Brianator's "Mud Duck"- Tractor Recovery Rig/Mudder

FatMike wrote:

I've thought about a hood that slides forward to open up the engine area as long as nothing has to come thru it or go old school and have a split hood hinged down the middle from front to back and be able to lift either left or right side together or independently.

On the wild side would be a hood made from 1/4" polycarbonate would look cool as long as the heat is kept away from it. Could probably set small LED lights in the edges and have some wild color shows at night.

Yeah those old butterfly hoods are nice. I’m big into the old brockway trucks and that’s what they had in conjunction with the swing-out fenders. Just as accessible as a tilt hood and for guys like us that occasionally build front guards or run implements it’s a nice solution.

Yes, I like the center hinged hoods. Yes, I’m listening and yes, I’m saving pics.

I was going to suggest an AASP for the solution (Acme Angled Spark Plug) but I couldn’t find Wile’s email address.

I got some super duper stuff done today!

I made a battery hold down with some threaded rod, old fuel line and some 1" x 1/4" steel. I welded the nuts to the underside of the plate and will lock the rods with LocTite or another set of nuts when I'm finalizing everything.





Then I mocked up the fuel tank to see how much space I have for the starter solenoid (which I installed) and an electronics plate which I bent up and installed in a temporary fashion with screws, I'll replace them with rivets after everything is painted.





I wanted to relocate the voltage regulator from sitting on top of the generator to keep it dry and clean so I flattened out the mounts and noticed this broken ground wire... I tried to solder it but the solder just would not stick! I ended up drilling the rivet out of the base, got the new wire inside the original connector, crimped and soldered it then riveted the other end to the base with an eyelet.




I got the voltage regulator and fuse box mounted...



...then went crazy getting it all wired up and ready to go!



Obviously not everything is wired but I got all the important stuff to start/kill the engine and test the charging system done, once I've reinstalled the dash in the tractor I'll need to hook up a few wires and install the fuel tank then it's go time!

Well, that's all for today hopefully all goes well tomorrow and I'll get to drive it with the hood on for once!  Lol

You can find a link to the fuse box by clicking here.

Wow, that looks really good! Nice work!

Thank you!

Well it was slow going today dealing with a whole lot of fiddley things so no test drive but that's okay I didn't feel like getting soaked today anyways! It's been warm (34F) and raining most of the day, about 4" of snow has melted and my workshed is starting to flood but on the bright side we're supposed to get freezing rain and be down to 17F by morning so maybe I'll get to try out some drifting and donuts tomorrow seeing as how it's going to be a skating rink out there! Lol.  Well that's if I can free the tractor from its icy prison that's forming on top of the ice that's already surrounded the tires! Oh (dear) Canada... shorts one day shovels the next! Lol.

RAIN? Omg. We have 4 more inches of snow. Cold tonight. Thankfully no ice.

Pichers required!

No pichers for me I don't like draft, tallboys of Budweiser all the way (I'm working on one right now)!

Photographs, like cameras take

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Since the start of this build I've been thinking about and planning the exhaust. I've already figured out the routing, made preparations for it (by replacing the fuel inlet nipple with a 90 degree fitting) and collected some of the parts but the muffler itself  has been the question mark until this morning, I now know exactly what I'm going to do!

I want an enclosed style canister muffler, that I do know but to keep it tucked up and protected it can't be very big in diameter. My first idea was to use a couple of these flanges and some sheet metal or a metal tube of the right size to build one


This morning I was looking through the engine manual for something unrelated and spotted THIS! Can't find one anywhere as they're long since discontinued and NLA, also no NOS kicking around...


...which brings me to my next point....I'll use 2 of these cheap and readily available mufflers to build my own!

If it's TOO quiet I can drill holes in the baffles until I'm happy with it or if it's still louder than I hoped I can pack the chamber with steel wool and or add a baffle inside the chamber! I'm glad to finally have a solid plan, now to collect more parts! Lol

Here's a few pics of what I got accomplished yesterday:

The dash is reinstalled and wiring is mostly complete, I just need to finish the connector/wiring to the starter/generator and it's done (for now)...



...and here's the fuel tank mounting bracket "template" I made out of aluminum flat bar. It will actually push the dashboard back a hair to make more clearance for the switches and I've designed it to raise the tank up a little also to make more space between it and the battery, it also serves as a brace which is a bonus! I'll probably be able to use it for the time being but before I go on any romps I'll definitely need to replace it with steel. I also (red) LocTite'd the battery hold down rods and set the height,  there wasn't enough thread underneath for nuts unfortunately and I didn't weld them because I want them to be replaceable without having to remove the battery tray.

I wish I'd gotten more done, it wasn't from lack of trying just everything I was dealing with was so fiddley and time consuming that's as far as I got!  Today it's cold and blustery out so I doubt I'll do any actual work to it but there's still plenty of planning and gathering/ordering parts to do at least!

Well, I couldn't just sit around wishing it was a good day to get some work done on the beast so this morning I ordered 2 of the mufflers as stated above then went out to gather some supplies!  

I got some sheetmetal to make the body of the muffler with and steel flat bar to make a proper fuel tank mount/dash brace...


... I looked at fire extinguishers seeing as how we were talking about them just a few days ago and I feel it's cheap "insurance". I found this fancy little unit on sale for $28 but in my haste to grab stuff and get back on the road I didn't realize it's low on pressure so I'll have to exchange it for another...



... and last but certainty not least is a Champion 3000lbs winch on sale for $199, the sale ends tomorrow so I thought I'd better grab it today just in case! I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the quality, the only plastic on it is the freewheel knob (*Edit* It's aluminum!) and the housing the control switch is in, even the housing for the control solenoid is cast aluminum and I just happen to have room for it on the battery/electronics tray. It's *almost* like I planned it that way...


So the beauty part is I'm claiming the winch as a gift from the Ontario government because in a bid to get votes for the upcoming provincial election, Mr.Doug Ford has not only scrapped the vehicle license plate stickers fee but he's refunding all Ontarians that bought them for the last 2 years! At $120 a year that covers the winch, the Tim Hortons breakfast I got plus most of my fuel for the day! Yup, it's been a decent day!

On another note I've started keeping track of the tractors weight in The Dollars and Cents post. What inspired me to do that is the fact I learned the tractor in stock form weighs 675 freaking pounds (wet)! It really is a tank! Lol

Nice winch. Tip, I read a lot of reviews where idiots broke the freewheel knob. It IS plastic. I tested my new winch and if you wiggle the drum while turning the freewheel knob it works easily, no force required. It would be easy to break it by forcing it.

Brianator wrote:

Well it was slow going today dealing with a whole lot of fiddley things so no test drive but that's okay I didn't feel like getting soaked today anyways! It's been warm (34F) and raining most of the day, about 4" of snow has melted and my workshed is starting to flood but on the bright side we're supposed to get freezing rain and be down to 17F by morning so maybe I'll get to try out some drifting and donuts tomorrow seeing as how it's going to be a skating rink out there! Lol.  Well that's if I can free the tractor from its icy prison that's forming on top of the ice that's already surrounded the tires! Oh (dear) Canada... shorts one day shovels the next! Lol.

Yeah, thats kinda life, our shop floods probably 1" every year too, the ice is handy though for doing doughnuts

Nevadablue wrote:

Nice winch. Tip, I read a lot of reviews where idiots broke the freewheel knob. It IS plastic. I tested my new winch and if you wiggle the drum while turning the freewheel knob it works easily, no force required. It would be easy to break it by forcing it.

Pro tip, if you have one of them hobo-freight badland 2500 jobs and loose the free wheel knob because it vibrates off.  A briggs opposed breather wingnut works great!

Another big day for me, this should hopefully be the last of the big ticket items for awhile. It was just too good of a deal to pass up that I even drove over an hour and a half each way!


The ITP MudLites (26x10-12) fell through as did a pair of Carlisle AT489's (25x10-12) but it's all good because a WAY better deal came along! A pair of Dunlop KT415's (25x10-12) in excellent condition and on aluminum wheels for the low low price of $80 as part of a package deal! No plugs or scrapes or gouges and almost a 1/2" of thread depth all around, these things were hardly even used!


I also scored this front ATV rack from a Honda TRX  and I got it for $20! It measures 25" x 16" and is plenty solid.


I also got a set of Carlisle 4.80x4-8 on snowblower wheels with new tubes for my yard cart as part of the deal too ($20), not sure I have a use for the aluminum ATV wheels so I may try to sell them for $50 seeing as what great condition they're in or maybe I WILL find a use for them who knows!? Lol

That's it for today, no work done but it was a busy one!

I can’t ever find stuff like that here. Nice Score!

Neither can I, been looking for a rack since November and tires for a few weeks. I was losing hope on both fronts!  Lol

Nice clean work on that wiring and placement of everything ! looks great. great score on them tires!

Thanks @diddie I appreciate it! Sadly there's still lots more wiring to do, what you see is just the basics it needs to run (plus the ammeter)! Lol.

Brianator wrote:

Thanks @diddie I appreciate it! Sadly there's still lots more wiring to do, what you see is just the basics it needs to run (plus the ammeter)!  Lol.

I understand ! I haven't even started my wiring yet ! But wiring and electric diagnostics in the automotive field is what i do for a living so i love to see other peoples work ! High paid engineers come up with stuff that is over complicated when it could be so simple !

Well, It's not been a good week for working weather so I haven't gotten much done but I did finish the wiring (for now) and got everything in its home. 

I also got a start on the muffler. I used bristol board to figure out what length to trim the sheetmetal to

Then I rolled the steel into a cylinder and welded the seam




I have to say I'm really not happy with this new welding wire I've been trying out (Blue Demon), I got it because its available in 2lb spools and had got frustrated with Lincoln wire because the specific stuff I used is only available in 1lb and 10lb rolls... guess I'll be going back to the Lincoln wire it welds WAY cleaner!

There's supposed to be some decent weather this week coming up so I should hopefully get some more done!

You can find a link to the mufflers by clicking here.

Not, bad I like the custom mufflers

Nice job on the muffler set up. can't wait to see how that turns out !