Kid's, I'm enjoying your posts. Trying it add floatation is not an easy task, and there are many ways of achieving it. Attached is an idea that I had a few years back, that could be adapted to any 6x6 or 8x8. I made it removable for the addition of tracks.
Update: Tried to add .pdf but Gallery doesn't accept it, so cannot link it to this post. I could convert it to a .jpg, will try later maybe or sent me an email and I will attach it.
bisco@rogers.com
tell me more about the front axle stuff because i did not know. And how hard were those bearings to install? And what were the exact specifications on them? Thanks I was going to put 10s on mine too and was thinking about matt o's rims they are the right bolt pattern but only 9'' diameter and 10'' wide and run 50$ a piece. but i dont know if i can fit another 400$ in the tight budgetAbout the engine you would probally have to get a custom machined output shaft thats the only problem i see and you would have to rig something up to the hydralic radiator to cool it. The 6x6 plan is a long time in the future. when i get older and out of college and get a shop i plan to buy a diesel kid and make it a dual wheel monster set up for hunting and with my gas kid i would rebuild an alluminmum body for it and make it into a 6x6 with some monster mud tires for a play machine.
8x8 twice as good as 4x4
I got all my tires and rims as pkg from Jed's Wholesale Tires, Inc. Old Fort, TN tel 423-338-6689. The std with tracks was the 8.5, according to my tracks the 10's should fit in them also but may not work for total track dimension around all of the tires, will have to try it when I have time. Wish I could find some rubber tracks like on the MudOX. Steel is just too tough, my friend actually ripped the center out of one of his steel wheels with his tracks on when trying to come out of the swamp recently.
The axles are pretty straight forward, the book says remove the chains but I just let them go slack. None of my chains looked worn or needing replacement. Take off the cotter pin and castle nut, 3 ext nuts and pull. All of mine came out pretty easy, try greasing all int and ext bearings first. One axle had to press bearing off and on as too tight. All axles had scoring from the grease seal cutiing in due to bad bearings. 1 sooo bad I got a new axle $165. Shoson has the bearings and seals at a better price than local and its the right ones. He makes a tool ($50) to keep the int alignment and shaft key in place when removing and reinstall, I got one but didn't use it. Easier with 2 people but not too bad.
I only changed all of my outer bearings, no inner seemed loose, most stress is on the outer ones, uses same bearings on both. I had problems with 2 hull mounting areas because previous owners beat the hell out of the hull trying I guess to beat the axles in, the hull was all bent up around the axle hole, I ended up making 2 flanges to go between the hull and the bearing housing to give me a good flat surface for sealing. I'm still waiting for my new axle to complete the job. The old one was so scored that I felt like it would definitely leak and Bob at Shoson said thats also where they would usually break. Price to have a shop weld and mill to spec was same or more $.
I'm also taking the time to blast and repaint the hull since I have it all apart before I put the front & rear bumper bars back on. I'm thinking of welding a receiver onto the rear.
I think for diesel I would try to use air diesel or Kubota, isuzu, daihatsu liquid cooled 35-38 hp rather than older tech perkins. Most can provide the same shaft dia and housing bolt-up.
On the front axle, it is mounted slightly higher so it won't bind so bad on the ground when turning, but when they did that they forgot to move it further out front. the clarance space between tire 1 and 2 is less than 2-3 and 3-4. thereby can't upgrade size of front tire. I would love to be able to put the 26" tires that I have on my zero turn mower on it, but they won't fit! So the duallys will have to do! It also would have been nice to put it more out front because without the tracks and with the bumper bar and winch mount in place the front tires don't grab much before the bar digs into an incline.
Southern Comfort Kid
haha i put our 26 inch tire on one of the axles just to see what it looked like and it made me wish and thats when i came up with the 6x6 thought and those zero turn tires are wide so it really looked good!! How long did it take you to do the bearing job just curious? but my motor remains stuck but now i have hope my manual got in today and somebody is coming out within a couple weeks to help me with it. (after i get a couple things accomplished). I think im going with swamp fox tires 6ply little more geared for the mud but is going to be a rough ride really just looking forward to getting my motor running because i know that is going to be the turning point and im just about to dy waiting to drive it!! I wish i could finish it in time to hunt with it this year but i guess it'll have to wait till next season.
i got my manual and found out there are two models of the kids the fast and the slow and of course i have the slow one
The slow sprocket only has 11 teeth on the small side of the drive sprocket and the fast one has 14 teeth on the small side.
11=18mph more torque
14=25mph
Is that the small triple sprocket on the drive motors? I thought I had heard later models had slower speed with more torque but didn't know how to tell. Mine looks like it has more than 11, can't realy get a good count. I know when I took mine up a hill in MS it seemed to be lacking power. Thats another reason if changing engines to get one that operates at 3000 or 3600 rpm versus the wisconsin 2800 rpm. I would think you should be able to get the other sprockets. Does the smaller sprocket use the same chain? I guess with maybe less links.
Bearing job took a lot longer because I had to get more bearings than first ordered and now still waiting for an axle. If you have all of the parts ready and don't have to straighten and blast hull and you don't have to blast the axle or bearing housing, and grease inside housing isn't 40 years old, and bearing isn't jammed in the housing, and you know how to do it, I guess you could do one in about an hour +. HA! Just think of all the labor cost your saving.
Southern Comfort Kid
It is the sprocket that has three sprockets on it. The really large sproket that has the triple chain then the two smaller ones on it and it is if the smaller ones are 11 or 14. if you want to save the trouble of changing motors you could always trade with me. haha But if you do put in a new motor i would put pressure gauges in the hydrostats so you can make sure they dont reach 4500 psi or else they could blow under the higher revs and you should probally figure out how to cool them better to.
You can buy generic sprockets if you want to play with different tooth setups. That way you don't have to hunt down KID sprockets which will probably be a little harder to find.
It sounds like you have a sprocket tube with all three sprockets on the same tube and that will make it a little more difficult but you can either grind the old sprockets off and weld on new ones or just buy all the sprockets you need and make a whole new tube with all three sprockets on it. Then you could change the ratio anytime you wanted.
Of course you could also just buy the parts you need and get a local shop to weld them up for you. That may cost a little more but then you don't have to be the one to worry about getting the sprockets welded on straight.
Just a thought.
Originally Posted by LTV KID
i got my manual and found out there are two models of the kids the fast and the slow and of course i have the slow one
The slow sprocket only has 11 teeth on the small side of the drive sprocket and the fast one has 14 teeth on the small side.
11=18mph more torque
14=25mph
LTV KID i got a set of the 11 tooth. figuares dont it what ever your looking for everyone has the other..
any desent machine shop in your area can take your 11 tooth sprockets off the coller and weld 14 tooth sprockets on the coller. most farm stores sale flat sprockets [witch is what you want] that bolts to a slip taper lock coller. these sprockets would work if there center bore is not to big. if they are you will have to order min bore sprockets and have the machine shop finish bore them press them on and weld them down.
Thanks for the picture Tweeter, It helped me to do a tooth count. I think I have the 14, but again I have already had 1 time when I seemed to be almost out of power going up a hill and had to back off the control and crawl up at its slowest speed, wishing I had more torque. For flat dirt areas I would want the speed advantage. For water / swamp I'm leaning toward speed versus torque. So really know what you want it for before going to that expense.
I don't know if the 14 is in the earlier or later machines, mine is SN #TKGA-01558, 1970 model, don't know what the TKGA stands for either. I also don't know what SN they started with, maybe 01000 or 00001? I'm sure LTV did a lot of speed vs torque discussions before changing from/to the 11. It would be nice to get a little history on each of the machines we have. I know mine had 2 previous owners to me and was originally transferred 5/1971 to the auction co from Kinetics Int'l.
I'm still waiting for my axle lost in Parcel Post limbo 2 weeks +. Once I have it back on the road I'll get a true speed reading and let you know. I'm on the road all week so no working on it this week!
Southern Comfort Kid
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
