Daves’ Gadgets

[Rawleigh99]

Interesting.

[hardtail]

Great way to increase your mechanical advantage 

[Ian Beale]

Improving the Chinese two wheeled barrow

[just Dave]

This is a flat bed dolly I made out of a heavy duty fiberglass tote . The lid has a conveyor roller mounted mid way and stainless handle on the end. I slide this tote and a couple others off and on with about a 1” lift on one end of the tote to get under it. This is the prime mover from back door to stove. I’ve been running this 100 pound load over carpet throw rugs and vinyl flooring for many  years with out issue.

[just Dave]

FREE CHROME ROD ; I had a bad pump on a small crane cylinder, so I took it apart to find a strait piece of 10 mm chrome rod with a bad hole in the top for the handle pivot and a small boss turned on the other end for the seal. Easy to make, but out of what material, it can be bought certainly but that costs time and money. I take a run down the savage isle and sure enough I find a shock absorber with a healthy section of premium 10mm chrome rod. I reused the wiper and I also turned a simple poly-park style seal out of uhmw, and back in business.

[Rawleigh99]

Nice.  Got any more pictures of the work?  I love seeing machine tools at work.

[just Dave]

On 3/13/2024 at 3:38 PM, Rawleigh99 said:

Nice.  Got any more pictures of the work?  I love seeing machine tools at work.

The photo was an afterthought. I’ll do better next time.

[just Dave]

On 3/13/2024 at 3:38 PM, Rawleigh99 said:

Nice.  Got any more pictures of the work?  I love seeing machine tools at work.

I did a little hydraulic cylinder piston seal , so I snapped a couple shots. Basically you just cut a piece of nylon to the shape and size of a store bought seal. This is an old jack I’ve had over forty years. Using it the other day and all of a sudden it won’t pump up with any load at all. Sounds like the 40 something year seal has broken.  I took it apart, sure enough.  These jack seals are always metric and uncommon at many seal stores, you can get them on line but not real cheap and it will take some time to find and then ship. This is a piece of UHMW from my scrap collection, 2” stock. I spent just under one hour from the time I got the old seal out until I popped the newly made one on the rod.

[Rawleigh99]

Neat idea!  Thanks for posting Dave!

[just Dave]

I got the last of this old 40 foot van folded up and to the recyclers.

I paid $300 for it 35 years ago. It was good storage for about 10 years, until some giant rocks came out of the cliff on it. The scrap paid me back over $600.  I have to burn the wood remans still then I’ll be digging a road up this bluff starting in the footprint. 

[Rawleigh99]

Doesn't having an excavator make things sooo much easier!!!

[hardtail]

Not what you wanted to happen but maybe it stopped the rocks from further damage, my buddies uncle brought out a couple vans with his treasures 20 years ago, peeling it open like you did might be the only way to check inventory at the far end, his obstacle course was navigating through an old GMC cab 69? Painted factory purple Saskatoon, contortionists welcome

[just Dave]

20 hours ago, Rawleigh99 said:

Doesn't having an excavator make things sooo much easier!!!

I did the death crawl out of a skid loader way to many times, this excavator is truly a life saver.

[mike newman]

On 4/28/2024 at 12:45 AM, just Dave said:

I did the death crawl out of a skid loader way to many times, this excavator is truly a life saver.

...I start on another Excavator  on   Tuesday...Could give you a hand at the weekend  Dave......??

Mike

[just Dave]

9 hours ago, mike newman said:

...I start on another Excavator  on   Tuesday...Could give you a hand at the weekend  Dave......??

Mike

I can’t imagine how it must feel to have an Operator or a ground man .  This little excavator sure helps, my first one so I would welcome the expertise.  We eat about 5 CDT

[just Dave]

Before I removed the last fixture off this old RV I thought it was an interesting picture of a flat bed full of small tractors with an on board toilet. I scraped it down to the deck last summer and thought it would make a good spot to park  some of my future projects  . If I get too old to work on my full size tractors I have these in reserve. The toilet fixture will be repurposed in a small toy hauler I have.  The RV was our vacation 30 years ago. 
Is it just me or is 80 degrees feeling a lot more like 100 these days? Be cool

[Rawleigh99]

I don't do heat like I used too either!!

[IHKeith]

On 5/20/2024 at 10:22 AM, just Dave said:

Before I removed the last fixture off this old RV I thought it was an interesting picture of a flat bed full of small tractors with an on board toilet. I scraped it down to the deck last summer and thought it would make a good spot to park  some of my future projects  . If I get too old to work on my full size tractors I have these in reserve. The toilet fixture will be repurposed in a small toy hauler I have.  The RV was our vacation 30 years ago. 
Is it just me or is 80 degrees feeling a lot more like 100 these days? Be cool

I have an Ariens similar appearance to the one on the back of the trailer, it's an 8hp Hydro model. I haven't used it in years but ran when parked, I built it as a demo derby/bumper car tractor back when, one of me and a friend's great ideas for some fun without tearing up the yard.  He had a MTD Lawn Flite that went much faster, it was easier to change pulleys, the Ariens had a belt drive hydro but the engine was vertical and the trans was horizontal, I put a bigger pulley on the engine but didn't go farther, both machines had a perimeter bumper and we realized they didn't match up well, the MTD would climb mine and catch my leg or reach the point of rollover, it was a short lived idea.  I'm holding on to the Ariens for the someday I build a lawn tractor for speed, hopped up Honda clone engine, torque converter belt drive to a chain driven solid rear axle.  I doubt that I'll do that unless my future grandchildren want it or a local fair starts racing them.  

What is the tractor in the middle of the trailer?

[just Dave]

7 hours ago, IHKeith said:

What is the tractor in the middle of the trailer?

The middle is a wheel horse 12 hp I think, good little tractor.I mowed with it for many years. I tightened up the miter gear cutting deck with bronze in place of all those needle bearings. A great cutter. The connecting rod broke in half about twenty years ago so it got parked. I bought the Ariens off a neighbor who had it parked. It has a 16 as I recall with hydraulic lift front, center, and cat. O rear. Front and rear pto. Kinda cool for a little bugger. A classic Toro 8 and a big Craftsman 23. I have the Dynamark 8 I bought as a teenager to make mo money with, but it became a go kart  when I became 16 and could get a job where girls worked.

The transmission pulls was about 12” originally, you see it now. Definitely too fast for the suspension. Good wheelie machine. I can’t believe I still have it 50 years later. It was in a storage trailer that was filled and sealed years ago. I scraped the trailer to make room for progress.

[IHKeith]

On 5/24/2024 at 9:50 AM, just Dave said:

The middle is a wheel horse 12 hp I think, good little tractor.I mowed with it for many years. I tightened up the miter gear cutting deck with bronze in place of all those needle bearings. A great cutter. The connecting rod broke in half about twenty years ago so it got parked. I bought the Ariens off a neighbor who had it parked. It has a 16 as I recall with hydraulic lift front, center, and cat. O rear. Front and rear pto. Kinda cool for a little bugger. A classic Toro 8 and a big Craftsman 23. I have the Dynamark 8 I bought as a teenager to make mo money with, but it became a go kart  when I became 16 and could get a job where girls worked.

The transmission pulls was about 12” originally, you see it now. Definitely too fast for the suspension. Good wheelie machine. I can’t believe I still have it 50 years later. It was in a storage trailer that was filled and sealed years ago. I scraped the trailer to make room for progress.

That’s a wild looking machine!!! My friend’s MTD had a similar pulley upgrade.  Pretty cool that you still have it.  I have a snowmobile that I held on to for about 22 years, sitting outside, it had a couple short lived repowers 20 and 15 years ago, I repowered it better this winter and now it’s stored inside.  Sometimes a guy gets around to it when he and others doubt he will hahaha.

[hardtail]

Powerfist repower?

[IHKeith]

15 hours ago, hardtail said:

Powerfist repower?

Yes, a 9hp 270cc with the governor removed, stiffer valve springs and a knockoff Mikuni carb, maybe it’s 11hp with the upgrades.  I used a 780 series primary clutch which is similar/same as many golf carts use, and uses the same width of belt as the original GP440 secondary clutch.  The sled works well, no where near as powerful as the original GP440 engine but pretty close to the power of a 250 Elan single cylinder.  So far its highest top speed is 37km/h, it gets there quick enough and has good power negotiating bush trails.  My friend is putting a 16hp 420cc in a Sno-Jet, that would be a better engine choice I think but I used the 270cc because I already had it and didn’t know how it would work out so was keeping cost down.  
 

Last winter wasn’t a good snowmobile season, even for bush sleds, didn’t get good frost.  My two trail machines didn’t get any trail use, didn’t even get the passes stuck on.  The first weekend of March a friend has a “run what you brung” tour, usually it’s mostly snowmobiles, but this year it was all ATVs, I brought the 4 stroke GP270 and my four wheeler. I didn’t intend to drive the GP all the way but wanted to show it off, rode it up to the camp and they had already left, I was late getting there.  I decided to continue on the GP because they couldn’t be too far and met up with them at the halfway point hahaha.  It was pretty terrible conditions for a snowmobile but I didn’t care about that with this machine.  I was going just as fast as the two young lads on 4 wheelers through the smooth, curvy stretch of real snowmobile trail that we travelled.  The only snowmobile trail riding I did last season was on the GP270!!!  
 

Pulling up to the group on the GP was pretty good fun.  When they first heard me coming they didn’t know what was coming, 4 wheeler? Sled?  After a while my good friend who was there told them it was a sled, when he told me about that I saw the look of “that crazy sob, he did it”

It still can use further development and tweaks, pretty happy and inspired with it after it making that tour.  When I was building it over a couple weeks I left it in the garage, though it was in the way of work sometimes, I wanted to keep it warm and dry and at hand for when I had time to work on it.  Many customers saw it and inquired, some thought it was neat but weren’t sled heads or gear heads, most sled heads thought I was nuts and it’ll never work, other gear heads already thought I was nuts and waited for the outcome, there was only one guy who noticed it and got really interested and excited about some of the same things as me.  No fouling plugs, idle all day, reliable, simple, engine parts are affordable, and a great way to use a classic sled chassis from the fence row.

It costs enough to do the swap. $1000 Canadian at least.  Clutch was about $300, carb and throttle about $200, exhaust $100 and I have an exhaust pipe bender so not as easy for everyone, I bought the motor years ago open box for about $200, my friend’s 16hp was about $400, maybe another $100 in steel, bolts and such.  Some sleds don’t have as much room as the GP for the motor with it’s gas tank to fit under the handlebars so might need a fuel pump along with the tank relocate.  It can definitely be argued that rebuilding an original sled motor can be cheaper or more practical, especially if you have a complete, popular sled.  Repowering a hulk that is missing many parts that you don’t have, the 4 stroke swap makes more sense.  It doesn’t need a rare CDI, stator, voltage regulator, specific exhaust pipe, air box, carb jetting etc. The 4 stroke swap isn’t a replacement for classic 2 strokes or newer machines, I have an 88 Phazer, 89 Ovation, 83 Excel III, and a 06 Apex but what do you give to the guy who has everything? lol 

Long post but I figured I’d tell the whole story about my experience.  I think my build is pretty solid with the exception of the 9hp motor, if someone is taking the plunge, go for the 16hp.  When I was searching the internet for info about the swap I didn’t find much, mostly naysaying, one forum post led me to a YouTube video by a French speaking Quebecer, my public school French education and my reading of the English and French sides of the cereal box was enough to make sense of the video, biggest thing that I picked up from it was the choice of primary clutch, he had the same opinion as me about the performance in the 0-30km/h range. I can’t remember if he had a 13hp? Or a 7hp? But it was definitely not a 16hp. 
 

I thought I was done rambling but I recalled Hardtail liking anything uncomfortable.  My Excel III had seized rear suspension for the first few years I drove it.  It was starting to move sometimes and one day a friend’s sled died so we doubled on mine.  Both of us weighed 260# at least.  We were being as ridiculous we could be, two fat guys in a little coat, we jumped the sled a few times and the suspension has moved since 

 

[just Dave]

I picked up a thumb pretty cheap, it needs some mods to work right. I have an extra Drott TD9 tilt cylinder that I will modify to fit at some point but for now I will make a yoke for the thumb and use the stiff leg it came with. I have a lot of digging to do and rocks to move before another Summer escapes.

[mike newman]

On 6/2/2024 at 9:51 AM, just Dave said:

I picked up a thumb pretty cheap, it needs some mods to work right. I have an extra Drott TD9 tilt cylinder that I will modify to fit at some point but for now I will make a yoke for the thumb and use the stiff leg it came with. I have a lot of digging to do and rocks to move before another Summer escapes.

...make sure your geometry is all good, Dave...prior to the final fittings..!!!

I well know it will be...given your obvious talent ...but it is most unfortunate to find the fully crowded bucket clawing at the   thumb.......

Mike

[just Dave]

On 6/3/2024 at 8:06 PM, mike newman said:

...make sure your geometry is all good, Dave...prior to the final fittings..!!!

I well know it will be...given your obvious talent ...but it is most unfortunate to find the fully crowded bucket clawing at the   thumb.......

Mike

This is playing over and over in my head. I have been building a lot with cardboard. I cut the store bought piece in half to get the right width to pivot on the bucket pin. I avoid a cutting torch, gas or electric as much as possible so the curved and toothed side plates were a guilty pleasure.   I’m concentrating on clearance and range of motion. It seems 180 degree rotation is as good as it gets from what I’ve read? Thanks for your input !   Here’s some progress so far.