1975 Tucker 1544 - project and trips

[YamaDooPolCat]

No. Some bearings were just about reusable, but 75% were junk.
It appears some bearings had lost most of their grease, and some had the grease converted to brown soup.
I decided to start over and do all the bearings and seals in preparation for using Buddy bearing hubs.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

I ordered new bearings from a different supplier. I’m told they are the same specs, but they look different.
I was using the Koyo and now using the National brand.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

I bought a bearing packer as stuffing the bearings with grease is time consuming. It works but is just as messy as hand packing.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

But quicker.

 

[Wrench9]

Just for your info I had installed the bearing buddies on mine as I said before I lost a couple and made an aluminum cap. This past weekend i broke a track tensioning bolt and holder off so i needed to dissassemble my track to repair it . When i had it off i inspected my bearings all were like new with 2 years of driving on them. the bearing buddies and aluminum caps i made seem do do a great job preserving the bearings. I keep my wheels hubs completly full of grease. maybe this will ease your mind if the expense and time is worth it for me it paid off perfectly

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Finished rebearing the 20 idler wheels. All new Buddy bearing caps. I couldn’t get enough of the SKF seals for the hubs so the last two have Timken’s seals. The Timkins have a hard rubber edge instead of metal like the SKF, and are a dollar more. They also are easier to install in the hub. So I guess we will see which seals last better.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Also found the nut holding the tie rod ball joint was spinning. It has a cotter key for the castle nut so it wasn’t going to fall out, but should not be loose.
Removed the nut, used brake clean and air to clean everything and the nut did tighten. All pinned and tight again.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Bored. Still not enough snow. Maybe Monday might go for a trip.

 

[Wrench9]

Which way did you install your seals. Some of the ones I had have a double sided steel and are protected if you install them backwards to allow the grease to push out through them. The timkens I installed were not double sided so I put them in the correct way but am careful not to push them out when I grease using the bearing buddy

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Which way did you install your seals. Some of the ones I had have a double sided steel and are protected if you install them backwards to allow the grease to push out through them. The timkens I installed were not double sided so I put them in the correct way but am careful not to push them out when I grease using the bearing buddy

All the seals were installed with flat face out.
I have been keeping the Bearing Buddy cap full only half way down the spring. I have been adding grease as the caps go down. I use a straight edge across the top of the Buddy so about half the zerk is below level with the cup tops.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Finally have enough snow for a trip.
Put 165 km on the Tucker.
Burnt tank of fuel plus 12 Jerry cans of gas.
Pulled my sled plus fuel skimmer plus tub skimmer and had a 4’ V plow under the fuel skimmer to leave a good snowmobile trail for total dead weight of 2,000 pounds plus the drag of the V plow.
Traveling back the temperature was -12c and the snow was to the top of the tracks, never got to use 3rd gear.

The new wipers were much better, but they built up with ice from the blowing snow. I’m wondering if lifting the back of the hood to let hot air hit the window would help?

The new style grill worked much better as well. I only had to clean the ice off 4 times in 74 km on the way back to the highway.

I ran the 318 motor at about 3,000 rpm for most of the trip and it didn’t burn any oil.
The motor also started at -12 c after sitting for three days with no hesitation.

It snowed off and on for the last two days that we were in the mountains.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

 

[DAVENET]

Hummm, so that's what winter looks like? Wish we would get those around here again.

Also, how much water do you have to pump into your tub and how long to heat up?

 

[Bennyboy1337]

Hummm, so that's what winter looks like? Wish we would get those around here again.

Also, how much water do you have to pump into your tub and how long to heat up?

If it's about the size of the one I built for my parents (6' diameter), I can fill it up with a garden hose in about 30 minutes, although we leave about 6" of water on the bottom during the winter to keep the wood wet. It's a frozen block of ice and the wood can take the expansion, takes a good 12+ hours to melt once the hot tub is up to temp, so it's kind of cool to be in hot water and put your feet on ice With a good fire roaring about 4-5 hours before it's good to go in the dead of winter. Once the water is heated up though and covered for the night, they retain heat surprisingly well, and just need a little fire to heat them back up again.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

The hot tub at our club cabin seats about 10 people, 11 if some are female.
I calculate the tub holds 750 gallons of water.
We use a 2” sump pump from the creek to fill the tub. It takes less than 30 minutes to fill. The tub is aluminum with spray foam insulation and removable cedar seats and floor. We empty and clean the tub in the mourning or before next use as we use no chemicals, so we keep the heat on.
For heat we use and in tub fire box and big double skin boiler that takes 3’ logs.
At -20c and I fill the tub there will be a skim of ice on the surface when I finish and put the hot tub lid on. At that temperature it take about 4 1/2 hrs to raise the water temperature to 102 f. We use an in tub pump to circulate the water through the boiler with 1” rubber hoses.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Another benefit of all that hot water is when we are done we pump the hot water into the outdoor toilet. The water has no chemicals so natural processes quickly use the water to dissolve and disintegrate the toilet waste. The outhouse toilet was dug about 18 years ago about 6 feet deep and has never filled up. Without the tub water the outhouse would only last a few years.

 

[Bennyboy1337]

Another benefit of all that hot water is when we are done we pump the hot water into the outdoor toilet. The water has no chemicals so natural processes quickly use the water to dissolve and disintegrate the toilet waste. The outhouse toilet was dug about 18 years ago about 6 feet deep and has never filled up. Without the tub water the outhouse would only last a few years.

WOW... that's quite the setup your club has! Using mountain water with no chemicals is such a treat in a hot tub! Our tub has a big plug drain that shoots the water out into a huckleberry field we have below. I like to think the dirty water from our partying makes good huckleberry fertilizer, they always come out big and ripe every year!

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

So far the mod to remove the Teflon sliders and install rollers has worked out okay. This system is also much quieter.
Also the tip up of the front idler on the track frame works very well. The tracks seem to require less power and run up over trail obstructions like trees and ice shelves with less impact.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

The snow was reasonably deep as even with the blade up as high as it would go it was still scraping the snow.

So most of the 74 km trip out was in 2nd gear and 1st gear on any incline. This was while pull a V plow under the fuel skimmer, with my snowmobile on the back and a second skimmer behind the snowmobile.

The fellow that packed up the cabin and travelled out behind me says the Tucker combination left a good trail and he was able to hit 90 kph on the way out.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

The flow of hot coolant to the cab heat was controlled by a tap above the engine water pump that you would turn to set the amount of flow through the cab heater. If the cab got too hot you had to lift the hood and turn the tap down a bit more to restrict the flow more.
I figure there had to be a better way to adjust the heat.
I bought this valve and cable and installed as in picture.
There was already an unused hole in the dash where a cable to set throttle cruise had been. This cable now uses up that spot. There is a flow arrow on the valve, but since this is a ball valve, I believe it is safe to hook up the valve either way - which I did.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

So far the mod to remove the Teflon sliders and install rollers has worked out okay. This system is also much quieter.
Also the tip up of the front idler on the track frame works very well. The tracks seem to require less power and run up over trail obstructions like trees and ice shelves with less impact.
View attachment 175159

YDPC,

The name Bill Cook probably doesn't ring a bell with you, but he was the owner of Cook's Equipment, the East Coast Tucker dealership in Newport, Vermont for a number of years. (He sold it, and the new owners called it Get Sno Equipment. It is now part of Track, Inc, the mid - west US Tucker dealership.)

Anyway, about 10 or so years ago I had a conversation with Bill and he opined that he would not consider putting a bunch of money into an older Tucker unless it had an automatic transmission and the damper wheels. This was of course when used Tuckers (and snowcats in general) were a whole lot cheaper.

But kudos to you for making the same modifications he thought so highly of!

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Went out to the local snowmobile club family day ride. It was -20c but 68 people showed up. All snowmobiles except for my Tucker and one Can-am on tracks. The ride was about 100 km with two stops for tickets to win stuff. Fun ride. It was the first time I had no drag behind the Tucker and I could just about wind the Speedo around to zero but it must have a built in stopper in the guage.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Also the Tucker was cold soaked to -20c overnight and I had no trouble starting the engine.

 

[Cidertom]

I know you changed the grill. How was the engine temperature during the long trip?

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

The grill change worked out good. There is no horizontal grill work for the ice/snow to build on and block the flow. The vertical rods do eventually build up but air passes by for a much longer time.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

The original owners of this SnoCat contacted me to write a story about their old SnoCat.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Just for your info I had installed the bearing buddies on mine as I said before I lost a couple and made an aluminum cap. This past weekend i broke a track tensioning bolt and holder off so i needed to dissassemble my track to repair it . When i had it off i inspected my bearings all were like new with 2 years of driving on them. the bearing buddies and aluminum caps i made seem do do a great job preserving the bearings. I keep my wheels hubs completly full of grease. maybe this will ease your mind if the expense and time is worth it for me it paid off perfectly

By the way, I did lose one Bearing Buddy on the last trip out. It was on the front idler on the right rear frame. When I tried to install a new BB it would not fit.
Turns out the BB must have been poked off by a stick because the inner part of the BB was still in the spindle hub. I had to remove what looked like a cut off tube ring that was all that was left of the BB in the hub. So this BB did not fall off, it was ripped off and the BB body failed. I'm pleased that the BB will stick in the hubs that well.

 

[Wrench9]

My 2441 bearing buddys had that ring also it was an adapter ring to go from one size to the size of our idler wheels. Mine would sometimes fall off at that adapter ring also and some in the wheel itself. I also did not lose any this year after I red loctited them all in last spring but i am also more carefull not to overgrease them amd push out the spring to its maximum amount

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

Father’s Day at the annual Show and Shine was fun. The Tucker was very popular with everyone. About 3,000 people showed up (probably more like 5,000) and hundreds of beautiful cars and trucks.
This year the Tucker was popular enough to win a prize.

 

[YamaDooPolCat]

A few frames back I showed pictures of the hot tub, and we pump water up from the creek.
This year in August my son's wife decided it is time to test the creek water we have been using for the last 20 years for drinking water.
The first test was on bottled water you buy in the grocery store, and the gauge turned red - not the best water.
The second test was the creek water and the gauge was green. So that creek in the middle of the summer was far more pure than the commercial water we buy in the store. And that creek water certainly adds a wonderful flavor to Gibsons 12 year whiskey.