Project: Argoceptor

[great white]

Well, the "grunt work" is finally done. Chains are done, bearing and seals are done, power pack is back together, brakes installed and the drivers position is now swapped to the LH side vice the RH.

Took a while to get it sorted, but it turned out pretty good:



Of course, all the rusty bits will have to come back out and be prepped and painted.



Took quite a bit of frigging around to get the right hoses and routing to work, but it's done and looks pretty good.

took a little time to clean up the rear and cut the vibration mat:



Then, mocked up some of the controls:



The left stick has a Honda ATV (I think it's from a Foreman IIRC) and the right stick has a Honda thumb throttle (also from a Foreman IIRC).

The left control has some neat features, one of them being a shift up/down button. No need for that on the Argo, so I'm going to use them for In/Out control of the winch. Engine kill and start buttons are obvious, the headlight and high beam switches will work the two front mounted LED headlights.

Tomorrow, I'll make the RH control stick to match the LH and I have a custom dash fabrication in mind.......

[john swenson]

great white...really enjoying your whole creative,fabrication job. and such detailed pictures also. you said you could pick up some speed by dropping a tooth or 2 on the idler shaft . not sure how that works ? on my max 2 if i want to pick up speed i need to install a larger tooth drive sprocket on the final shaft to the axle . thanks , johnboy va.

[great white]

great white...really enjoying your whole creative,fabrication job. and such detailed pictures also. you said you could pick up some speed by dropping a tooth or 2 on the idler shaft . not sure how that works ? on my max 2 if i want to pick up speed i need to install a larger tooth drive sprocket on the final shaft to the axle . thanks , johnboy va.

Just a different method to get similar results. Basically, where ever there is a sprocket there is a way to change speed or torque by manipulating ratios.

The Argo I/C has hydraulic brakes, so it has brake discs. The driven sprockets are welded to the brake discs. In order to put bigger double 40 sprockets on, I’d have to cut them off and weld new ones on. That would risk warping the discs. Far safer to drop a tooth or two on the driven sprocket instead of risking ruining the brake discs.

[john swenson]

right...the driven sprocket smaller will pickup speed , did'nt catch that when you said '' idler sprocket '' . have fun , looking forward to the finished project and maybe a video . j.b.

[great white]

Starting work on the "cage":



It's not so much a roll cage, although it will provide some roll over protection, as it is a support for the top/sun cover I'll be installing. It will also be something to grab on to when entering/exiting the rig as well as a place to hang stuff. The windshield will "pin" to the front bar and loose the forward "struts that currently hold it upright.

Then, I ran across this pic:



I like that idea!

Honestly, It's not very opften I run with the windshield down, but it often can get hot behind that big pane of glass. This would let me crack it open to let cooling air flow through, yet maintain the protection that I often need from branches, snow, rain, guys kicking mud/dirt up in front of me, etc.

Without the windshield frame in it's current location, I would be able to weld another brace across the Argo, fill in the space below and have more area to put it more dash space for things like switches, gauges, radios (communications, not music), etc.

I'll have to think about it a bit more, but I'm already liking the idea a lot......

[great white]

So I’m still building the “cage” and it’s coming along fine. Being aluminum, it’s adding minimal weight above the body line.

But with that comes the fact that it’s fairly “light duty”. It will hold the canvas top (that I’m going to sew up) just fine, but I have no illutions that in a rollover situation it’s going to bend/deform.

The problem I have is that the cage itself is turning out to be fairly rigid, but the rubber body band means it can flex and move around a bit too much for my liking. It’s not foing anywhere with 40-odd ss bolts though the body seam, but that rubber is just letting the angle tip and flex. I could weld the lower 1/4” plate to the angle, but that would mean I could no longer remove the bolts and like all the aluminum work off the body to split the tubs. I did make “spacers” to go between the aluminum and body split, but the rubber band still lets things gibble around too much.

So now I’m thinking when I pull all the Al fab off for final welding, I may pull off the rubber band, split the tub and sandwich a one inch 1/8th wall square tube between the upper and lower halves. That would accomplish a few things:

1. Make the aluminum angle body band “hard mounted”
2. Offer more rigidity to the body
3. Another inch of tire clearance between tires and upper tub (might matter when suspension is installed)
4. By raising the upper tub 1”, it would give me a little more displacement for flotation and a little added “safety factor” against waves splashing over the sides/front/back.

It just means even more work in what has already become quite an involved project...

[great white]

Coming along nicely:





Starting to feel more like I’m building a truck instead of an ATV!

Lol!

[great white]

Well, I think I'm going to take a break from building the cage. The fab is pretty much done anyways, except for a few gussets and some finish welding:





I think I'm going to move on to finishing the electrical system and building the dash/firewall. Have to finish the hood too.

Getting a little antsy to get it out for a quick run through the sand pit....

[great white]

Well, I wanted a bit more full and finished look for the dash. To me, that means more than just an hour meter and some switches. So I picked up one of these off ebay (for cheap):



It will allow me to add a full gauge and a warning light for oil pressure. Speed I'll take off one of the sprockets somewhere, easily manipulated with more or less magnets if the gauge doesn't have enough adjustment.

RPM is a different story. Obviously, the Kohler doesn't spin up to 18,000 rpm! But, I'l see what I can do with some signal conditioning (IE: capacitors, resistors, etc) so that the needle only goes a full swing at somewhere around 5000-6000 rpm. Then, it's a simple matter of printing off a new overlay with the numbers in the right places.

Should look cool as well as update the looks in the cockpit a bit.

[great white]

Working on the dash layout:





Getting there.

One thing that I to give up on is moving the shifter up to the dash and having it move up and down instead of side to side (as it does now). There's just doesn't seem to be enough room to get it in there with everything else I need on the dash.

I could toy with the possibility of mounting the cluster right in front of the sticks I guess. That's where I would have liked to mount it, but it's pretty tight for space there though......

[great white]

Well, with the the dash design beginning to be formalized, I'm going to have to run wiring soon. So, time to start building the "power section":



New deep cycle AGM marine battery, bought for this purpose. The tray is just the floor with "stops" welded on either side. The hold down is just a steel strap bolted through the floor. The floor section is bolted down to the Argo frame. The "tray" will get a layer of rubber for a bit of abrasion and vibration damping, although an AGM is vibration resistant by design.

The power wire to the front is a 2/0 gauge welding wire, with the end lugs crimped and soldered. It currently goes to the starter solenoid, which will double as a lug point for the winch power. Ground will be the Argo frame and I'll just put a short 2/0 gauge jumper from the batt neg post to the frame, then a ground jumper to the solenoid and ground jumpers where needed to make the power path. The Pos cable currently is directly to the batt Pos post, but I'll get a "mega fuse" to put between the battery and feed wire. Prob a 60A fuse. Enough to take the entire load of what I have planned, but small enough to blow quickly should there be a short in the feed wire. Highly unlikely with a plastic body, but better safe than sorry.

The charger you see in the pic will be permanently mounted in the battery compartment. It's a sealed marine charger for AGM batteries and intended to be permanently mounted. It's been sitting around and doing nothing for a year or so now, so might as well just leave it in the Argo.

There will be a mini ATO fuse box in the dash under an open-able panel that will provide switched ACC for various systems. I chose one with 10 circuits and built in blown fuse indicators.

That's it for today, tomorrow I'll work on the ground circuit and fabbing the dash.

One PITA I did notice today was there seems to be fluid on the power pack tray. Looked like it was red when I touched it. Only thing that could possibly be is that someone, at sometime, filled the transmission with transmission fluid instead of 80w90. I was pretty sure it was empty when I had it out, but it can't be anything else. The PITA is now I have to pull the transmission back out to check for leaks that I might have missed. That is not going to be fun. Fingers crossed it's just a seal or gasket and not a cracked case.....

[great white]

Well, crap on a cracker.

I finished wiring up the battery and hit the key: click click click.

Solenoid is working, but not turning over the engine.

So I short the power cables and you can hear the starter rolling over, veeeeerrrryyy slooooowly.

Crap.

Now I have to try and get the starter out. Has to be a fairly easy fix as it started just fine when it was taken apart last year. Maybe I'll try a jumper cable to the engine block first to make sure the ground path is good.....

[great white]

Good news!

The starter problem turned out to just be a ground issue. Once that was determined, I made a 4 gauge cable ground from the engine to the frame ground. I was planning to make a dedicated large gauge engine ground anyways, so no big deal.

On to building the dash panel:





Not a bad beginning. I've only got a 3 foot sheet metal brake, so I have to do it in two sections and weld it together. That's not problem, as the center section where I will join it will have a "pod" where the tach/speedometer/info center will go. That will cover the joint completely.

I'm going to hinge the bottom and use brackets at the top. That way, I'll be able to remove a few screws on the top surface and swing the whole dash down to access to the components/wiring.

Only hitch in the "hinging scheme" will be the control sticks. I have to decide if I want to remove the brake rods to the sticks and pivot them down when I need to get behind the dash, or the part behind the sticks will have to stay up while the rest pivots down. I'm leaning towards disconnecting the brake rods every time as it will be hard to make the dash look good with a seam/split on either side of the control sticks. Once the dash is built, it won't have to be opened up again unless something breaks/shorts.

I'm undecided on leaving the dash shiny checker plate or painting it a duller color.I've had larger shiny bits in car dashes before and it's absolutely blinding when the sun hits it. Semigloss black or maybe the same "dark steel" paint (looks like a darker silver) that's going on the wheel rims....

[great white]

Coming along nicely:



Finalize the fit of the main panel today and build the instument “pod”.

[great white]

Dash mostly built:



Still have some welding to do and finish a few bits like end caps, but that essentially it. Still trying to decide if I should paint it or leave it shiny.

I decided to hinge it at the top:



Not the best access for working inside the dash, but it’s not bad either. And, I don’t have to do anything with the control sticks when I need to work inside the dash. It was the best compromise IMHO...