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.

This winch mount is dead. We can rebuild it, better, stronger, faster.

So I bought a new cultivator from a nice fellow up near Bergen. Thank you Greg, I appreciate it.



I wasn't happy with the format of that winch mount I made. When I was putting it together, I didn't have any better material to work with. So the other day I bought this rectangular tubing, spent a couple hours drilling the mount holes, and today I welded the roller guild support to it. This will be much better, because I'll have many more bolts holding the mount to the transmission case, and I can actually get my hand in there to thread the bolts.


The frame for the snowplow is coming along. I got it cleaned up and trimmed down today, but I wasn't able to weld it. It got too cold and dark to try it this evening. No matter, it's ready to go for next time.





Here are a couple pictures to show the tractor in its current form in decent light, because I haven't been able to get any good shots lately.

Punch it, Chewie.

My awesome neighbour gave me a used snowplow blade a few days ago, so I have to build a 3 point hitch frame for it so I can use it on the tractor.


I started with some crop steel and some 2.5" x 3/8ths flat bar.


Cut to size and trimmed that one bit as I need it to make a 2" gap.


I used my forge to punch the holes, drift them out, and bend them to shape.


Used the middle buster as a guide. I got the bends pretty close to it, but it doesn't have to be exactly the same.


Sorry for the bad angle, but I was holding this all together loose and still trying to get a picture.



Basically, I made a triangular frame out of the flat bar that I will weld to a 3" angle iron cross member, and weld a piece of square tubing to the cross member. Then, a brace goes from the top of the triangular frame down to the tubing.

Laying low voltage conduit all afternoon long.

Somehow my version of the song just doesn't have the same emphasis as David Wilcox's.

No matter.


I needed something to connect the positive cable end to. The threaded battery terminal was too big, so I had to improvise.


Deliciously dangerous wiring near the driveshaft. This is the solenoid that allows the winch to operate in the up and down directions.


Ass-ugly wiring everywhere. The chain and hooks are temporary until I can get some proper lifting chain and threaded links, or something like that.


The control switch was designed to work on an ATV handlebar, so it doesn't really match up all that well with my steering column. I may change this later, but this works for the time being. Zip-tie apocalypse behind the dash.


It actually works, the lift arms go up.


Can that be translated into something useful though?


Turns out it can.


I need shorter chains to connect to the arms.


Just to try it out a little, I made a short potato furrow in the snow in the middle of the driveway.

Someone give me a lift.

After discussing matters with my neighbour, I've decided to try using a winch for the hitch lift system instead of the cylinder. At least for now.


ATV model, got a good price on it. Came with everything I need.


Going to mount it on the top of the case. There were factory options for a geared lift system for this model of tractor, and this is where it mounted. This spot should be strong enough to take the force, I hope.


Need to put the guide somewhere, maybe here.


After considering things, this is what I came up with.


I had the winch backwards in the second picture there, it has to be underwound, not top wound.


I had to take the cap off the differential. The gear oil is much rustier than I was expecting, when I put it in there a few months ago it was blue. I've always planned to use it for a while and replace the oil again after it's cleaned the case a bit, I may have to do it a lot sooner than I thought though. Still, the gears look good from what I can see.


All together. The mounting bolts are an absolute bitch to get at, I may need to make some changes.


Tomorrow I hope to get it all wired up and start testing it.

Winter wonderland? More like winter hellscape.

Winter had finally hit Alberta.



Given that there's all of 3 hours of sunlight these days, and there's so much other stuff to do, I don't have a great deal of time to spend with my tractor.

Took it for a ride in the snow. Can't handle much more than a 16-18" snowdrift without bogging down. Going to have to make some chains.


Drilled and cut the bar that's going to hold the lift arms.


Re-used the pulleys from the old drive system, they make a good spacer to keep the lift arm out of the way of those bolt heads on the side of the hitch frame.


And called it a day.