The Gaganator Project

[GREASEMONKEY]

Using Hyd. for the rest of the six tires turning?

That's what I was thinking! PSC also has stand alone hyd. steering kits!

[Beeman]

It's been a while.

I've been playing with a couple steering ideas, fabricated one and didn't like it, so started over. I did a mock up today of the steering..Here are a few pics of my latest attempt... :P

[Beeman]

And a little more... I changed a little bit to my test setup since I screwed up on my steering lever "radi" points...

The attached is an autocad of the steering radius in the dual steering setup compared to the front wheel steering setup (even though the one pic shows all front 3 pairs turning, it'd be the same angles as my plan with 2 pairs turning). It almost cuts the turning radius in half.

This video worked best with the monitor tilted on it's side..

Pics-08-03-31_003.avi

[Mike]

The fact that it works as planned leads me to the conclusion that Beelady must have had a hand in it.

Seriously though, it looks like that is going to work out good for you.

[Beelady]

Oh but of course I had a hand in it........(sorry honey) I feed him, thats important isn't it?

He's been working on it almost every night, good to see he's nailing down an idea. Good work! I will still finish before you though!

[Beeman]

And the race is on...

I finally got all the brackets made up.... broke my bandsaw in the process - smoked the motor on a jammed blade (horray! an excuse to buy a bigger and better one!!)

[Beeman]

Either the Gaganator isn't as big as I thought it was, or the prairie bobcat is huge!

[Mike]

Man, I would have thought the Gaganator would have dwarfed that Prairie Bobcat. Of course I'm sure it will look a little larger once you get everything together. At least that should be encouraging for tight trails.

[Beeman]

Hey Beeman, any work on your 8X8 project?
Looked REALLY interesting, curious if you have had
any progress. (Any time for any progress???)

Hmm.. I guess I left off with not much of an explanation of my situation. So...
All my previous locations for working on my machines have been in someone elses shop (I currently do not have my own shop... yet). The problem with someone elses shop, and with building something that takes a load of time, is that time often runs out (ie, people have no problem lending you their shop for an oil change, or a water pump replacement (just did one tonight). But for the long term the space always seems to become a priority for something else). I basically ran out of time, and so the gaganator is jammed into my old shed (with half a roof leaking), covered in a tarp.. beside everything else that needs to go into a properlly built shop.

So, that's my sob story. I do have every intention on finishing this up and will do my best to keep the ball rolling to get things in place to get er done.

[6X6]

I actually jumped up, more awake, when I saw your post. Oh well. Believe me, with 2 Attex projects in a "Shelter King" garage out back, I know how things get put off, and the cold weather sure helps that problem, too. I just like the real "Unique" stuff, like Whipper's springers, BW6's Maximus, The "Blackbird", the old racers owned by H-Mike, Don, etc... This is one of, if not THE most unique of them all. Well, I do hope your able to get a space worked out for the project, I really hope to get to see it run sometime in the near? future

[swamp witch]

Thanks For Pointing Me To Your Project

What a fantastic project.From one designer to another,you should be proud.The complexity of your system is amazing,I take my hat off to you.A very well thought out concept.A lot of trial and error and practice fitting gone into that.A lot of people don't understand it's not a copy,it's not a restore,it's an idea and creation from your head build with your hands.Not to many off the shelf parts on your project.If you have stalled as I have done on other projects from time to time my advise is turn your thoughts to another part of the project,the body,the electrics,the fuel system say and start on it.Get your mind off what's basically got you stumped at the moment.It's amazing how the answer to your problem seems to just appear and it's usually a totally different approach to the same problem,but it will work,and that's what matters.And just remember,anyone that asks how long has very little understanding of what is involved in making the part,making it work,making it strong enough and making it look good.Hope this helps you.

[LTV KID]

wowww!!

Awesome project and i thought i was in mine deep. now i have an all new perspective but you cant give up because i have to see this thing when its done it looks like it would be very capable! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

[chris davison]

I also liked your take on things and ingenuity a very interesting concept, great to have suspention in any skid steer vehicle. Thats cool to put sprockets right on the ring gear carrier. I use a circle cutter on my plasma cutter and also have one for my victor torch to cut circles, it sure makes things easier. This concept solves some problems but it also creates some. How do you keep all the dust dirt or anything out of the spider gears and carrier bearings as I asume you are going to leave it open? how do you keep lubrication on this area as the spiders are just hardened steel to steel and need to run in an oil bath? How will you seal the axles up to keep water out of the hull? as they move in all directions and rotate.
Your steering arms will come thru the hull also at some point. What will you do for gear reduction since you no longer have a ring and pinion reduction? which is usually about 3.5 to1 What will be your finished weight? and what size chain are you using?

[Beeman]

Thanks for your reply Chris,

I've planned to have all the chains (60H) and diffs contained within one long sealed box, full of gear oil - the seals on the CV cups would just be doubled up on the box. The idea was to bring most of the mechanical outside of the tub to make it easier for me to implement - so the same will go for the steering (on which I am leaning back to using rack and pinion). So, the only tub through hole points will be for the steering and a single driveshaft (from the engine in the tub to the diffbox sitting under the tub). As for weight, lets just say I don't want to strongarm this thing if it gets stuck.

It's now sitting in open view in my garage, tarp removed... spiders have started to make the hull using cobwebs all by themselves. Soon my friends.. soon...

-Beeman

[Beeman]

I have moved the project to it's new work shop! (which, is just a wall away from it's storage area - but it's now on the shop floor!).

It has been a long long while, and in that time I have reworked some things that have bugged me about this project. The diff frame was always a point of weakness for me along with the over all weight. So, I took a good hard look tonight and decided that the main frame has got to go.. it can be replaced by a cleaner and lighter center "rail" that would also make up the diff box (a length of 5"X7-8" tube stock). This will clean up any mess interacting the frame with the diffbox & where to put the steering racks/system. The change will also let me clean up some other areas of conflict like the axle to frame spacing as well as give the machine a high clearance in the middle. So, while I do not have any pictures of the idea, I did take some shots of the machine where it sits now.