[FINALIST] - AK's LT-08 Rat Rod Tractor Build [2019 Build-Off Entry]

That trans is going to be rock solid!  Great job fixing it!

MightyRaze wrote:

That trans is going to be rock solid!

Haha, it better be or he's in trouble.



Hahaha, I'm just kidding. Nice job Allis!

Haha, thanks.

Well anyhow the rat rod went up on the stands today:



I had to swap axle sleeves because the axle sleeve bearings in the replacement trans were bad. That's when I noticed a bolt was actually broke off flush in there. Bugger...

Luckily I was able to get a nut welded to it and she backed out easy!



The replacement transaxle bolted up the same, so that went pretty smooth. I filled the the oil through the shifter hole and before I bolted the shifter up, I added a fitting for a breather:



Figured it would be a good idea for the higher speeds and oil level.

Then of course, the test drive.



Which went very well! I burned 'er through all the gears and everything seems just as it should be. I never fully maxed it out, (still no brakes) but I got it up to 21mph by my GPS app and it seemed to handle quite well.

So that's very good to have done. I think tomorrow I'm gonna try fabbing up a foot throttle for it so it's little safer to drive, haha. Been meaning to do that for a bit anyhow.

Hopefully that goes well!

Nice jobAllis, now get those brakes done too!

20+ mph thats enough to have fun with for sure.

Thanks fellas! Yeah it should be a fun ride for sure.

Found a nice shady spot to do some fab work today, so I went ahead and tackled the new throttle setup.



I rigged up the carb end of the setup first. Pretty simple as you can see:



Then the pedal end. Had to use some rebar in true rat rod fashion!



Probably gonna add a bit to the pedal later, but it works great!



I did a bunch of ripping around afterwards and man, is it ever fun to drive now that I got the foot throttle on 'er! A lot safer too, haha.

After that I decided I wanted the hood to hinge at the rear more like a car, so I got an old hinge mounted up to the hood and dash.



Works great! You wouldn't think it would work so well with only one hinge, but the hood doesn't weigh anything really so it doesn't seem like an issue.



I didn't get a prop rod rigged up yet, but you can see how it works. I was happy to have the hood secured so I could drive around without it falling off, but of course that's when the rain decided to show up:



Haha, oh well. Eventually it subsided and I got 'er back outside for a little bit:





She's working great!! I'm getting happier with this rig everytime I tinker with it, haha.

Let me know what ya think!

Okay so we had a bit of a driveshaft catastrophe today, she came apart on me when I was flying down the laneway. Broke the front coupler and it fell apart from there. I was able to make up a new one, but now I need to work on the U-joint at the rear.

Hopefully I can get it fixed again....

Yikes!  Knowing you, it will be better.

Sorry to hear that Allis. Sounds like you could benefit from a lathe and some driveshaft hoops. Hope you get it back together soon.

Thanks fellas. Haha, I guess you were right Mighty cuz I ended up getting 'er all back together and working good.

Here's the new coupler at the front:



Took a ton of measuring and screwing around to get it right, but it's good to go now.

Took 'er for a test drive and all went well!





Then I figured it was time to figure out some seatage because I was getting tired of almost flying off every time I took a turn at speed.

I used that neat padded pan seat from my 710 cuz I thought it would look better on this tractor. It feels much better to drive now, but part of me thinks it doesn't quite look right. Looks too high, kinda like I need to cut the fenders to allow it to sit down lower:





Opinions?

Also a couple decorative items to finish things off:

I completed my foot throttle, looks pretty neat to me, haha.



Then the good ol' Castrol Motor Oil driveshaft cover, because safety is a top concern on this particular build!



It's a lot less unnerving to drive it when you can't see the driveshaft spinning at 4500 RPMs right below you, haha.

Gonna maybe try and see what I can figure out for brakes tomorrow, I decided to go back to my pinion brake idea, so I'll see what I can get done to make that work.

Let me know what ya think!

Nice scatter shield Allis. I'm sure it'll look cool with a few dents pushed up from the other side. Although let's hope that doesn't happen lol.

Haha, thanks Rich. It just supposed to be more of a guard so nothing gets caught in the the shaft while it's running.

I think the seat goes well. Especially with the black rims. Nice little rat touches.

Alliskid wrote:

I used that neat padded pan seat from my 710 cuz I thought it would look better on this tractor. It feels much better to drive now, but part of me thinks it doesn't quite look right. Looks too high, kinda like I need to cut the fenders to allow it to sit down lower:

I was wondering if you were going to lower it any. I think it would look good.

TheBeal wrote:

Alliskid wrote:

I used that neat padded pan seat from my 710 cuz I thought it would look better on this tractor. It feels much better to drive now, but part of me thinks it doesn't quite look right. Looks too high, kinda like I need to cut the fenders to allow it to sit down lower:

I was wondering if you were going to lower it any. I think it would look good.

I second that!

It actually looks a little uncomfortable to drive being that it's so high up. You did remove the old seat mount right?

Of course I removed the old seat mount, the seat is just bolted right down to the fenders. It's actually quite comfortable to drive as it is now, but I think it looks too high so I'm gonna see if I can drop it into the fenders a little bit.

Totally stealing some of your Ideas for a future build.

Haha, no problem!

Well unfortunately I didn't do any brake work today, go figure, haha. But I managed to knock another important item of the list..

The final front rims and tires!





Now we're talking!! I'm loving the look for sure!



The rims are from my old parts B-110 and use tapered roller bearings, which is why I wanted to use them. Definitely should hold up nicely!

Also I got a couple neat screenshots front a short video I made earlier:





Kinda cool, haha. Let me know what ya think!

Video? Ooooo when ya uploading?

I like that top pic of it in the dirt.

This looks really cool! I like the front end setup. Turned out nice.

Looks like a true rat rod! Question is... Does it do true rat rod donuts???

Thanks everybody!

I was gonna upload the video but it didn't turn out quite as good as I was hoping, so I'll have to try again another day.

looks awesome man, love all the hard work, so many cool details

Thanks! Much appreciated!

Still tinkering away on the Build-Off rig. I decided to take a shot at dropping the seat down a bit:



I didn't wanna drop it too low, but just a couple inches or so.

Marked out and made the first cut:



End result:



Then I made up some bracketry to support the seat:




All bolted up!



Not a crazy difference, but I think it looks better than before for sure.

After that I took the fenders off again to start working out some brakes.



Didn't get a whole lot done in that area, but that'll be a project for the weekend, haha.

Let me know what ya think!