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May 15, 2015 17:26:14 GMT
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Hi all, it's been a long time since I've posted anything up here but I thought you might like to see my new build knowing how much you like something different.. My original plan was to build a Zero turn mowing machine out of this Wheel Horse raider 10 I had just bought.. It came with no engine (the green engine was a spare and I needed somewhere to put it!), no bonnet, no seat.. And plenty of rust! Then one day after buying a new bonnet and rust free-ish fender pan for it I thought just out of interest I would turn the chassis upside down just to see how much extra space it created under the bonnet.. Loads of space which got me thinking about engines A couple of days later I was offered something which would change the whole direction of the build.. Any ideas of a zero turn mower went out the window at this point.. Here's a couple of clues.. And an even bigger clue It didn't take long to get the engine out, a nice compact all in one sort of unit, 500cc and 48hp with a 9500rpm re line.. It looks like the engine was made to fit When I read the words "High Speed" on one of the front tyres, it was almost like the Wheel Horse was telling me I'm doing the right thing
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Last Edit: Dec 21, 2016 9:11:30 GMT by Stigian
My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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jpsmit
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,251
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May 15, 2015 17:40:07 GMT
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Oh this is the kind of craziness that keeps me coming back! Keep us posted.
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May 15, 2015 17:57:40 GMT
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The plan was to use the original Wheel Horse trans and have a "best of both worlds" sort of machine.. Low ratio for normal garden tractor kinda stuff and high ratio for a bit of "side ways, hold on" sort of action.. But once the numbers were worked out it came up with a top speed of only 10mph!! I could of got that using an original 10hp engine and a change of pulleys! Plan B.. A 400cc quad axle from Fleabay No idea which model quad it was from as this was nearly a year ago and the long term..er... thingy isn't what it once was It even came with a diff lock which could be handy.. Top speed was now a tad under 70mph but the axle did have a problem the seller forgot to mention.. I very worn diff with loads of play! I just didn't feel it would handle the abuse it would get without self destructing! Plan C involved more online shopping and this time Fleabay came up trumps with a good condition Reliant Rialto 2 rear end. It may need a bit of narrowing me thinks Grafting the end of the Reliant prop to the Honda one shouldn't prove too much of a problem.. But it will be the very last engineering job done to stop me from taking it out for a drive until it's ready
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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Ray Singh
Posted a lot
More German exotica in my garage now
Posts: 1,984
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May 15, 2015 18:00:08 GMT
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I tip my hat to you Sir! This is the stuff of Retro Rides
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Last Edit: May 15, 2015 18:00:47 GMT by Ray Singh
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May 15, 2015 18:16:38 GMT
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All my measurements were worked out from the front axle position, so for now the original angle iron chassis rails would have to stay and I would have to build a new chassis around it.. So I started with mounting the engine.. The Honda engine mounts were cut from the frame. And put on a diet until they were just the tubes. Boring some box on the lathe.. I didn't have a drill bit big enough! Weld the tubes in the box.. And the lower engine mounts have taken shape. Plenty of space on the outside of the chassis rail to run the new chassis rails when I get that far. The engine frame taking shape, this picks up on the rear and top engine mounts.. The bonnet even still fits
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Last Edit: May 15, 2015 18:17:38 GMT by Stigian
My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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May 15, 2015 19:12:02 GMT
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To work out the rest of the chassis I needed to know where the rear wheels and axle would be, and how narrow the axle would be so I could work out where it's mountings would go. So with the distance between the rear wheels measured.. And the chassis firmly fixed to the bench.. I dug the Reliant axle out.. Each side is painted a different colour so I don't get confused when I put it back together again The standard width Reliant axle is 1288mm hub to hub.. I need one that's 780mm in width.. So I need to narrow it by 508mm or 254mm each side Chopped and inner sleeves made from turned down scaffold pipe.. Welded back together.. Yep, that's a very narrow Reliant axle To get the axle back in the right position in relation to the chassis I needed to take measurements from the center of the axles which were no back in the axle casing.. So here's a handy tip on finding the center of axle casings.. Bolt a thin bit of steel to the end of the axle case and tap it lightly with a small hammer until you can see the edges of the axle hole.. When you unbolt the thin plate you have a perfect hole outline on the inside.. Measure the axle hole diameter, divide it by 2, set your compass to the measurement and then mark the inside of the thin plate like so.. Where the lines overlap is the center.. Just give it a gentle tap with a center punch so you can see the center form the outside surface.. A pair of stands keep the axle in the right place and right angle.. Axle mounts tacked on. Lower frame rails going in.. Top frame rails going in.. No chassis jig here, just lot's of careful measuring, cutting and clamping.. Getting the top and bottom rails to have the same "kick out" at the back was interesting That looks a bit stronger now the top and bottom rails are linked together.. Then work had to stop for a while for yet another house move, so a trailer rear axle.. Was carefully fixed to the frame to aid moving it into my new workshop
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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May 15, 2015 19:21:47 GMT
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Great work so far. This will be a blast when it's finished.
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May 15, 2015 20:14:08 GMT
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A couple of months later with the house and workshop move out the way work could start on Project Why Not again.. The first job was to remove the last of the original chassis, you can just see it here under the exhaust down pipe. It's a bit hard to make out but the new rails taper in towards the front and then straighten out again.. The last bit of original Wheel Horse chassis removed, it was nice to get it out the way.. A kick up at the front for the axle, I still need to add loads more strength to it.. Having narrowed the axle casing already, the time had come to do the actual axles.. Chopped.. No turning back now Now, I will admit this is the first time I had heard of this method, but my good friend Nigel has narrowed several V8 trike axles this way and says he has never had a problem with it.. So notching it was.. Not the best of fits at this point! But with careful use one of the old style thick cutting disks as a grinding disk.. Until both halves of the axle had matching notches. That's a much better fit Before welding both notches were deeply V'd Nigel's son Karl is a fully qualified coded welder as well as a world championship winning mower racer, so I got him to weld the axles up Two narrowed and cleaned up axles.
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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omega
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,060
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May 15, 2015 20:42:40 GMT
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think you should call it the wheely horse.
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May 15, 2015 21:41:45 GMT
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One thing I am determined to do with this project is keeping it looking as Wheel Horse as possible, which means keeping the original deep dish wheels.. But how to fit 5 bolt 4 1/2" pcd wheels.. To 4 bolt 4" pcd hubs!!! Both pcd's were far too close to make an adapter plate, so I decided to change the wheel pcd.. Take some 5mm thick steel plate.. Bung it on the lathe. Until it looks like this.. From the outside it looks like you would expect.. But on the inside you can see the raised bit in the center of the plate is a nice tight fit in the center of the wheel.. The plate was marked out and drilled for the new 4 bolt pcd's.. The other two holes were mis-drillings! Weld the plate on from the outside.. Turn the wheel over, cut the old inside out. after cleaning up the join between old and new was V'd. Then it was fully welded up on the inside.. With the welds and the raised bit in the middle cleaned up.. The wheel finally bolted to the axle There's plenty more to come, but that's it for tonight.. If you can't wait until the next installment then you could always check out my YouTube channel (link below) and watch the build vids
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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Thanks for the comments guy's glad you like this build.. Omega - I can see your thinking behind the name Wheely Horse, but this thing is so front heavy I can't see it lifting the front wheels of the ground.. Light steering maybe, but no lift off For the front end I needed something strong with good bearings.. This will do nicely though I only need the hub and spindle parts... Time to make another wheel pcd center plate thingy.. As you can see the front wheels were not "bolt on" items!! Some chain drilling and hammer action soon had the center out.. Some more of the inner layer coming out... I couldn't get the grinder in the outside to cut any away so it had to stay.. My Southbend lathe was too small to fit the wheel on so I had to use Nigel's lathe.. Ta-Daa.. With wheel bolt holes and a slot for the hub grease nipple sorted it was time to unite the wheel rim with it's new center.. From the inside.. And the outside... Me likes the fit You know the score by now, grind a V then fill it up with weld.. And yes this is a different wheel
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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heathrobinson
Part of things
Broken everything
Posts: 848
Club RR Member Number: 111
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This is the best kind of barmy! Winning!
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Jumping back a week or so while playing with the wheel hub fitment I happened to have a Qwackersaki Gpz 305 brake caliper to hand... This got me thinking With the new wheel centers done I had a more serious think about fitting front brakes.. I knew space would be rather tight! I made a fake brake disc from a bit of scrap ally to see how big a disc I could fit in.. 5 inch diameter discs as it happened which may sound small, but as the front tyres only have a small contact area on the tarmac too much braking power would only cause the front wheels to lock up! You may notice the trailer hub has been on a diet and only the hub and spindle bit remain. The ruler is me thinking about steering geometry.. After lot's of research it soon became clear that I could not just "buy" brake discs to the dimensions I needed which left me with only one option.. Make my own But first a few scribblings. Which helped turn a lump of this.. In to one of these hub extension thingys.. Machine the back of the wheel hub a little.. And the extension thingy fits. This 5mm thick flat plate has an anti rust coating but more importantly the steel is very hard stuff, good for making brake discs from but a right pain to machine! That looks a bit more disc like It all fits inside the wheel Now I will admit this making my own brake discs lark is a real step into the unknown.. I hope the steel is hard enough to do the job.. It may work, it may not.. Only one way to find out By this point I was sick of lathe work, it felt like I had been constantly turning metal for months on end.. So the brake parts were carefully stored away while I turned my attention to a different part of the build.
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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There's nothing like a good bit of bodywork to make it feel like your making real progress, so I turned my attention to the rear bodywork or fender pan as it's otherwise known.. As the seat bolt's through the fender pan I needed to know where the seat was going.. As low as possible to keep he center of gravity lower.. Only one way to work that out As you can see then fender pan needed a lot of work to make it fit.. It needs to be wider, higher above the wheels, but a lot lower in the middle.. This frame was added to the chassis to give me a starting point at the right height. It was later cut off and replaced with a bigger frame.. The only parts of the original fender pan which were not rotten was the wheel arch sections.. These came in handy for extending the er.. Wheel arch's being careful to keep the curves flowing and lining up as they should.. The rear bit of the arch extensions didn't quite line up, but I have a plan That's looking a bit wider, but how to sort out the drop in the middle? With some metal shelves pulled off the scrap heap of course With a couple of bit of scrap steel tacked to the arches to keep them in the right place I could work out how to tie the arches and base together. Cardboard came in handy.. As did these scrap pile finds Bending a curve.. Nigel's bead roller came in handy for putting a swage line in, in the original Wheel Horse style. A view of the patchwork of plates from above.. The fronts of the arches went from this.. To this...... Shame I now need to change the shape of it as you will see later on in the build. The finished fender pan. Ok, it still needs a little more work but that can wait until I'm at the paint prep stage.
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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May 16, 2015 10:50:03 GMT
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By this point in the build I was keen to get Project Why Not off the bench and outside so I could have a good look at her at ground level.. To do this I needed to get the front wheels fitted. So armed with some steel, rose joints.. And these plans from Ron's BitsI went back to the lathe.. One block faced off. And one spindle with the end turned down a bit, but how to mount it through the block at the right angle involved a bit of thinking. A simple solution was soon found involving a bit of cardboard.. You can see where the steel block sits on the cardboard, the angled line below is the angle I need the block to sit at in the lathe. A bit of plate was cut to fit the block, note the two prongs are angled to match the angle I needed.. The cut out is to clear the chuck jaw. Clamp the plate to the block firmly and weld it on.. In the lathe it goes.. Looking good with the spindle lightly fitted Back in the lathe the block went to be bored out top and bottom. Some small bits of bar were turned down.. To fit inside the rose joints. With the bits of bar press fitted into the block the whole thing went back on the lathe again to cut some tapers just to tidy the corners up.
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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May 16, 2015 11:04:36 GMT
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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May 16, 2015 11:59:22 GMT
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More Stigian Wheel Horse lunacy. Bookmarked!
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May 16, 2015 18:32:27 GMT
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Looks very trick Stigian. Looking forward to the next installment. Just been on your Youtube channel too. You've done some great projects, love the 6 wheeler
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May 16, 2015 19:18:27 GMT
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Great build story, can't wait for the next update!
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Click picture for more
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May 16, 2015 19:31:03 GMT
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More Stigian Wheel Horse lunacy. Bookmarked! Thanks George
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My YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/user/UkWheelHorseBlokeQuote - D'you know, it's people like you, doing totally brilliant and pointless stuff like this that gives me a little hope for humanity
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