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Discussion starter · #21 ·
funny you mention a road grader and it's walking-beam drivetrain. My dad got sucked into one when I was a teenager. We had to take the beam of one side to replace the driven hub and it's bearings. Once done with that we installed the beam again and were feeding the chaing on the idler & driver sprockets when it snagged his wrist. Kinda gunshy of chains. Plus, they stretch. And I just hate fidgeting with extra fab work to accomdate their eventual maintence.

I figure using an axle from a car / truck gives me free brakes, an open dif. and all that jazz. (still not sure if an open dif vs. solid spool is the way to go or not....both have their uses)
 
#22 ·
Hey Vonrow, I had to pull all the hub's on a skidsteer loader, my hand's looked like knuckle's drug across a cheese grater! After pulling the chain's back together. The machine got dropped by a trackhoe into a basement, Never was quite right afterward's. I like open diff's for steering, locked will cause greef at the end of the row. I watched part of the first video, wondered if that's why I'm building a grader attachment for the skidsteer loader "laugh out loud"! Half the garden just to compensate for the 8' moldboard making hill's. Wish I could find some picture's of my deceased uncle's celery planter, I've been told it had twice the reduction of my doodlebug tractor,I put it in, Reverse & Reverse=12'/minute at idle! A couple of good idea book's; The Agricultural Tractor 1855-1950 by R.B. Gray, and Unusual Vintage Tractors by C.H. Wendell. Later, doodlebug
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
grrr. I need to figure out the whole "use another website to host photos" thing.

anywhoo, I took a trip to the afore mentioned scrapyard. found myself a pair of gearboxes. First one is off an old 1960's COE chevy something or other. Not sure what the truck looked like but I'm guessin it was a heavy monster; the trans has part of the old driveshaft still on it. Shaft is 3" or more in diameter, about a foot long, and is Solid steel. Solid. they said the whole shaft was solid steel front to back. this trans weighs over 100 lbs easy. 4 speed? w. granny gear and a gear reduction. It's a beast!

Second trans turned out to be a mazda pickup 4 or 5 spd. compared to the old chevy trans, this one is light as a feather.

Oh, and the BEST part of the trip? found a 69' F100. 3spd. 360 v8, 4x4, complete cept for wheels. for kicks and giggles we took a crap battery, tagged the bat. cables on finger tight, pulled the choke, 7 pumps on the gas, VROOOOOOM! *currently working the details out to get that baby home in my yard now. :050:
 
#26 ·
Hey Vonrow, I just keep my picure's in the computer and pull them out as attachment's, that's the paper clip icon above,click it, and it goes to your file's. I just take picture's with the cell phone and turned the resolution down, so it fit's the jpeg for this site. I had to play and cuss to figure it out!:Disgus:
Anyway's took a few picture's today, rear chain reduction, clearance under the diff. I have 29'' tire's, my wheely bar's/ripper. Good score on the tranny's. Put the mazda in front, let the rear one take the stress.

Look at the tranny coupler picture, I took a piece of round stock, same diameter as the u-joint, chucked it up in the 4-jaw and put a flat spot on it. It fit's where the u-joint went and is welded to the coupler as a "Key" and make's for a strong connection, the bolt's don't have to carry all the torque, just hold it in place, like a regular drive line connection. The sprocket on the rear diff is keyed the same way too.

I'm still not clear on if you have to straddle the raised bed's? I measured my dead Farmall super A last night, 22" under the bellhousing. Later, doodlebug
 

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Discussion starter · #27 ·
the only reason I have for straddleing the beds is either at the beginning or end of the year. that is when the beds need to be "flipped" and re-hilled into the previous year's walkway. hence the need for ground clearance.

otherwise I end up flippin the beds by hand with a garden rake

so the machine will flip the bed, fluff it with a roto tiller attatchement, and
re-hill the fluffed soil into a new bed
 
#28 ·
Hey Vonrow, if you go narrow, can you put one wheel in the proverbial plow furrow and still till and flip? ordered any book's yet? The idea's they provide will drive you nut's! Later, doodlebug.
 
Discussion starter · #29 ·
nope, haven't ordered any books yet...well not to keep anyway. I have the local library a couple towns over looking to get their paws on some copies for me....hehe

In the mean time, I'm workin on gettin my walkbehind tiller running. Seems the carb decided to take a permavacation at the worst time....grr.

Oh, and my wife let me drag this home yesterday:

http://picasaweb.google.com/snparow/The69?authkey=Gv1sRgCIOci6aO4f_LKg#

http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=123412

as if the honey-do list and 2 toddlers don't keep me busy enough...haha

--note, this is the truck I found when I went to get the trannies for my min-tractor build
 
#31 ·
If you can find a junk ditchwitch many of them had a narrow Dana 44. I saw a pair of them at a swap meet a few years ago for cheap. Also, depending on the amount of torque you want to put through it, I have always thought the rear end from a 4wd Subaru would deserve a good look. they are independant so you could just use the inner flange and do chain drive drop boxes to gear it down some. Inboard disc brakes for bias braking and a sliding lovejoy between the stub axles for a diff lock when you need it.
Or you might consider the transaxle from an old garden tractor. The one in my Sears 16-6 is all cast iron with a 3 speed and hi/low range. Pretty stout. Also the old cubs had a 3 speed transaxle with a shaft drive so you could put another box ahead of it.
 
#32 ·
Hey willowbilly3, I like the subbi diff's, a friend of mine had on in his pulling tractor, the welded cv shaft's never held up well, alway's broke under load. Build some better axle shaft's and it should stay together. He finally put a dana 44 under it, with better luck. Later,doodlebug.
 
#33 ·
I saw a front diff out of a later model Ford Explorer the other day,that my friend had to replace..it has one short axle tube on one side,that has a splined shaft about a foot long (the axle),
the other side just has a splined female socket where a typical FWD CV joint type driveshaft plugs into the side gear..one of those would be fairly easy to adapt ..I have seen the diff from 1988 & up GM full size trucks used in cranberry bog buggies the same way as you described the Subaru ones too--.
 
#35 ·
I had a situation a while back that required a narrowed rearend. I got a full floater 3/4 ton chevy rear end and cut it down. Pulled the axles and centered the 3rd member in the frame rails. Offset was @ 4in. Cut and weld the axle tubes where needed. Cut the axle shafts off at the flange end and drill the center of the bolt flange so that the axle shafts will baerly slide thru. I put it all together and slid the axle shaft in until they seated. Welded the shafts to the flanges with 7018 rods and cut off the excess. This may not be a cheaper alternative but it was an easy way to get a rear end under a piece of equipment.
 
#36 ·
Tractor-Holic said:
I saw a front diff out of a later model Ford Explorer the other day,that my friend had to replace..it has one short axle tube on one side,that has a splined shaft about a foot long (the axle),
the other side just has a splined female socket where a typical FWD CV joint type driveshaft plugs into the side gear..one of those would be fairly easy to adapt ..I have seen the diff from 1988 & up GM full size trucks used in cranberry bog buggies the same way as you described the Subaru ones too--.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there are others too. The chevy p/u fronts should be easy to find. Also the Ford Aerostar. It has the bolt on flanges too. I am sending a whole van to the scrap yard, might have to dave that front diff for a project. I do wonder how tough those fronts are when you run them backwards, seems like the thrust would be on the wrong side of the r&p teeth but I don't know if that makes any difference.
 
#37 ·
Probably wont be an issue on a tractor,powered by a 20 HP or less engine I'd think--after all,we back up hills with 200+ HP in 2 ton cars with the diffs,and if that dont hurt them,I doubt using one in a tractor backwards will..

Sorry,I dont have any photos of the bog buggies,or a computer (and brain) capeable of posting them here if I did..quite a few of them I've seen are nothing more than an old IHC Scout,Jeep,Bronco II or Ranger 4x4 pickup with no sheet metal,with the frame rails cut shorter and the rear axles welded right to the frame rails...they use a engine like an Onan or two cylinder Wisconsin mounted above the original tranny,and most of them used the original flywheel & clutch,by cutting the crank from the original (usually blown up) engine,and boring it out and mounting it on a pillow block bearing to the tranny mainshaft..a double pulley mounted to the flywheel and engine provides a 4:1 or greater gear reduction..most are used to sand the bogs during the winter when they freeze over..they can creep nice and slow in low range,but in hi range in top gear,they can top 40+ mph!..

Others are completely built from scratch using automotive components,like the chevy 4x4 front diffs..one I saw was made with typical 1/2 ton GM 4x4 solid front axle & rear end,powered by a GM front wheel drive 3.1 V6 and tranny mounted sideways between the 2 axles,they used the driveshafts from the FWD tranny to power the axles..since the tranny had 3 speeds and a diff with at least 3.73 gears,and the axles had 4.10 gears,it had a lot of power and despite the fact the spider gears in the FWD tranny wouldn't "lock" and allow true 4wd,(one axle will spin if it lacks traction),that wasn't a big problem,as they rigged up two master cylinders so the front or rear brakes could be operated independantly,or at the same time by stepping on both pedals..:D
 
#38 ·
We 2 ton cars with 200 horsepower uphill for hours at a time, year after year. I was more referring to long term wear than strength. I don't know if it would be an issue but the gears are cut to have the outside of the curve as the thrust surface for a reason I would presume.
 
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