After people see the prices for snowmobiles in the store, they ask how to make a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor, how expensive and difficult is it? How does the manufacture of homemade products begin - a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor? First you need to determine how much engine power to use. We used a 6 horsepower motoblock engine as an engine. Usually, four-stroke engines with forced air or water cooling are installed on walk-behind tractors.
You can also use a reverse gear, centrifugal clutch, steering and fuel tank from a walk-behind tractor. Next, you need to think about the propulsion of the snowmobile. Most of them are fitted with a caterpillar drive.
The best homemade - a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor
In the manufacture of a home-made snowmobile, tracks from other snowmobiles are used for it, or home-made ones assembled from improvised materials. After choosing a track, you need to decide what type of suspension to use. You need to choose from two main types: suspension on rollers and skid suspension.
Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages. After that, it is important to decide what kind of layout the snowmobile will have. Typically, a snowmobile is equipped with two steering skis in front and a caterpillar block in the back.
The engine can be mounted either at the rear or at the front of the snowmobile.
How to make a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor
This snowmobile can be made in a few weekends in the country in the garage. At first glance, its design looks very simple. If we compare its patency in wet or loose snow, it will not yield to many industrial-made snowmobiles.
The creation of a snowmobile proceeded from the principle: the smaller the weight and the larger the size of the caterpillar, the higher its cross-country ability in deep and loose snow. Therefore, the design will be as light as possible.
How to make a homemade snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor on tracks
Four wheels are installed inside the caterpillar. When movement occurs, they roll along the conveyor belt, with fixed lugs. The caterpillar drive is carried out by a chain from the motor, special drive sprockets, through the driven shaft. They were taken from Buran.
The engine is taken from a conventional walk-behind tractor, the power of which is 6 hp. You can't accelerate quickly on it. The soft suspension of the ski and track was removed, because the snowmobile is intended for driving on loose snow. This design was simplified and the weight of the snowmobile was reduced.
Making caterpillars for a snowmobile
Consider the process of making a caterpillar. Plastic water pipe 40 mm, cut to 470 mm long. Of these, blanks for lugs will be made. After that, each of them is sawn lengthwise into equal parts with a circular saw.
Grousers are fastened with furniture bolts to the conveyor belt. When a track is being made, it is extremely important to keep the same distance between the lugs. Otherwise, there will be a "running" on the teeth of the drive sprocket, as a result of which the caterpillar will slip and slide off the rollers.
To drill holes for mounting bolts in the conveyor belt, a jig was made. To drill holes, a wood drill with a special sharpening was used.
This jig allows six holes to be drilled simultaneously in the conveyor belt to attach three track lugs. Also, drive sprockets (2 pcs), an inflatable rubber wheel (4 pcs), sealed bearings No. 205 (2 pcs) were purchased.
The turner made the support for the bearings and the caterpillar drive shaft. The frame of the snowmobile is self-made. For this, square pipes 25x25 mm were used. The articulated axes of rotation of the steering wheel and skis are in the same plane and on the same line, so a continuous tie rod without ball tips was used.
Ski turn bushings are quite easy to make. A water coupling is welded onto the front cross beam of the frame, the internal thread of which is 3/4 inch. There are screwed pipes with external threads. I welded bipods of ski racks and tie rods to them. Corners are installed on the skis, which serve as an attachment to the snowmobile's turntable. A metal undercut is made from below in order to better control the snowmobile while driving on packed snow or crust.
Chain tension adjustable by motor displacement
Driving a snowmobile is quite simple. To increase the engine speed, use the throttle, which is located on the steering wheel. This engages the automatic centrifugal clutch, causing the snowmobile to move forward. Since the engine power is small, the speed of the snowmobile is 10-15 km/h. Therefore, no brakes are provided. To stop you need to slow down the engine.
Caterpillars are made in any width. Choose what is more convenient to do: a narrow but long caterpillar, or a wide but short one. It is important to remember that a larger track will put more stress on the engine and make it harder to steer the snowmobile. If the caterpillar is made small, then the car can fail in deep snow.
The weight of the snowmobile with all parts turned out to be 76 kg. It included: steering wheel and engine (25 kg), skis (5 kg), wheels with axles (9 kg), drive shaft (7 kg), caterpillar (9 kg), seat with racks (6 kg).
You can reduce the weight of some parts. For a snowmobile of this size with a track, the weight is quite satisfactory.
Characteristics of the resulting homemade snowmobile
frame length 2000 mm;
track width 470 mm;
between axial distance of basic skating rinks of 1070 mm.