I thought that I had started a thread on this build a while ago, but I can'tseem to find it anywhere. The SUNY system fails me once again....
So, with as many other projects that have landed in my garage, I picked up abeautiful blue Newt the Bold project that once belonged to JP. The Newt's a unique piece. I think what hits you first about the machine is it's size.
The volume of the lower and upper tub is comparable to an Argo 8x8, squished, squozen and squeedazzled into a big fat six wheeler. Originally, Newt was a fiberglass body with a central "spine" that held the transmission and engine cradle, along with the inboard bearings on the center and rear axles. All six outer bearings were simply bolted to the fiberglass, along with thefront inner bearing flanges. Overall, the fiberglass body itself isn't that heavy (probably about 80 pounds or so for the lower body and 50-60 pounds for the upper), and the structure is a bit thin compared to other machines that were similarly constructed (Scrambler and SPD Wedge come to mind). Over its lifetime of use, this resulted in an extreme case of blowedouttedness on the body around two of the right side axles.
This girl needs a frame. Like, whoa. So, here's a frame...
The frame rails are made out of 3/16" plate, with two 1-1/2" tube crossmembers connecting it together. There's going to be a second tubular frame right between the upper and lower bodies which, will incorporate a winch moun ton the front and other supports connecting it down to the primary frame. (lots more to be added to the above picture...)
The engine is a Kubota V1505 4-cylinder, advertised at about 38hp, depending on which specifications you quote. I've got gobs and gobs of room in this thing, which will allow me to squeeze in hundreds and hundreds of pounds of driveline components. The V1505 comes in at about 250 pounds itself (dry, no radiator or other components). With all this room, and a completely blank slate I really wanted to go crazy and try to fit in a low range gear box ahead (in driveline order, not physically) of the T-20 transmission (scoff if you must, naysayers….). Through the extreme generosity of MaxIV Mark, I picked up an NP203 transfer case out of a 70s vintage Dodge. The NP203 has the distinction of having a gear-driven hi/lo range box ahead of a somewhat maligned chain-driven transfer case. The gearbox itself is really a high strength unit, and outside of the hulking Kubota behind it, it should be about the toughest component in the machine (fingers crossed). I think it weighs about 90 pounds in total, based on how many ibuprofen I took the morning after 58 consecutive installs and extractions on the mockup.
In the original configuration, the 203 range box has a female front input, and a long output shaft. My plan is to adapt a standard T-20 driven clutch to the input, and drive the T-20 with double #60 chain off the output shaft. The rangebox has a reduction of about 2:1 in low, and 1:1 in high. This is going to give me a lot of options as far as final sprocket size on the axles and the T-20. (I’d like to drive the axles with #60 off theT-20). It’ll also let me pull a three-bottom plow should the need arise.
At the end of the day, the blue fiberglass is basically nothing more than a really cool-looking wrapper for what I hope is another cool machine. Lots and lots of time is spent thinking how things need to be layed out, saving a little cash for the next round of parts and fabricating parts when I have the time. The Super Swamp Fox was basically the same setup, but that already had a frame that I simply duplicated and upgraded a bit. Oh, and it needed zero bodywork… It seems to work well, so hopefully the timeinvested in this project will yield the same results….
Watch this space…..
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Originally Posted by micmac
