the back

TheBeal wrote:

Tater,
Im not sure I understand (sorry Im a dope sometimes lol) We dont want the front axle kicked out so far? Looking from the side, we want to see the shocks strait up and down?


Anywho...

Are those tires from BMI karts? If you dont mind my asking, how much was shipping?

The axle will have a little tilt through the travel range, but if the links dont swing the same, it will put more of a twist on the axle. Turning the bottom shock mount 90* will help a little. Those shocks dont have much travel, but it looks bad enough to bind them up

TheBeal wrote:

Tater,
Im not sure I understand (sorry Im a dope sometimes lol) We dont want the front axle kicked out so far? Looking from the side, we want to see the shocks strait up and down?


Anywho...

Are those tires from BMI karts? If you dont mind my asking, how much was shipping?

I don't think the freight was terrible. Maybe like $20 but I live in Ohio same as them. I haven't made up mind about those little tires yet. I am thinking about just using them as transportation tires, and mounting some large wide atv tires on it to help out with stability giving it a wider stance.

Or buy another set, make some spacers and run duallys on all four corners. That would be cool

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Or buy another set, make some spacers and run duallys on all four corners. That would be cool

That crossed my mind. When I first thought this project up I didn't think it would be this size. I ordered the tires when they were on clearance during the time I was coming up with the idea. Now for how big it the tires look to small on it. I rolled some 24" or 25" tires next to it looked a ton better.

I was able to make a little progress on the Tracta-Cooler this past week. I have been working on the steering setup.

In this first pic you will see I had to remount the rack and pinion. For this front end on the golf cart they mount basically flat and at a little angle. With the rack in its normal position, the input is at a bad angle for my setup. It was causing me to have to push the cooler to far back on the frame. If I left it alone it caused my universal joints to bind up trying to get the angle on the steering column I wanted. What I did to correct my issue is cut down a piece of 2x2x1/8" square tubing basically into a angle iron shape. Once I had it down so the size I needed I cut the bottom into an angle of 15* to match the top plate on the axle.


To hold in the part of the steering column with double-ended universal joints I took a piece of 2x2x14ga and cut it out with a grinder wheel and flappy disk. Then I cut a small section of exhaust pipe off of a set of Kawasaki Vulcan 900 exhaust I had laying around. After that I welded them together. The reason for this piece is to just act as a guide for the column to hold it into place.



I then made up two three sided brackets out of 1x1 square tubing. One is taller than the other. The taller one is my back/bottom section of what will be my dash closest to the cooler. The smaller one is to weld my second steering column guide I took off the frame of the Murray Widebody.

Here is a pic of the steering completed. Yes that is left handed steering to go old school and to be different. I don't believe anyone else in the build contest is doing left hand steering.







Here is a video walk through posted at Redneck City Slicker Builds

Nice!! Pretty complex front axle setup. Will be good for what you got in mind easily. But your shocks are mounted wrong. Your 2 arks of travel on the upper and lower links will twist the axle even with what little movement you will get from those shocks. Need to remount the shocks 90 degrees, it matters how the bolts to mount the shocks go in, which dictate the joint of movement.

I noticed that too. I am waiting on a friend to lend me his torch so I can heat the tabs up on the axle to bend them up a bit. This axle is a pain in the butt since the top part of it is mounted at a 15* angle. I think I would of been better off not using this and making something from scratch. But hey what fun is it if it's not a challenge? I picked this project to be different than anything else and to challenge me with the fabricating. This is all trial error I'm working through.

Drive Terrain update

Been slaving away in the Redneck City Slicker Builds garage whenever I get a free chance.

The first thing I did was make a engine mount for the frame. I took a large piece of 1/8" plate and cut it down with my 4" angle grinder. I measured for the center of the plate and made my mark. Once that was completed I measured the bottom on the Briggs and Stratton 12.5HP bolt pattern, and transferred it over the plate and drilled the mounting holes out (4). Using a 2 1/2" hole-saw bit I drilled out the large hole on my center mark. Please do not follow these steps as my made a mistake of forgetting that the crank shaft is not centered. So now my crank isn't in the center of the large hole. I then placed the plate on the frame and bolted the engine down and put the cooler on the frame to figure out where I wanted the engine mounted for clearance. Once it was in place I welded the mount to the frame. See pictures below.







Now for the Peerless 700 Trans mount I fabricated.

Using 1/8" plate I cut two strips down to over hang the furthest bolts from the front and back of the three on each side. I drilled out the bolt holes with the drill press and rounded the corners of the plates.


After having the two plates that bolt to the trans on, I rummaged through the parts brackets from the Murray Widebody that I stripped down. I found the two heavy duty L shape brackets that held the transaxle on the Murray. I welded to the bottom side of each bracket.


I then grabbed two pieces of 2x2x1/8" square tubing and welded those to the side of the L shape brackets.


The reason I am mounting the trans "upside down" and in a drop bracket, is to keep it under the cooler and for the belt from the engine pulley to line up.


Here are some photos of positioning the trans bracket in place and tack welding it on.

Your shift linkage will be awfully low....Are you going to build skid plates? What happened to the Teccy?