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the showman

The Trachorse Story And Build

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This project was something I had in my head for a while. Being a lover of Wheelhorse's and tracked vehicles having driven diggers and alike for years, I looked at a few MG's but didn't like the metal tracks 

One day a friend gave me a Wheelhorse A 90, it came from a school and had a seized engine and had been partly dismantled to stop the children playing with it, this started me thinking, all I had to do was find something on rubber tracks, narrow enough to go through a garden gate and have forward and reverse gears rather than hydromatic.

 

  

 

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Well done c101. After spending hours on flebay and lots of research i found this down in kent. called the seller up and went for a look.

Its a Kubota tracked dumper, petrol pull-start engine with 3 forward gears and 2 reverse , had a drive round his yard and had a deal.

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Edited by the showman

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once the skip was of i just had to have another drive round  :lol: before i backed it up the drive, the first photo shows where i think the seat will fit, the next shows my daughter trying out leg room, next engine cover off and the last shows the gearstick sticking out the front.

all this was done on the same day august 8th 2009

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i didnt realise Nigel wore a syrup . :D

 

I have been looking forward to reading about this build of the trachorse ., i was allways intrigued as to how you did build it

 

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The next day i spent a while working out how i could operate the gearstick from the front. looking at the gearbox / front axle i noticed that it was held on with u bolts, simple all i had to do was turn the engine and transmission around the other way, so the next 4 photos so the progress

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Now i had the gearstick in the right place, after turning the axle i had to modify the engine frame and turn the engine all the rest of the controls were cable operated so made it easy to change. photos are --- engine fitted   bodywork from A90 offered up  and with bonnet fitted. to fit all the bodywork i only had to weld some angle along the frame as it was the same width. 

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The next job was to cut the spare box section off the front and tidy it up, fit some bonnet hinges, fit a battery under the seat (to work the headlights) and cut some slots in the floor for the two slew levers. for the clutch i used the deck handle with a rod to the belt tenioner. the throttle and choke cables are halfords bike cables and solderless nipples, and rear fender from a 60s lawn ranger

Edited by the showman

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when I had finished this part I made up a rear lift and had it hooked up to the skip ram, but it didn't work to well so moved the ram to the front and fitted the dozer blade.

the next work to do will be new rear roller bearings, a nice shinny paint job, new rubber tracks and maybe swap the kobota engine for a kohler. I don't know when this will be as each time I get it out I just want to drive it  

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