A Rat Rod Wheelbarrow Bucket T Tractor/Kart for my Grandson

Today the Politically Incorrect hood ornament for the Rat Rod came. My grandson’s name is Austin, we all worked or work at gold mines and AU is the symbol for gold. So, since Austin likes gold and we all love shooting... I present the perfect ornament for the top of the grill.



The black spots are reflections from the back of the iPad.

But wait, there’s more!

I got the wiring finished for the welders and checked them out. Both of them run! The machines haven’t run for probably at least 6 or 7 years. And, I haven’t welded since then... but I did strike an arc with the MIG and it seems fine. My automatic welding hoods are sitting in the sun now, hopefully they will take a charge and work. Otherwise I will have to open the things and see what sort of battery is in there. They do have solar cells but they must have a battery. The old fashioned GLASS lens hoods still work fine. LOL
Now to do some practice welds and get the hang of it all again.

Good looking hood ornament! I got a Brockway truck hood ornament a while back at an auction. 45 dollars, some pitting and corrosion but I love it. I’d put it on my tractor but it’s too big lol

Well...

The good news is that my auto darkening hood works fine.

The bad news is I will have to buy a MIG. Darn it. The thing welds fine, for an inch or less. Seems the control cable assembly (gas tube and wire feed tube) has died. If I hold the cable straight out, it feeds fine. Any other position and it jams. The tubes have also come out of the gas valve so it leaks. Darn it. Grrr... I spent a couple of hours trying to fix it, but gave up. Sigh...

im thinking of making a hood ordament for my offroad mower lol

Well, my lady approved a MIG and a plasma cutter. Nothing fancy, but they should do the trick. In the meantime, I’m cleaning and organizing the garage in preparation for bringing the Rat inside to work on it.

Always fun to get new tools, its like Christmas!

For sure. I have only run a plasma cutter one time. They came along long after my wrench turning for a living days were over. Now I get to play!

I’m spending my precious shop time cleaning and moving and organizing the bay where our Kubota RTV lives. One bay of the garage is home to our 4x4 Sprinter van. It is our DAV son’s transportation. It has a wheelchair lift for him. The other bay is where the RTV lives. We call the RTV ‘the Punkin’ because it is a big orange rounded thing. So, the Punkin bay is also going to become a shop. I’m hoping to get the place organized by Friday when the new toys are due to arrive. That way I can back the Punkin out and have the whole bay to work and then bring it back in when I’m done. Winter is on the way... sigh.

I appreciate your son’s service! Also congratulations on the new wire feeder

The welder is due to be delivered tomorrow.

I’ve managed to chop off the LONG hubs of the snowblower wheels I’m using on the front of the rat. I’ll make a spacer and use a flap wheel to clean up the hubs. I had to cut them at an angle (whittle them off) because the wheel would have hit the rim otherwise. No biggie. Bronze flanged bushings ordered for now, maybe ball bearing modification later.



I’ll hold the front wheels on with a cotter pin for now and the rears with a circlip. (Just for the rolling chassis phase)





I had given my engine hoist to one of my boys and borrowed it back today. It is now ready for lifting the chassis off the frame table after the welding is done. I’ve set the rear chop at 18” and figured out how to attach the front axle assembly. Next will be grinding off paint and dirt for weld prep.

The welder says ‘out for delivery’! So, I went out and got the rear frame stretch ready to weld and worked some on the front axle mount.



There is a piece of angle clamped under the frame insert. It will be removed after the frame insert is tacked in place.



This shows the stainless steel angle clamped to the frame. It is just there to insure the frame is straight while welding. It will come off after things are tacked in place. I have clamped a piece of copper behind the vertical joint that will be welded. I found a bunch of different shapes of copper plate at a surplus store years ago. They work great for backing welds and on my TIG table. I hope to do full penetration welds on the frame. I will probably just do some heavy tack welds, then set the frame on the ground so I can do most of the welds flat, avoiding as much out of position welding as possible. I’m out of practice for sure.
I will be doing some practice welds of course, using scraps first, before I attack the actual frame.





This is the plan for the front axle mount. The angle iron between the axle mount and the old frame is for stiffening and carries through to the front of the axle mount. It will be butt welded to that part also. I may box in the front of the frame, between the new and old parts if the engine clears well.

Blind pigs find acorns once in a while. I realized I could remove the entire front axle assembly easily. I did that and I now have a 3 pound chunk of steel to wrangle instead of a 30 pound axle assembly. This will also allow me to reinforce the whole front end easily.
The welder arrived. It looks GOOD. How can this be real? $150 bucks for a 140 amp MIG. Hope it works. Tomorrow will tell.

Does anyone know for sure what size the spindle bushings are on one of these Craftsman axles? The spindle is 3/4” of course. I’m hoping the bushings are 3/4 x 7/8 because those are common. The existing ones are plastic. They are OK now, but I would rather have metal.



Oh, I also remembered to measure and mark the original, approximate engine shaft to axle input distance. That gives me the placement for the jack shaft so I can use a ‘normal’ clutch setup and belt length. Then the rear belt, from jack shaft to transmission pulley can be a simple thing with a belt tensioner. I hope...

With the current plan for the tub and seat placement, the jack shaft should fit fine, even if I lower the rear end (raise the transaxle).

After WAY too much work, trouble and money, the welder is wired. And some air system work done. Sigh... maybe test welds tomorrow. The welder does run, and it has .030 wire sticking out of the stinger but I was too tired to play with testing today.

The welder works like a dream. Very happy with it so far. I set the voltage and wire feed as a guess then ran some beads on a test coupon. A few adjustments later and I was confident it would be OK. Then I started working on the plasma cutter cart. No use wasting welding time.
I almost immediately burned a hole in the tubing of the cart. It is thin, about like conduit really. Adjustment... success. I was able to quickly pick up the old skill it seems. I ran flat welds, then horizontal, vertical up, vertical down and even a bit of overhead. VERY happy with this.

I had forgotten about wind and MIG. Sigh... plus, the welder won’t reach outside the garage door. I have an extension cord ordered, but I think I will rig the engine hoist to move the whole frame and frame table into the garage. I have used this same lift to move and place a 900 pound metal lathe on it’s pedestal, so I’m sure the rig can do it. Now to see if I can make it do it.

Let’s do this! (I took two Aleve before starting, it helps keep the lower back from complaining about doing things)

The lift went as planned... thankfully it was actually quite easy.



I cleaned up all the junk parts from underneath the frame table and rigged the entire table to the lift, using 4 ratchet straps to the legs of the table. The ratchets allowed leveling the assembly.




From then on it was a matter of inching the hoist toward the door. I had to raise the table and turn it so it would go through the door pointed in the right direction. My garage is a MESS, everything I do turns into a mess. Disregard mess...



The old shovel is the ‘inching bar’ it lets me lever the lift slowly and carefully. The garage floor has of course heaved and there is a lump/bump at the door. Wheels are a nice invention, they allowed the inching bar to lever the lift and load over the bump easily.



My lady came out to view the process and took a pic of the fat old man playing with iron.



Now I can WELD this! I can walk around the frame easily and the welder will reach it nicely. Once the extension cord gets here, I will actually be able to navigate jobs like this without the power cord being stretched out.







The garage door can be closed to keep the pesky breezes from blowing away the shielding gas while welding. Maybe we will have a one piece frame tomorrow.

We now have a very long frame with a nicely reinforced front end. I plan on adding a 1” square tube on each side, at the bottom of the frame for reinforcement. Some nice welds and some real crap. I had my hood set too dark and couldn’t see. LOL, some welds just wander off across the frame. Plus, I get impatient. If I take my time and go SLOWLY, I’m doing OK. All is well, ugly welds will still work.



I added quite a bit of metal to strengthen the front axle mount. The newer frames are not as thick as the old. Plus, they are apparently powder coated. Nasty stuff when it burns off around the welds.



I may add a plate over the welds on the inside of the frame stretch, plus the square tube on the outside, full length.

Good day today. I made a new work table. I was done with the frame table and it was too difficult to move around. So, I cut off a UBC tote frame. This will be perfect for lots of things I think. It is a good height for me to work at, fireproof and will be easy to move when I need to. It has fork pockets of course, plus I think I can use some of those little Harbor Freight caster things under it. That way I can roll the rig in and out of the shop.



I did a test fit on the front axle. Good thing. The bolts that hold the axle assembly together go through the support pieces and have a nut on the inside. Sigh... my reinforcement I added to the frame nose yesterday made it so I couldn’t get the nut on. The cutting wheel made a nice hole to get a wrench into, so that is good now. And, the tie rod hit the front of the old frame, so it was trimmed off. I’ll need to do some welding there now, but no biggie.



I plan to add a 1” square tube full length on both sides for stiffening the frame. Thankfully, I checked this first and found that it can’t go past the front of the rear tire.
I can make it work though.

The steering stops will have to be added to also. The tire will hit the frame even without the reinforcement. It turns too tight anyway.









Disregard the ugly welds, they have feelings too.

The extension cord for the welder arrived today along with a socket so I can make an extension cord for the plasma cutter. Nice to get the sparks out of the garage when possible.

Some work, mostly thinking today. I cut the square tube reinforcement for the right side and clamped it on. Looks good.

At the front I cut it shorter to allow tire clearance. I decided to maximize the turning angle. I plan to weld a piece of angle on where the red lines are and cut off the original steering stop. That will double the thickness of the steering arm at the pivot location. I will be using ball joints for now, maybe heim joints later.



At the rear, I cut the tubing short so the big tires will clear nicely.



I may lower the rear end by raising the axle mounts a few inches. I need to put all 4 wheels on and set the thing on the ground before deciding on that.



I also collected a pile of pulleys and other parts in preparation for building the jack shaft and rear belt tensioning contraption. I think I have figured out how to use a mower deck spindle, AND how to adjust the space from top pulley to bottom pulley to match my design. I hope...





The spindle/jackshaft is too high now, I just wanted to see it in approximate position. I’m hoping to have the transaxle pulley about 2 inches above the frame deck, no more.

I lowered the rear end by cutting along the lines above. By putting the axle brackets up to the bottom of the frame, the total lower is about 2.5 inches. That puts the centerline of the axle pulley about 1.5” above the top of the frame. Now to figure out the rest of the mystery.
I also ground a few welds and prepared to weld on stiffener on the right side of the frame.

While lowering the rear end, I had the back plate off of the frame. There is almost zero strength back there without the rear plate. I will be adding at least one cross member and maybe an axle brace.

Good progress today, mainly in decision making, but some REAL progress too. The donor engine has been pulled and is sitting on the rat frame. Fits perfect, but I may have to trim a bit of metal to let the muffler fit... if I use that muffler. This engine is out of an LT1500 and the frame is an LT1000. There is some difference in the muffler placement.

I have also finally figured out the drive train, I think. I got the pulley off of the transaxle, thankfully a bit of prying and tapping and it came off. Now I need a 5/8” bore something to make the hub for the pulley I intend to use on the axle.

And, the jackshaft has finally agreed to work, I think... lots of thinking. LOL. Putting the engine in place allows me to make the decision on the drive belt. As I figured, the LT1500 pulley is closer to the frame than the 1000. No big deal since I am moving the big pulley up anyway. I will just weld it in place where I want it, instead of where ‘they’ had it.

GOOD progress thanks to Harbor Freight and a fat junk pile. I found one of those neat step drills, a big one that goes up to 1-1/4” or so on my workbench. It asked to help, so I let it. I also found a nice 5/8” bore pulley in the snow blower parts pile. Perfect. It seems odd that the only thing that holds the pulley on the input shaft of an MST-206 is a key and a circlip. But, that made things easy. I slipped the big snow blower pulley on the shaft and drilled the center of a mower deck pulley to a nice slip fit. It came out EXACTLY the right height when sitting on the snow blower pulley. 
I used the step drill in the drill press to open up a thick washer for a spacer on top of the driven pulley. That put things in the right place for the circlip to work properly. I had to file a notch in the washer to clear the drive key. 

I’ll weld the rim of the smaller pulley to the big pulley and then trim off the extra width. 





That HUGE idler pulley is just there for an idea of how it will all work. I’ll be using a much smaller snow blower clutch idler and a strong spring for tensioning the rear belt. 

Overall view of the current status:



The mower deck spindle housing on the board will be the jack shaft bearings. The step drill will open up another deck pulley to fit over the spacer sleeve. I can then weld it at the right place to be driven by the engine. 





I think I will trim the front axle mount about at the red line. I may bolt on the axle support and use the plasma cutter to trace a pretty curved line. I haven’t run the cutter yet.

The engine clears my raised axle mount nicely. 




Serendipity... a happy accident. 
I discovered that I can cut the large deck drive pulley off of the engine pulley tube, move it up and weld it to the little pulley. It will be exactly in the right place. Then I can shorten the tube and use a shorter bolt and the drive will be in the right place for the clutch placement.



The spindle shaft will hang about 1” below the lower edge of the frame. That should be OK. 



One last look for today. 

I collected a 5 gallon bucket of parts from the snow blower and mower deck department this morning. Out of that pile of goodies and some I had in the shop already, I managed to put together the mockup for the belt tensioner for the back belt. I found a fat belt that fits the pulleys better too, so this looks like it will work. I decided on a larger idler pulley from a mower deck and the brackets that support it are from the belt tensioner used with a variable speed pulley on a F/R Craftsman setup. 







Something has changed in the picture posting process and I am having trouble with it again. 

The rear of the frame needs reinforcement anyway, so I think I will weld a 1” square tube cross member where the red cross hatching is shown below. The brackets will be welded to that and the frame, the yellow marks. The idler and pivot bolt to the brackets so maintenance will be easy. 



The puny little springs are just there for the mockup, they made it easy to install and see how it works. 






I’ll do a more careful alignment as I weld the pieces in place. 

Next is to make and install the jack shaft assembly. I did find another set of pulleys and I will discuss my ideas as I build the part. It will still be based on the mower deck spindle.

Nevadablue wrote:

Today the Politically Incorrect hood ornament for the Rat Rod came. My grandson’s name is Austin, we all worked or work at gold mines and AU is the symbol for gold. So, since Austin likes gold and we all love shooting... I present the perfect ornament for the top of the grill.



The black spots are reflections from the back of the iPad.

But wait, there’s more!

I got the wiring finished for the welders and checked them out. Both of them run! The machines haven’t run for probably at least 6 or 7 years. And, I haven’t welded since then... but I did strike an arc with the MIG and it seems fine. My automatic welding hoods are sitting in the sun now, hopefully they will take a charge and work. Otherwise I will have to open the things and see what sort of battery is in there. They do have solar cells but they must have a battery. The old fashioned GLASS lens hoods still work fine. LOL
Now to do some practice welds and get the hang of it all again.

where did you buy the hood ornamint

Ebay. Look for ‘trophy toppers’. I had a time finding something until I discovered what they call them.

Good progress on the rat rod today as well as my welding practice. I got some good tubing from a dumpster next door and some angle iron. The tubing will make some folding work tables and maybe an exhaust system for the rat. 
I cut part of a tote frame (the rest of what the rat frame is sitting on in the pics above) and welded it into a small fab table. That was good practice... welding thin material, outside in the wind, with a MIG. Thin galvanized tube. I DID IT! Hooah! 
Then I fabricated the rest of the parts for the jack shaft. All that is left on it is to weld the lower pulley in the right place. I still have to decide where that is and probably won’t do the welding until the engine pulley is set up. I do plan to make two different pulleys for the engine. One at ‘normal’ small pulley for use while my grandson is learning the machine and one for faster speed later. 
I also cut the front of the axle support with the plasma cutter so (hopefully) the muffler will fit in place.

ARRGGG! I went out and did some weld prep... grinding things clean for good welds. I had decided that the frame reinforcements need to be welded in place before I make the internal cross members for the rear belt and clutch. That went well. 
Then... I decided to play with the steering box I wanted to use. It will be fine if you want to turn left when the wheel is turned right. Grrr. Nothing to do about it but not use it. I’ll use the original steering setup from the LT1500 that the front axle came off of. I saved it carefully just in case. But, so far, I can’t find the bottom steering shaft bushing. Another grrr... but I have another machine I can steal it from if I can’t find it. 
Sigh... 

The plasma cutter did a nice job of trimming around the front axle mount. I’m also grinding on my ugly welds, those are pitiful. A LOT more cleanup to do, but it is fun. 



And, yesterday evening I got the front wheel hubs cleaned out with little 1” flap wheels so they will accept the 7/8” OD by 3/4” ID bronze bearings. Trimmed and ground them today.

I found the bearing the third time I looked in the box it should have been in. Also collected a tie rod and another steering rod. I found that one of the old mowers had a sector gear that will fit, I may use it instead of the original. This one has a ball joint and the one from the donor machine has a shoulder bolt. This may also force a change in the console, but I won’t know for sure until I get the jackshaft in place.