Articulated Tractors

[Terrywerm]

This post is primarily for the benefit of Daveyscrap, but it may be helpful to others as well. In a thread within the Upper Mississippi Hobby Machinists group (a group within the Member Groups area of this site) Daveyscrap indicated that he was having some trouble setting up the center joints for an articulated tractor that he is building from two separate lawn tractors. To assist him, I created a couple of drawings for him, but was unable to attach them to the group thread, thus the new thread here.

The two drawings are done as PDF files and are attached here. Enjoy!

View attachment Two pin articulation.pdf Shows basic layout of pins, u-joints, pivots, etc., on full sized equipment.
View attachment Heim joint articulation.pdf Shows a method for pivot and articulation on small equipment by using heim (ball) joints.

 

[daveyscrap]

Thank you terry those look awesome I was thinking about the option of allowing the rear axle to pivot but sounds like it may be hard to do because the frame that the diff is mounted in is a cradle that bolts to frame. Sorry it took so long I didn't see the link at bottom