Narrow front axles

[hamishs]

We're looking at building a machine to cart and spread shingle on some bike tracks our club has been building. The digger we're using is 1500 wide so we're keen to make something that is a bit narrower (around 1300-1400mm wide).

It's going to have to be 4WD as we're carting up and down hill, and the only way to get around the corners on the track will be 4 wheel steering.

First thoughts were to use a couple of Suzuki LJ50 front ends (1295mm wide?). The only problem is that there doesn't seem to be many of these for sale. Does anyone know of other narrow 4WD's out there which we can grab running gear from?

We could mess around shortening drive shafts etc but I was thinking that a couple of live axles would be easier to mount onto our frame...

cheers

Hamish (Mountainbike Otago)

[niblik]

what about a quad bike fella?

[vvilly]

what about RN series hiluxs they are roughly 100mm narrower that LN/KZN diffs but use the same head

[juz]

Hamish have you used these before? Thought you had,they seem cheap enough.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farming-industry/Industrial/Earthmoving-machinery/Diggers-excavators/auction-346380709.htm

[hamishs]

Hamish have you used these before? Thought you had,they seem cheap enough.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farming-industry/Industrial/Earthmoving-machinery/Diggers-excavators/auction-346380709.htm

Fore sure! We've got a small tracked dumper which carries 500kg. It's worth its weight in gold when it comes to steep and narrow tracks. The only problem with the dumper is that it's slow and it also rips up the track a bit on the corners (skid steer).

The track we're working on at the mo is 6km long and we need to move around 500 ton of donated road millings. We can hire a larger dumper but they're still pretty slow. Wheels will get the job done a lot faster then tracks, esp on the return trip when you're running empty.

Keen to make something that will carry 1-1.5 ton. The track is smooth and not too steep so we figured that 4WD running gear should hold up ok.

[hamishs]

what about a quad bike fella?

That was one of the first things that we looked at - a bin on the front and back of a quadbike. I don't think we'd get more then a couple of hundred kg each end though. We've got 500kg to spread over a 6km track (then more tracks to do) so we're keen to carry 1-1.5 ton/trip.

We borrowed a bottom dumping trailer off a local contractor which carries about 800kg and that works ok but the quadbike is really struggling on the bits where we have to go uphill. We also have to back up on quite a few of the tight corners, and turning around is a mission...

So the thought was to build our own bottom dumping bin with it's own wheels and motor - that way the weight is on the driving wheels and we can just go up and down the track without turning around. No vehicles will turn tight enough, but we'd halve the turning radius if we use 2 front ends (4 wheel steering).

We could try using quadbike bits but if we're going to go to the effort I'd rather find some narrow 4WD axles and make it bullet-proof.

[KIWI_TERRANO]

Polaries ranger??

there fast 4wd and have good turning circles

[hamishs]

what about RN series hiluxs they are roughly 100mm narrower that LN/KZN diffs but use the same head

Ummm - I just googled RN Hiluxs and came up with

Axle width:
73-78 ~ 53"
79-83 ~ 55"
84-88 ~ 57"
89-95 ~ 58.5"
95-04 ~ 60"

53" = 1346mm so pretty narrow. Gotta add tyre width to that as well I guess...

[vvilly]

what about RN series hiluxs they are roughly 100mm narrower that LN/KZN diffs but use the same head

Ummm - I just googled RN Hiluxs and came up with

Axle width:
73-78 ~ 53"
79-83 ~ 55"
84-88 ~ 57"
89-95 ~ 58.5"
95-04 ~ 60"

53" = 1346mm so pretty narrow. Gotta add tyre width to that as well I guess...

true change the rim offset and wont be too much further

[hamishs]

Polaries ranger??

there fast 4wd and have good turning circles

I looked up the Polaris site and their 800 6x6 is rated for 900kg which is pretty crazy. Width is just over 1500 and I guess it will turn about as tight as a quadbike.

It would be workable but it's bloody expensive. There's a second hand one of trademe for $13k. We could buy a Suzuki carry for quite a bit less, but they don't turn tight enough.