Recently, one of my mowing customers gave me a self-propelled walk mower, and, in order to gain more traction, I put spikes on the drive wheels. I do have more traction now, although, since it would just be a matter of time before I started tearing up sprinkler heads, I've decided to put crawler treads on my mower wheels.
Today, I went down to the local Tandy leather craft store, and purchased a leather belt strip. Then, I went to the Home Depot, and got some aluminum strap and angle, some bolts, nuts, and a drill bit.
What I have in mind is to use the belt in a continuous loop as my hinging material. I will use the aluminum angle on the inside to wrap around the wheels, thereby keeping the belt on track. I'll use the aluminum strap on the outside, to provide me with stiff sections, which will flex only at the hinges. I would have gotten aluminum U-channel, had it been available. I still would have needed the aluminum strap, though, to hold the leather down flat all the way to the edges of each section.
Well, I now am left with the task of hacksawing what for me is a fairly large amount of aluminum, although I have just made a realization which has now brought a smile to my face. The wheels of my mower are, of course, already traveling at a fairly low speed in relation to the crank. The wheels, in fact, have speed reduction gears inside of them. Well, if I fit the rear wheels into a V, and then set the front, drive, wheels onto a rotating drum, I could then bring the speed down even more.
What I am leading up to here is that I have decided to do a power-take-off from my mower's drive wheels, and then I will use it to build a power hacksaw for cutting the metal for the tracks. So, I guess that makes the power-take-off the next thing for me to do. I would appreciate any comments which might be made about this crawler project.
Mike Mandaville Austin, Texas