Machine Builders Network+ Forums Machine Builders Network Skid Steer / Attachment Builds Articulated Tractor FEL from Scratch

All the axle troubles have been going on for awhile. When I first started using the machine, I had truck mud tires on it. I got stuck pretty easily. Because of this I put lock rite lockers into the front and back axles.

Very shortly after that I broke the from axle universal. This was several years ago and may be documented in the original site post above. Anyway I decided to make the axles solid. I also replaced the locker in the front with a limited slip. I kept the locker in the back. Because the machine makes a much tighter turn than a regular truck, the locker in the back would make the whole loader jump when it's teeth indexed. It sounded terrible, but nothing ever broke till this event.

Earlier this year I put the truck mud tires on my SxS and the heavy mud tires on the loader. The traction on the machine is awesome with the new tires. It's very rough on the yard now though.

With this rebuild I am taking the locker out and putting the open differential back in. I am going to loose a lot of traction, but I hope that it will still be good enough with the limited slip in the front and one wheel drive in the back. The tread on the tires is 2.5" deep so it is basically like a tractor tire. I have a real tractor now also so if it gets stuck I have something to pull it out with.

Heres the new tires.



It's a shame we lost the threads on the old site. I had 1.6 million views on the old site, and that was with the counter stopping working with several years.

More to come