yoeddynz Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 For ages Hannah and I have been after some sort of vehicle as a means to get stuff up to our ridge top for a cabin build plus for lots of other carting shit about the place. I had originally been thinking of some sort of tracked vehicle. Years ago, like 22 years ago, I worked for Doc for six months on the West coast. Among counting Kiwis, penguins, painting huts etc I did a lot of track work. On one of the tracks we had use of two power barrows. Honda powered things and quite cool. I learned quickly that on the way back from dumping a load of gravel you could stick it in reverse, stand in the tray and ride it backwards. Great fun (at 10kph...). So my idea was to get one of them to modify. But so spendy and so slow. We have three neighbours in our valley who have got the side by side farm thingees. What are they officially called? Anyway.. they are cool and I want one. But again..not cheap. Plus they are a bit too wide. I started thinking about adapting a quad bike. I want to get long lengths of timber up easily, plus, in true Kiwi fashion, I want to build something. It’ll be fun and I can design it around what we need for here. So for yonks Ive been looking on TM for a cheap quad to rip apart. Something beyond usual economic repair, like a rusty or damaged frame. I asked and left our number at the local motorbike shops, asked our neighbours to ask about among the local farmers etc. Nothing turned up suitable or people still wanted space ship money for something I was going to chop up. Then my uncle rang me. His mate had a 1988 Honda Big Red ( or otherwise known as a Fourtrax) TRX 300 AW that had been sat a few years with stripped head studs but otherwise in really good condition and on a trailer. He wanted a grand for it with the trailer. He sent some photos. It looked good and he knows the bike well so a deal was done. My uncle delivered it today and its good. It has really good tyres and the owner had had the wheels galvanised before having the tyres fitted. Which is nice. The frame has only really got light surface rust in places. The plastics are good although faded and the seat is good too. Rear brake works but front fluid is down. I suspect the wheel cylinders have poorly seals and they have emptied their guts out into the drums. The engine is clean, although in two halves. The cylinder liner shows no wear and the head looks good. Apparently the owner couldn’t get the plug out as it was seized in. He broke the plug so took the head off. Freed the plug but in replacing the head stripped the stud threads in the block. Or something like that. I dunno. I’ll just fix what needs fixing. Heli-coils or what ever is better. I know there are different options out there for thread inserts and I have no experience so any advice welcome. Until I have a better look I cant say what the holes are like. So our plan is roughly this. Sell that trailer. Make some coin back. We don’t need or want it. Fix the engine, clean it up, run it a while and ride it. Try it out on our tracks. Probably roll it and break something/someone. If it goes hard for what it is then I’ll strip it back, sell the plastics, seat, tank and any other stuff we don’t need. I want to lengthen the frame from the engine forwards by roughly 200-300mm, heavier springs up front if possible so it can take the extra weight of having a forward control setup. I have no plans or need to drop it down into river beds and no need for crazy attack angles so having feet over the front wont worry me, so long as I protect them. Rough ideas at this time are to utilise the existing handle bar with all its controls. It will most likely need powersteering added from a later bike, maybe with an electric pump? Or are they full electric assist? I have no idea on how quad bike systems work. I could use gear box cables from old fwd cars to control the gearshift. Or rods. Its unlikely in use on our land to see much more than second gear anyway. Build a lightweight steel frame over the front to take a basic bench seat for two, a roll cage with a rack on top. The extra wheel base will move the engine weight back and that combined with the forward control layout will allow a tipping tray on the back. We have a lot of fire wood sitting already to come down and many, many trees for future cutting. A decent tray will be handy. It has a good tow bar as well so a future trailer will certainly be built. I shall draw some sketches and post them up. It has till now been totally just me and my grey matter rummaging up simple ideas in my morning day dream slumber. I’m totally keen on any advice. I think once I put some sketches up you’ll all get a better idea. For now here is a photo of what we have… I can see it now.. it'll work perfect as is and I will just leave it alone, build a trailer. But shit.. where is the fun in that!!! So tempt me with neat ideas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igor Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Power steering on our real farmer neighbour's new Honda quad is electric. He reckons it's great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 Yeah. I laughed when I read in a recent bike mag review of latest honda about the Powersteering. I thought Wtf !? Ps on a quad!! But actually even on this just pushing it about its hefty enough. With two people up front on soft tyres it'll definitely be needed. Plus if I add it at the head tube where the h bar currently rotates through I can take all the stress off what ever mechanism I use to transfer the h bar movement backwards.. be it cables or rods. And I could cut the bars down in width. I've also toyed with the idea of a rack and pinion but it only moves a small amount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB8-TypeR Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 I may have the picture in my head wrong, but wouldnt it be easier to simply build a trailer to tow behind the quad to get stuff up the hill? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tortron Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 the answer is quadractor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 I'm so confused about why you'd want to sit on the very front of it.... it'd be good for making it do wheelies in reverse but that's probably not the goal haha. You should take the springs out so it looks cool/ you can claim it's to make it easier to get on and off Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rusty360 Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Great quads those the mighty trx 300. looks pretty tidy to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted March 31, 2017 Author Share Posted March 31, 2017 4 hours ago, DB8-TypeR said: I may have the picture in my head wrong, but wouldnt it be easier to simply build a trailer to tow behind the quad to get stuff up the hill? Oh yeah- it would be easier as far as work involved. But a trailer wont work with the corners, plus I want a tipping tray, a rack up top and a more usable quad. Basically build a simple load lugger that suits our application. Forward control means we have more weight and grip over the front axle for up hill and we get a longer tray for the given wheelbase. It will only be our feet over the front. our backsides will sort of reside over where the current h/bar is. Im not at all worried about losing attack angle on the front because there is no where that we need super amazing bank descending/ascending abilities. A trailer will stlll probably happen as well, but as an extra. I will draw some sketches but today its entertaining uncle time and bbq/beer consumption time. Edit; oh plus.. i want to build my own creation so there is a whole lot of fun and challenges right there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyfive Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 One thing that might pay to consider is center of gravity side to side etc. It sounds like lengthening will probably solve that axis. But I fear putting the weight of a person out one corner and retaining the same width might make it a bit... tippy. Add a rack with weight above your head and well... With the standard quad seat in the middle at least you've free to move about and fight gravity slightly. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea, and I'm sure it'd be manageable as long as you drive it within its limitations, I'd just hate to hear you guys had rolled down one of your beautiful hills. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 Yeah the thought of rolling it is scary enough.. it's a chunky monkey. 220kgs smashing onto a skull etc. I can see why people get fucked over when they roll one. So yep.. it will certainly be a case of trying it out on the main track we intend to use it on and see what it's like. I've barely any quad riding experience so won't be going in Gung ho like. Try it out, get a feel and evaluate what it might be like with the layout changed. If we decide to just leave it alone then I'll still add a basic roll cage with some rack to carry timber. Only two main corners to go round and both are easy as. So I won't be risking sideways tipping. Main concern will be going downhill. Had a looksie at engine. Only appears to be one stripped thread and it has come supplied with three thread repair inserts. Plus I've got the right tap for them. Sweet ! It'll need a new head gasket. Repco? Motorbike shop? Trademe ? Hmmmmmm time to shop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insanebrain Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 As someone who has stepped off one of those things as it started to tip and watched it roll/bounce it's way down the hill, I agree with the comment to be careful with your centre of gravity. Your concerns regarding steering when the front is heavily loaded is also justified. That said I think your biggest issue is going to be traction - it isn't hard to get all 4 spinning (I presume it is 4wd) when towing heavy loads (once it has traction, it will pull your house truck). Putting the weight over the wheels will help but then you are back to your heavy steering issue. I'm sure with your skills you will come up with something to amaze us all just like your other projects. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tortron Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 you could go rice paddie style 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mof Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Are your timber racks overhead or down the sides? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 They'll be over head. Not talking really heavy stuff though. It'll be sensible amounts. Honestly carrying anything up our hill is tiring so even if its just a few lengths at a time I'll be happy. I guess if I had to take something chunky up I could make a simple dolly and tow it, thus keeping the weight down very low. I took some more photos this morning and will post them up soon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8ball Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 How far is it up the hill? Rig up a pulley/whinch system. Make a track kinda like a small monorail or even twin train track setup and winch it up the hill 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yetchh Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Fuck yeah, everyone needs a monorail 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoeddynz Posted April 2, 2017 Author Share Posted April 2, 2017 Shit yeah !!!!! I'd love that and did drawings of an idea after first walking to the ridge but before we actually bought the land of a mono rail with self powered Recaro seats. I'll see if I've still got the drawing. Then started thinking about miniature railway. I think I'd started a thread ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yetchh Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 A flying fox would prob be more realistic, bush fireman's pole.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raizer Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 1 hour ago, 8ball said: Make a track kinda like a small monorail 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
igor Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 Perhaps that's more of a Shelbyville idea. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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