thinking of building one of these......

[tiger9297]

I live on 5 acres and always have some kind of project going on. Yard work, garden, lifting, moving something, etc. Have a wife that weighs about 95 lbs. and an 18 month old daughter so noone else around to help me lift or move anything. These days a new tractor with a loader is $$$$$$$. I ran across this the other day. I figure I can come up w/ some steel, and cylinders, but the expensive part would be the hydraulic motors. I guess you could scavenge some old farm equipment for those though. Input?

http://www.cadplans.com/cadtrac.htm

 

[littlejimmythatcould]

Looks like it would be pretty handy and fun to drive. How much weight are you going to lift?

 

[tiger9297]

I won't be lifting alot of weight. For instance this week I'm getting a few loads of gravel put on my driveway. I could use it to spread the gravel (I'd make a blade attachment for it). A front end loader is great for yard work. As far as lifting goes I wouldn't lift much- chunks of wood, mulch, dirt, gravel, engines, I lifted my boat motor off my boat for painting a while back. Seems I'm always needing to do something like that. My dad has a tractor I can borrow, but he lives 2 hours away so it's not like I can just run and get it really quickly when I need it. I figure with the loader bucket, a blade, and a forklift, that machine would do practically everything I would ever need.

I think it's rated for 500 lbs. but in reading the posts from other guys that have built them they say it will lift well over 1,000 lbs. You can also deviate from the plans if you like. You can use heavier metal, larger cylinders, pump, etc. to get more lifting capacity. I'm sure I would deviate from the plans to a degree.

 

[littlejimmythatcould]

maybe a large kind of a counter weight could be used along with stronger materials to get it up to the 1000 to 1500 range. What is the estimated cost going to be?

 

[tiger9297]

Well I think they estimate $8k which is waaaaaaaaaaaay more than I would spend. However, that does include buying everything new, including the metal. (I guess it's not too bad seeing as how a small JD tractor w/ a loader runs $17k) I would probably buy very few things new. In fact I already have a good bit of metal, and an engine I could use. My main concern as far as expense goes are the hydraulic motors. Each wheel has it's own motor. I can get everything else fairly cheaply. I just have to figure a way to get the motors. I wanna say they run $300+ each new. There are plenty of old combines, cotton pickers, and various tractors around with hydraulics. Just gotta find them.

 

[littlejimmythatcould]

I think it would be neat to have a little tractor. I would say go for it! What kind of motor do you have for it?