English TowTractor for Estonian boys at Ladoga 2008

[TR Pjätt]

Like new

[YellowTractor]

but why do you do this Priit? drivers are supposed to stay in the car - Indrek is fit and you are old

[YellowTractor]

ok, so a little bit more gets done

back axle doesnt need any more welding, it just needs painting and putting back together



made some parts for the front axle


it looks like we fell asleep standing up


put a flitch tube in to make it more resistant to twisting (and make it look nicer )


and gave it a home to live in

[Veiko]

Jez can U explane bit about this rims U have.Are they 3 pice rims?The center pice what hold the tires in place is some kind a pice of plastic.So if U mount the tires then U have to put the black part inside tire first and then put two part togeter with bolts and some sealant between there.
Or how it works?

Veiko

[YellowTractor]

Hi Veiko

its easier to explain with pictures



the two metal pieces have an "O" ring between them, there is no need for sealant, they are easy to take apart and easy to build, they dont leak and even with no air at all you can drive as far as you like with no problems



there are 2 companies in England that make copies of this type of wheel, one company is ok but very unreliable and the other company is unreliable and has bad quality - this is why I buy them from America. Its not so hard to make the same system at home but I just dont have the time

Ive seen cars with only 1 beadlock have big problems too many times to use them - I like knowing the tyre is going to stay there however stupid I drive, I can email you some more pictures if you like?

[Tauri]

Quite a mean looking 4x4 you got there, how's the building process going?

[K.Kotkas]

What will be the expected weight of the tow tractor. Also, can you please weigh one of the wheels.

[YellowTractor]

we've had a busy weekend but its been spent doing stuff that takes lots of time but doesnt look like you have done anything at the end of it - more pictures this week

wheels with 39.5x18x16.5 Boggers on are 82kgs each, not light but very strong

how heavy will it be? good question, we have an estimate..Petal (last years tractor) was 1850kgs full of fuel and ready to go so Mouse (this one) should be a good deal lighter - when its done we'll put it on the weighbridge, but at the moment I can still lift it up

[K.Kotkas]

we've had a busy weekend but its been spent doing stuff that takes lots of time but doesnt look like you have done anything at the end of it - more pictures this week

Comoon, shthefup.

I did some cleaning since nature seemed to find a way:




and also lightened the car a bit with some removal of some metal...

[YellowTractor]

I like the little tree in the cab - Im not sure you could use it to winch to in a swamp but its worth a try?

do you need these little pieces of metal? Im running out - I could use these

we finally get the front axle finalised and make sure everything moves without hitting anything else - its ok in the up position


...and the down position - we also try every other position we can, and it looks ok


finally start to rebuild the portals


we use our hyper strong 4340/300M Volvo CVs


some paint starts to go on


winch tray for the front is cut


and welded on..


Mouse is narrower than a defender so we cut an original windscreen down and started on the windscreen surround. We take off all excess metal and drill out the puddle welds


fill all the drill holes with weld


cut out a section from the middle of the surround


do a little welding


and then make sure it fits ok

[YellowTractor]

we fix a little problem that Volvo axles have

[K.Kotkas]

mmm they are painted black instead of military green

[YellowTractor]

we only have two colours of paint - yellow and black


we used to have problems with the bolts coming loose, its an easy thing to fix but every year we forget to do it, this time we remembered

[K.Kotkas]

Darn, and I thought that happy grinding face was there to replace the portals...

[YellowTractor]

nah - we try to make pretty cars, not butt ugly ones