I have an addiction, but I swear I can quit at any time, RIGHT! I scored a sweet deal on a well used Mitsubishi Wide Track Mini Dozer/Clam Shell Bucket Loader that is tired and in need of lots of work! So I drug it home and started digging into it to see what would be needed! First thing, the Yanmar 3 banger Non Turbo smokes something awful, so I pulled it and tossed it aside and installed one of my spare Kubota 4 banger Turbo Diesels, BOY what a difference, she runs like a scalded cat, and grunts hard with a load, but dosn't bog or skip a beat! Only problem is, the Hydros cannot keep up with all this new found power, so I pulled the pump and replaced it with a much larger flow/high pressure two speed pump, and now things are super fun, though Trackk Speed didn't really increase all that much,, though the Hydros run faster, and have a lot more umph behind them. SO I pulled the Wheel drive Motors and dug into them. One of the tricks you can do is to pull the inlet lines and there are port restrictors under the inlets, ( Sort of like a power steering pump,) there is a spring and valve to restrict pressure and flow, so I pulled them and installed a custom machined plug that I reamed out to close to the origional diameter, I re installed averything and then test drove it! Bingo, more track speed, but still not as much as I wanted, so I popped the port restrictors again and reamed them some more and repeated the tests, so far so good, my phone GPS says I picked up 3 MPH, so I pulled the Ports again and reamed them some more, DAMN, this thing flys now, so I decided their good enough now, so I can move onto other issues on the rig! I got the local Hydro Shop aking me all new hoses and fittings, having them convert the Bucket Ram Hoses to Quick Conects so I can swap front end attackments, and I am adding 4 circuit to the rear of the Crawler to be able to run additional attachments! The Long and Short of all this new equipement is this: I need to consolidate and cut some of my equipement loose, and by having just a few rigs that can do multiple jobs well, I can get rid of other equipement I don't use nearly enough to justify having around taking up space! This "New" Crawler replaces 3 rigs, the Cat Dozer, the Kubota Front End Loader, and The Traced Skid Steer ( Which was the hardest to replace unit until now) so the next step is to rig the new Crawler to take both a Brush Cutter AND a Mulching Head, and for that, I have a Used Prinoth Mulcher sitting on a pallet ready to go, once I get a quick connect front end fabbed for the Crawler! I am also thinking about adding in a back hoe to this machine, but havnt decided yet if I really want to add that much additional weight, not to mention all the Hydros, that's a whole lot of extra stuff. Now, I have another piece of equipement I need to sort out, my unbreakable Gravely Zero Turn Mower! Damn thing tossed a rod and now it sits, and I ain't getting the grass mowed ( The Snow keeps me in the shop now anyways) but at some point, the wife will pitch a fit about the grass needing cut, and me with a busted mower! SO, I got a perfectly good used Vangard 35 Horse gas engine, and need to swap so I can fix the Gravely once and for all! Next is the Flex-Trax, which I picked up last summer, and have been rebuilding for the wife to have for the gardens and other small chores around the place! I was going to swap the old worn out Honda with one of the Predator 22 Horse units, but after digging into the rig, I discovered just how tough all the internals are, so I grabbed another Vanguard 35 Horse and fabbed an engine adapter to fit the Vaughn, and off we go! I added a spacer between the engine crank shaft and inpot shaft for the tractor so I could run a belt shiv, so Now I have a 4 circuit Hydro setup on it, 3 circuits for the front for when I get a dozer blade fabbed, and a single circuit for the rear for the 4 point hitch setup I already fabbed. I found a 56 inch Rototiller for super cheap, the engine was smoked, so I used the 22 Hp Predator on that, ( After rebuilding the tiller drive) so I can hook the tiller to the back of the Flex-Trax and have a powered up/down to be able to drag it through the gardens, and I can also rig a ripper super simple, so that takes care of all the garden needs, and frees up my Trackster for me to use for my chores around the ranch! That sucker is getting WAY more use then I ever tought it would, to the point I am going to need to ether rebuild the engine, or do an engine and hydro swap to keep up with demands! It's already plenty fast enough, and has WAY WAY more power then you would think for 30 horse, BUT, it does burn through the fuel like a Marine on a 3 day pass, and 2 stroke is loud and smokey as hell, so it might be time for a 4 stroke swap, and i'm really hyped over these 35 Horse Vanguards, so I might as well bite the bullet and go for it! Same trick with the Hydros, ream out the restrictor ports till I get it where I like it, and call it good! I really need to add a Hydro circuit to it, would be super nifty to have a tow behind Log Splitter thaat didn't require another engine to run, so I think that's the next project once I finish the new Crawler! I stil need to sort out what else I want to do to the new Crawler, maybe add a roll bar and lights, and repaint the whole thing after sand blasting it all, especially the tracks and under carrage, so besides all that, I need to just run the thing and see how it does and what other things I can might do, like a set of Forks for the front, which is one of the ways the Kubota got sent down the road,, same as the Skid Steer, LOL! See, i'm actually gaining, while consolidating equipement, and making more room for what I already have! We're almost to the point where we're all set with what we have, don't really need anything else, or any other abilities we cannot already preform, other then ONE more task, and it's a biggy, so I gotta sort this one out SOON! So, this big task: as you might know, this Ranch is 240 acres, and it's mostly grazing, and we run cattle and horses on tracts of it, but it still needs mowed, especially my Runway, and the poor Gravely is over taxed doing this, so I gotta figure out which piece of equipement we have that could be adapted to run a Gang Real Mower set up! At least that's my thinkin, I know where there are a bunch of Gang Mowers I could buy up and those are rebuildable for ever, so it's not rocket science, so I just need to bite the bullet and pick up a set and then figure out which rig to set up, maybe the Thiokol Super Imp, or this new Crawler might be up to the task, it's certainy smaller, but WAY heavier, but with the wide tracks, should handle the mud and muck just fine with the additional weight up front! I got a few months to figure it out, till then, back to the Crawler, gotta get it finished up and trackin before the Wife figures out more " Honey-Doos" that I don't need right now! LOL
So, fun times, turns out this may have been one of those deals that's too good to be true, this is a grey market Crawler, they were sold in both Tacoma and Alaska, but the parts are pretty much a no go! Thankfully, it runs and works just fine, and with the engine swap I already did, plus the new hydro lines and suck, I should be in high cotton! From what little I can find researching these, they were popular in S.E. Asia, Questionable Imports into the States, and Australia! They were also kinda hybrids, some having Yanmar diesels, others having Marooka engines, around 30 HP which is pretty low! No matter, it's all mine, and it's cool as all hell, so i'm keeping it! Here's the Cushman Trackster, my daily work horse, This thing runs it's ass off every day, all day no matter what the weather! I hadn't intended to run it as often or as hard, but DAMN, besides being a ton of fun (Both litterally and figuratively) it's seriously useful around here, and with the tasty mods, which helped make it this useful, I can actually use ot to run to town safely when the weather is super nasty, and I have zero issues! You can find these pretty reasonably, but parts are hard to get, especially engine parts, so if you do decide to get one, plan on a 4 stroke swap, which is super easy to do! Tracks are still available, both Diamond and McClaren have them, but there is some funky Facebook deal you gotta be a club member of to be able to buy the tracks, I went with the DOuble Diamond Tracks, they seem to do better in the soft stuff, with out digging in deep, more able to float through and keep going, especially useful in Powder snow and Dry Sand! This thing is POWERFUL for just 30 HP, the tractive offort far exceded a lot of other tractors I have played around with, it will pull my 8000 pound Pickup across the yard no problem! Only down sides to these is they really drink the fuel, and they are loud as hell,, even with semi good mufflers! Here's the Thiokol Super Imp with it's full body installed, notmally, I run it topless, which is just the tub and engine/front end, and I usually don't even run the windshield! This thing is an absolute Hoot to run, and it goes anywhere I would ever want to try! Tracks are super grabby, and being steel, not good on the public roads, but everywhere else,, this thing is unstoppable! I swapped out the Old worn out Ford 200 6 banger for a MBZ OM-617 Turbo Diesel, which made such a YUGE difference not only in power, but road speed and fuel efficency, I can let this sit at high idle all night and it only burns about 3 gallons of fuel! Bonus is the double heaters with Alaskan Bush Stove really cooks the insides, perfect for those super cold days plowing and running around rescuing all the neighbors who refuse to buy their own plows for their trucks or tractors! LOL I find this gets used far more then I had intended, which isn't a bad thing, and it's certainly FAR more useful then the old Tucker I had while rebuilding this thing! I do miss the Tucker, but not that much! LOL
You certainly have some very interesting and eye-catching equipment, rare too! Reference the Cushman Trackster, what an interesting piece. I am looking it up online now... It appears they are no longer made anywhere...sad because given those super wide tracks (how wide are they?) and also how it appears the entire undercarriage is enclosed - well - it could go anywhere! If the ground clearance was reasonable... The old 2-stroke engine was either 25 or 29 HP, how much horsepower does your 4-stroke give you? Anyway, very interesting piece which has my curiosity. Also they appear to be pretty rare now and that one looks in extremely good condition. They look like a real hoot to drive! How much ground clearance? This thing looks like pure fun! I found this that told me a bit about them...take note under 'specifications' of the 'ground pressure,' it's nothing! cushman trackster.com -- specifications
I love rare and even one-off equipment. Great pics! I'm trying to find the old Polaroid I have of a neighbors (when I was a teen) Snow-cat like vehicle he bought in Alaska, brought back to N.C. and made it into a bulldozer with air conditioning. It looked a lot like that Thiokol but was way bigger.
I don't know why they didn't become more popular then they did, other then they were expensive and S-L-O-W, even with a high power 2 stroke! Anyway, you can find them all over for sale, expect to spend between 1 and 3 grand for projects on up to runners! Mine is a 1970 29 HP 9 Tooth ( More on that later) and it didn't look as good when I got it as it does now, Paid $2500 for it Running and with half way decent original tracks, plus it had a bunch of very hard to find spare parts that would end up saving me a TON of coin later. They are a very interesting design, very well thought out and manufactured, almost like they know what they were doing. The Undercarriage is really trippy, but it's very reliable and very strong, and when set up properly, this thing will actually SWIM, though it's gonna be super close. Factory weight of a running unit is about a thousand pounds, and This one is well over that, so I don't think I would try to float it! The stock engine is a trip, it's an OMC design, and has a stupid funky ignition system, which doomed many good ones to junk or conversions, and so finding an original runner is the ideal! There are a couple conversions for the ignition system that fix the funky and make them more reliable and easier to repair if needed. A 4 Stroke swap is stupid simple, but if you hang out on the forums, your find the NUMBER 1 Complaint is Track Speed, and Torque! The biggest thing to know is that swapping to a 4 stroke, is you loose nearly 2500 RPM at full power, and that translates to Hydrostatic Pump Speed being "Mid Power" compared to the 2 stroke, so you have to make a choice, 1) do nothing and use it as is, 2) figure out how to ether get the 4 stroke to spin the Hydros faster, and 3) decide if you want to dig into the Hydros, or replace them with a higher speed set! I did the Hydros with the stock engine, but I "Built" the stock engine to not only spin harder, as well as increase power, but it's also far more reliable with it's new ignition system. I did all this to increase track speed, my stock rig would go around 15 MPH, and now it goes around 33 MPH. Part of this was the increase in engine power and the modified hydros, and part was a custom built set of drive sprockets! The Earlier Tracksters had 25 HP and 7 tooth Drive Sprockets, and the later Rigs were 29 HP and had 9 tooth Drives, Mine is now Super Charged, and around 45 HP and has 12 tooth Drive Sprockets, LOL!!! So Cushman was well aware of the track speed issues way back when. Now Days, you gotta think outside the box to get one running, but there are tons of options if you look at it from the basic functions it needs! If you want to know more, I can give you ALL sorts of info, parts resources and such, as well as tons of conversion info. Keep in mind, if you do get one and need to do a 4 stroke, your speed will drop to around 10 MPH, unless you come up with a plan to drive the Hydros at a higher RPM, and there are options for how to do that! Number 1 Option is to find the Aftermarket DAN-FOSS Hydromantic drive set, they are a drop in/plug and play conversion, and that will really make your rig run right! Tracks! This is one of the biggest concerns that most folks have, and there are options, but you gotta be willing to spend the money, and do the work yourself! McLaren and Diamond are the Commercial Manufactures that still make tracks for these, but because it's such a small market, they only make a small run every now and then, so you got to get on a list to get a set! I prefer the Diamond tracks, they are not as aggressive as the McLaren's and have more surface area, and they will not tear up the ground as much. Cost is about $2500 for a pair brand new including shipping, so you need to factor that into a purchase. outside of that, you COULD convert to run Camoplast Tracks from Ski-doos ( What we used to call the Snow Sleds) but your not saving anything, cost is gonna be about the same, you want the 179 inch tracks to fit the Trackster properly, and THOSE need to be special ordered and takes around 3 months to ship, god only knows why it takes so damn long! Finally, you can buy track belts from Goodyear or Firestone, and make your own, but that's a lot of time, and a lot of steel, and you end up with a Sno-Track ONLY, but it's do-able! All the Original and Common Track replacements are about 18 inches wide, and ground clearance is about 12 inches depending on the condition of your suspension, which is funky but robust and reliable, and thanks to the interwebs, now it's super easy to find replacement parts! There are other Track Options, such a Claas out of Germany, again, you need 179 inches track length, and those are even more expensive, but give you the most options! Tracks are a buy once, cry once kinda deal, a good set will last a life time and then some! I run mine all over the place, including on pavement, and track wear is almost a non issue, mine look almost like new! If you want to know more, hit me up, I got tons and tons of really useful info on these rigs! They are SUPER DUPER handy and Damn FUN to play around with, Will carry 4 full sized adults anywhere you would ever want to go, and will even go places you wouldn't dare try taking a Quad or other similar sized rig! Don't let the lack of parts and support get you down, there is a ton of useful info and there are online communities who will be super happy to offer advice and help, and thanks to the interwebs, plenty of "Deals" to get you into one, and keep you in parts and such! If you get one, your gonna be scratching your head wondering how you didn't know about these sooner, and why you didn't have one already, trust me, these are really that good!
I admit, they are super interesting, but I don't want to get involved with anything new right now. First, I want to know what is going to happen in the election and then the 6 months following the election. I also got a knee operation in April which I am considering postponing due to the political environment of the election...just have no idea what is going to happen or how severe so planning for the worse and praying for the best but I will keep an eye open for these in the future.
Yes, it does, as long as there were no holes drilled into the tub below the belt line! As long as you don't have a bunch of extra weight like batteries, winches, ect. yea, it will float and swim SLOWELY via the tracks churning it through the water! There was a version specifically built to Swim, those are kinda rare, but do pop up for sale now and then, and pretty reasonably priced too, if I was lookin, I would grab one! They are NO different other then having the higher sides to keep the splashing out!
I worked for the 2 ski areas in Big Bear Lake California both in the snow making and maintenance departments. Both had bone yards of all their worn out equipment that gets scavenged from, some with nothing left salvageable got buried in the mountainside some where. We rebuilt tracks regularly replacing broken grousers is a daily chore on this equipment, it takes 2 people most of the time. It's funny but the 1/2" grade 8 bolts snap under the load on these tracks. There's a product called "Open and Shut" we spray on the bolts before attempting to remove them and it is very effective. Like a helicopter, snow cats have a lot of moving parts take a lot of maintenance you can't ignore. It's not fun trying to move a dead cat stuck on a hill side. Youve got some beautiful equipment, and being the only driver you'll have fewer problems, Just don't loan them out. People that own equipment don't want to take responsibility for breakage.
