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

Well heck I've opened up a can of worms tonight!

I peeled one of the tires off and as I was cleaning it I noticed this...


Turns out it's a blessing in disguise though because those wheels are too skinny for the new matching front tires anyhow!

I quickly took the wheels off The Warhorse , swapped bearings over and was able to install them by using spare bearings as spacers which means the hubs need to be wider to be proper so I'll be on the hunt for new front wheels now! Lol

But at least the Mud Duck is still mobile for now... crisis averted!

I'll admit, those ATV tires look pretty bada$$ on there but I I didn't spend good money on matching front Kendas for nothing and I need these for The Warhorse. Oh welly, I'll get it sorted out and maybe be lucky enough to take one of them for a trail ride one day! Lol.

Gotta love rims that get the slime treatment lol

I'm not so sure they were Slimed but maybe they were at one point? They had tubes and they were crusted to the rim pretty badly! Lol. The rear wheels were pretty bad too, it was a working tractor on a farm it's whole life so it's taken alot of abuse and had alot of repairs over the years!

@Brianator I've seen some bad rims, but wow !

@diddie I hear ya! I've never seen any THAT bad either!


Well, I've got a little tinkering done the last couple days!

I replaced the rod ends on the tie rod for pretty cheap ($23), cleaned it up and hit it with some bedliner...


...and replaced the control shaft seal so no more leaky hydro!


The power grid in my area is overloaded with it being the weekend in cottage country and everyone running their ACs to stay cool (been 86F the last few days) so I can't weld new rod ends on the drag link yet but I was looking over the rest of the steering and noticed the lower bushing at the steering gear is thrashed so I'll have to look into that soon.


Yesterday my neighbor @CodeRed and I were bombing it around my yard and testing it over some obstacles and stuff, the tractor itself was doing really well but the engine started acting funny and I lost throttle control but everything is hooked up the way it was. Turns out the governor (and arm) stuck in the idle position so I'm not sure what that's about but I've reset it and will hopefully test it out tomorrow!


Sorry for the weak update but it's still progress! Lol

I got the new (matching) front tires on!



The ATV tires were pretty cool I have to say but it lifted the nose of the tractor too high blocking visibility and will mess with my headlight alignment! Lol. I've done alot of testing and crawling over obstacles around the yard the last couple days with the ATV tires so while it was all fresh in my mind I redid everything with the new fronts hoping they would still roll over stuff well and they did!


The outside of the tires are pretty even front and rear now too which is a bonus!



I mentioned in my previous post that something funny had gone on with the motor and I reset the governor, well all seems well now it didn't miss a beat! I'm hoping to get it out on some trails next weekend for a proper shakedown run to see how it does!

That's all for now guys!

Wow I can't believe I've gotten over 5000 views on this turd!! Lol  
                                   

4000 of the views are mine!

Nevadablue wrote:

4000 of the views are mine!

Well that makes sense then, I figured about 1000 of them were me so at least now that my ducks are in a row I'm going to go ride my tractor around the yard sobbing quietly so the exhaust muffles it!  Lol

Brianator wrote:

Nevadablue wrote:

4000 of the views are mine!

Well that makes sense then, I figured about 1000 of them were me so at least now that my ducks are in a row I'm going to go ride my tractor around the yard sobbing quietly so the exhaust muffles it!  Lol

You must have at least 5001, I think I might of viewed it a couple times?

I got a little something done yesterday after work, I've been wanting to install these for awhile and now that I'm close to taking it for an actual ride I better get them installed.....hood pins!


These are the ones I got off Amazon for pretty cheap.



I cut the pins down, figured out where they're going and drilled the holes





I installed the pins, used a little anti-seize to mark out the spots and got to drilling/cutting



Then I riveted the plates down, got it all adjusted so the hood shouldn't rattle and called it a night!



That's all for now!

You can find a link to the hood pins by clicking here.

Nice little addition to the tractor!  I like them!

Hey that's some pretty snazzy latches !

Thanks guys I like em too!

I trimmed a 1/2" off the hood today so there's clearance for the steering wheel but that's all on this girl, @CodeRed and I were working on his machine (Red Alert), we have the steering real good and tight now with almost no slop anywhere so now we're going to do a couple laps around the obstacle course then a ride down to the lake for a photo shoot!




I'm having alot of fun with it now which is nice because all I've really done up until this point is build and work on it! Lol. I'm finding a couple things that could use some improvements and once the motor is hot is leans out a little so I have some carb work to do but it's all good, its all part of the adventure right!

She’s looking GOOD!

Thanks @Rustbucket Garage!

Well a quick update, I patched the seat with some more duct tape!


I figure soon enough it will have a full duct tape seat cover!

That's all for today! Lol

Hey @Brianator I told you early on in your build that my Dad had an old bolens since i was like two years old. or maybe before i was born not sure i'll have to ask him about that. but here is a pic of it in his shed where it has been sitting for thirty years. were fixing to dig it out and see about getting it up and running soon. Dads 80 years old and he has put it on the back burner to long. i told him the other day were digging it out and bringing it to my house to go through it.

Yes I remember and that's awesome! Same as mine it's a one-year only model (different year and model obviously) a 1965 Bolens Husky 1000 with a 6 speed (3 speed hi/lo) and a "controlled differential" (same as mine). You'll have a blast with that old girl even using it for yardwork! There's something special about them Bolens tube frames, at least to me! Lol

I put this old girl to work today! I hooked the trailer up and used it to move a pile of firewood from one spot to a permanent location (several trailer loads) and used the blade to scrape and grade my driveway a little bit.



It's running really well and the hydro isn't giving me any issues yet which is great! The only thing weird it is doing is leaning out when hot and I suspect that the fuel "nozzle" (main jet/emulsion tube) is a touch on the small side, the carb is a Chinese replacement listed for several models from 12-18hp so that was somewhat expected. I can open the main jet adjuster all the way out and the engine doesn't start to run rich as it should if it was the proper size and the original "nozzle" for the original carb is no longer as I had to drill it out of the old carb so I guess I'll have to use my pin vise (micro drill bit set) to open it up a little and get more fuel flowing!

I'm hoping to get it out on the trails for a proper shakedown run soon, that will be a hoot I'm sure!

Brianator wrote:

I DID @MightyRaze and was looking at similar ones but... they didn't have quite what I was looking for! I have something special planned... but I'll have to leave you in suspense for now! Lol

I do appreciate the lead though!

I have used these headlights witch work great high and low beam.  

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08P48L35T?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I'll admit those are pretty cool but wouldn't fit my theme too well AND I have something already planned but you'll have to wait until final envieling! Lol.

Not a whole lot to update on this beast but there are little things going on in the background.

I got new(ish) 8" front rims for it (from eBay) so I can put the current ones (old and crusty under the bedliner) on the Trailblazer , I looked locally for weeks and the closest I could find were almost 2 hours away so forget that! Lol. They're in really nice shape and I already have them painted and ready to do the tire swap. Once I have the fronts on and the rears painted to match I'll post an update and you'll get a glimpse of the color scheme I'm going with...I think it's going to look killer!

Today when I was at the salvage yard looking for some grab handles for other tractors I spotted this boat steering wheel and thought it would look brilliant on this!

It's the same diameter as the original and has about the same amount of rise too, I have no idea if it's going to easy or difficult to install it but I'll tell ya it's going to be a boatload more satisfying going through the trouble to install this than to beautify the old one! Lol.

I love the Mud Duck but it's nice to take a break from it considering how much time I put into it in a short period! It will be nice to get back into it again soon though too!

Until next time!

Man I love the look of these tractors! I wish I could find some bolens where I'm at. I can pretty much find everything else. Your steering wheels making me want to upgrade mine it's perfect

Thanks @Craftsman1998 I think it's going to look awesome! To be honest it's not super easy to find Bolens around here either, people are either holding onto them or they've already been sent off to scrap.

Super excited to see the new paint job! And that steering wheel looks awesome bud!