Jundis Posted May 28 Posted May 28 (edited) Hey guys+gals, as an adorer of older machinery, my first thought was: What were the first tracked vehicles? After reading the cool little history of tracked vehicles provided by CAT, the first true tracked tractor without aditional front wheels (Rules quote: "Half-tracked is not allowed.") was the Hornsby Chain Track Tractor from 1904. Later models were also driven by a petrol engine, but the first ones run on steam. As usual tracks aren't really suitable here, I came up with a way more cumbersome, and therefor fitting solution: Apart from its looks, it works way smother than one might think. All return and road wheels are prone to change, though. But dimensions are settled so far with a width of 17 studs. The only PU XL-motor with a heavy cluth will drive the steam mechanism directly and then be geared down by a planetary gear hub. Like the real machine, it will have a 4-speed gearbox, but not shure if I can arrange a working slight-gear drivetrain... at least I aim for the scaled-down version of the same speeds as the real machine (1.5 - 3 - 5 and 8 mph). Also like the real think, it will have a break steering-system for each individual track side. Hopefully I can arrange the drivetrain in a way all the gears are visible like in the real machine (see first pic). Edited May 28 by Jundis Quote
2GodBDGlory Posted May 28 Posted May 28 Ooh, that's some interesting subject material, and I love how the bizarre-looking track matches the real vehicle so well! Quote
BusterHaus Posted May 31 Posted May 31 I'm digging the custom drive sprockets and matching tracks. It's a very creative approach to duplicating the original model. Quote
Jundis Posted May 31 Author Posted May 31 Waiting for parts right now and working on the gearbox... Sliding gear is out of the game, not enough space. 5 hours ago, BusterHaus said: I'm digging the custom drive sprockets and matching tracks. It's a very creative approach to duplicating the original model. Thanks guys, hopefully its working out :-) Waiting for parts right now and working on the gearbox. For now, sliding gears are out of the game... way to unstable to control and not enough space... Quote
Jundis Posted July 10 Author Posted July 10 Turned out this is more complex than I first thought, but very fun to build :-) The gearbox is finished and just has to be implemented in a stable manner, but drives my moc-up very well. The red gears and the flywheel attached is driven with the motors rpm and then geared down to get enough torque. Can't really settle on a good suspension setup. The original one is kind of strange and would require special parts without beeing too bulky and still rigid enough :-/ Quote
1980SomethingSpaceGuy Posted July 10 Posted July 10 Really nice track design. Looking forward to see this one progress! Quote
Jundis Posted July 20 Author Posted July 20 Tinkered all the weekend to run this thing, but the sprockets sometimes just seem to stuck on the tracks... Even with a wormgear final drive, it just wasn't going to work as intended. As it deeply saddens me, but I gotta abandon this model When the primary drive feature doesn't work properly, it just isn't satisfying to present it here. Sry guys... :-/ Quote
Divitis Posted July 20 Posted July 20 3 hours ago, Jundis said: When the primary drive feature doesn't work properly, it just isn't satisfying to present it here. You have my top score and respect for engineering (moral?) integrity Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.