"The WarHorse"

It's not all that low really because of the design of the tractor and low seat, sure I have to bend down but i don't feel like I'm reaching way down like I would if it were the Roper. I am really liking it there, easy to reach and it's not in the way at all!

It's been a BIG day for this 'ol girl, I want it to be ready for an actual ride so I worked on it most of the afternoon and late into the evening. I got alot done!


The first thing that HAD to be dealt with was securing the brake drum backing plates, I had ziptied them to hold them from spinning and jamming into the axle which is fine around the yard but not on the trails so...


...I made 2 of these out of a small piece of 1/2" bar stock I had...


...welded them on the spindles, painted them then reinstalled the spindles!


There was a plastic bushing on the steering bellcrank that had alot of slop in it so I drilled the hole a little bigger for a steel bushing that I tack welded in place.



I also added steering stops which worked out perfectly and hasn't really impacted the turning radius either so that's good! At full lock and articulation there's still clearance everywhere, I think I could actually squeeze a little bit more articulation out if this rig!


Then on to the rear wheels... boy did I get lucky on this one,  I removed all washers and spacers, put in a (floating) 3/4" shaft collar, the wheel, the original washer and wouldn't you know it the set screw on the outer locking shaft collar was right in the middle of the groove for the clip just like I was hoping for! All I i had to do was trim the keys, used my Dremel to put a little notch in the groove for the set screw to lock down into and that's it!


Time for a little testing!

I almost made it on top of the stump! I bet if my tire caught a root I would've got up there but I did actually get the front wheel all the way up on it from another angle but wasn't able to get a picture.


This is JUST before tipping point which will improve once I relocate a battery under the dash but for now that's not half bad!


Well crawling! It didn't even struggle!


Another top speed run and...21kph (13mph)! That's a huge improvement over stock!


Then I made the new extended winch plate supports out of steel left over from the winch plate itself. I ran out of bedliner so paint will have to wait but now it's ready for use!


I made a proper kill switch wire and ziptied it with the choke cable and fuel line, this turned out to be a huge blessing because I've always had a hard time turning the fuel on and off because it's so flexible and you can only get one hand in there but now with it secured to the choke cable it's a breeze!


I also got the winch wired up (but not to the battery) and made a little holder for it, I'll add a hook to cradle the wiring coming out of the controls and that should hold it in place no problem.


What's really cool is how the wiring worked out perfectly so I can run the controller out of the hood, still clamp the hood down and control the winch from the seat!


What I day I'm pooped!

Until next time!

Nice work. Lots of thought put into the tractor! Nice fab work too.

Thanks @MightyRaze! It's going to be oh so satisfying to get it out for an actual romp after all the time I've put into it and it's more capable of tackling obstacles than I anticipated it would have been! One thing I'll need to sort out is the flex of the tractor itself, it will jump out of whatever VariDrive gear I'm in and go strait to 7th when it's flexing alot but I can't see it to know if it's an easy fix or if serious frame reinforcement is needed. Hey at least she's rockin' and ready for rompin' right!?

More to come later, I'm working on it again today!

I got a little bit more done today, I started with finishing the mount for the winch controller. All I did was bend/tweak a eyehook and make it difficult to fanagle the wires through it, drilled a hole in the fender and burned it in.


The idler was shot so I put a new, slighter larger one on that I got for a good price. The belts were touching even before the idler swap while in 1st "gear" of the VariDrive so I'll have to add a belt guide or small idler to keep them apart.


Then I installed the fan shroud and pullstart from the other flathead, tack welded a steel bushing in the dash for the pull rope to go through, tied the handle and that was that!


I also removed all unnecessary wiring, replaced some connections, wired the winch to power and wired the charge wire. I figured out where and how I'll mount a tool and supplies box and will tackle that in the morning! I'm hopefully taking it for a shakedown run tomorrow afternoon and I ain't going without a way to carry tools and water at least!

Very nice updates and upgrades.  Love the pull from the dash!

Thanks @MightyRaze! I actually got the idea from a Kijiji ad for a old Eaton Viking 8hp, not sure if it was stock or not but I liked the idea! I'm planning on using electric start on a cold startup or if it's being difficult for some reason and the pullstart the rest of the time but now I need to find another spot for the horn button which isn't a big deal, I'm hoping I can find a spot close to where it was so I don't have to redo the wiring.

Well heck, no shakedown run today but I did install the toolbox and made a heatsheild for it. I think I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the day (for once)!

I'm back with another update!


I grabbed some bedliner after work and painted the winch support brackets so now it's all nice and blaaaack! Lol.


As I stated in a previous post the rear VariDrive belt halves did start touching each other but seemingly only when in first "gear" of the VariDrive and I plan on spending alot of time there so I made a simple (adjustable) belt guide out of 5/16" round stock and that solves that!


Now for the good stuff! I got me a start on the front brakes! First I modified the pedal same as the other side so they match.


Then after finding the cables and doing some thinking under the tractor I came up with this contraption! It's the brake rod bracket(s) with L brackets I made from the cutoff of the VariDrive "plate" welded on and cable adjusters welded onto the Ls for fine tuning.


Here they are painted, installed and the cables routed to give you an idea.


I'll probably cross them over as pictured but I may also try to make them stay on their respective sides, I'll figure that out on the next session in which I should have them done (I'm hoping). All that's left is to make tabs to weld on the brake rod, cut the cable and sheathing down once I've settled on cable routing and figure a way to secure cables to the tabs...I think what I'll do is drill a hole in a bolt for the cable to go through and pinch just like on a bicycle. Oh and a pedal stop and return spring(s)... okay maybe it'll be a couple sessions? Lol.

Until next time!

1 more session was all that was needed and now the front brakes are all hooked up and functional!


I used a couple of these "fabrication tabs" I got at Princess Auto, I just had to drill the 3/8" holes out to 5/8", add holes for the cable bolts and one for the return spring.


I was lucky that the tabs were able to do triple duty, pinch the cables, act as a pedal stop and be a spot for a return spring! The spring is a idler spring for the VariDrive and came off the Silver Bullet, sad to shorten and bend a spare but it was the only one I could find I felt could work.


So they they are all hooked up and ready for testing/tweaking! It was getting to be a little late to fire up the tractor and annoy my neighbors so I'll wait for now! I hope they work decently, in my experiences drum brakes on ATVs and even on my Z50 aren't all that great but if they slow me down while going downhill at least then it wasn't a waste of time!

Well poo no brake test today which sucks! It's been pretty toasty out the last few days and has started to wear me down so I thought I'd relax for a little bit after work then test them, it's started to rain pretty heavily so I just wasn't up to it... hopefully tomorrow though!

I have a couple updates for this old girl.

I installed grab handles and a rear grab bar (which is for pulling only), they're working very well so far!


I got it out for a shakedown run and overall it did okay, when it was working well it was working really well and plowing through the mud and crawling pretty well BUT I have some serious tweaking and tuning to do with the VariDrive controls and other stuff on the tractor.

First of all when the tractor is flexing the VariDrive will pop out of "gear" and go strait to 7th which can launch me while crawling over obstacles if I don't have my foot on the pedal to control speed. This is happening because of how much I modified the shifter plate so to fix that I will install/modify the one for the Silver Bullet but take off the bare minimum I can for clearance and reinforce the tractor frame to minimize flex.

Another issue with the VariDrive is when it's in 7th "gear" the sides of the belt aren't in contact with the pulley and riding on a 1/2" shoulder which was causing it to slip really badly and I'd have to push in the clutch to regain friction so there's some tweaking to do there as well.

I snapped the MSTs shifter handle off the control rod early in the day but Vise Grips to the rescue! I'll reweld it and make sure I get better penetration this time. I also need to find a way to declutch the rear ider pulley to make shifter gears easier.

I lost a exhaust bolt then found it, snugged both down then lost the other one a few mins later, found it, lost it again but this time for good! Lol. I'm missing the locking plate and that's why they keep coming out, if I have a spare bolt I'll probably make a locking plate but I'll be building an exhaust for it at some point so whether I fix this or just build another I'm not sure yet.

The muffler is also soo close to the carburetor that any time I shut it down it would vapor lock and I'd have to wait awhile for it to cool down until I could restart it so maybe I'll tackle the exhaust sooner rather than later!

Now the good!
- The engine ran strong
- The front brakes seem to be working pretty well
- The winch is working great
- Everything else is working as it should and I didn't have any other issues

So, a little disappointing I had to spend a bunch of time messing with it BUT with all the modifications I've made I was half expecting this on the shakedown run and I didn't have any serious failures or break anything important so I guess it was a success?! Lol

It's a cooler and slightly rainy day today which is good for working so I'm going to get at er!

Later!

Personally, I would want some stuff to break or mess up in the shakedown. Otherwise, I have that voice in the back of my head "what will break or mess up later?" LOL

Yup, you’ll probably deal with issues for a few months before you get all the bugs sorted out. That’s just the way it goes… ask me how I know . But once they’re all sorted out I’m sure it’ll be a beast… it was built right.

As far as the vapor lock is concerned, there is supposed to be a heat shield that mounts to the muffler bolts. All the briggs engines that I’ve had with the carb above the muffler had heat shields so that the heat wouldn’t evaporate the fuel. Like you say you’re gonna work on a new setup, so I wouldn’t worry about it but if you’re gonna keep it for a bit you may wanna look into that.

I think i was just spoiled by The Trailblazer because I basically threw it together and it works just fine! Lol. Only issue with it is the slop in the front axle and I have a plan to solve it.

Neither of my old flatheads had a heatshield but there's nothing saying they didn't disappear before I got them, it's all good though, once I build an exhaust that problem will be solved and yes I plan on keeping this beast so I'll sort out all the issues as they arise!

Look how close the muffler is to the carb and that's a stock muffler for this motor!


I will not go down without a fight! Lol

Well it took a long time but I built a new exhaust! It better work and sound good for all the time and effort I put into it! Lol


I wanted to run it out the back if possible so I held a muffler up and had a looksee... I like it!


I started by making a flange out of a scrap of 1/4" steel using a gasket as a template and used a hand file to plane one side...


...then I welded a exhaust bung in it that's for a GY6 engine, tacked on the outside and fully welded on the inside.


The threads in the head aren't really the greatest so I made studs out of a long carriage bolt so I could get them in as far as possible. I smothered them in red LocTite to hopefully hold them secure.


Then it was time to start bending pipe and boy will I tell you that front pipe was a real pain in the butt to clear the carburetor, steering rod and tire! I had a 8 foot piece of clean 1" OD pipe to use that has a 1/16" wall thickness making it strong but not heavy. You can't really tell in the photo but there are a couple of micro bends in there!


Here's the full mockup just before I tack welded and removed it as a single piece, the lowest point is where it goes under the clutch pedal and it goes up on a little bit of an angle from there. The rear pipe also has a couple micro bends that you can't see in the photo.


Once it was off I fully welded the seams...


...then primed and painted it with Rustoleum high heat paint! It's hung up to dry and all that's left to do before installation is to header wrap a section up front near the carburetor so I'll get to hear it soon (hopefully tomorrow)!

That's all for today!

I have that muffler and it is quite crap, other then that, looks like a pretty nice pipe

I agree @TechnoChicken I've used these mufflers before and they don't seem to muffle very well but I've only used them right off a motor and on very short pieces of pipe so I'm hoping the length, size and bends of the pipe I made will make a difference! I have a small dirtbike/quad muffler I may try next if I'm not happy with the results.

Stay tuned!

***I wrote the above earlier and forgot to hit send!***


Okay so I fired it up and it doesn't sound too bad! It's not crazy loud so that's good, it sounds kind of like a small offshore ATV! For the first time since I've had it the motor was surging at idle and even at WOT so I'm going to *assume* there's an increase in exhaust flow but it could've gone the other way as well, either way I'll need to retune the carburetor and hope the surging stops. I could feel the exhaust pulses from about 10 feet away from the muffler so there seems to be good, fast flow.

I didn't get to test drive it because the rear belt came off right away which is something that had just started happening near the end of the ride on Saturday so tonight I worked on a little pulley alignment between the VariDrive pulley, idler and trans pulley so I'm hoping that issue is solved.

Another issue I worked on is how the front belt isn't making proper contact with the VariDrive pulley when it's in 7th "gear", I was able to adjust the VariDrive shift control rods length (made it longer) easily because it's threaded which in turn limits how far back the pulley itself can go and I'm hoping that's solved.

I also removed the spacer washer from the underside of the VariDrive shifter plate so I'm hoping that stops it from jumping out of "gear" and going strait to 7th when the tractor flexs a little because that means I don't have to mess with the other one, it's quite a pain to remove and reinstall it.


Hopefully I can do some testing and tuning tomorrow!

Sounds like the word of the day is "surge".

MightyRaze wrote:

Sounds like the word of the day is "surge".

Yes, I've heard that... lol.

Some results from my tinkering:

- surging has been solved with a minor carb adjustment, I had to enrich the mixture telling me more air is flowing now.
- fuel looks to still be vaporizing in carb despite exhaust being further away and header wrapped close to the carb. Perhaps a spacer/isolator is needed?
- new exhaust sounds pretty good, similar to an ATV.
- the rear belt didn't attempt to come off once.
- the VariDrive shifter didn't jump out of "gear" while flexing on obstacles.
- the front belt is still riding too far down into the VariDrive pulley, more work/adjustment required.

So I'm getting there with it but an actual trail ride will be required to really test it all out.

I'm back with more updates!

I forgot to add this to my last post so I'll do it now! I made a snorkel intake out of some plumbing parts and a little dual stage air filter, simple yet effective!


The engine in these LT11s are mounted differently than any other tractor I've ever seen, there's a motor plate that has polyurethane(?) bushings as isolators I assume to dampen vibration but it let's the motor shake and move alot which isn't going to be very good for my new exhaust so I've made new motor mount bushings out of a fiber/resin composite material I picked up a few months ago for just this purpose. Here's what went down:

First I made one (bottom left) to figure out the method to get a raised areas like the originals (bottom right) that fits in the holes of the motor plate, then I scored the outer diameter of the other 3 with a hole saw.


Then I used a smaller hole saw to cut the raised areas at a depth just a hair over 1/16", this acts as a depth gauge to remove material around the outside...


...with my beater rotary tool clamped in a vise while the bushing spins in my "poor man's lathe" (drill press). With the drill press as slow as possible and rotary tool on medium speed it only took a couple minutes per bushing to turn them down.


With all bushings done and hardware acquired...


...all that was left to do was drill the mounting holes in the tractor to 1/2" to match the hardware and install them!


So of course I took it for a little spin to see and the vibrations going to the exhaust are almost non existent now and I didn't notice much of a difference in the way of extra vibration running through the tractor so I'm calling it a win!


I wanted to have a little fun so I started building a small technical course in the treed area at the end of my property, the first attempt didn't go so well and I stuffed it into the tree instead of going around it! Lol


Luckily this thing is light enough I was able to pull it back over the logs without too much trouble. What happened is as I was trying to turn left to go around/under the tree the logs I put on the other side of the big log decided they wanted to go for a ride too... =s


Then I decided to add a couple of additions!


The "nuts" that hold them are for cargo nets in car trunks and give me tie down points, pretty cool eh!? Whats even cooler is there's more than meets the eye with this axe and shovel... the shovel is hiding saw and knife blades in the handle and the axe has a double cut saw and a hammer built in so there's 5 (different) tools in 2 right there! 9 if you count the bottle openers (x2), a can opener, the hole at the top of the hammer head which I'm pretty sure is a multi-tool for trying wire/anchoring/pulling ect. and the fact you could scale fish with the shovels saw blade of needed.


So slowly but surely I'm picking away at it and finding more things to fix, upgrade and add! Feels good to be able to use it, I'm hoping to get out for another actual ride soon so I can find more things that need tweakin'! Lol.

That's all for tonight, later!

Thats some nice Upgrades! Really liking the usefulness but yet fun this tractor exhibits.  Excellent!  Can't wait to see what you have in store for it yet!

Thank you @MightyRaze and you didn't have to wait long because I've got another couple little things done!

First of all I needed to move the tool box forward so I elongated the mounting holes and while I was in there I had an idea to relocate my bicycle air pump from inside the toolbox because it doesn't fit well (on a angle), I was able to use existing bolts to attach the mounts and that's that!


It doesn't look like much space but trust me when I say it's not difficult to remove and reinstall it.


As for the toolbox itself it's pretty crammed with goodies! I have various screwdrivers, wrenches, Vise Grips, needle nose pliers, side cutters, a ratchet with an extension and sockets, a small pack of grease, electrical tape, fuses, cheater leads, tube repair kit, a few bits of various hardware, a knife, a flashlight, spare spark plug, allen keys AND there's still room for 2 bottles of water, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter and my keys so I think it's doing pretty well! Things to add are my short tire spoons (if they fit) and a tire plug kit that I have around here somewhere...


Last but not least is something I thought about a couple days ago... a water bottle holder so I can carry a little bit of oil in a Powerade/Gatorade bottle just in case, better safe than sorry right!


It's darn hot out so I retread to indoors until it cools back down a bit, maybe I'll get a bit more done later?

Hot down here too. Was out spreading gravel by hand yesterday. Feels like temperature was 98. She’s looking good there!

Nice as always!  Been 105+ here for a month or so.  There was a few 90 something days a couple days.  I hear ya on the heat!  I went riding today and had to stop about 1 hr in.  Too hot.

Well I got a few small things accomplished before it got nasty out, it's not as warm as yesterday but it's really humid because it rained last night.


I found a spot for spare belts in the side panel, a couple of zipties seem to hold them in place just fine.


A small first aid kit just in case (blue thing), that's actually been there for a couple weeks and gone through some test rides without moving.


Then I decided to keep working on the utilitarian aspect of things by filling the space on the hood behind the hatchet with 20' of paracord. I heated and bent the tabs strait(ish) on a couple of those cargo net "nuts" then installed them. I also painted the mounting bracket for the hatchet.


I added another tie down on the other side of the hood to balance things out and also painted the shovel.

Little by little all the flashy bits will disappear to keep it low key, I have an idea for a paint job I've not seen done the way I've envisioned it but it probably won't happen until next year, I still have other tractors to work on as well!


I ended up mounting a 6'x8' tarp (brown/green) under the hood using cargo tie downs from a car or van and another 20' of paracord.


Why a tarp you ask? Why not!? The weather can be unpredictable around here, a storm can blow in on a beautiful sunny day so it could used as shelter. It could also be used as a sun shade or help hide a tractor in the forest if one needs to be left behind for some reason.

Well, thats probably it for today, it's too sticky outside to enjoy tinkering! Lol

Alrighty so I was able to get this rig out for another romp today with my friend Jace on his Suburban 12 and did we have a blast! We found a couple cool riding areas and an old single track dirtbike trail that doesn't look like it's been run in awhile so we followed that for about an hour and half until we came upon a section that's had recent logging done and boy I'll tell you it was interesting to get through! I'm calling it the "Tractor Trap" because it's literally just logs and brush piled up, it's much worse than it looks in the video and I'm planning on shooting a proper video of the area with my GoPro in the near future.

Here's a short video of my buddy Jace (aka @atractorkid7 on YouTube) going into the first bit, the engine you hear is mine with the new exhaust, it's stuttering because it's not warmed back up after us scouting out the area to find a way through...


...and the only way out is by winch unless you have a light machine like me and can push/lift it over the last log. He seems pretty happy with his newly installed and wired winch eh!? He tried to throttle it over several times and it just wasn't happening.
 


So it's time for the good and the bad!

The good:
- Overall my tractor is doing decently, it's fun to ride and is surprisingly capable.
- The front brakes are working really well and make going downhill more controlled.
- The MST (3 speed) is holding up well.
- The winch is proving to be very useful, we used it with a snatch block to pull a downed tree off a trail.
- The exhaust is doing good and it's STRONG! I've literally had the tractor hung up on logs, resting on the exhaust and it hasn't bent or kinked it at all, it did leave burnt marks on the logs though! Lol

The Bad:
- I've lost alot of top end speed, presumably because the front belt has stretched and has too much slack.
- The MST is still a pain to go from forward-neutral-reverse and vise versa but I'm working on it
- It doesn't crawl over some obstacles as well as I'd like, larger rear tires are needed.


I can't even be disappointed with the "bads" because it's doing better than I thought it would. Overall I'm happy with it and having alot of fun, that's what it's all about right!?
Until next time!