Hi all,
It's been awhile since I took the 2:1 reducer off the Cletrac, so thought I'd update.
I just came in from moving some dirt. Dug out around a big rock, leveled some fill, and track packed a bank.
What an amazing tractor! It's behaving beautifully, and the IXB engine I swapped has loads of power. It's the coolest little tractor to run. With a small muffler, and an amazing governor, it just purrs, adjusting to whatever load.
I'm packing some banks around a fill area, and with the engine at moderate rpm, back over the bank, brake to stop, let the clutch out and it just powers right up about a 45 degree bank. No sweat, no fuss.
Same with digging.....I push until the tracks slip with no strain at all. The Anderson dozer blade is a dream, too, especially with the tilt.
The only problem I have is that I was unable to get all the rebuild parts for the blade valve, and it sags at a moderate rate. A little annoying, but I'll look into fixing it up later.
Anyway, I'm sold on the IXB....no need for the reducer the way it's running. Seems to me I recall Landis Zimmerman mentioning that very same fact when I inquired about it years ago.
Well, I'm a happy dude. Too bad it's dark!
Mike
Mike, glad to hear that its going good and your happy with it. Can you post some pictures of the Anderson dozer blade? I want to take the loader off my oc3 and build a blade modeled after the Anderson,
every one talks well about them it must be good.
Ron
I'm with ya' buddy!
Got sunburned today just doing a little scraping around the house.
I too, have that problem of the blade drifting down. I replaced the cylinders, some months back; and that helped a lot, but there must be something in the valve assy that's leaking by.
If you come up with a rebuild kit or something, let me know. My valve appears to be Anderson.
Got a small job tomorrow, a few miles up the road , pushing out Sumacs and Forsythia Bushes.....and get this:
THEY ARE GOING TO PAY ME MONEY !!! WOOO HOOOOO!!
Can ya' believe it??
Take care, Jim
Most of those valves have selective fit of the spool and the housing. It might be better in the long run to get something like a Gresen SP valve with float on the first spool. They are a good simple valvve and float is escential for a blade. I would also add "Power Beyond" in case you want to do something like add ripper teeth or run a log splitter.
Mike,
Can you refresh my memory. Did the reducer not work? I am curious since I am about to set up an underdrive in mine using the model A transmission. I will also be rebuilding an IXB so should have good power. Are you saying the underdrive is not necessary? Mine has a dozer that I plan to use for light road work.
Thanks,
Jim Leap
Yes, I made a chain reduction to fit in between the bell housing and tranny. It worked, but was noisy, probably due to the fact that the chains were very short.
The reducer was a fixed 2:1 ratio, so there was no selection available. The reduction was too much in that I frequently needed to use 2nd or 3rd in the course of using the dozer. Since the ratio was fixed, this also meant that reverse was always half speed.
I was a little concerned with using higher (and weaker) gears for heavy pushing, although I don't know for a fact if this would have been a problem. The biggest reason I took it off was the whining noise, the second was that reverse was too slow most of the time.
The model A tranny will give you an option of not using it's reduction, so no matter what, I guess it would be a good thing. Plus, of course, you could have a similar option for reverse.
I made the reducer because my only experience was with the now apparent, weak old engine. It required high rpm's and therefore high speed, in order to have any power. The new, fresh engine has an amazing amount of power at fairly low rpm's. This coupled with the governor that really starts putting the gas to it when it starts to slow down allows me to operate at a reasonable speed. It's really a smooth operation.
As it stands now, I don't feel the need to pursue the reduction with the transmission or anything else. I think that I'd only do it if I really needed to go slow for some reason.....pulling a trencher or planting or something.....don't know what would require it.
You should probably get some input from people who have the model A tranny on a strong engine. The only drawback that I could see is maybe wanting to use the reduction going forward, then wanting to shift gears for backing up at a better speed. You'd have to double shift at each change of direction. The way I use mine, I'm changing direction a lot, but am quite comfortable with the way it is now.
I've been doing some road work, too, and really have been happy with the ability of the the little guy to push.
Hope this helps. Mike
Mike,
Thanks for the response. The information you have presented is giving me second thoughts about the model A underdrive idea. I really like the idea of keeping things simple, and keeping costs down. I would love to hear from anyone on the list who has experience and/or opinions one way or the other on this topic.
Thanks,
Jim
QuoteGot a small job tomorrow, a few miles up the road , pushing out Sumacs and Forsythia Bushes.....and get this:
THEY ARE GOING TO PAY ME MONEY !!! WOOO HOOOOO!!
Can ya' believe it??
Take care, Jim
Jim, this is just not right! You know YOU should be paying THEM for having so much fun! It would not be right for you to do that job without explaining this to them. Make sure you apologize to them for making them think that they had to pay YOU for having so much fun;)