MUT: Murray Utility Tractor

Door #2:




Not too bad for something that ised to be a junked screen door!

Now to finish up the other openings, give it a coat of red paint (or black, haven't decided) and we’re ready for snow!

Something I see the guys over in other forums do is a fan to help keep the window from fogging up.  Any plans for something like that or a light inside?

MightyRaze wrote:

Something I see the guys over in other forums do is a fan to help keep the window from fogging up.  Any plans for something like that or a light inside?

Yep. I’ve got a couple small 12v fans for the front and rear window. As long as you keep airflowing over the goass, it won’t (or shouldn't) fog up.

I’m also working on a way to pull some engine heat into the cab to make it a touch more comfortable.

Since it’s an air cooled engine, you woukd think a “heater muff” would be the way to go. Thats a shroud used on the exhaust of air cooled aircraft. I don’t particularly like that idea. Works fine on light aircraft, but they’re under a rigid inspection cycle so you don’t get exhaust gas from a leak into the cabin.

I’m thinking of building a “port” on the engine cylinder shrouds to take warmed air away to the cabin. It I use the shroud on the opposite side as the side the exhaust is on, I should be pretty ssfe from CO concerns. Also, by using the cooling air off the cylinders, i may be aboe to a oid using a fan to draw the air to the cab, just some ducting and a valave to shut off the flow when I don’t want/need it.

I already have a small LED light attached to the ROPS, functions as a dome light for when it’s dark and hard to see controls. It’s not super bright, just enough to be able to see the dash switches.

Today, it will be the shrouds at the front of the cab and maybe start the roof if I still have some time left in the day...

Definitely one of my most favorite utility builds out there.  Keeps me wondering what you are going to plan for the Murray yet.

Could wrap some copper tubing around the cylinders with a small water pump and small heater core. That would allow you to cool the engine somewhat too, using the heater core as a small radiator. I’ve thought of doing it before as a liquid cooled conversion but couldn’t justify the weight gain or the cost

Made some good progress today:





I’m into the home stretch now. Cut the windows for the two rear 1/4’s and put the roof on, then it’s on to some finishing details and finish up with paint. I’m going to go with “fire red” Tremclad, same as the rest of the tractor bodywork.

Should be pretty “luxurious” this winter!

Lol!

Gettin’ there:




Door latches are on, roof is on, installed two high mounted flood lights and built a diamond plate visor. The visor serves a double purpose in that it covers the open space above the windshield glass (well, it looks kinda neat too!).

Tomorrow, I’ll build some “gutters” for the sides and maybe get it all into a fresh coat of red paint.

Then it’s just some small details like wiring up a couple fans and some foam strips to seal up the doors.

Too bad you don't have the big shrouds that some oppys had. Funnels the heat right in one direction. Although its a bit hard to separate from the exhaust, it'd make your idea a lot easier. I have both a horizontal and vertical shaft with these shrouds, I think they're the same.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Too bad you don't have the big shrouds that some oppys had. Funnels the heat right in one direction. Although its a bit hard to separate from the exhaust, it'd make your idea a lot easier. I have both a horizontal and vertical shaft with these shrouds, I think they're the same.

Ah, I see an Argo in that pic.

The Kohler in mine has the same shroud.

It will be easy enough to pull heat off the briggs the same way.Just takes a little fabbing and welding.

Yeah, I think it said something about an Argo where i got that pic from on google. Looking forward to what you come up with, fan shroud mods aren't that common, especially not adding more to them.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Yeah, I think it said something about an Argo where i got that pic from on google. Looking forward to what you come up with, fan shroud mods aren't that common, especially not adding more to them.

Easy peasy. Cut a hole in the shroud (below the cylinder), add a sheet metal "stub", then a hose from the stub back to the cabin. Add a fan or shutoff valve as required.

First coat of paint:



The side windows look “hazy” because they still have their protective shipping coating. Once I’m done painting, I’ll peel it all off for the last time I didn’t see much sense in pulling it all off before paint and then having to go back and tape it all off.

If you look closely, you’ll see there’s a “brow” on the front and back. They're not there as sun shades, they’re there to stop snow from blowing into the cab. I left about a 2-3 inch opening above the front and rear window in order to let air out and help alliviate “fogging” issues. If it becomes a problem with wind and/or cold getting in, I’ll just make a hinged flap I can open and close for them. The “brow” on the sides just extends the roof out past the door tops and cab side so any melt drips off and goes right to ground instead of finding its way inside.

What you can’t see is the adjustable rubber stops I added to each door so they don’t bang around and the bungee cords that keep the door from swingjng wide open in the wind and afford a little bit of a “self closing” feature.

Not bad for a bunch of “cast off” stuff. Not too bad at all!

I like it a lot. Is there glass in the lower panels too?

MightyRaze wrote:

I like it a lot.  Is there glass in the lower panels too?

If you are refering to the doors, then no. Thats aluminum and painted red.

I thought about doing that part in plexi too, but when I sat in the cab the floorboards block most of that area. So I saved the money it would have cost to buy enough plexi and just reused the screen door lower panels.

They really don’t cover anything I would need to see and it saved me about 100 bucks.

If I ever change my mind in the future, the aluminum panels just pop out and a peice of plexi will pop right in.

Not to mention the aluminum is probably lighter than the plexi.

I'm sorry I should have clarified.  I was talking about the lower front pieces.

MightyRaze wrote:

Not to mention the aluminum is probably lighter than the plexi.

I'm sorry I should have clarified.  I was talking about the lower front pieces.

If you mean the cab front lowers, they have windows in them so I can see where the front tires are:

I totally missed that.  Didn't scroll back up far enough.  What do you guess the overall weight of the cab would be?  I bet it will help some with traction.

MightyRaze wrote:

I totally missed that.  Didn't scroll back up far enough.  What do you guess the overall weight of the cab would be?  I bet it will help some with traction.

Maybe 30-40 lbs. Most of that weight would be the glass and wood. The frame and doors are very light. I can carry the doors around with a couple fingers, but could probably do it with one finger if I got it balanced.

Traction weight isn’t a problem. 6 cast iron suitcase weights on the back and each rim has a concete wheel weight in it. Plus, there’s also my 200 lb butt in the seat.....lol!

Heres a couple pics of the “bungee return system” and door strikes:

Took a little time today and added a “backup camera”:







Nice! Now I won’t have to try and twist my broken back and neck around to see behind the tractor when plowing.

The “lane lines” are internal to the camera itself. They look a little messed up because instead of it pointing out the back, I have it pointing straight down so I can get an accurate view of the distance to whatever I’m backing up towards.

It’s all Surplus bits I had lying around. The camera and monitor are ebay pieces I picked up years ago for a song and have been lying around ever since. Seems like a good way to finally get them off my parts shelves!

Nice upgrade! I bet that will come in handy.

There we go, windshield defrosting/defogging:




It does both heat and fan, but it’s mostly just for a fan. 12v heaters burn up a lot of power and don’t produce much heat.

I put it on the “flex mount” so I can point it at a sode window if needed. If I really need to get it close, the on/off switch is on a handle that folds out and I can take it off the mount to point it right where I want it.

Next up: figuring out a cabin heater...

Time to rig up some HEAT.

But being an air cooled engine meant I needed to figure out a creative solution. I wanted to stay away from the exhaust piping (CO concerns), so I went for cyl head heat instead:







Don’t mind the messy looking spot welds. The metal I used is very thin and hard to mig properly. Once fully welded, I’ll hit it with a flap wheel to smooth it out and then a shot of gloss black will make it look spiffy!



The pictures don’t really tell the tale of whats happening in there very well. I made a new sheet metal shroud for underneath the LH cylinder. That will capture some of the cooling air from the engine fan.

The part you see with the hose clamp on it is actually a fan housing. I took a 12v motor with a fan on it, split a section of exhaust pipe in half, made a “spider” to hold the motor in the middle of the pipe, slit the top piece for clearance and clamped it back together.

The lower half is welded to the shroud and the upper half has a brace to the top engine shroud. A simple “on/off” switch will control the motor. If the fan motor ever packs it in, all I have to do is loosen the hose clamp, pull the top of the housing off and slip in another 12 motor.

For ducting, I took an old shop vac hose and the part that would have gone into the shop vac body fit the fan housing ID perfectly. Then I ran the hose out through the steering pylon into the cab area. All I have to do is put a round port on the access panel and connect the hose to the port. Eventually, I’ll put a postion-able/closeable louver over the hole, mostly so I can close it off in summer. I expect a little airflow through the hose, but turning the fan on will give me a quick charge of warm air and then turn the fan off when I’m feeling warm enough.

To be clear: the “heater” isn’t meant to make it “t-shirt” temperature in the cab, just raise the internal temps a few degrees to help with the window fogging and just a tiny bit of heat/comfort to take the bite off the cold inside the cab.

Aaaaannnndddd:



Air outlet. I just cut a hole in the access panel, glued in a fitting and shoved the hose on the back. Powered up the fan motor and lots of air pumping out. Should work half decent to take some of the chill off cold winter days. I’ll have to rig up some kind of “deflector” so the air goes a bit more “up” instead of straight into the sheet metal under the seat, but thats a simple task.

Summertime will just require a plug that fits in the opening to keep hot air from reaching the cockpit. Well, no more than usually makes it back there that is!

Lol!

Finally got to take it out for a drive.

The “heater” works, even without a fan. The engine pushes warm air up the ducting all on it’s own. It’s not super hot, but it is warm. It should be enough to just take the chill out. Still have to wire up the fan, so I couldn’t tell if it was going to push more warm air into the cab, or make the air too cool while pushing it.

The opening at the top of the windsheild is going to need a “flap” or cover of some sort. While driving, lots of cool air came in over the top of the windshield. Not a big deal, I’ll just use some jean or rubber fabric to close it off.

I had made a rubber edge for the plow. I’m tired of the steel strip scraping the asphalt, so I tried making a rubber edge out of a horse stall mat like I’d read. Well, sidn’t work out the way I’d hoped. Inatead of sliding, the rubber just chattered across the pavement. Soon, the whole trator was bouncing and shaking. So, i had to take it off. I may look to see if I can get some thick hard plastic and give that a go....

Been a while. MUT is doing fine, just beating on it with winter plowing and summer dirt moving.

But it's a bear to "armstrong" around with the plow or bucket. It's also showing the wear of using it hard. There's little niggling faults here and there and some parts are just wearing faster than others.

So, I've decided it needs to go to the next level. it gets torn down to the frame this spring and rebuilt.

Plans:

-Add Hyd pump - https://www.surpluscenter.com/Hydraulics/Hydraulic-Pumps/Gear-Pumps/0-36-cu-in-Dynamic-GPF2006PC-Hydraulic-Pump-9-7787-B.axd
-Add 55 amp alternator
-Hydraulic steering (basically, a JD 318 system)
-Double spool valve
-Hydraulic front end loader
-Choking me out in the cab, so new exhaust system (muffler is shot anyways)
-Redo the cab so it's a a bit less "hillbilly engineered"
-The rear disc brakes are OK, but a little undersized for the weight. Planning to space the rims out an inch or two and kick the disc sizes up to 298 or 300mm. Might go with some 4 pot brake calipers and master cylinders to match. Either way, the rig just needs more brake for is weight.
-Straighten the tins and give it all a fresh spray

Hyd diagram:



Essentially, the top half is the JD318 system and since the MUT doesn't have a hydro unit, I had to add the lower half to provide hyd power (IE: pump, reservoir, relief, etc)

Parts are in hand or on the way. Should have a couple grand it it when done. Already have (maybe) just a tick over a grand in the hydraulic parts right now, but all I have left to need is some steel lines and fittings. I'll flare my own JIC lines, so money saved there. Hyd lines cost you a left n*t if you have them made, luckily I can make my own.

Probably have another $500-1000 in steel to order to get the loader and new bucket built.  

Pricey, but that's what it takes to get the capability to where I want it.

That's still a good 10-15 grand less than buying one ready made (don't even look at the price of a SCUT!). And used, well, nothing really shows up around here like that unless it's worn past being usable or way overpriced to where you might as well buy new.

Should be ready to go by next winter I'm guessing. Probably won't be any updates until it's done or nearly done. Not much of a "forum guy" anymore....