Snow Job

Not much going on lately, been busy with work, some night courses, and life in general.

Still, I did get a chance to play around with the snowplow a little.




I need to angle the blade, but since there wasn't much snow, and I didn't have a wrench on me to re-do the bolt, I left it. Because I'm lazy.

Good thing the weather was bad this spring.

Because the tractor wasn't quite ready to handle the rigors of a garden yet.


Experimenting with cultivation provided mixed results. It had power, once I took two of the outer tines off the cultivator. I was able to claw several passes through the very tall grass in my backyard.





This is before I took the outer tines off.




My implements wanted to swing a lot because I didn't have any kind of stabilizer chains in place, and the winch lifting hook being off centre didn't help. A ratchet strap worked perfectly as a temporary solution.



However, the little motor just wasn't up to the job. I overheated it pretty badly, as it had to spin very slowly and draw a lot of current. It wasn't able to cool itself with the built in fan.


So I pulled out the motor.


Found I had melted all the insulation. I have since taken it to an electric motor repair shop, the coils are all good and the wiring was fine, so they reinsulated it for me.


So, down for the count for a few weeks. I found and bought a bigger, more powerful 48v motor from D&D.


It's a lot longer than the old motor as well. Won't fit in the motor mount I made for the last one.


Good thing I'm not the sentimental type.


All hooked up, and back in business.


I did a couple tests with it, cultivated 3 lines, ran up the road at full speed, ran the disc harrow for about 20 minutes. It pulled a LOT harder, smoother and all around better. Temperature stayed at an acceptable level.


Still, I've ordered some active cooling and some gauges, so I will be installing those before I go all out with the cultivating again.

Welcome home.

So I moved into my house on the 16th of April. It's taken a long time, but I was finally able to get my tractor here. There have been a lot of setbacks, delays, and emotional hardships that I don't want to go into here.




Soon I will be able to cultivate the grass and weeds growing in my lot and plant some cover crop. I won't have enough time this year to plant a proper garden (Alberta's weather has been insane this year) but I can plant a few things, beans, peas, maybe some shallots or something. Watch this space for video updates of the tractor actually doing things.

I need some outside support.

And by that I mean I need gussets.


Also, lateral supports.



Then some paint.




After that, I hooked up the harrow, and clamped my little camera to the hitch frame and dragged it up and down my parent's driveway.





Edit: Finished the plow assembly.

I was framed.

So with the battery frame done:



I started working on the sheet metal.  But it turns out that was a bad idea.  When I built that replacement hood support, I measured the height off the dashboard support, guessing that the front of the hood would be at the same height.


As you can see, there are some rather serious panel gap issues.  No matter, I'm putting the sheet metal to bed for the time being, until I can get my hands on a metal brake and an air compressor so I can make some new side panels.  That probably won't be until winter.


Speaking of winter, I need to finish that snow/dirt plow that I was building.

I should have measured the distance between the top uprights of the frame before I welded it, it was too narrow.  So, I cut them off, made new ones, drilled them out, and welded them onto the frame.


Made a little support for the plow.


Then I welded it onto the frame. Ignore the clamp, I didn't have a proper 1/2inch bolt for the main 'hinge'.




There are three holes in the plow bracket so I can angle it however I want. Should be useful.



Looks pretty good, too.

Leaded fuel only.

So in building this new tray, I had hoped to get four on the bottom, and four on the top. Unfortunately, as I had built the motor mount slightly bigger than it needed to be, there isn't enough room to get all four in the bottom. No matter, three and five will work out fine, if slightly top heavy.



Support for the top rack.



Drilling holes to secure it to the frame.



Sizing it up.



Gussets like crazy. Just made these out of scrap I had laying around. If I need more in the future, I'll add more. No big deal.



Since this is going to be somewhat tight and cramped, I have to remove the top batteries to get at the lower ones. May as well make it easy for myself to get the bottom ones in and out, so I drilled holes to make this side of the rack removable. Somewhat easy access is important, as these are trojan batteries that have to have their cells checked every so often (acid levels, specific gravity).



Test fitting.



Built a mini-tray for the single 12v that I have room for. I had hoped to get more in there for a paralleled bank, but there's not enough room.



All painted up.





New weatherstripping for the batteries to cushion themselves on.



Bolted down and wired up.



Gave it a quick test, everything seemed normal, so I put the hood back on.



Took it for a short test run on the driveway (first time it's moved in a month and a half), was very satisfied, so I tucked the little batteries in for their very first charge cycle.


All in all, a productive two weeks.

Coming up next, I finish that damn plow blade mount.

Heavy Metal

The new winch frame is all painted and mounted on the transmission case.




The frame for the snowplow is all welded up. I still need to add some side support brackets, and some kind of rotating joint to bolt the plow to later, but that can wait.


Now that that's all put together, I can set it aside for a while. I'm perfectly happy with how the tractor performs, and things seem placed where I want them to be. Now it's time to upgrade the power supply.

These are eight, 6v, Trojan t-105 batteries. They will allow me to work outside for 3-4 hours with no problem, which for my size of lot will be absolute overkill.


I've taken the existing 12v batteries out, and their tray. I will be using these in parallel for a large 12v power bank. Great to run a little inverter, power some tools out in the back of the yard, and run the accessories on the tractor.


Hopefully I'll be able to get that built next weekend. The days are getting longer, and my house will be done in April. I need to have this thing ready to go.