123 dozer conversion

[William Adams]

More photos:
My (modified) bender.

Rear fender tie-in point/stiffener

Front attachment point.

 

[William Adams]

Just a couple detail photos here of the mostly-finished ROPS.

A bit of finish welding and some grinding but it's on and solid. I had some concerns about scale, that it would look too big. I made it as small as I could and still be functional. I think it looks okay and is as strong as can be. I'm surprised at how rigid it is. More on this later....

 

[William Adams]

50° out! Took advantage of the break in the weather to do some painting. I also did all the finish welding on the ROPS while it was off. I think I'll make a run to ACE this morning and get some more paint....

 

[William Adams]

Lots to report...
I took the starter/generator off and took it all apart for a close look. The short story is that the bearings are fine and the brushes were pretty good. I'd say they had some life left in them at 50% or more remaining. I swapped them out for new ones and kept the old just in case. I also cleaned up the armature with Emory cloth to smooth it out. It turns out that the problem with the starter was some seriously rusty and corroded washers on the generator posts. I sanded them off and chased the threads on the posts. Once I put it all back together it worked 100% better for starting and also charges a bit better as well. Same old story. Always start with the basics.
I spent some time making a three (4?) Point hitch so we will have a subsoiler to work on our new garden plot. After a couple of days of head-scratching I've got a basic setup.

As usual, I built myself into a pretty tight spot back there. The geometry is actually pretty complex so it took a bit of putzing to get things (mostly) the way I wanted.

I took it out back where the frost is going out and gave it a try. I wanted enough tooth rake so the point would pull itself in without more than gravity. It dove right in down to about 6" or so. Once it hit the frost it wouldn't go any deeper but it seems to work as intended so far. Should be able to break up some pretty hard ground enough to get a tiller to work it.

My welder isn't up to the job of doing anything much past quarter inch steel so I made the subsoiler hollow. I used a bunch is short scrap square tubing to get the skeleton shape, then skinned the frame with 1/8"x4" flat stock that I bent to shape. I doubt the brute has enough torque or traction to break it. We'll see...
Now it's wait for a weather window for testing in a more serious way. In the meantime I've got a whole laundry list of bits and things to putz with.

 

[William Adams]

Fun with fenders!
Having a good time messing with some fender extensions.

It's a little difficult to see the shape in the photos because of the glare. These will get a bottom welded in, then a hatch to make tool boxes/gloveboxes...
I'm out of welding wire...
Off to Fleet Farm...

 

[William Adams]

Hey all,
I try to dab on a bit of a progress report as often as I can even with my mental schedule around here. I have been working a bit on the fender modifications.

I welded in some bottom pans for the fenders to stiffen them up and make toolboxes.

I cut a hatch access into the left fender. Not sure yet how I want to deal with hinges and latch. It'll come to me...

Here's the mostly completed right side fender. Of course, as it was done second, I'm happier with the fit and finish. Now to massage the left one a bit more.

 

[gary noblit]

William ,I'm admiring your work immensely but.....but don't forget the zero turn drink holder.An engineering marvel if both hands are in use...

 

[PACub100]

William ,I'm admiring your work immensely but.....but don't forget the zero turn drink holder.An engineering marvel if both hands are in use...

 

[Ron symington]

Good job

 

[William Adams]

Gary,
Brilliant! Although I'd never advocate drinking and driving, anyone who's seen the thread could only come to the conclusion that there is plenty of that going on during planning and construction.....

 

[William Adams]

Not much progress to report I'm afraid. The spring honey-do's are in full bloom and early indications are that it appears to be a seasonal bumper crop.
As to testing: the boy has had it out torturing both the machine and driveway and has been coming back with good reports. He's learning the fine art of grading and back-blading and has managed to get the driveway/quagmire into passable shape. A big change from years past when it more closely resembled a jeep trail for a couple of weeks as the frost goes out.

 

[William Adams]

It's finally warm enough to do a bit of painting. I got both fenders and hatches finished. I found the cam latches at my local RV joint. I didn't want keys for these

Right side

Rear.
I still need to find some weatherstrip but should wait a few days for the paint to fully cure first. The job makes a good "10 footer". Any closer and the mistakes start to show. But after all, it's a bulldozer. Not a Bentley....

 

[William Adams]

A couple of detail photos. I had to work around a few things back there. Not to mention, figuring out how to be able to get at the fasteners. Most are accessed from inside the toolboxes. One is gotten at from underneath and two more on the top rear of the fenders.

The blue color is powder coat from the shelves I made the fenders from. I only removed it where I needed to for welding.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. I think they match the rest of the square-ish design better while also adding a bit of storage to boot. As long as you don't get too close. I didn't use any filler on them. It defines the difference between "good"....and "good enough".

 

[William Adams]

Details, details.....

The new front pivot/plow mount. Sort of speaks for itself...

Limit switch circuits to control the front winch. As the winch that raises and lowers the blade has enough power to tear the pulleys and parts into knots (Don't ask me how we know that. Successful test!) some form of limit switches are necessary to reduce the carnage potential. The principle is simple: the winch is controlled in up/down using relays, one for up. Another for down. It stands to reason that if you put a switch somewhere that shuts off power to the relay coil, every time it gets to that point in travel, it'll stop the winch. Since there are separate relays for up and down, killing the "up" circuit will leave power to the "down" circuit. Letting the blade down will re-energize the "up" circuit and so forth. For my limit switches, I'm currently trying motorcycle stop light switches. These are open in the "rest" mode. Pulling them out makes the circuit closed. So to work, they should remain closed (pulled out) until the blade gets to it's travel limit. At that point, the switches go to open, killing power to the solenoid. Etc, etc. I'll post a schematic if anyone is bored enough to be interested.

Here's the quick-disconnect for the "down/float" limit switch.

Here's the up limit switch. The blade arm goes down, pulling out on the switch and closing the circuit. When the blade arm goes up to its top travel, the switch goes to rest, opening the circuit and killing the up relay solenoid.

Here's the down/float limit switch. The float mechanism is discussed elsewhere.

I've tested the whole dogpatch system with a multimeter and right now it's working fine. I'm highly suspicious of the quality of these switches though, and will likely find some that are a bit more robust. I have a different solenoid control in the mail for the front (blade) winch and will hook up the limit switches as soon as I get that mounted up.

For the rear winch/3-point lift, there will only be one limit switch. That'll be for the "up" travel. Since the implements we'll be using are diverse, we'll just have to moderate our use for down travel. The rear circuit will be the opposite, electrically speaking. It'll use a normally open momentary switch that closes at the upper limit, turning on a 5-pole relay that will then interrupt power to the up solenoid. I'll explain in more detail when I get that all slammed together.....

 

[Mark Evans]

Your work reminds me of three Farm boys and an old Kentucky Woodsman I was at in Skaggs Island US Navy communication intelligence base in 1975 Oct. we used to sit around the bar in between pool and darts and it was right on the San Andreas Fault line we used to talk about designs and I used to draw out a motorcycle I called BossHoss and the guys from Kentucky was running around with a guy named Rutan and another guy name Fossett They would only stay in the unlisted men’s club they would spend a few weekends every two months at Skaggs found out years later they was from area 51 and Rutan always had great big O sideburns bigger than Roy Clark and Elvis Presley‘s found out only one guy could tell him to shave he wouldn’t talk to him and on them drawings them guys used to give me their ideas about how to build something and I draw out the boss Hoss we had a pretty well engineered I drew it all out on a receipt and sold the dream for a dollar, told him it would make him rich, and he had to be a witness to things unseen, he said if it’s going to make me rich he buy all the drinks, well in October 75 he decided to buy all the drinks signed the receipt and we had a witness notarize it there in the bar she was drinking, we closed the bar down and by daybreak it cost him 2300.00 for the six of us to drink all night on the back two pages of the receipt of that boss Hoss motorcycle in two different versions three wheel and two wheeled, and then an old style steel spoked wheeled, flat head model on the last page I put two pictures on the outlines of the stealth bomber, and Stealth fighter one year before the military and Intell. Got the design handed to them, your drive to build a dozer to fit your needs reminds me of Fossit and his constant fixing it to look right, SIR I really like your dozer set up !!!! Mark D. (Ol Hoss) Evans !!!!

 

[William Adams]

Mark,
Thanks for that. A great story! In 75 I was at my first duty station, Ft Carson.
People ask me what I've done in my own life. Hah. I just answer that one can tell they've lived well if you tell them what you've done and they don't believe you.
A few of the many projects/adventures:
Porsche 917 clone I found in Iowa. Running a full tube frame I built, Dino (Fiat Abarth) 1.8 liter DOHC through a VW 6 rib van tranny. Right hand drive.

Highly modified Pro-Street VW type 3 with mucho custom bodywork. All steel.

54 Chevy taillights. Karman Ghia decklid grill. Custom front and rear rollpans. Shaved vents.

Long wheelbase dune buggy with mid engine full tube frame and suspension.

Side project. Built this 73 beetle rat rod and drove it for a couple years as my DD.

The guy I was building for likes monster motors. Stupidly large and unreliable type 1 engine. I don't really like monster motors.

And on...and on....Oh yeah...and bulldozers...I guess...

 

[Mark Evans]

Mark,
Thanks for that. A great story! In 75 I was at my first duty station, Ft Carson.
People ask me what I've done in my own life. Hah. I just answer that one can tell they've lived well if you tell them what you've done and they don't believe you.
A few of the many projects/adventures:
Porsche 917 clone I found in Iowa. Running a full tube frame I built, Dino (Fiat Abarth) 1.8 liter DOHC through a VW 6 rib van tranny. Right hand drive.
View attachment 148601

View attachment 148602

Highly modified Pro-Street VW type 3 with mucho custom bodywork. All steel.
View attachment 148603

54 Chevy taillights. Karman Ghia decklid grill. Custom front and rear rollpans. Shaved vents.
View attachment 148604

Long wheelbase dune buggy with mid engine full tube frame and suspension.
View attachment 148605

Side project. Built this 73 beetle rat rod and drove it for a couple years as my DD.
View attachment 148606

The guy I was building for likes monster motors. Stupidly large and unreliable type 1 engine. I don't really like monster motors.
View attachment 148607

And on...and on....Oh yeah...and bulldozers...I guess...

Every one a real Diamond any really finished well, I like them SIR !!!!!

 

[William Adams]

Finished the welding/fabrication on the johnny bucket:

Sits flat for backing into the pile.

Now the weird 3 point hitch geometry makes a little more sense...
When you raise it all the way up, it dumps the bucket. My father in law has some 18 gauge metal sheets I can have. Next time we get over there, I'll grab it and weld it in...

 

[William Adams]

 

[William Adams]

Alive! Alive! My creature is alive!
It's working better than I could have hoped. Will and I are making a switchback trail up to momma's beehives on the steep hill behind the house. Still plenty of frost in spots but it digs like a badger otherwise. Will is learning the subtlety of pushing dirt. The limit switches are a huge help. In the off camber terrain it's much easier to concentrate on the job without worrying about the winch position...