Final assembly, hopefully finally

[Dw89xj]

So I'm finally doing my final assembly, I think, hopefully at least until it's time for bearings and chains.
I may get myself in the dog house but decided to hell with it I'm buying the red spring, do it nice or do it twice right? Or in this case 3,4,5,6 times fitting stuff and redoing stuff. I'm a fat guy at 350 lbs and was 6'2" before I broke my back. So I'm thinking holding lower gear longer will benefit me greatly, plus when I'm using it for work instead of play. Am I understanding correctly, that it doesn't make it rev higher or anything negative, just hold lower gear longer so I can use more of my power range? My cam is supposed to be good up to 5000 rpm or so, but il be putt-putting alot on trails where low gear will help too. Any down side for a trail machine to have the red spring? Or is it all positive? Thanks to all who helped me along the way to get this thing back in shape.
Hopefully by next weekend everything except my custom seat will be done, for the need stuff at least. Eventually il build a body band winch mount, and I'm sure there will be little tweaks here and there.

[Dw89xj]

Quick and dirty clutch spring tool. The exhaust clamp is just a spacer so I can get the snap ring pliers in a tad bit easier, I take the saddle off so the one side is open for easy access.

[Dw89xj]

This clutch tool worked much better than the one I slapped together when I went from yellow to green last year or so.

[Dw89xj]

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[Dw89xj]

Transmission in, all hooked up and adjusted. Engine in and clutch lined up. Chains all adjusted. Tire pressure all set to 4psi. Fuel system and electrical next, then get the upper on and build a seat and new bed. Then I guess we can call it macaroni baby! Should be terrorizing the trailer park next snow storm, muhahahahaaa!!!

[Dw89xj]

Custom seat and picking at the little stuff.

[john swenson]

hey dan ...your the man !! you 've done a great job . that first ride should be very fulfilling after all the work . seat looks good. what are the ideas for cushions , etc. ? may be a few tweaks after the maiden voyage , but thats fun too .. johnboy va.

[Dw89xj]

hey dan ...your the man !! you 've done a great job . that first ride should be very fulfilling after all the work . seat looks good. what are the ideas for cushions , etc. ? may be a few tweaks after the maiden voyage , but thats fun too .. johnboy va.

I found some 5" medium density upholstery padding and I'm going with marine canvas in a light to medium grey color. I might end up cutting the current cage off and building something different if my head gets into the current one. I tried to mimick my wheelchair dimensions so my legs are positioned in a manner that the pressure is fairly even across my rear and thighs so I'm not causing any sores. I was going to go with vinyl for simplicity cleaning but I opted for the canvas for breathability even if it's miniscule it should still feel better on long days than vinyl. I forgot how much little things there are and I'm a stickler double triple and quadruple checking my work so I'm not advancing as quickly as I'd like but like they say do it nice or do it twice, even though alot of things have already been done two three and four times lol. This thing is going to make my life do much better, and fun. I can hardly wait to get it out and knock out some coyotes and whistle pigs. And as always thank you John boy, your knack for innovation inspires me to unleash some creativity and get out of the box a bit. It ain't pretty but it's mine lol.

[Dw89xj]

The downside is I might need to make new laterals but after this adventure over the past 2+ years that ain't nothing but small potatoes.

[Noel Woods]

Hey Dan:
I've been keeping up with your build and am impressed by what you have done.
From your description of yourself, you are a big person. I don't want to rain on your parade, but based on my running around in all shapes and sizes of these machines, it sounds like you need a bigger machine. While I love running around in an agile little Max2, I am thoroughly beaten up after a few hours of riding. No offense meant, but it sounds like you need an 8 wheeler which will perform so much better for a large person than a small machine. Just playing devil's advocate.

[Dw89xj]

Hey Dan:
I've been keeping up with your build and am impressed by what you have done.
From your description of yourself, you are a big person. I don't want to rain on your parade, but based on my running around in all shapes and sizes of these machines, it sounds like you need a bigger machine. While I love running around in an agile little Max2, I am thoroughly beaten up after a few hours of riding. No offense meant, but it sounds like you need an 8 wheeler which will perform so much better for a large person than a small machine. Just playing devil's advocate.

I agree, I would love to get a max iv or a hustler and make a different seat, I would love to go pick up that hustler in New York, I'm hoping cutting the the origal seat back out and moving it behind the roll bar will help with my height, my weight on the other hand is going to hard to deal with as trying to drop weight is excruciating using just arms, I must say my arms are stronger than all my friends but that's neither here nor there lol. In the end it will still get me farther than the chair will. If I really have to I could make a totally custom upper that's lower and a bigger cock pit area to getting in and out simpler but I'm hoping it works well as is, at this point I'm mostly concerned with banging my head, I raised the seat 5 inches and the back, rearward around 3 or 4 inches. I haven't tried an Argo but my cousin who is smaller than me hates his and advised me to get anything with a t20, he is also in a wheelchair, I'm still new so I can't really form an opinion but it's been a fun trip so far.

[john swenson]

dan... i have always found whatever i'm building on at the time , i always learn something i can apply in my next undertaking . you may end up at some point with a 8x8 and from all your doing now on the max , you'll have good ideas for modifications then if needed . one of my best buddies in a wheelchair is out on his 4 wheeler everyday tooling around thru the woods . we run r.c. boats together and he's built some cool street rods ! keep at it . looking forward to pictures of your finished machine . j.b.

[Dw89xj]

dan... i have always found whatever i'm building on at the time , i always learn something i can apply in my next undertaking . you may end up at some point with a 8x8 and from all your doing now on the max , you'll have good ideas for modifications then if needed . one of my best buddies in a wheelchair is out on his 4 wheeler everyday tooling around thru the woods . we run r.c. boats together and he's built some cool street rods ! keep at it . looking forward to pictures of your finished machine . j.b.

I'm hoping to get back into rc myself, I had some crawlers and a basher, they were fun, an great to tinker on in the winter months since they only need a small work area, I use a microwave cart for my hobby cart to work on stuff when I can't be outside. I'm really hoping ducks hustler is still available when I'm able to make a trip North, from the looks of it he already did the hard part. I have a 4x4 van project going on too at the moment but I think the van will be my last big project, after it's done it's just going to be ATVs and small stuff for me. Until I can buy some property then my project will be a garage. And I couldn't agree more, everything I learn from one project something always carries into my next undertaking to help me along.

[Dw89xj]

Moved my shifters up about 2 inches and flip flopped the linkage side to side, with the 8 inches or so of metal in my back it makes it hard to bend over to switch gears. Had to notch my seat frame and cut a little piece of metal off each side for clearance. If it's still difficult to get in forward I'm going to heat and put a bend in each shifter, which I might just do anyway to help create a bigger path for my leg and foot when enter and exiting. Getting down to the nitty gritty on being rideable. Spent a long time straightening and routing wires and putting loom on the wires. New loom would've looked nicer but waste not want not I guess, so I used loom from an f250 I stripped to get the parts to convert my van to 4x4.
Of course I forgot pictures of my handy work so here's a couple shots of my skull camo that's flaking off. Hopefully the rest pressure washed off easy. It was green painted over black when I bought it, il be glad to have it all black with the aluminum bed I have planned, I think that will look kind of sharp for a modified upper

[john swenson]

looking good dan....we're getting excited !! j.b.