Diesel Power Mudd Ox

[Noel Woods]

Thanks for all the interest guys. My son in law it turns out can borrow a new argo with tracks from his good friend close by (2 1/2 hours) That should tell the tale. Thanks Noel but I'm trying not to picture a guy with his pants off in a mud hole--LOL.

Trust me, it wasn't a pretty sight. At least the skivvies stayed on.
That's the kind of thing that you may run into if you go out half prepared. I've heard alot of other stories over the years as well. Most of my journeys out these days I'll always have at least one other machine with me.

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

yamadog, I haven't had any chain stretch that I noticed. I don't intend to remove my rear chains. I have enough power to pull all the chains,besides it would just put more strain on the front chains. I am re-designing the tensioners. Mine will have a bolt adjustment on them. It will take a little welding, but no big deal. I will take pictures of them when I'm done.
Bubba

[yamadog]

Thanks Bubba, I havn't noticed any stretch either. Didn't know if I was just lucky or if chain stretch is just not much of a problem on the ox. Thinking the later is the case.

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

Sports Fans, I get a lot of inquiries about what I think about the power of the diesel Mudd Ox.
One question was about pulling logs for a log house, and if it could pull a 20 foot log??
Well, as in my post, I pulled 4 logs 14-16 feet long. They were about an average of 10 inches. It was in dry stumppy steep ground. I had to keep looking back to see if the rope had broken. The Mudd Ox pulled it with so much ease that it seemed like I had no load behind it.
I did learn to use a 1/2 inch rope in case the logs hung up on trees or stumps, otherwise something may have snapped. I did break several ropes.
I don,t think Matt or anyone else knows just how much the Ox will pull, but he couldn't afford to put the amount down, or some one would be trying to pull plows or tractors out of the mud with it.
You can break anything by pulling too much.
In my opinion the Ox will pull more than 4000 lbs without so much as a snort.( I should not be saying this, but I got my 1 ton diesel truck stuck in mud. I hooked on to it with the MO and pulled it out without anyone in side to drive it.Probably was not too smart but it did it with no problems.)
I would say that if you tie the logs close to the hitch where they don't have much slack, they will pull logs very easily.
I would remove the slide-in and tie directly to the pin inside of the receptical.Make a loop in the rope and shove into the hitch and put the pin back through. That way it will be more of a straight pull instead of pulling down. The Mudd Ox will pull a lot more than the frame or the tow hitch will hold.
Like most equipment, if you get dumb and start jerking heavy objects, you will break something.
If you'll use common sence, it will work like a good old workhorse, and do a lot of hard work.
Folks that have cabins way back in bad country where they deal with terrible trails in the summer, and deep snow in the winter will love the Ox. Feel free to call me if any of you have any questions.
George"Bubba"Hunt 907-260-8464
oldbearhunter@alaska.net

[travisch]

Bubba -load the machine with 4 adults or a bunch of gear and run it 15 miles down the road at full throttle in 90 degree heat and let me know how it does.

[mudbug3]

Bubba -load the machine with 4 adults or a bunch of gear and run it 15 miles down the road at full throttle in 90 degree heat and let me know how it does.

I,d imagine that would be a really good test for any amphib.

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

travisch, sorry my man... I will never have 90 degrees to test with. But I have loaded it up with folks and a bunch of gear on top speed for several miles and had no problem with heat.
Just for giggles, I put one fan on a toggle switch, and the other on a heat switch on the engine. It took an hour( at 20 degrees) for my main fan to come on at full throttle. The heater core and the top of my coweling being cut out, along with a 6x15 inch vent on the bottom of my engine cowling provides about all of the cooling I need. I didn't need that square recess on the top of my engine cowling, so I cut it out, put on a metal lid with 4 inch stand-offs to hold it up off of the top.
The draft from the cool air coming in the bottom vents as well as the vents on both radiators provides almost enough cooling without running the fans. Of course it will be different in the summer when I will switch on my extra(left) fan while still running the main fan off of the engine temperature switch. My engine heat switch kicks on at 185 degrees and kicks off at 165 degrees. The thermostat opens at 159.6 degrees. It works like a charm.During hard running the fan only kicks on for 15-20 seconds at a time.
I have never had a cooling problem up here in these temperatures. It runs at about 65-85 degrees up here in the summer.
With my toggle switch and my heat switch, my fan only runs anout 1/4 of the time.
I had to do all of this fan stuff because my engine was running too cool with both fans running all of the time. Now my engine runs at an average of 170 degrees which makes it run better and the heater core puts out a lot of heat.
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Bubba

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

travisch, I've been thinking about that running full speed down the road for 15 miles.
May I suggest that you trailer your rig.
I always trailer my MO as far as I can, then off-load and go from there. I never have the need to load it and run full speed anywhere. I have 4-wheelers for that senerio, but at my age I don't speed much of anywheres. Most of my running is muskeg or peat bogs and muddy trails.
My application is much different than yours down there.I have always said the MO was a work-horse, not a race-horse. I would die fast if I run this crud fast. I have a nice warm cab with heater. I run the snow trails ice fishing back in the bush where I'm the only one out there. In moose season I drive back into the back-woods swamps where the 4-wheelers would never try to go. I have it all to myself.
I use my old MO to get wood, trap, fish and moose-caribou hunting, not running the trails playing with my home-boys. I can only speak for what I do, and what I do is have a lot of fun.
Bubba

[mudbug3]

Very good post Bubba. We all had different reasons for the amphibs that we chose to buy , and also how we spend time enjoying them.

[yamadog]

With age comes wisdom. thanks Bubba

[travisch]

Typically I would trailer the machine but hunting here in the west during the early fall for antelope usually means some long runs down logging roads or secondary roads. Honestly a better machine for this scenario is a quad or side by side UTV such as a Ranger and leave the Amphib in camp for difficult to reach areas only.
There just isn't an absolutely perfect machine that covers every need so you end up in camp with a good 4x4 truck to travel long distances and main roads, a quad for high speed in/out access and an amphib to pull the quad out or access the steep and deep to retrieve game.

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

travisch
You are right on that one. Sometimes I really miss my Prowler when it come to a long haul.So far I to take my polaris 500 for all of the long haul stuff. When the moose is down, I grab the Ox and go in. Usually the moose is in bad mud and water where the 4x4 won't go. It works out with a hunting partner, so it isn't much of a real problem. Some of my hunting country is grassy ridges, but most is mud.
It is nice when things get snowy or real muddy to have the old OX to keep the show going.
Bubba

[mudbug3]

Bubba

It really sounds like you have some awesome country to ride your Mudd-Ox in. Please post some video,s of the places that you,ve been able to take it. I,m sure a lot of the forum members would love to see them.

[Roadtorque]

Yep, I was just thinkging how a video, or some pics would go very nicely with this thread! I love to see the terrain people ride in.

[George"Bubba"Hunt]

Fellers, if I could figure out how to get the video from my Cannon GL2 camera, I would do it. E-mail me how and I will.I'll bet that old smelly Mudbug3 would know???