Do-it-yourself caterpillars for a car or a tank from Niva and UAZ. what is the cost of remodeling? Homemade snowmobile on caterpillar tracks with your own hands Homemade caterpillar for a snowmobile from a conveyor belt

Figure 1. Drawing diagram of a homemade snowmobile

I attached the lugs to the conveyor belt with two 6 mm furniture bolts with a large semicircular head. When making a caterpillar, it is very important to maintain the same distance between the lugs, otherwise they will “run” onto the teeth of the drive sprockets and the caterpillar will begin to slip and slide off the rollers.

Figure 2. Plastic pipe cutting device:
1. wooden block;
2. plastic pipe;
3. metal corner.

To drill holes in the conveyor belt for 6 mm mounting bolts, a jig was made. The holes in the tape were drilled using a wood drill with a special sharpening.

Using such a jig, you can drill 6 holes in the conveyor belt at once for attaching three caterpillar lugs.

At the store I purchased four inflatable rubber wheels from a garden cart, two drive sprockets from a Buran snowmobile and two sealed bearings No. 205 for the caterpillar drive shaft.

I asked a turner to make the drive shaft of the caterpillar and supports for the bearings. I made the snowmobile frame myself from 25x25 mm square pipes.

Since the axes of the ski and steering hinges are on the same line and in the same plane, you can use a continuous tie rod without ball ends.

Ski turning bushings are easy to make. I welded 3/4″ female plumbing couplers to the front cross member of the frame. I screwed in pipes with external threads into them, to which I welded the bipod of the steering rod and ski racks.

I recommend using skis from the Argomak children's snow scooter. They are lighter and more flexible, but they need to be equipped with corners for attaching to the snowmobile's rotating stand and a metal undercut at the bottom - for better control of the snowmobile when moving on crusty or compacted snow.

The chain tension is adjusted by moving the motor.

Driving a snowmobile is very easy. When the engine speed increases with the throttle handle located on the steering wheel, the automatic centrifugal clutch is engaged and the snowmobile begins to move. Since the estimated speed of the snowmobile is low (only about 10-15 km/h) and depends on the density of the snow, the snowmobile is not equipped with brakes. It is enough to reduce the engine speed and the snowmobile stops.

I’ll share a few tips that may be useful when repeating this design.

1. I cut the pipe for the tracks lengthwise using a hand-held circular saw for wood, first on one side, then on the other. This makes it smoother than cutting both walls at once. It is more convenient to process small workpieces. If you immediately cut a long pipe lengthwise, then the plastic will melt and the saw blade will jam.

2. Caterpillars can be made of any width. And each designer has the right to choose what is more convenient for him: to make a wide but short track or a narrow and long one. Just remember that with a large caterpillar the snowmobile will be difficult to control and the engine will be more loaded, and with a small one it may fail in loose deep snow.

3. Some of my photos show that there are plastic “barrels” installed inside the caterpillar. These are guide stops for the slide, which should prevent the caterpillar from sliding off the rollers. But during the operation of the snowmobile, the caterpillar did not slide off the rollers even without slipping, so “barrels” can not be installed, which will reduce the weight of the snowmobile.

4. At the end of winter, I completely disassembled the snowmobile to determine its weight. The weight of its individual nodes turned out to be as follows:

• caterpillar - 9 kg;
• drive shaft assembly - 7 kg;
• two pairs of wheels with axles - 9 kg;
• engine and steering wheel - 25 kg; pair of skis -5 kg;
• frame - 15 kg;
• double seat with posts - 6 kg.

In total, everything together weighs 76 kg.

The weight of some parts can be further reduced. Nevertheless, the weight indicator for a snowmobile with a track of this size is quite satisfactory.

The geometric dimensions of my snowmobile are as follows: snowmobile frame length - 2 m; distance between the axes of support wheels (rollers) - 107 cm; caterpillar width - 47 cm. The pitch of the caterpillar lugs depends on the thickness conveyor belt and it must be selected experimentally (I got 93 mm).

I do not provide exact dimensions and drawings of the snowmobile parts, since anyone who plans to repeat the design will be guided by those parts and components that they can purchase or manufacture on their own.

The photo shows the stages of manufacturing a snowmobile according to the above diagrams and drawings:

1. Blanks for the lugs of the future caterpillar.
2. Special drive sprocket from the Buran snowmobile.
3. Homemade track drive shaft with sprockets installed for the chain and track.
4. A jig for drilling holes in the conveyor belt.
5. Track rollers with axles and mounting brackets to the snowmobile frame.
6. The drive shaft of the track is driven from the engine by a chain from the motorcycle.
7. Snowmobile frame with drive shaft and track rollers.
8. Ski turning control mechanism.
9. On this snowmobile I installed plastic skis from Chinese children's sleds. But the plastic from which they were made turned out to be very fragile and by the end of winter one of the skis broke.
10. Skis from the Argomak snow scooter with an installed undercut (skate) and mounting angles for installation on a snowmobile.
11. Ski turning bushings. It's very simple: no bearings. You just need to apply lubricant to the threads, and long term service is provided. In addition, by screwing in or out the pipes, you can change the ground clearance of the snowmobile.
12. The axle of the front wheels (caterpillar rollers) is fixedly attached to the frame, and the axle of the rear wheels-rollers can be moved by rotating the bolt to regulate the tension of the track.

How to make a snowmobile on tracks: photo for article

Do-it-yourself homemade snowmobile: photo

1 piece handmade felt homemade fabric flowers craft feltro…

Real SUVs have high cross-country ability (I mean, not city SUVs). However, their cross-country ability is often limited, and it’s understandable that this is not a tank “in the flesh.” For example, on snowy slopes or swampy meadows, such a car is no longer effective. We have to resort to tractors and all-terrain vehicles on tracks, but tuning does not stand still, but develops by leaps and bounds, so in just an hour you can put your jeep, even a UAZ or NIVA, on tracks, removing the wheels, thus we increase the cross-country ability many times over...

The effectiveness of tracks has long been proven, but converting a car to such a chassis would mean a deep modernization of the suspension, which is very expensive and not always possible. Therefore, we needed tracks that would sit in the standard places of the wheels, practically on standard hubs, without deep technical changes. And you know, such options have existed for a long time! Moreover, you can remake almost any car, but of course it is more effective to remake frame jeeps or off-road vehicles with high cross-country ability, such as our NIVA.

Design principle

Nowadays they sell blocks for all four wheels of a car; we simply remove the standard wheels, screw on special adapters to the hubs and put on the tracks.

No, they are not big, but correspond exactly to the size of your car, they simply fit into standard wheel arches, there are options even for cars, although this is a little absurd.

The design is also simple, there is a triangular metal powerful frame, with five (sometimes more) pairs of rollers at the bottom and one large one at the top. On which a caterpillar made using a special technology is put on (many will say it looks like rubber), but this is not entirely true, wear resistance and elasticity are on high level, they remain soft even at sub-zero temperatures. Of course, no one will tell you the composition of the material.

A standard wheel hub is installed in the upper “large” roller and placed on a rigid coupling, so the rotating hub will transmit the rotation of the entire structure, and here you have the all-terrain vehicle ready. The big advantage is that you can turn the steering wheel like on a regular car with wheels, and when you need to, you just remove the tracks and put on regular wheels.

Track sizes

Of course, many are now interested in the sizes. So I want to quickly go over them. I personally will take the option for our cars, for example, for the NIVA, since it is in greater demand.

Width – ranges from 320 mm to 450 mm

Height – about 700 mm

Length – approximately 1000 mm.

Weight – 80 – 100 kg.

From the side it resembles a triangle, and therefore will fit into any wheel arch.

Manufacturers

To be fair, it is worth noting that they were developed in the USA, and only after that they were distributed throughout the world. Now several dozen, and maybe hundreds of companies around the world, including Russia, are doing this.

If we take imported options, then the most famous of all is the company – Mattracks, this is one of the founders of the production of such “skating rinks”. True, their prices are steep; for the price of a set you can buy a Russian car.

If we take domestic manufacturers, then here we can highlight Chelyabinsk, it is there that rollers for NIVU, UAZ, etc. are produced. The cost is several times lower than that of foreign analogues.

Main advantages

The advantages are obvious - improved cross-country ability. And also an increase. Deep snow in the fields, swamps of small swamps, and simply “well” washed out roads become easy obstacles. If we take into account what these tracks were originally developed for, it was to overcome deep snow, they were made for rescuers on mountain roads where ordinary SUVs simply cannot pass. What can I say, the caterpillars have proven themselves only from the best side.

For example, watch a video where a NIVA easily passes through deep snow and turns around “calmly”.

Changing shoes from regular wheels does not require any changes in the suspension design; you can remove the wheels with your own hands and hang the tracks in literally 1 hour. Moreover, if you need to return the wheels back, an hour and they are there. This adds a very big plus.

Cons

Of course, there are also disadvantages, where would we be without them. The first, but obviously one of the most important, is application on asphalt roads - here you need to withstand special speed limit, almost all manufacturers recommend moving at a speed of no more than 40 km/h, otherwise the caterpillar itself will wear out very quickly, you will simply throw it away.

The second is that it is difficult, and I would even say impossible, for such “skating rinks” to overcome a fallen tree, not even significant at 10–15 cm in height; ordinary SUV wheels would simply run over it, but the tracks would not.

Third, this is a fairly high price, although I will dwell on this in more detail.

Price

Needless to say, this is a very expensive pleasure. Taking it for fun and “rides” across snow-covered fields is not entirely rational.

Foreign analogues cost from $3,500 to $10,500. What is now at the exchange rate is approximately from 230 to 700,000 rubles!

Domestic producers keep amounts from 100 to 250,000 rubles.

Prices depend on your vehicle (the larger, the more expensive), load, track width, etc.

Can I do it myself?

YES of course you can, why not! After all, they are also produced by people. However, you will need to do technical research, calculate the load, and weld the triangle. Look for rollers and the canvas itself (many people also make old rubber). As you can see, not everything is so simple - although it should be noted that it is feasible.

Many lovers of homemade equipment are engaged in the development and manufacture of all-terrain vehicles using crawler.

A variety of solutions are used to bring ideas to life, but the biggest problem for enthusiasts of this type of transport has been and remains the tracks. Of course, no one forbids using factory-made propulsors in your samples, but you want an all-terrain vehicle (or snowmobile) made by yourself to have both homemade caterpillars. Let's look at some methods for making tracks that have shown fairly good performance.

The simplest option

A caterpillar propulsion system for snowmobiles and light all-terrain vehicles can be made on the basis of an ordinary bushing-roller chain and conveyor belt. To make such a caterpillar, there is no need to have special tools or equipment; everything is done “on the knee”.

Transport tape caterpillar

To extend the service life of the tape, it is advisable to sew its edges with fishing line in increments of about a centimeter (just as seamstresses do overcasting the edges of fabric), this will protect the tape from fraying. Connecting the tape into a ring can be done in any available way, for example, using a hinge like a piano loop, or sewing the ends of the tape (a less reliable method).

The thickness of the tape should be selected based on engine power. When using engines from domestically produced motorcycles, good results shows a tape with a thickness of 8 - 10 millimeters, which is used on agricultural conveyors.

Despite the ease of manufacture, such a homemade snowmobile track has a decent service life and is also easy to repair if necessary.

Tire tracks

It is quite common among DIYers to make tracks from car tires. For this purpose, tires from trucks, preferably with a suitable tread pattern (there will be less work with the tire in the future).

Tire caterpillar

To make such a caterpillar, it is necessary to cut out the beads from the tire, leaving only the treadmill. This work is quite labor-intensive and requires a lot of patience, since the only tools used are a well-sharpened shoe knife.

To simplify the work, you can wet the blade in a soap solution from time to time, then the rubber will be cut more easily. As an option, you can consider using homemade cutting devices, or use a jigsaw on which a file with a fine tooth is attached (it is also better to moisten the file with soapy water).

First, the beads are cut off from the tire, then, if necessary, excess layers are removed from the underside of the resulting ring (if the track is too hard). After this, if the tread pattern does not meet the requirements of the designer, it is cut new structure lugs.

A homemade caterpillar made from a tire has an undoubted advantage over the model described above, since it has an initially closed circuit, which means its reliability will be many times higher. The downside is the limited width of the finished track, but if necessary, you can use a double and triple-width option.

Belt tracks

An attractive option because of its relative simplicity is to make a caterpillar with your own hands.

Belts with a wedge-shaped profile are connected into a single unit using lugs attached to the belts using rivets or screws.

Thus, you get a caterpillar track with already existing holes for the drive sprocket (for this you only need to leave gaps between the belts).

There are many ways to make caterpillars - the main thing is to have desire and patience, and then everything will work out.

After people see the prices for snowmobiles in a store, they ask the question of how to make a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor yourself, how expensive and difficult is it? How do you start making a homemade snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor? First you need to determine what engine power to use. We used a 6 walk-behind tractor engine as an engine. horsepower. Usually installed on walk-behind tractors four stroke engines with forced air or water cooling.

From a walk-behind tractor you can also use a reverse gearbox, a centrifugal clutch, steering And fuel tank. Next, you need to think about the snowmobile's propulsion system. Most of them are equipped with a caterpillar drive.

The best homemade products - a snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor

When making a homemade snowmobile, they use tracks from other snowmobiles, or homemade ones assembled from scrap materials. After choosing a track, you need to decide what type of suspension to use. You need to choose from two main types: roller suspension and skid suspension.

Each of them has both advantages and disadvantages. After this, it is important to decide what kind of layout the snowmobile will have. Typically, a snowmobile is equipped with two steering skis at the front and a track block at the rear.

The engine can be installed either at the rear or at the front of the snowmobile.

How to make your own snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor

This snowmobile can be made in a few weekends at the dacha in the garage. At first glance, its design looks very simple. If we compare its cross-country ability in wet or loose snow, it will not be inferior to many industrially produced snowmobiles.

The creation of a snowmobile was based on the principle: the lighter 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 track. When movement occurs, they roll along a 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 with a power of 6 hp. You won't be able to accelerate quickly on it. The soft ski and track suspension have been removed because the sled is designed to ride on powder. This simplified the design and reduced the weight of the snowmobile.

Making tracks for a snowmobile

Let's look at the process of making a caterpillar. Plastic water pipe 40 mm, cut to length 470 mm. Blanks for lugs will be made from them. After which each of them is sawn lengthwise into equal parts with a circular saw.

The lugs are attached with furniture bolts to the conveyor belt. When making a track, it is extremely important to maintain 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 the mounting bolts in the conveyor belt, a jig was made. To drill the holes, a wood drill with a special sharpening was used.

This jig allows six holes to be drilled simultaneously into the conveyor belt to attach three track lugs. Drive sprockets (2 pcs), an inflatable rubber wheel (4 pcs), sealed bearings No. 205 (2 pcs) were also purchased.

The turner made a support for the bearings and the drive shaft of the track. The snowmobile frame is made independently. 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 steering rod without ball ends.

Ski turning bushings are quite easy to make. A plumbing coupling with a 3/4-inch internal thread is welded onto the front cross member of the frame. The pipes with external threads are screwed in there. I welded the bipod of the ski rack and steering rod to them. Angles are installed on the skis, which serve as an attachment to the snowmobile's rotating stand. A metal undercut is made at the bottom to better control the snowmobile while driving on compacted snow or crust.

Chain tension is adjusted by motor offset

Driving a snowmobile is quite simple. To increase engine speed, use the gas handle, which is located on the steering wheel. This engages the automatic centrifugal clutch, causing the snowmobile to move. Since the engine power is low, the speed of the snowmobile is 10-15 km/h. Therefore, brakes are not provided. To stop you need to reduce the engine speed.

Caterpillars are manufactured in any width. Choose what is more convenient to make: a narrow but long track, or a wide but short one. It is important to remember that a larger track will put more strain on the engine and make the snowmobile more difficult to control. If the caterpillar is made small, the car may fall through in deep snow.

The weight of the snowmobile with all parts was 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 this size of a snowmobile with a caterpillar, the weight indicator is quite satisfactory.

Characteristics of the resulting homemade snowmobile

frame length 2000 mm;
track width 470 mm;
the axial distance of the support rollers is 1070 mm.

Homemade snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor video

As soon as winter begins in our country, given the climate, two-wheeled vehicles are put away in the garage until spring. It may be impossible to use a car for transportation due to heavy snow. And here, a snowmobile on tracks, which you can make from a walk-behind tractor with your own hands, comes to the aid of all motorists who want to move along a snowy road.

Not everyone has the opportunity to buy an additional vehicle, but everyone can independently construct a homemade tracked snowmobile from a walk-behind tractor.

Advantages and features of a homemade snowmobile

• The vehicle has a mechanical drive and a tracked walk-behind tractor, when driving which you will not get stuck in snowdrifts.
• Control occurs through skis, and steering system is located in front, so you can easily control it.
• Price when buying this or that vehicle important. Therefore, if you do the math, the cost of making a snowmobile yourself will be five times lower than buying it from the manufacturer. And it will be even cheaper due to the available walk-behind tractor and other parts.
• Reliability – where a person cannot pass and a car cannot pass, the snowmobile will overcome all obstacles with ease.
• If a snowmobile is made by hand, then the designer is very careful in choosing parts. By doing everything yourself, you are responsible for the quality of your design. In addition, by paying great attention to the components of the mechanism, you make the snowmobile all-terrain.

Construction of a homemade motoblock snowmobile

This is a sought-after invention that you can make yourself if you have quality parts. The walk-behind tractor is taken partially (separate parts) or used completely. If you decide not to use it fully equipped, it is necessary to weld a supporting frame onto it with rear axle, steering fork and wheels. The most difficult stage in this case is the transformation of the working shaft of the walk-behind tractor into a drive gear.

The most practical and universal solution in the manufacture of a self-propelled vehicle would be to use parts from a walk-behind tractor. You only need to remove the steering fork and engine from the finished walk-behind tractor.

The motor can be located at the rear of the structure.

Before you start self-made designs, draw a drawing, assemble all required material, prepare the tool, and you can get started. The design is quite simple and anyone can handle it; technical education and any skills are not required.

If you have not graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and find it difficult to draw up a drawing, use ours.

Drawing of a simple frame for a homemade snowmobile

The drawing shows the frame that you will need when making a snowmobile.

Homemade walk-behind tractor tracked snowmobile– this is the main part due to which your vehicle will move.

If everything is done correctly according to the drawing, you will get a snowmobile based on a gooseneck.

Drawing of a snowmobile frame on tracks

Making a snowmobile on caterpillar tracks with your own hands

Before starting work, decide on the tool. We can say with 100% certainty that you will need: various screwdrivers, a hammer, welding, a pipe bender (if you don’t have a ready-made frame).

Before preparing a drawing for making your own snowmobile, familiarize yourself with the standard configuration.

1. Frame. Every snowmobile has a frame: the more complex the design, the more reliable and stronger the frame should be. The best option– take from an ATV, scooter or motorcycle. If you don’t have such a part, you can weld it yourself from pipes with a diameter of at least 40 mm.
2. Seat. The seat on the snowmobile must be durable, since the structure itself is quite low.

Mandatory condition: the seat must be made of waterproof material.

1. Engine. When choosing an engine, pay attention to its power. If you want a powerful snowmobile, then the engine should be like this.
2. Tank. A container with a volume of 10-15 liters, made of metal, is perfect for a fuel tank.
3. Skis. If you don’t have ready-made skis that can be adapted for a snowmobile, you can make them yourself from wood. It is better if it is at least nine-layer plywood.
4. Steering wheel. When choosing a steering wheel, think about your comfort. It is best if it is borrowed from a two-wheeled unit.
5. Caterpillars. Making the tracks is perhaps the most difficult part of the entire self-propelled vehicle.
6. Drive. In order for the tracks to rotate, you will need a drive - it is best in this case to use a chain from a motorcycle.

Frame

If you don’t have a ready-made frame, it can be easily welded from a profile pipe and shaped using a pipe bender.

If you cannot make calculations and draw up a drawing yourself, then use the drawing from our website as an example.

Once the frame is assembled, treat it with an anti-corrosion compound and cover it with high-quality paint that will withstand both moisture and frost.

Caterpillars

Everyone who has previously designed a caterpillar walk-behind tractor on their own notes: making tracks is the most difficult process in a homemade project.

The easiest way to construct them is from car tires. This option is the most advantageous - high quality and low budget. The part is manufactured in a closed circle, so a tire rupture cannot occur.

Snowmobile tracks made from tires

Instructions for making caterpillars:

• From a car tire: take the tire and cut off the beads (it’s better to do this with a sharp knife). You need to cut so that the flexible part with the protector remains.