How to make tracks from a car tire. Methods for making homemade caterpillars with your own hands. From belts and chains

57212 10/08/2019 7 min.

Owners of walk-behind tractors are increasingly going to all sorts of homemade products various components for this unit.

As a result we get attachments, made with your own hands, transforming a walk-behind tractor into a more powerful one, by installing a new engine, as well as many different modifications and additions.

Of course, all this is not due to a good life, because most owners of a walk-behind tractor strive not only to save on its purchase, but also to reduce the costs of its further operation.

In particular, many want to make homemade tracks for walk-behind tractors, thereby wanting to improve the cross-country ability of their units.

The resulting walk-behind tractor on tracks will perform a slightly different role in a person’s personal household, because it is already becoming a full-fledged vehicle, somewhat reminiscent of a crawler tractor.

Accordingly, a much wider scope of work opens up before him, which largely justifies this kind of independent alteration.

About the device

Tracked walk-behind tractors are much less common than their wheeled counterparts. The explanation for this is quite clear - wheeled walk-behind tractors Cayman, Patriot, Texas, Foreman, Crosser, Viking, Forza are more suitable for plowing land, i.e. its design is most suitable for working on the ground.

Thus, all conversions of a wheeled walk-behind tractor into a tracked walk-behind tractor involve the additional attachment of one wheel on each side. As a result, we get a 4-wheeled walk-behind tractor, on which you can already put on tracks (homemade or store-bought, for example, Buran caterpillar).

By the way, additional wheels can be made removable so that you can quickly turn it back into a standard walk-behind tractor for working in the garden. This can be achieved by attaching these wheels to an axle that we already have in stock, through a flexible or rigid transmission.

This solution is the most appropriate, because there is no need to weld additional fasteners.

As for the design of such walk-behind tractors, they are completely identical to wheeled walk-behind tractors:

  • Engine. Tracked models use a more powerful 4-stroke engine, which has an axle locking function.

    This is important because it allows the crawler to turn in place without making a full circle to turn.

  • Transmission. Gearbox, gearbox and clutch system - this standard set is also included in the design of tracked walk-behind tractors.
  • Chassis. Here, in principle, everything is clear from the name - the design uses tracks instead of a wheelbase. As already mentioned, in the case of alteration, one roll is added to the existing pair of wheels on each side, on which a homemade caterpillar is already put on.
  • Controls. They are located on the control handle, including various clutch levers, emergency stop engine, etc.

Before we begin to describe the method of making tracks yourself, it would not hurt to evaluate the offer of some special stores that sell walk-behind tractors and related materials. In particular, we will estimate the cost of some types of tracks for well-known walk-behind tractors.

Snowmobile attachments for the Neva walk-behind tractor

Thus, the tracks for the Neva walk-behind tractor, the price of which is about 28 thousand rubles, is a full-fledged snowmobile attachment. Seats for drivers can be purchased separately, thanks to which the Neva walk-behind tractor becomes similar to a mini tracked tractor, albeit with lower performance indicators.

Technical data:

  • developed speed (with Neva walk-behind tractor) – about 18 km/h;
  • total weight of the console – 37 kg;
  • length – 100 cm;
  • width – 60 cm;
  • height – 34 cm;
  • number of passengers – one driver and one passenger.

More details about track drive for the Neva walk-behind tractor, look at the video:

In addition, an attachment to a walk-behind tractor on tracks is available for sale, designed for attachment to the Agat and Salyut models. Its cost is 25-27 thousand rubles. In this design there is no possibility of attaching a driver's seat, which somewhat limits the possibilities of this device.

However, it is quite suitable for off-road and snowy driving. Snowmobile attachments on tracks to walk-behind tractors are quite common, which shows quite a large number of various models in online stores.

Their distinctive feature is the ability to control them not only with two hands, following the walk-behind tractor, but also while sitting in a folding sled, which, however, must be purchased separately.

Considering that the average price for such attachments is about 30 thousand rubles (plus the price of folding sleds is about 5 thousand rubles), we can say that making tracks yourself is a fairly optimal solution for those who do not have the opportunity to spend extra cash for purchase.

Necessary materials

As mentioned earlier, to transform the wheeled walk-behind tractors Sadko, Don, Huter, Profi, Plowman, Champion, Carver, Husqvarna into a tracked one, you will need quite powerful engine with axial locking.

Power is important because such a walk-behind tractor will be used on a fairly complex surface, the maneuverability of which requires additional technical data.

To summarize a little, we can highlight the main materials that we will need:

  • The presence of the walk-behind tractor itself with a gearbox with a powerful 4-stroke engine with axle locking.
  • A couple of extra wheels so you can pull the track on them.
  • The homemade caterpillar itself, made from available materials.
  • Depending on what material will be used in manufacturing, we may need two large car tires, or transport tape.

Using these materials you can make a fully functional crawler walk-behind tractor.

At the same time, you can make a full-fledged mini tractor on tracks if you add an additional cargo platform, or use it as an all-terrain vehicle in the snow by adding a platform on skids. In general, there is complete scope for imagination.

Step-by-step instruction

Many people ask the question - how to make tracks on a walk-behind tractor with your own hands? To answer this question, let's look at a few effective ways self-made tracks proven in practice.

From transport tape to increase the cross-country ability of an all-terrain vehicle

One of the most simple methods It is considered the manufacture of a caterpillar from a transport belt using a bushing-roller chain. The ease lies in the fact that to make them you do not need to use a large number of tools and aids.

To extend the service life of our transport tape in the device of a caterpillar walk-behind tractor, you can stitch it along the edges with fishing line, observing a step of 10 mm. To connect the tape into the ring we need, you can stitch it along the ends, or use a hinge.

Particular attention should be paid to the thickness of the transport belt, because it directly depends on the degree of load on the unit. The optimal choice would be a tape with a thickness of at least 7 mm. In addition, we need to take care of an additional wheel on each side.

You can take it from an old car, but remember that the diameter must be identical to the wheel on the walk-behind tractor.

Tracked module made from a tire

Caterpillars made from tires for walk-behind tractors are also a fairly common homemade product, characterized by a highly reliable design. However, in order for the resulting crawler walk-behind tractor to be practical, you need to take care of finding the right car tires.

Owners farms are increasingly resorting to purchasing special technical devices- grain crushers, with the help of which you can process raw materials, thus preparing feed for food yourself. By following the link you will learn how to make a grain crusher from washing machine with your own hands.

On the domestic market of agricultural machinery there are various options cultivators not only of Russian, but also foreign production. The Mantis cultivator is a reliable and practical technique that will last for decades.

Recently, small-sized agricultural machinery has become very popular, allowing them to do the same work as their “big brothers”, but at the same time they cost an order of magnitude less. everything about various types and characteristics of mini grain harvesters.

In particular, they must have the necessary tread pattern, preferably from tractors or large machines. The tread pattern is very important because it acts as a lug and also increases the track's grip on the surface.

Let's divide the manufacturing process into several steps:

  • Having found suitable tires, we need to cut a track out of them for the tracks. This is quite a labor-intensive job that will take a lot of time.
  • For cutting, you can use a well-sharpened shoe knife, which needs to be moistened from time to time. soapy solution– this will help cut rubber better.
  • You also need to cut both sidewalls off the tires. To simplify the process, the sidewall can be cut using electric jigsaw with fine teeth.
  • If necessary, remove excess parts from inside the tire. This manipulation must be performed if the track is too hard from the inside.

The advantage of this method is that there is no need to connect it into a ring, because the tire already has a closed structure. This increases the reliability of such tracks, which is quite important under heavy load conditions.

However, such tracks are obtained in a rather limited length - exactly the length of a car tire.

How to make a homemade caterpillar from belts and chains

All-terrain vehicles on tracks from a walk-behind tractor can be made using the most ordinary belts with a wedge-shaped profile. The belts are connected to each other by means of a lug, attached to the belts using rivets or screws.

Another way is to make a track from chains of the same size. Many summer residents have similar material in bulk in their garages, which simplifies the search process. The entire manufacturing process comes down to the following points:

  • Take two chains of the same size.
  • The last links of these chains must be opened and then connected into a closed ring.
  • Next, we clamp the links and weld them.

The chains are fastened to each other using lugs, which can be made from ordinary steel plates of the required thickness. They are connected to the chain using bolts.

Motoblock on Buran tracks

If you do not want to make caterpillars yourself, you can borrow one from old technology. For example, a walk-behind tractor on Buran tracks performs quite well.

It is advisable to use old part, because the new Buranovskaya caterpillar will be quite expensive, and the goal of such alterations is maximum cost savings.

Additional tips and warnings for making your own goose

Before you start making a homemade caterpillar, you need to clearly understand its necessary parameters. The fact is that if a very high caterpillar is manufactured, the center of gravity of the walk-behind tractor itself will be changed, which will inevitably lead to certain problems when turning, i.e. the unit will fall on its side.

To avoid this, the second driven axis needs to be increased by a few centimeters. You can also slightly expand the wheelbase of your existing walk-behind tractor. To do this, you can purchase a bushing in a special store, and then install it on the drive shaft.

In addition to the engine power requirements, it is worth paying attention to its cooling system. The fact is that air cooling does not cope very well under high loads, which leads to significant overheating of the motor.

Thus, it is better to give preference to a water-cooled engine, which shows more stable performance.

Conclusion

Attaching tracks to a walk-behind tractor allows you to significantly increase the cross-country ability of this device. This leads to an increase in the range of potential jobs that the resulting walk-behind tractor can handle. In other words, the tracked base in some positions outperforms the conventional wheelbase.

However, such a modification of the walk-behind tractor is not suitable for all owners of these units. First of all, we're talking about about the special requirements for the engine used, which must have sufficient power.

As for the conversion process, they are quite possible at home, so this is a significant alternative to tracked attachments sold in stores, like many others

Many people involved in making homemade equipment, they are also developing crawler-mounted all-terrain vehicles and homemade tracks for a walk-behind tractor. When bringing this idea to life, people use a variety of solutions. But making tracks remains a big problem for fans of this type of transport.

After all, if an all-terrain vehicle or snowmobile is made with your own hands, then the tracks must be homemade.

How to make homemade tracks on a walk-behind tractor

Here we will look at several ways to make tracks with your own hands, with good performance characteristics.

The simplest version of homemade caterpillars

For light all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles, tracks can be made from a conveyor belt and a bushing-roller chain. To make such a track, you don’t have to own special tool, everything can be done “on your knees”.

To extend the service life of the tape, it is necessary to stitch it along the edges with fishing line, observing a step of 1 centimeter, which will protect the tape from fraying. To connect the ribbon into a ring, you can sew the ribbon at the ends, or use a hinge.


When choosing the thickness of the tape, you should proceed from the engine power. If you use engines from domestic motorcycles, it is enough to take a tape 8-10 mm thick, used on conveyors in agriculture.

This DIY snowmobile track has a good service life and can be easily repaired if necessary.

Homemade caterpillar for motorized towing vehicle

It is very common among DIYers to make tracks using car tires. To do this, select tires that have a suitable tread pattern, from trucks.

To make such a caterpillar, you need to cut out the sides from the tire and leave the treadmill. This is quite a labor-intensive job that requires a lot of patience, because the tool used is a sharpened shoe knife.


To make the work easier, from time to time the knife blade can be moistened in a soap solution to cut the rubber faster. One option is to use a homemade cutting jig, or use a jigsaw with a fine-tooth file.

After cutting off the sides, if the track is too hard, you can remove the extra layers of rubber inside the resulting ring. If the tread pattern is not suitable for the conditions of use, then cut new structure lugs.

The undoubted advantage of a homemade caterpillar made from a tire over a caterpillar made from a transport belt is that it is initially a closed loop, and therefore reliable. The disadvantage of this caterpillar is the limited width of the workpiece, which can be corrected by using a double-width option.

Belt tracks

This version of making a caterpillar is attractive for its relative simplicity.
To do this, you need to connect belts with wedge-shaped profiles into one whole with screws or rivets, using lugs attached to the belts.


To make holes for the drive sprocket in such a track, you need to make gaps between the belts.
You can find many ways to make caterpillars with your own hands - the main thing is to have patience, desire and perseverance - then everything will work out.

The best homemade walk-behind tractors on tracks photo

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This cheerful caterpillar made from a tire with your own hands will decorate not only the playground, but also garden plot. After all, every owner of a house or cottage wants to make his piece of land cozy and different from others.

Those who have unlimited finances resort to help landscape designers, which are constructing decorative pond, alpine coaster, fountains and other exterior elements.

But you can create no less beautiful things with your own hands, using seemingly waste materials - plastic bottles And car tires. Craftsmen easily turn them into wonderful garden furniture and delightful flower beds, swimming pools and fairy-tale heroes, in elephants, giraffes, frogs, etc.

All you need to make a tire craft is patience. sharp knife, brushes and paints.

The tires selected for the job must be clean and dry to prevent the paint from peeling.

Making a caterpillar that kids love and makes adults smile is very easy. First, the tires are painted in bright colors, and when they dry, they dig into the ground using one of the proposed options given below.

Flirty caterpillar in a Panama hat

Scared caterpillar with cute spring horns

Tires can be dug in at the same level or at different levels, i.e. the first and all odd ones - to a shallower depth, the second and even ones - deeper.

Face design

There are also several options for this:

  • it can be drawn on plywood, giving it a funny shape and attaching it to the front of the first tire;
  • secured on both sides to the side holes of the first tire using self-tapping screws;
  • create using for eyes plastic caps or wheels from a children's car.

Making antennae

Springs and wire, plastic pipes and bottles are suitable for antennae. You can decorate the craft by attaching a flower to your head.

Coloring

As a rule, the caterpillar is painted green and green-yellow. The antennae are made yellow, and the eye color is made according to desire or available material.

The process of creating crafts from tires is much simpler and cheaper than from metal or wood, and their service life is many times longer. The products are bright and exclusive. And to create it, neither material costs nor special professionalism are required.

  • It is recommended to dig in the tires close to each other so that if the child slides off, he cannot get hurt or get stuck between them;
  • There is no need to choose tires that are too bald to prevent your baby from slipping. If there are no others, they can be coated with glue before painting and sprinkled with sand, allowed to dry and then painted.

A simple option for making a caterpillar

Craft tools and materials

Depending on how long the caterpillar made from a tire will be with your own hands, stock up required quantity tires But, basically, four are enough.

In addition to tires you need:

  • a piece of wire and fiberboard;
  • paints: black, green, yellow and red;
  • tassels;
  • self-tapping screws;
  • jigsaw;
  • screwdriver

Tire selection

For this option, three tires of the same size and one tire of a smaller diameter for the head are enough.

Having finished with the choice of tires, they proceed to cutting out circles (2 pieces), which cover the holes in the head (smaller tire). This is done using a jigsaw. A funny face is subsequently drawn on the fiberboard. It is screwed to the tire with a screwdriver.

To make the antennae, we used aluminum wire coated with insulation. To secure them, drill into in the right place holes, thread wire through them and twist the ends.

After this, they move on to the longest task - painting the caterpillar from tires with their own hands. The tread is painted in grass color, and the sides are painted in bright yellow.

The head is painted the same color as the protector. On it, after the paint has dried, the face of the caterpillar is drawn.

All that’s left to do is dig the craft into the ground.

To do this, dig holes as deep as a spade bayonet. They put three tires in them, cover them with earth, and compact it well. The fourth tire with a painted muzzle is attached to the first “second floor”. You can see how it looks in the photo.

Looks like it turned out pretty good interesting craft! Such a nice caterpillar, installed on a playground, is well suited for children's fun.

Moreover, the children will not only enjoy playing with such a cute craft, but will also be able to relax after active games, comfortably sitting on the back of a good caterpillar.

Other tire crafts

In addition to it, on the site you can install a snowman of tires, a bunny, a car, a swing and many other crafts made from material that was doomed to be recycled, but has taken on a new life.

And, if a team of Smeshariki also appears, be sure that the guys will be delighted with their favorite cartoon characters.

Video: DIY tire caterpillar

To move most walk-behind tractors, conventional wheels are used. The throughput capacity of the device in such cases is extremely small. Fortunately, there are several good ways, allowing you to turn the walk-behind tractor into an all-terrain vehicle or snowmobile. To do this, it is enough to make homemade caterpillars.

Manufacturing methods and materials

When choosing material for a future caterpillar with your own hands, you should take into account the type of work for which they are intended. The product must not only be extremely durable, but also lightweight for comfortable work with the unit.

The first step is to install additional wheels on the walk-behind tractor so that there are a pair on each side. Future units will be mounted on them, the length of which will be the circumference of each wheel plus the distance between their axles, multiplied by two. All wheels must be the same diameter.

To the most popular raw materials for making caterpillars with your own hands include:

  1. Conveyor belts and bush-roller chain.
  2. Unnecessary car tires.
  3. Chains and belts.

Each method implies its own course of action.

Conveyor belt and chain

The method of manufacturing a unit from these materials, according to most, is the simplest. It does not require a large number of tools and materials. It is recommended to consider the following tips:

Tire construction

In addition to making a product from a transport belt, you can make a caterpillar from a tire with your own hands. Here you won’t have to stitch or hook anything together, since the tire already has a closed structure with a special clutch protector.

Conventional tires passenger cars won't fit. You need to find products for trucks or tractors that have a pronounced tread pattern.

The manufacturing procedure for such a unit can be divided into three main stages:

It is worth carefully studying the tread pattern. It must be clearly defined to maximize the throughput capacity of the walk-behind tractor by increasing the adhesion of the track to the surface.

Belts and chains

This method uses standard V-profile belts. They are attached to each other using rivets that are placed on them. Such a caterpillar is made from two pieces of identical chain and belts. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

Thus, you can get a durable and high-quality track made from belts and chains, made by yourself. This method is the most labor-intensive of all presented.

Track tracks

Tracks are the main part of any track. Fortunately, you don't have to buy them in specialty stores. They are quite easy to make yourself from various materials. The main thing that needs to be taken into account is the level of load that is planned to be placed on the walk-behind tractor. Tracks can be made from:

To make tracks from plastic pipes you will need water pipe No. 40. It is cut into pieces, the length of which is equal to the width of the caterpillar. After this, each such segment is cut lengthwise into two halves. It will help you deal with this a circular saw with a disk for cutting wood.

When all the tracks are ready, they can be attached to the main structure. For this, furniture bolts No. 6 and large hemispherical heads are used. With these bolts, each segment is attached to the structure itself.

Thus, we get an excellent relief track for a walk-behind tractor, allowing it to pass through difficult places even in winter.

A caterpillar made of wooden blocks is suitable for light loads, since the structural strength is not so great. To make a track from this material, you will need birch blocks of the same size and length equal to the width of the tracks.

The main advantage of caterpillars with wooden blocks the quality of tracks is the availability of materials, the lightness of the entire structure, as well as the ability to quickly make repairs.

It is not surprising that the most common and reliable are metal tracks for tracks, because their level of strength is quite high. Most often used metal pipes or a profile, which is cut into pieces of suitable length and attached to the track in the same way as was done in previous methods.

The main disadvantage of this design is large mass and difficulty of repair. If one of the tracks bends during operation, you will have to spend a lot of effort to replace it.

It is not so difficult to make a caterpillar for a walk-behind tractor with your own hands, although it takes quite a lot of time. It is important to treat the process with the utmost care and perform all calculations correctly. Also, it is necessary to evaluate the degree of load with which the walk-behind tractor operates and choose the most suitable materials for the product.