John Deere Green, with a chainlink twist.

Update on my John Deere 314 project.
My brother bought a 4 wheeler that came with a plow, so he lent me his blade. Got it all mounted up just fine.



Even tried it out!



There's a big low spot right there that always turns into a giant puddle. The tractor worked pretty good, still need to do some tuning on the carb it seems. After about 15 minutes of work though, I think I busted the bolt I installed in the drive line. Quit moving and had no hydraulics. Got to pull the pan up and check the bolt. In the meantime I picked up this,



So I can mount it at the same time I pull the pan back off to see what happened with the drive line.

AND! Finally went over to my brothers neighbor and settled on a price for some more attachements. I bought a tiller and a blower from him and he threw in a deck for free. The deck is REALLY rough though so I might not end up using it. Not sure what kind of shape the tiller and blower are in but for the price he asked I really don't care as long as they are complete. Looks like I should have everything I need except the belt director box that hangs under the front of the tractor when you want to use the deck.

A few days later :

Went to our local CAL ranch store. Getting real sick of their crappy hardware selection, and on top of that it hasn't been cleaned, sorted, or RESTOCKED in several months so all of the stuff you would normally need is out of stock. AND- No frickin pens to write down your parts. Almost tempted to go pay the higher prices at Fastenal. *sigh*

Anyways, here's what I finally came up with based on the limited selection they had. Just took an allen bolt and turned down the end, and reused the original set screw on the other side. Seems to be a lot more solid.





Got it installed and loctited, set the pan on with some new bolts, and installed the new seat. Again, CAL ranch didn't have the right stuff so I had to improvise a bit, but it is bolted down and not moving.

Now for the fun stuff. Couldn't bring myself to pay the price for a used steering wheel, and mainly didn't want to wait a week to get it so I sat down this afternoon with some scraps and this is what I came up with.

Wrap some old chain around a 5 gallon bucket and tack weld it.



Note- it WILL melt bits of the bucket...

WELD the back side.



Fabricate some spokes.



Attach spokes to wheel.





Improvise alignment tool to get wheel "pretty darn" straight, and tack weld.





Weld it, sand blast it, and wire wheel it.



Slap a coat of paint on it and Bob's your uncle!



You can see where the square piece busted out the center of the plastic wheel. I reused that on the new one- and its pretty much just an interference fit inside the square tube at the center of the new wheel. Might eventually weld it, we'll see how it lasts.

Installed.





Ran it around pushing dirt / gravel, seemed to work great. Steering wheel is solid, seat is comfy, and I even gouged the blade in hard a time or two and the driveline didn't break! (knock on wood)

Now to get the deck, tiller, and snow thrower down here.

Dan's Chariot #10- Trailer in MOTION!

Time to get 'er done.

Fender mounts.





Spent some time polishing off all the nasty beads you get when using a flux core wire feed welder.





Frame "done", ready for assembly so testing can commence!



Install basket.





Install foot pan.



Install seat.



Install belts.



Make yet ANOTHER axle... and install it. The smaller rod above the axle is an interference fit, holds the axle in there nice and tight. It can be removed with a hammer and a punch sorta easily if I want to change the axle later.


Assembled!







Trailer hitch.





Ready to go.



Will definitely need a fender on the back wheel.



Turns pretty sharp before the tire rubs on the tongue!



And for your viewing enjoyment, some video. Please excuse my skinny butt...



Really close now!  Need to dig my bike out so I can hook it up to a bike that doesn't have parts falling off of it every 30 feet or so (this is a "school" bike - and has had dozens of 12 year olds working on it...).  Still need to make a caster attachment, but other than that, barring any failures during testing, I think the hard parts done!

Dans Chariot #9 - Tying up loose ends.

I've been chipping away here and there over the last couple of weeks, so here's an update.

Made the inner fender covers. They're a bit bigger so we can be sure that Dan can't get his fingers caught in the wheel.







Got it all fit up to the rest of the fender just to see how it was all going to work.





Getting the holes for the axle to align was a bit of a challenge...

Bought some thing plastic sheet off of ebay to extend the outside and top of the fenders. Cut it out and bent it up.



Removed the outer cover to punch a few more holes in the back,



and put it all together.







Back to some more framework- finishing up a few of the modifications. Cut a couple of chunks out of a lawnmower handlebar, welded them together, cut 'em down, and tacked them into place. This is the bar that their basket will mount to so they can carry misc. junk.



I've been going back and forth about how to do this next part for at least a month. It's go time. I decided to just use a standard bicycle head tube and handlebars for a couple of reasons- 1st, its pretty much built, and 2nd, it's very easy to adjust or change styles of handle bars. Simple is nice. Now the chariot can double as an ultra cool stroller!







Still have lots of cleanup to do, but you get the idea.

Even managed to start on the fender mounting brackets.





Once I get the axle in, I can match the holes I made in the fender, drill the brackets, bolt the fender on, and figure out where the upper bracket needs to go.

Getting closer... My list is getting shorter.