"Snowzilla": A Comprehensive Tucker 1643 Project...

[Blackfoot Tucker]

My snowcat buddy, Scott, and I are working on two Tucker projects somewhat simultaneously. This thread features the second machine, which we named "Snowzilla". The thread will follow the progress of the different parts of the project which includes various repairs and numerous modifications. I'll post updates periodically, but it will be a minimum of several months before it's complete. I hope you enjoy it.

In November of 2015 I saw a 1980 Tucker 1643 listed on ksl.com. Based on the listing description, I thought it was potentially a good buy and sent a PM to a new forum member whose screen name was fsdesign. He was looking for a snowcat and I thought this was an excellent candidate for his needs. He passed on it, and so I bought it.

In my opinion, if you need to carry more than four people and you’ll be operating in deep snow, the 1643 is the holy grail of backcountry access, rubber belted Tuckers. The thing is though, they’re comparatively rare. If a decent one becomes available at a reasonable price you have to be ready to jump and jump now, otherwise it will be gone. Here are some pics of the machine when I went to look at it.












Pretty nice machine overall; it was originally owned by Pacific Gas and Electric. There was a placard indicating the hour meter had been changed at 397 hours and the new meter showed 97.1, so just under 500 hours. It was originally ordered as a 1543 per the data plate, and somewhere in it’s life the carriers and tracks had been upgraded to the longer 1600 series versions. SnoTrans sold it to the guy I was buying it from in 2002, and it had the long tracks on it then, so I suspect the upgrade was done during PG&E’s ownership. A couple of bonuses; the Tucker came with a factory installed Warn 8,000 LB winch, and the carriers had the damper wheel upgrade done to them. It had a nice, large rooftop carrier someone had added as well. There were a few repairs that I thought were poorly done, such as a patch on the top of the gas tank, and an ill fitting aftermarket electric fuel pump. But other than that - not bad at all. The paint was original and had 35 years worth of weathering and scratches.


When I was inspecting the machine, the gasoline smelled terrible and the engine had a miss in it. I attributed the miss to either poor fuel, or simply needing a tune up and didn’t think much of it. After buying it, I took it home and cleaned out the inside and then dropped it off at my snowcat buddy’s shop in SLC.

The first order of business was a tune up. The spark plugs looked to be nearly new so we left those alone, but new ignition wires, distributor cap and rotor were installed. And…no change to the miss. So we decided to rebuild the carburetor. In the process we found a significant amount of crud inside and thought that it certainly would run better after the rebuild. And…it didn’t. The next step was a compression check and we found zero compression on two cylinders! How do you have zero? Even if there were holes in the pistons you should see a temporary increase and then a drop. So, off with the valve covers and…the mystery was solved. We found two bent pushrods and two broken rocker arms. I called my “friendly" Dodge dealer and the parts guy only had books that went back to 1985, and he doubted he could get them anyway. Surprising to me, considering how many 318s Chrysler built during the sixties, seventies and eighties. Rather than get some cheap, made-in-China ones, we hit the salvage yards. Believe it or not, finding a 318 or 360 was not easy. Most yards have crushed their older vehicles and focus on newer models. Once the used parts were cleaned up and installed, we started the engine and it ran great. In the carburetor rebuilding process we decided to remove the factory manual choke cable and we installed an automatic choke instead.


Here are some photos of the bent pushrods and broken rocker arms. A couple things to note: For one thing how clean the parts are, indicating low usage and frequent oil changes. The other thing I’d mention is the straighter pushrod was actually much worse. So bad in fact it wouldn’t pull out of the cylinder head without straightening it somewhat.






An obvious question is “How did the pushrods get bent and the rocker arms broken?” My understanding is one can bend pushrods at high RPMs if the valves float. But I don’t think that’s the case here. I suspect this sat for a long period of time, the affected valves were closed and they rusted shut. When someone went to start it, the pushrods bent and the rocker arms broke before the valves moved, but that’s really a semi-educated guess.

 

[Northcoast]

Great read,looking forward to following your thread.

 

[Pontoon Princess]

how about next February in Utah, we meet and compare the best rubber track and the best pontoon machine that tucker built? sounds like fun?

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

how about next February in Utah, we meet and compare the best rubber track and the best pontoon machine that tucker built? sounds like fun?

I'm totally up for that! I haven't been to any of the snowcat get-togethers, and so I've somewhat lived in ignorance of the capabilities of other machines. I think it would be great to see how they all perform.

My snowcat buddy recently spotted a snowcat up for auction that he thought might be worth pursuing. We talked about it a bit and...he won the auction. But it's a Thiokol, not a Tucker. We may bring that to the event next February, too. That acquisition story might be worth it's own thread.

 

[bobby wilkes]

I have a 1644 that I will be working on in the near future !

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

I have a 1644 that I will be working on in the near future !

Bobby, I really like the four door cab style. Unless you need to carry more than four adults regularly, I think it's the one to have. I also like the long tracks of the 1600 series.

Have you posted any pics of your machine on the forum? I think I'm speaking for many in suggesting that you do.

Some of the sub-projects I'll write about on this thread are more full cab related, but I think you'll find others that are applicable to two and four door machines as well.

Our other project, Thundercat, is a 1644. At some point I may start a thread on that, but I didn't take all that many photos during various parts of the build process, and photos do help in showing what you're doing, or trying to do. That is a much more exhaustive project than Snowzilla, but unfortunately a thread would be ripe for the "this thread is worthless without pictures" complaint. I was discussing the lack of pictures with my snowcat buddy, Scott and he said he had some, though he also said the photo quality was not great.

 

[The Sweet Wbj1]

unfortunately a thread would be ripe for the "this thread is worthless without pictures" complaint.

Who would dare say such a thing......

 

[Pontoon Princess]

Who would dare say such a thing......

I would like to see some photos of wbuffetjr sno/snow cat, you know inquiring minds?

and my most sincere apologies if you have posted photos, just tell me the thread they are on and thank you so much, again my apologies if you have shared photos of your sno/snow cat.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

We like to take our machines out into the Uinta mountains in Northern Utah for testing. (A bit of trivia: the Uintas are the only mountain range in the continental US that runs east-west. All others run north-south.) A snowcat may run okay in the yard, but testing in actual conditions for a prolonged period can, and does, reveal potential issues. However after several hours in the 1643 all we did was have fun. So back to the shop and the work began…

Here are some photos of the testing day.







Yes, this would be Scott driving...




The hydraulic pump pulley was not parallel with the pulley on the harmonic balancer. That would cause premature belt wear, and may lead to a belt coming off, so we removed the pump and pump mounting bracket, so we could straighten the bracket to correct the misalignment. While we were at it, we replaced the two V-belts that drive the hydraulic pump. Tucker recommends a belt size of 3V-400, which translates to a 3/8” wide V-belt that’s 40” long. In our opinion that's too short. Even with the hydraulic pump adjusted all the way “in”, it’s very difficult to get the belts over the pulleys. There doesn’t seem to be a good reason for such a short belt, as there’s plenty of room in the brackets for belt adjustment. We chose to install 3VX-415 belts. Those are 1 1/2” longer and the X means the belts are cogged, which tend to run cooler than solid belts. The longer belts are easier to install, and there’s still more than ample room for belt adjustment.


Tucker installs an electric auxiliary fuel pump and an in-line canister style fuel filter a few feet in front of the fuel tank. There’s also a replaceable fuel filter between the mechanical fuel pump and the carburetor. That seems redundant, and the two short lengths of rubber hose to connect that second filter to the steel fuel line are potential leak points. The existing steel line also had a large S bend in it between the second filter and the carburetor that didn’t seem to offer any benefit, so we decided to eliminate that filter, and the S bend, and install a new one-piece steel fuel line. My snowcat buddy is an absolute genius at bending tube. It always looks so easy when you see a bent line, but getting the correct amount of bend in the right location is harder than it looks. And if there’s more than one bend required (there almost always is) the subsequent bends have to be located correctly radially around the tube as well. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can create a lot of scrap. Using a hand bender you get nice even radius bends with no crimping or kinking. You can see the original line had some bends that look like they were done by hand and not with a bender.

Here’s a photo of the original fuel line and the new one Scott bent. That doesn’t show the section with the fuel filter or the “S” bend.




This is a photo of my first Tucker’s engine, which was also a 1980 and also a 318. If you look carefully you can see the fuel filter and then follow the circuitous routing of the steel line to the carburetor. Realize all that was replaced by the one line in the above photo.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

likely the push rodds bent from over reving you might want to plan on a timing chain change the weakest spot of the 318 / 360 plat form was the plastic cam timing gear used in the 70's I have seen them take out gears in as little as 40 k back in the day

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

likely the push rodds bent from over reving you might want to plan on a timing chain change the weakest spot of the 318 / 360 plat form was the plastic cam timing gear used in the 70's I have seen them take out gears in as little as 40 k back in the day

We considered that over-revving the engine may have caused the damage, but decided against that. Here's why:

Chrysler Industrial engines were used in numerous applications, one fairly common one would be to power an irrigation pump in a location with no electricity nearby. In that installation the engine would be left unattended and running at a fairly high, constant RPM for fairly long periods. If the pump broke, or there was some other type of malfunction, it's possible the load would be removed from the engine, and with lots of throttle and no load, the engine would over-rev and damage/destroy itself. To preclude that Chrysler equipped their industrial engines (at least the 318s I've seen) with King Seely brand velocity governors installed under the carburetor.

This engine had the governor installed when I bought it. It's certainly possible someone removed it and then put it back, but we thought that somewhat unlikely.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

The rear door on this machine had some minor damage at the bottom. It looked like there had been some ice on the rear frame that the door closes against and when they shut the door against that ice, it bent the aluminum. Tucker used .063 thick, 5052 alloy aluminum sheet.

Here’s a photo of the bottom of the rear door.



I bought a remnant piece of .080 thick 5052 aluminum to replace the damaged skin. We drilled out the rivets and removed the skin. Then we used the old skin as a pattern to drill all the rivet holes in the correct location on the new skin, and of course cut out the hole for the window and drilled a hole for the latch mechanism as well. When Tucker built machines of this era they riveted raw aluminum to raw steel. That’s a no-no, as the interaction of the dissimilar materials causes galvanic corrosion. We took the door frame and sanded all the factory paint, as well as the unpainted door skin side, and then primed it on all sides. (This paint is enough to break the bond and prevent galvanic corrosion.)


Here’s the door frame with the aluminum skin removed and painted in primer.



Then we riveted the new skin on. We took the opportunity to improve that process as well. Tucker used steel blind rivets to fasten the aluminum door skins, roof and hood to their respective steel frames. These are basically like the commonly used POP rivet, except they’re steel, which means they’re harder to compress but substantially stronger. However the rivets are basically hollow. When you install the rivet with a rivet gun, the gun pulls on a mandrel until it breaks. Part of the mandrel is in the gun and the other part stays in the rivet. That part can (and does) fall out, leaving a nice hole for water to get in…and unsurprisingly, it does exactly that. If enough water gets inside the square tube frame member and freezes, it distorts that square tube, and can even split the tube!. We’ve had to cut out distorted frame pieces and weld in new sections of square tube to repair this water intrusion on other machines, but fortunately this one was okay.

Here are some photos of 3/4" x 3/4" square tube distorted by water intrusion. The top two photos show tube split by water intrusion that subsequently froze.







An easy way to avoid that mess is to use closed end blind rivets. There is no hole at the back end for the mandrel to fall out of. We opted to use stainless steel closed end blind rivets which are even harder to compress than the steel versions, and they won’t rust. I will say if you try and do this with a hand operated rivet gun on more than a few rivets, your forearms will look like Popeye’s. We used an air-over-hydraulic rivet gun Scott had, (but these can be bought fairly inexpensively at Harbor Freight).


Here’s the repaired door with it’s new skin. You can see how we replicated the bend at the bottom of the door so it matches the angles on the cab.

 

[The Sweet Wbj1]

Gonna be one NICE machine!!

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Earlier I mentioned a patch on the top of the gas tank. That became our next task. After removing the tank from the machine we saw Tucker had done a very poor job of painting the machine at the factory. They had installed the tank before painting and the side of the gas tank close to the Tucker’s side had not been painted, nor had the side of the machine. No orange paint, not even any primer, just raw steel. Sorry to be so blunt, but that’s just plain lousy workmanship. That this machine left the factory in that condition speaks to quality control problems as well.


Here’s a photo of the gas tank before I bought the machine. The previous owner used the Tucker for access to his remote cabin. It would usually be parked in an area open to others and people had stolen gas from the tank. He had installed an old ammo can with a lock over the filler neck to stop that.



Tucker's paint buffoonery




Here’s a photo of the tank showing the unpainted back side and a view of the patch.



A closeup of the patch.




We drained the gasoline out of the tank and filled it with soapy water (the soap breaks up the gasoline), drained it again and refilled it to the top. (The tank being filled with water takes away the risk of explosion as the water displaces gasoline and fumes.) Then we took an angle grinder to cut away the patch and see what the underlying problem was. The large patch covered a large hole. We decided to cut out an even larger hole; from one side of the tank to the other, but lengthwise we’d make the cuts underneath where the straps that hold the tank to the machine are located. That way if there was a cosmetic flaw in our welding of the new patch it would be hidden by the straps. Once we cut the larger hole we dumped all the water out of the tank and found the inside surprisingly rusty and a whole bunch of what can only be called crap inside.


Here’s the part we cut off and the large hole.



Nice rust!



Some of what we found inside.

 

[sno-drifter]

Guess I am a little late to the party but the push rod/ rocker arm failure looks very much like a hydraulic issue, i.e. liquid in that cylinder.

 

[Cidertom]

and a whole bunch of what can only be called crap inside.
Some of what we found inside.
View attachment 100193

My ST's gas tank was coated inside and looked like that. Coming off in sheets and plugging the fuel filter faster than I could clean it.

 

[The Sweet Wbj1]

I guess I should come clean. I am buying this beast from Blackfoot Tucker. I had quite a LONG and discouraging search for a decent 1643/1644 with a blade with no luck. I finally convinced Blackfoot to build a blade and add it to this machine for me. Hoping it's ready for this Winter. Can't wait!

 

[PJL]

Great, you will know it's history.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Guess I am a little late to the party but the push rod/ rocker arm failure looks very much like a hydraulic issue, i.e. liquid in that cylinder.

That's a VERY interesting theory! I'll mention it to my snowcat buddy and see what he thinks. It certainly explains the damage, but I wonder how that liquid got in (and what it may have been)?

 

[Track Addict]

That orange kewl aide can be tricky and will work it’s way into mysterious places.....

Generally it just bends people perception of sno cats

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Now that the cat is out of the bag as far as Snowzilla's future owner goes, I'll mention that there are a fair number of parts to this project. Some, like the ones I've detailed so far, are fairly simple. But some others are quite involved. This is the fourth Tucker I've owned and as my snowcat buddy, Scott and I have worked on different machines our knowledge base has grown. This machine will benefit from that as we'll incorporate a number of upgrades that we feel are worthwhile. In another thread I had mentioned we had modified the windshield wiper system on Thundercat. We'll make those same changes to Snowzilla. We also made some upgrades to the hydraulic system's plumbing configuration and to the pump itself. Those were done in concert with a steering system upgrade, which will also be featured. And we'll be adding a six-way blade to Snowzilla. Stay tuned; this will be fun!


Back to the project:



For some reason the sides of the tank were bowed inward a fair amount, too. The tanks Tucker used were solidly made and IIRC they used 13 gauge steel, which is pretty thick. We wanted to straighten the sides before welding in the new top, but they had quite an attitude and did not cooperate despite several attempts. To win that battle, we made a baffle for the inside of the tank that keeps the sides straight, yet allows fuel to flow easily from one side of the baffle to the other. Because the gas gauge float arm is fairly long we couldn’t weld the baffle in the center of the tank, but rather it had to be toward the end away from the sending unit, so as not to interfere with the float arm's range of travel. Once that was installed, Scott welded in the new top. I got to grind the welds and then blend them with the existing tank. It turned out very nicely.







This is another view of the top but also a better view of the side where we attached the baffle. You can see the round heat spots where the baffle was welded on the inside.






The next order of business was replacing the cheesy-looking, aftermarket auxiliary fuel pump. We had a spare fuel pump we removed from our long-term project Tucker, aka: Thundercat, that would fit this machine perfectly. We made the swap, and of course when the previous owner installed the ill-fitting pump he somewhat butchered the gas tank to fuel pump steel fuel line. Scott once again used his tube bending skills and we replaced the fuel line. While he was bending tube I replaced the filter element in the canister style fuel filter. I don’t have any photos of either of these project elements.



At this point we had done the majority of the easy fixes and now we were moving into more serious stuff. The Tucker xx43 body style has two bucket seats in front, and opposed bench seats in back along the side walls. Tucker installs what I call a bulkhead behind the front seats, and we think the design is, in a word, terrible. The bulkhead is essentially a wall that effectively divides the cab into front and back sections. But the structural members that comprise the bulkhead aren’t against the perimeter of the cab but rather are several inches inside. The top bar is about three inches below the roof, and if you’re tall, it’s perfectly positioned to smack the back of your head on. If the bulkhead design has any redeeming features, I don’t know what they are. The third photo at the beginning of the thread shows the bulkhead. Here’s another view (we had started peeling the carpet off the roof).






Several years ago we took a Tucker 1642 and re-cabbed it, changing it from a two door to a three door xx43 style cab. When we were building the cab we chose to create a roll bar that hugged the perimeter of the cab sides and roof, and make the cab interior one big area, so you could move from front to back if desired. Note: This cab was only 48" wide. Snowzilla's cab is 52".

Here’s a photo of that project's roll bar.







Another view. You’ll note tabs welded on all the inside corners of the roll bar braces. The tabs are for attaching upholstered cushions.





A view of the corner after the rear upholstery was installed.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

We decided to remove the bulkhead on the 1643 and make a new roll bar similar to the one we previously built. The first steps in this process were removing the roof-top carrier and roof-mounted light. Then we drilled out all the rivets and lifted the roof panel off. Once that was gone, the bulkhead was cut out and tossed aside.


Here’s a photo with the roof removed. That white stuff is galvanic corrosion, which you get when you put two dissimilar metals next to each other with nothing to prevent a chemical bond between. It doesn’t take much, just a quick shot of primer will suffice, but Tucker didn’t do it.





On the earlier project we welded in a new frame cross member perpendicular to the outside longitudinal frame members and flush with the top of them. That made for a flat interior floor. Another questionable feature of the bulkhead design is the bottom structural member is welded to the top of the outside longitudinal frame members. Originally we didn’t want to mess with the floor, and were going to weld our bar on top of that, but decided the extra time to do it right and not have a two inch piece of square tubing above the floor was worth it. That meant removing the floor section under the front seats, as well as the front parts of the rear floor system. Once those were gone, Scott cut out the last vestigial part of the bulkhead. We then cut a piece of 2” x 2” square tube and he welded it in place between the outside frame members so the floor would be flat. Now came the hard part; making the roll bar so it fit perfectly, and with radii at the top that matched the curve of the roof. Not only would the roll bar be a structural member giving support to the cab but it would give shape to the roof as well.


Here’s a photo of the perpendicular square tube I mentioned. It’s not a great photo, but you can see where the original tube was cut away from the outside frame member and the two vertical square tubes on the lower inner frame that add support. Scott had to cut those lower because our square tube sits 2” lower.





Scott is a certified welder, and has been for over three decades. For the roll bar, we chose 2” x 2” square tubing with a 3/16” wall thickness. The roof radius at the sides is about 5”. There’s no way you could bend square tubing of that size in such a tight a radius without major crimping or kinking, even assuming you had a bender that had the muscle to do it. That meant cutting and welding the corners to create the correct outside radius at the two top corners. When we did the previous roll bar, Scott cut five pie-shaped pieces out of the square tube for each corner radius, then he easily bent the tube into position and welded up the cuts. Though the radius had some short segments, it really worked pretty well and it looked great. This time he had another plan, and to be fair, it turned out even better.



He had three pieces of tube; one for each side and one for the top. The ends where the corner radii were located were carefully cut, and some pieces removed, so they fit together properly. Then he welded them all together, and a fair amount of grinding and welding later, they looked great. The top of the roof has a slight bow so he took the bar and put in in his hydraulic press to form the bow. There were a couple of bend marks so I used some body filler to smooth that out. Some more sanding and a coat of primer later and it was ready for installation. The inside of the Tucker’s cab has some fairly light gauge frame members to support the sheet metal exterior. Because our roll bar was made to fit against the perimeter we had to cut notches out of those frame members to fit around our new roll bar. Once in place it would all be welded together. We left the vertical legs of the roll bar slightly long so we could put it in place and get the height measurement perfect, even if it meant taking it back out to trim off a little bit of the legs. Sure enough we had to trim about 1/4” off the legs. No problem, but the in-and-out process did a nice job of scratching the primer.


Pics of the process. Here’s the way Scott did the radius at the top corners.






The finished bar on the shop floor.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

The sidewalls where the bar will fit after cutting out sheet metal supporting members. (The backsides of the four rivets you see were removed and the holes welded closed before we installed the new roll bar.)



The cut out sections illustrating unnecessary rust. Tucker could have used a weld-through primer on the cab frame before attaching the steel skin. That would have prevented this rust.



The new bar welded in place. You can also see the perpendicular tube I mentioned earlier which will permit a flat floor.



A view from the back.



And with the support braces and front seats installed and the roof resting in position. We intend to do the rear upholstery in a similar fashion to the other machine but the tabs have not been welded to the braces yet. Tucker for some reason welded the dome light support brackets to the left side of center. We have no idea why, and think the lights are more functional and look better centered. After this photo was taken we relocated them to the center of the roof supporting framework.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

I've been remiss in not providing updates in a more timely fashion. We have been doing some work on Thundercat and Snowzilla this summer. We decided to put Thundercat's reassembly on the back burner - so we can (hopefully) get Snowzilla wrapped up for use at Christmastime by it's future owner. (Right now we're actually working on Snowzilla's front blade project, which will be detailed in later installments of this thread). The part below was completed previously.

After getting the new roll bar installed we had to reinstall the roof. One would logically think it would be easy, after all we really just drilled out all the original rivets so shouldn’t putting it back consist of putting it in place with new rivets? Well, it wasn’t that simple: the holes in the aluminum roof panel and the holes in the Tucker cab frame were somehow out of alignment. When we install a riveted panel we like to put a bead of an adhesive automotive seam sealer between the skin and the Tucker frame members. In addition to adding strength to the connection, it also adds another measure of protection to prevent galvanic corrosion between the dissimilar aluminum skin and steel frame. But with the alignment issues we weren’t sure how long we would be fighting to get the installation done, and if it cured before we were finished, that would make for a big mess, so no adhesive.

With the roof sitting in place and very few holes in alignment, Scott deduced the cab and the roof frame were slightly tweaked. We installed a ratchet binder with strap (the heavy-duty type you use to secure a load to a trailer) to the upper right rear of the cab and to the upper left front windshield post. By adding tension to the strap, and quite a bit of tension at that, we were able to persuade the cab that it was in it’s best interest to cooperate. Then we were able to install the rivets in the holes on the sides, as well as the front and rear before we went back and started the rivet-setting process with Scotts air-over-hydraulic rivet gun. We finished by installing the rivets on top down the center of the roof. We riveted the roof panel to the newly installed roll bar and added one additional rivet to the factory roof support over the middle of the rear cab on each side. Of course we used the stainless steel closed end blind rivets I mentioned in an earlier post. Sorry, no photos of this process.

Though the Tucker came with an open topped aluminum box on the right side of the rear cab it was quite narrow, which limited it's utility, and it was completely open to the elements. So, though it could be used to store some items they were limited in size and totally exposed, both to potential theft and the effects of weather. Here's a photo taken the day I went to look at the machine.



Our customer preferred a much nicer, and appreciably larger lockable and weather-tight box. Scott and I removed the existing box and the previously installed supporting pieces of welded steel angle (they looked somewhat weak anyway). We then installed some new outriggers in a similar fashion to the way Tucker supports the gas tank on the opposite side. We wanted our outriggers to match the factory gas tank supports, as though they had been factory installed. That meant using the same size square tubing. Conveniently, Tucker used the same size on their bulkhead frame so it turns out that it was good for something after all! We harvested the required square tubing from the goofy bulkhead. It looks like Tucker welds the outriggers to the frame first and then cuts the cab skin so it can be lowered down over the supports before that cab side is welded to the cab frame. In this fashion there's no cab skin below the mounts. We chose to cut out square holes for the outriggers, which means there is cab skin below our outriggers. It's a slightly more finished look, even if it's different than the factory way. They also bevel the cuts and weld steel plate over the ends, which gives a nicer and finished look. We matched that factory procedure.



Here’s the outside. Scott welded one tab (pictured) on the front outrigger, but we decided that it made sense to position the box in place and make sure that the locations for through-bolts will work with the outrigger locations before welding any more tabs.



And the inside. You can see two spots in the skin that we welded closed. Those welds will be cleaned up.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Bouncing around a bit as far as modifications/upgrades...

With Thundercat we completely modified the hydraulic system, but it was a huge expenditure of time. That wouldn’t be economically viable with Snowzilla, but some aspects of those upgrades are worthwhile, and I’ll start by discussing one we're in the process of doing. If you look at the bottom of a Tucker hydraulic tank you’ll see a Tee fitting threaded into the hydraulic tank. The front leg of the Tee has a barbed fitting and a fairly large diameter hose that runs to the hydraulic pump as the fluid supply line. Here’s a photo of the installation on Snowzilla.






If you look at the back of the Tee, you’ll see a threaded reducing bushing, as well as a nipple, a 90º elbow and a barbed fitting with another hose attached. That’s return fluid. Scott pointed out the return fluid can go straight to the pump without being filtered. Does that sound like a good design, potentially recirculating unfiltered hydraulic fluid? It didn’t to us…so another upgrade idea was hatched.


The device that the filter threads into is called a filter head. One can buy those with different configurations, and naturally different units have different specifications. Doing some Internet research, at higher engine RPMs the Tucker hydraulic pump’s volumetric output can exceed the filtering capacity of the existing filtration system. With that knowledge, it made sense to add another filter head and filter. That meant either fabricating a new tank, (which we did with Thundercat) or modifying the existing one. Because we had made a new hydraulic tank for Thundercat, we had the original one to work with. We could modify that tank and install it on Snowzilla later. The factory tank positions the filter in the center of the tank side-to-side.





There wasn’t enough room to add another filter, and have it look right. And we couldn’t cut out the existing threaded fitting, patch the hole and weld in two new fittings - and have that look acceptable, either. (The factory tank’s front panel was already distorted by Tucker's welding process.) We decided to cut the front of the tank off, as well as the top panel and the bent flange that bolts to the firewall. Here’s a photo of the front side showing the fitting. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show how distorted that panel is.





And the back side of the same panel. However, once we cut the tank apart it revealed what Scott (as a certified welder) said was a questionable practice. Tucker welded a malleable iron fitting, (a 90º elbow) as the means of holding the filter head assembly, and added a short length of threaded pipe on the back side. The filler neck is located in the center of the top panel, which is above this fitting, and the elbow and pipe are to direct the return fluid away from the filler neck debris screen. Scott says welding malleable iron is not a good practice due to embrittlement.




We cut out new pieces of steel, bent them accordingly and then Scott welded those to the existing tank. The welds were ground and sanded to create smother corners. We used a threaded steel coupling cut in half and Scott welded the two pieces in with minimal distortion.


Here’s our tank (after we painted it) with the filter heads installed. Notice how the corners are smooth rather than the rough unfinished welds on the factory tank.








(We still need to add the short piece of bent steel to add support to the filter head units.


Every Tucker I’ve bought has used the same basic hydraulic filters. Different brands certainly, but they all interchange. There’s not a space limitation under the filter, so why not install a longer filter? The larger filter has more fluid capacity and more filtration media, so it should last longer. It struck us this was a worthwhile upgrade... at almost no cost. What’s not to like about that?


I bought some longer Donaldson brand filters and the part number (which can be interchanged with many other brands) is: 565059. They're 7.87 inches long as opposed to the stock filter length of 5.35 inches. Mathematically, almost 50% larger.






The modified tank will be installed in concert with some other hydraulic system upgrades (featured in later posts). Those upgrades include hydraulic pump modifications to increase the pump output volume and pump output pressure, as well as the installation of a dual cross-port relief valve in the steering system.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Here's the start of the front blade project. There are a fair number of components involved that make up the entire blade system, and there’s considerable cutting and welding necessary to fabricate the various parts. For some of the pieces, we relied on others to produce them, and of course there are delays in getting those. We’re trying to get the machine (and the blade) done, and so while waiting for some sub-components we move along to another part of the job to keep the project moving forward. Unfortunately that means the presentation of the blade aspects of the project in this thread will not be as sequentially pure as I’d like. (That’s another way of saying I’ll be bouncing around a bit.)


The Snowzilla project is being done somewhat simultaneously with the reassembly of our other Tucker, Thundercat, which left the factory with a six-way blade. Some aspects of the factory design we’ll replicate, and others we’ll make some changes to. The in-cab control valve is installed between the front seats, right next to where Tucker installs the parking brake handle. With the blade option, Tucker welds a bracket to the frame that the valve attaches to with three bolts, and they also weld the parking brake handle mechanism's mounting bracket to the same valve mounting bracket. Thundercat had been disassembled for sand blasting and painting, and before we reattached the valve during reassembly we made a tracing of the welded-on valve mounting bracket for use on Snowzilla. We used the tracing and Scott’s plasma cutter to cut out the bracket. The 90º angled cuts at the lower right corner of the bracket (below) are where it fits over one of the Tucker’s 2” x 2” square tube frame members. It’s welded along both of those straight segments.



The six-way blade project requires an in-cab method of controlling the hydraulic functions of the blade. We located and purchased (after a fairly extensive search) a used 6-way valve at a heavy equipment salvage yard. The valve was from a John Deere bulldozer and unsurprisingly it had a lot of use over the years. That means the linkage mechanism was worn and “sloppy”. Scott and I wanted to tighten it up and eliminate a lot of the play in the various points of movement The T-handle itself inserts through a machined hole in a linkage mechanism casting, and both the handle’s steel shaft and the hole itself were worn significantly. A previous owner had installed a thin bushing to take up some of the slop, but it too was badly worn. We removed the worn out bushing and pressed in a new one made from SAE 841 powdered metal bronze and a grade 8 bolt for the shaft repair. Here’s a photo of the old bushing and the section we removed from the T-handle. I put the items on graph paper so you could get an idea of the wear.

Scott cut the head off the bolt and then cut the shaft to the proper length for the bolt. He then used an angle grinder to bevel the shaft to a point on about a 45º angle. He clamped the bolt and the handle’s shaft into a piece of 90º angle as a fixture, and he TiG welded them together - completely filling in the beveled area. A little grinding and sanding later and voila…a repaired T-handle! I took the linkage components home for media blasting and priming. The inside diameter of the newly installed bushing required a little sanding with fine sandpaper to very slightly enlarge it for proper clearance with the repaired T-handle. The clearance between the handle and the bushing is necessary as the tilt function of the blade is actuated by rotating the T-handle. (Pulling the handle back raises the blade, pushing forward lowers the blade and moving the T-handle side to side angles the blade left or right accordingly.)




Scott cut the head off the bolt and then cut the shaft to the proper length for the bolt. He then used an angle grinder to bevel the shaft to a point on about a 45º angle. He clamped the bolt and the handle’s shaft into a piece of 90º angle as a fixture, and he TiG welded them together - completely filling in the beveled area. A little grinding and sanding later and voila…a repaired T-handle! I took the linkage components home for media blasting and priming. The inside diameter of the newly installed bushing required a little sanding with fine sandpaper to very slightly enlarge it for proper clearance with the repaired T-handle. The clearance between the handle and the bushing is necessary as the tilt function of the blade is actuated by rotating the T-handle. (Pulling the handle back raises the blade, pushing forward lowers the blade and moving the T-handle side to side angles the blade left or right accordingly.)




The rest of the linkage assembly is held together with roll pins (also called spring pins). Some fit tightly - if no movement is desired, while others fit tightly on one linkage component and loosely on the other; to allow for movement.

Unfortunately on many component interfaces the loose fit was too loose or "sloppy". So we sourced all new roll pins with some slightly larger ones (metric dimensions). Our plan is to replace all the roll pins, and in some locations, drill out the various components to use the larger roll pins. When finished, the linkage mechanism should be a lot tighter; hopefully like new!

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

The basic six-way blade setup on Tuckers of this vintage is pretty similar. A 1600 series machine has longer tracks than either a 1500 or 1300 series machine, and the blade must be positioned further in front accordingly. Tucker accomplishes this by using a longer A frame from the axle mounted frame to the blade. Surprisingly to us, it’s not really a new design for the application, but rather they essentially take a 1500 series frame and lengthen it 13”, and they install a center support member on which to install the fitting for the hydraulic lift cylinder. (That extra member is necessary to maintain the lift cylinder’s geometry.) Here’s a photo of a 1500 series frame. Note where the lift cylinder attaches in front. Note also how the frame uses pins for attachment in the rear. (That issue will be discussed later.)



Here’s a 1600 series frame. Note the additional frame member where the lift cylinder attaches in front. You can also see the rear of that frame and how Tucker lengthened it.



Snowzilla left the factory with a Warn 8,000 lb winch positioned in front, and slightly below, the lower front grille. On a machine with a front blade, that spot is used by the axle mounted frame (see the first photo in this post), so we would have a conflict if we used the factory axle mounted frame configuration. We decided to construct the axle mounted frame longer, to position the lift cylinder bracket in front of the winch. Coincidentally that distance of 13” is exactly the length difference of the the 1500 series A frame when compared with a 1600 series A frame. So we built the A frame like a 1500 series, but we added the additional center support member because we felt it would be beneficial in transferring the forces from the blade to the Tucker when plowing. The blade itself will be the same distance in front of the machine as it is with the factory design.

I’ve mentioned this previously, but I think it’s worthwhile to say again, while Scott has no formal engineering education, his more than 40 years as a welder and fabricator have given him a tremendous amount of real world experience in seeing what works and what doesn’t. He has many customers bring in various items for repair that he has to fix, and often in addition to repairing the damage, he ends up adding reinforcement so it won’t break again. For example, last winter a customer brought in a pretty darn stout trailer (25 ton capacity, three axles, each with dual wheels) used to transport paving equipment. Though the load was less than what the trailer was rated for, the way they loaded the trailer (placement of the weight) literally broke the frame in several places. Scott had to remove the front axle assembly and cut off the axle mounting brackets for access, and then still cut parts of the frame apart to repair the cracks (plural) in the frame, and then add additional frame members of his own design for reinforcement. This was not some home-made, scabbed together trailer, either. It was made by a large and well known heavy equipment trailer manufacturer. Presumably it had been carefully designed and engineered, yet it failed without being overloaded.

Scott felt strongly the Tucker design was overbuilt by a significant factor, and could be lightened somewhat, yet still have more than adequate strength. The factory A frame design used 3” x 2” rectangular tubing with a wall thickness of 1/4”. We used the same tube with a thinner wall of 3/16”, which should be 25% lighter in weight.

Here’s a photo of our frame in a partially finished state. If you look closely on the frame you’ll see some small arrows made with a soapstone. When you weld steel it typically causes the steel to shrink. Scott measured the frame for squareness and accuracy after tacking the pieces together prior to fully welding them. He wanted to strategically plan his welds to make the shrinkage work in our favor dimensionally, and so he marked the steel by the welds with arrows to indicate the optimal direction for each weld. It’s a small detail, and one most people wouldn’t bother with, but in our opinion it’s that attention to detail that separates the well done projects from the rest.




Not pictured is the sleeve in front of the rectangular tube with a little surface rust. That’s 4” x 3” rectangular tube (1/4" wall thickness) and Tucker basically welds a section of heavy wall steel tube vertically at the end with a hole for a 1” bolt, which is what the front blade pivots about when the angle function is used. A very good friend of mine back in Vermont is machining the steel tube for us. He’s going to use higher carbon steel than Tucker used, which will be more resistant to wear. Hinge points like lubrication to prevent wear, and to make the hinge action smooth. I’m sure Tucker lubricated the bolt during the assembly process, but if one subsequently wants to re grease it, you would have to remove the bolt to do so. We thought it made sense to drill a hole radially from the outside into the center bore and thread the outside of the hole to add a grease zerk. Not difficult, not time consuming, not expensive, but worthwhile; and one of those little “details” I mentioned above.

 

[sno-drifter]

Nice work BFT. Many do not take the time or know how to do it right. It pays off in the end and leaves a nice signature of your work. Those who want to skip steps get the reward of doing it over again. Thank you for taking the time to share your work and knowledge.

 

[Blackfoot Tucker]

Nice work BFT. Many do not take the time or know how to do it right. It pays off in the end and leaves a nice signature of your work. Those who want to skip steps get the reward of doing it over again. Thank you for taking the time to share your work and knowledge.

Thanks for the kind words. Truthfully, Scott is the brains and talent in our duo, and I'm the guy with the bonehead ideas. He is also one of the genuinely nicest guys I know.

 

[sno-drifter]

I wood be suspect with a name like that? But seriously, I just call em like I see um. The ideas are precious and to do the follow through is also an important element.