The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Modern day doodlebug tractor?

Got another waaaaayyyyyy off the wall idea today! How about building a doodlebug using somewhat modern technology? I've got a 51 GMC 1/2 ton frame and suspension sitting around doing nothing, an old vacuum shift 2-speed rear axle from the mid-1950's, and a 1-liter 3 cylinder GEO Metro engine and 3-speed automatic transmission, all just taking up space, plus various torque tube 3 speed transmissions. How about if I chop a couple of feet out of the frame, rigid-mount the big rear axle, and figure out how to couple up the GEO engine/trans assembly to it, with maybe a 3 speed manual box somewhere in the middle? The thing would probably climb trees!
Jerry

Built a bunch of them when I was a kid. If you got a use for it, go for it.
Start at the front. Put a radiator on, then mount the GEO engine and trans. Then close couple the 3 speed on to it and finally slide the rear axle up and close couple it to the trans. U-bolt the axle to the frame and cut off everything that hangs over the back.
Note: with dual trans, Reverse, reverse is the lowest gear usually.

what do you do with these things?

Have fun building them and then using them to pull a plow.

Don

Plow the garden, tow stuff, climb hills to the deer stand, pull a trailer back to the barn to process the deer, even mount a gin pole and a cable winch to lift heavy stuff to second-story level like the bar joists for my new shop addition. There's a lot of things an off-road low speed crawler can do! With a weight box full of scrap iron over military lug tires on dual 20" wheels, it will outpull a medium-sized farm tractor.
Jerry

Friend used one for years at his starter/generator shop to push dead ones up into his shop. Had a big wrecker size front bumper of redwood to prevent scratching. He remarked one day that as soon as he got them fixed to where the doodle bug wasn't needed the customers always took them away from him.

I'm also thinking about submitting a sealed bid on a M35 military truck and 2-wheel trailer a nearby city is auctioning. It's the old 6X6 10-wheeler with a 6 cylinder Continental multifuel Diesel and a big flatbed with stake sides and a good tarp. Handy to have on the farm, but a real fuel hog out on the road!
Jerry

Someday when I've worked my project list down to a sensible length, I want to get one of those big Military trucks. My neighbor, an Anesthesiologist during the day, has a deuce and half that he pulls out every couple weeks. During all the flooding we had this year, he was rescuing folks that couldn't get out of their subdivision. It's cool as heck. So my vote is for the M35. You can give the Mrs. a ride on all your local parades.

I think the challenge of making a doodlebug exclusively from residue and junk on hand would be a fun project.

Be careful with collecting big green trucks...it is an addiction worse then meth. Building my second one now...

Maybe I'd better check to see if that tarp cover doesn't leak- - - - -I might have to live in it if I buy it! I've already got a 61 GMC fire truck sitting out in the pasture!
Jerry

Jerry,
I've read a bunch of your posts and you definitely have the skills. I say go for it! We will all want to see pictures though.
Les

Decisions- - - - -decisions! I've got enough projects in mind to take me well past the century mark- - - -just gotta convince the old body to hang in there! Hotrodding and gunsmithing- - - - -when did I ever find time to work for a living?
Jerry

Darn, Jerry,
If I'd known you 40 years ago I could have put you onto a deal of a life time. My best friend has been in the unclaimed freight business most of his life and got a call to clean out the Heritage Arms manufacturing facility somewhere in the Denton Dr/Harry Hines area of Dallas. I went with him to help and since time was running out we only loaded what his small fork lift could handle. Left all the mills, lathes, and specialty machines to be hauled off by scrap dealers. I don't know the correct terminology but there were machines to bore gun barrels, ones to push (or draw) the rifling buttons through the barrels, stamping machines, you name it. We loaded pallet boxes of cylinders, hammers, barrels, frames, etc., which he then sold to various people as these didn't require any kind of licenses. I know nothing about the quality of Heritage Arms guns but it was a shame about the machines.

Heritage was a pretty low-bucks operation that produced fair-quality guns- - - -serviceable, but not fancy or collectible. The machinery, as I'm sure you know, is just as good or bad as the folks operating it and the quality control inspectors checking their work. My son-in-law started out at the new Remington plant in Huntsville Alabama as a machine operator, running a deep-hole drill and a CNC Bridgeport mill, and worked his way up to a tool room machinist's position in less than a year. He's light years better than me at programming CNC machinery, but I've still got him edged out at building one-off custom guns from scratch, especially muzzle loaders and super-accurate bolt actions. My son and grandson are both coming along well as custom gun builders and maintenance machinists and welders, plus being pretty good engine builders.
Jerry

Just had a better idea- - - -I remembered I've got a few Mercruiser 4-cylinder inboard/outboard engines stashed away, the same basic engine that was used in the 4-cylinder Chevy II back in the early 1960's. They have the same bellhousing bolt pattern as a small block V8, and/or a 230/250/292 6 cylinder.

That would simplify the installation of the basic engine/transmission assembly, maybe a Turbo 350? Then I could add a short 3-speed like one of the torque tube transmissions I've got sitting around, and couple that up to the 2-speed rear axle. Gears galore!
Jerry

now your talkin

Doodlebugs are very Handy, I use mine around the Salvage yard all the time to move stuff around. This is Junior my 33 Chevy Originally built by a farmer in South West, Missouri about 1953 and was used to cut hay up into the 70’s when the old motor spun a bearing and it was replaced with a tractor and moved to the fence row. Recovered and saved from the scrappers by the Sparta Possum Lodge and brought back up to a usable state. Junior has Two Four speed transmissions and a Two Speed Rear End which gives it a combination of 34 forward gears and 8 in reverse. The lowest combined ratio of these configurations if achieved by having both transmissions in reverse and the rear end in low range this gives the final drive a 372:1 ratio.
Here's pics of John driving it a couple years ago at the reunion. https://goo.gl/photos/j2ShHi4ZuTtoxpsR7 https://goo.gl/photos/6XvrwXXCA5zCN4c29

I started a group a few years ago for doodlebugs on Facebook take a look if your interested.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/DBTractor/

Mongo

Every house should have one ! I have fond memories of driving your one Mongo

How are the two transmissions linked up?
Jeffrey

Here's some pics of the second Transmission hookup.
https://goo.gl/photos/1ZMCP6ApVKVVV26d9

Doodlebugs... Chicks dig em.. https://goo.gl/photos/RciAMfLuEtipQ2Wp7

Pulling an old bush and tree out at the house... https://goo.gl/photos/bpVoQx9TrxHvPiJy5

Mongo