Mini-Vee: 1/3 scale Humvee, go kart and yard mule (now with 450HP diesel)

[dremu]

The steering is currently set up as crossover, i.e. a tierod from one side to the other (lower in the pic below) and then a draglink from the steering arm to the passenger side arm (upper)

Just like on our trucks, one end is reverse threaded, so you can undo the locknuts and rotate the rod arm to adjust. The red-painted ends are the backwards ones as I got tired of confusion over which way to turn

When I did up the spindles, I welded a nut onto the inside, with a bolt to act as a steering stop when it hits the C on the inside.

The steering isn't perfect, takes a lot of effort and the geometry is a bit wonky. I may switch it all out to a rack&pinion affair or something, hafta see what's available.

 

[dremu]

The winch is a little 2000 pound ATV piece set into 1/4" plate in the frame rails. Instead of the stupid hand control they give you, I did a solenoid pack, which is controlled by a switch on the dash.

Here the winch cable is set up to get spooled in under tension by pulling against the blue truck

Little rubber hook stopper and everything, it's a toy for children of all ages

 

[dremu]

So that's it, basically finished. Might still fiddle with things, might leave it as it sits for a spell. (I know, I know, what's that word "finished"? )

Mostly it's just a toy, as evidenced by the laughter and family driving it, but it's occasionally a handy way to tote tools and stuff around the property. I know an acre doesn't sound like much to those of you in the country, but by San Francisco standards I am in the country and an acre's a lot.

Since I'm a pic whore I'll close with the final product:

 

[AJMBLAZER]

An acre doesn’t feel like much until you have to walk across it repeatedly.

 

[AJs72K5]

Such a cool build. Details.

 

[dremu]

I use mini solar panels to keep the batteries topped off on the various small vehicles, and managed to drop one of said panels right smack dab into the hood of the 'Vee, punched an L-shaped hole through the plywood. Grrr. Took like a week of nights to clean out the cracks and drill out the ends, glue more flat behind, then fill and sand, fill and sand, ad infinitum. I hate body work, even if it's not metal.

Got tired of the manual steering, required a ridiculous amount of effort. Also, if I really got manly with it, I could pop it past the stops and put the steering arm upside down, instead of up, so the steering was backwards. Guess that gave me an excuse to have the Hi-Lift on the 'Vee , to jack the thing up and pop the steering back, but still, bullshirt.

A bit of internet scouring lead me to sandrail rack-n-pinion steering, ie

Depending on your monitor, that may be actual size -- the thing is only like 9" across. The steering column is the same size/spline count as the kart style I have, did have to do a U-joint to mate them. Hard to see down there (crappy phone pix, didn't have the good camera)

View from the front. On the right side of the pic (left side of vehicle), you can sorta see a tab I built, to go from the 3/8 fine threaded for the rod end, to bolt into the rod end on the rack.

Did a mount out of angle, bolts to holes already in the frame where I had the column before, and then has a coupla studs for the new rack to mount.

Even crappier pic, but shows the passenger side; same thing, rod end on outside, and welded tab inside. I found that trying to mate a rod end on the tierod to a rod end on the rack had waaay too much slop, the spherical eyes would just make googly faces at each other like teenagers playing footsie. The flat tab with a bolt through has no slop, yay.

Since the 'Vee is a two seater, the steering isn't centered on the vehicle, which means the one tie rod is veeery short and the other is veeery long. With the original lever steering, that meant balancing left turns versus right required much adjustment, and the turn radius was better one way than the other no matter what I did. Now with the steering rack, rotation of the column is turned into purely linear motion, so it's more even left-to-right.

Now the turn radius isn't improved, seems about the same as the Blazer , but at least it's the same going left or right. (Really, the track is crazy wide, we know this. I wanted it to look like a Humvee and it does, with all the faults that come with it.)

However, I call it a success as steering effort is MUCH reduced, can even turn the thing when stationary, and there's no risk of popping the steering arm 180* out

-- A

 

[KirsL]

Now you need to build a little trailer for the vee to pull the mini-dozer on.

 

[dremu]

Now you need to build a little trailer for the vee to pull the mini-dozer on.

The dozer outweighs the 'Vee by what, 3:1? Even if the six horses of the Vee got it going, I'm quite sure the brakes would never stop it!

-- A

 

[ryoken]

how did I miss this... neat project.. dig it...

 

[dremu]

how did I miss this... neat project.. dig it...

Thanks. It is a fun little thing, and handy now and then.

The kid wants to take it to one of his airsoft events (I told him behind the lines only, no combat, don't want to do more bodywork!) so we got a set of ramps, and today was the test-loading into the truck:

The winch is suddenly useful, not silly at all. Loop the rope around the toolbox (you can just see the neon green), and it pulled itself right up. Chain on the front bumper of the kart for safety, and then a good strap around the back

And the kart can do 70MPH, admittedly with the assistance of 450hp and 925ft-lbs of SuperDuty underneath it

Does bounce just a bit, next time I think we'll also strap across the top, down to the bottom of the bed, but it's pretty stable as is.

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice a very yellow-colored trunklid in that first pic. The original plywood one was warped from the gitgo, and only got worse in the humid weather. I'm trying my hand at fiberglass, then, starting with the easy stuff like a square panel, and then maybe do the doors with the latch cutouts and insert pattern and such. After paint, the 'glass trunk lid should look just like the wood one, except flat.

-- A