Homebuilt SnowCat

Hey there everybody. Yes, I am new to the site but not so much to the snowcat type machines. I am currently building a unit for my own use on a woodlot and for transportation in east central Saskatchewan, Canada. I currently have no dig cam but am trying my best to get one to share pics and to help with troubleshooting problems.
What I am building is a two track machine with mechanical drive and steering. I am putting this unit under a 1970's Subaru car with an H4 and automatic transmission. Keep in mind I have salvaged nearly everything for this project and have very little money available to put into it. Being in the heart of the Canadian prairies I have access to a fair amount of wrecked farm equipment for parts and steel.
I have wrecked an old John Deere grain swather earlier this fall for its steel and steering clutch system. This swather had the whole mechanical drive system still there in rather decent shape. It even still had the drive sprockets for the wheels which I am using to drive my tracks with.
I have to put a complete frame under the Subaru which will link the whole thing together in the end. I am powering the whole thing off the frontwheel drive tranny via chains and sprockets which go back to a commonshaft which eventually drives the steering clutches. For tracks I am using old tractor tires w/ sidewalls removed. I will have to make keepers to achieve track alignment but it's no biggie.

This unit is kinda hard to explain what I am doing with no pics so if you have any questions I will answer to the best of my ability.

I have a question for those who may know the older Subaru's: In my quests for info on my 1976 Subaru Leone DL 1.6 "Boxer" (H4) I can't seem to find much info on the specs. The only specs I am actually looking for is the gearing of the tranny. Does anyone know what gearing it has or where one could find it?

Critter.

Critter ; tell us more about the wheels and tires

Will the tire guides ( keepers ) go right across the 'track' ? Is there much tread on the tires you're cutting for the tracks ? You gonna just thru bolt the tire guides ?

To make the tracks out of tractor tires you simply cut ou the majority of the side out. What you are left with is the tread the full width of the tire, with some curl down. It is mainly a matter of finding tires the proper width needed. I have figured that the keepers are going to go across the whole track and through-bolted with bolts and washers. The tires will probably have in the neighborhood of 40 % tread left on the tires. I will not use junk.
It will take two tires joined together to make one track. I will simply join with my own shop made hinge made to fit the application. The wheels I am using are off the swather. The hubs are about 10 inches deep from the face where the rim is bolted on. On the back of the hub there is a sprocket that drives the wheel via a chain from the clutches. Each front tire has its own chain.

Any chance of getting photos?

sounds heavy? how much do you think this machine is going to weigh. Ground psi should be as low as possible, Seems to me with a 1.6 liter engine you are going to need to be less than 1psi, at least for use in powder.

dont know much about that trans but D should be a 1:1 ratio is the trans you have an over drive?

The whole machine will have a GVW of about 3000lbs. I have not figured out what the ground psi will be because I don't exactly know what the width of tractor tires I am using are. Sorry, I don't have a dig cam yet. Pics would definately help, but it's not much to look at right now. Just a pile of parts and an old car.

Here in Sweden there are several homemade snowcats with tractor tires as tracks. They seem to be a lot smaller than what you are going to to but I assume the tracks will look about the same.

Those are some very cool looking machine there. Wish I had one of them right now. Mine is definately going to be bigger than any of these. How many hp do these units have? what steering? etc....

I've seen many different engine chioces. The most common seem to be a common car engine like volvo b20 (approx. 90 hp). The gearbox and axels (shortened) is also standard (old 70's) volvo parts. The steering works usually by breaking one track and letting the differential distribute the power to the other side.

Ahh I see. Two master cylinders have been used then to get each side independant from the other. I was thinking of using this system but I couldn't just find another master cylinder around these parts and I just don't have the money to purchase one. This machine I am building will cost me in the neighborhood of $500-750 to complete.

As the machines in the pictures look very low-budget, my guess is that these guys used the mechanical parking breaks for steering.

Like I mentioned before I am using steering clutches out of an old swather. Alot of you may not even know what a swather is. It is a machine used for cutting standing grain and leaving it in rows to dry. The clutchsystem is all mechanically driven and uses chains and belts from the engine. I am getting rid of the belts completely and replacing with chains as there is less slippage. I now have a dig cam and pics will follow at a later time as I don't have much to show yet.

I'm new here and seeing this post prompted me to pose some of my own questions. I have been thinking of home building something like this for years. Nothing on paper only in my mind. I'm not familiar with swathers, but the clutch system sounds like what you need. On the cheaper rout I was thinking of what I could use from salvage yard parts. Would a rear differential from a light truck hold up if you were useing the brakes independantly to stear?

Also, what are you useing to make the keepers/track guides? Any concerns about snow (mud) building up inside the tracks and causing problems that you may need a more open track design? (Holes or open in the middle to let stuff out.)

Thanks for the topic! I'll be watching for those pictures!

I am not quite sure on how to post pics here so......... help would be appreciated.

Critter said:

I am not quite sure on how to post pics here so......... help would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Critter,

Please see THIS thread for details on how to post pics.

Well here goes the pics thing. I haven't got much done on Critter lately but........ I've got a good start. I was well on my way with this project when I finally decided that the car was not going to do me any justice because of a few different reasons. The frame on the car was rotten in a couple of places. So I stripped the car for the parts and I am building from scratch. I am using a Chev half ton frame, Subaru powertrain and electrical. The steering system comes from an old swather.

Here is the engine & tranny and the clutch system I am using on Critter. I have many more pics so............

Critter,

So how much do you think it will wieght when your done ?? A truck frame sounds heavy . Will it be trailerable ( under 8'-6") or will it be too wide without a special moving permit ??? What do you think your Track PSI will be .

Keep up the good work and thanks for posting the pictures . They say a 1000 words !!!!
Al

Big Al,

The whole unit is going to be 6 feet wide and 12 feet long before the blade. The tracks are going to be 18 inches wide. The front and back axles are 8 feet apart. The wheels are 10 inch wide rubber on 16" rims on the front and same width but on 15" rims on the back. I haven't figured out what I am using for idlers yet. The whole unit will be under 3000 lbs but am trying keep closer to the 2000 lb mark.

Here's some more pics of the drive wheels and such.

I missed adding the pics. Here they are.

The first one is one of the drive wheels. The implement rubber is coming off and I am using rubber from vehicles.

The second pic is of the only thing wrong with the engine. Someone broke off one of the plugs and then proceeded to try to use an easy-out to remove the broken piece. Instead they jammed that in there n broke it off too. The head needs to come off. I need to get a head gasket but has to come out of the states and.... I don't know the exact year of the car the engine came from yet. It is a Subaru DL with front wheel drive tranny. Sticker on underside of the hood says 97 ci which tells me it is a 1.6L H4. Any Subaru dealer I talked to here in Canada can't tell me a thing with the serial number. They say it is too short and that their computer don't go back that far. Can anybody help with that?????

The third pic is a close up of the front pully and clutch band. There is one on each side as well as another different set further back for each side.

Critter said:

The second pic is of the only thing wrong with the engine. Someone broke off one of the plugs and then proceeded to try to use an easy-out to remove the broken piece. Instead they jammed that in there n broke it off too. The head needs to come off.

Click to expand...

You might try putting a oversize steel nut on the "easy out" and then weld up the center . You can then put a socket on it and maybe get it to back out . I have done this many times to shear off bolts that were flush to the surface . You may have to weld it more than once ,but I bet it will work .The heat usually helps break the threads loose too . It if does move ,use little back and forth turns to slowly ease it out . Good Luck .

Big Al,

I wouldn't justify trying to remove the plug your way due to the fact that the easy-out is broken off just fractions of an inch lower than what the plug is. Besides the engine is alluminum and I wouldn't want to melt somethig.

What I am going to do is take the head off. I should be able to drive the easy out out with a punch. Once that is out I will then try to unscrew the plug from the inside. If that doesn't work a friend of mine said he will help me to drill out the plug just a hair bigger (where the easy-out is right now)and then freeze the plug with propane and collapse it and remove.

Here's some more pics. The first one I call "Going Nowhere Fast", The second one is of the back clutches that I mentioned before, and the third one is just a snowy scene for you snocatters to druel over. Yup we have LOTS of snow. Perfect for cattin'

Thanks for the new pictures, Critter.

They help me understand what you are up to better

Thought it was time for another update on Critter.

I have been busy lately. Got the frame into the garage and removed the diff and extra uneeded hardware. I then proceeded to mount the engine and transmission and am now working on mounting the clutch setup. Here's a pic or four.

Nice to see some updates, this has the potential of being one of the most interesting threads on the Forums because nobody else had done anything like this here. It would be great if you could also keep a detailed list of parts and costs, I'm curiuos to see how much this costs to build and how much was from salvaged parts. It might end up being a very economical and fun build when it is all completed.

Brian, So far I have about $100.00 invested as well as a hell of a pile of hours into this unit. Still having a few troubles I am pondering about at the moment but I guess it comes with using used parts.

Thanks Brian,
This project is gonna take a while to get finished. We are moving soon but it will be definately coming along with me. I need a place where I can weld anyways. All I can use here is my little gasless mig. I am in the midst of doing a whole pile of pondering at the moment, but still trying to put a few more hours into it before the big move.

So far I have 376 hours into the project and around the $100 mark of investment which is mostly just cutting and grinding disks for the grinder along with a few hacksaw blades.