A motorized towing vehicle is an essential purchase in places where a car cannot pass - these are fields, forests, areas where there is deep snow most of the year. The advantage of this technique is that it has relatively small sizes, weighs little, can cope with various drifts, and also easily passes through hard to reach places. It is especially good to have a motorized towing vehicle for people who are interested in winter hunting, fishing, and also for transporting small-sized cargo and firewood. The device will be useful in winter and summer. You can buy a motorized dog in a store, however, if you don’t want to overpay, you can assemble it yourself.
What is a motorized dog for a walk-behind tractor?
The track attachment is represented by a module on which there is a seat for a person and a place for installing a walk-behind tractor. Instead of standard wheels, the walk-behind tractor is mounted on tracks.
You can control a motorized dog while sitting on a trailer or standing on a sled. The motorized towing vehicle starts and stops by pressing the gas or clutch lever, which are located on the steering wheel of the walk-behind tractor. You can set turns and hold them using the steering wheel.
The motorized towing vehicle can be easily disassembled and can be easily stored in the trunk passenger car mobile or in the garage. Making the device is as easy as disassembling it.
The assembly time of the motorized dog does not exceed 15 minutes. Does not require special care, easy to use.
IN Russian Federation launched the production of motorized dogs for walk-behind tractors. By purchasing a motor cultivator and tracks, you can make a reliable device at home. The snowmobile attachment will help hunters, fishermen in winter time drive through impassable places. The motorized dog pulls up to 2 ski trailers and standard sleds weighing up to 150 kg.
Factory motorized towing vehicles
After the hype on crawler attachments, they began to be produced in our country. Motorized towing vehicles for walk-behind tractors Salyut (Agat) and Neva can rightfully be called one of the most popular.
Snowmobile attachments for Salyut (for example, model SP-MB-S) and Neva (models SP-MB-2, SP-MB-23 and others) began to be produced 15 years ago and managed to win the hearts of many people for their ease of use and simple repairs .
Due to its small parameters, the motorized dog can be easily kept in the garage and transported by car.
Walk-behind tractors have a small engine, so it is better to buy a two-track attachment for them. Each track has holes, and standard models have the usual 2 plastic sprockets on the axle, where the tracks are mounted. Such technical point is more practical, since motorized dogs often break down due to this problem.
But there is a significant drawback: the engine has low power(7 l), so acceleration will be no more than 20 km/h, or even lower. It is difficult for these models to pull several drags, because... they are lightweight options. When choosing a tracked attachment, you need to pay attention to this fact, because The devices are not suitable for heavy loads.
Do-it-yourself motorized towing vehicle for a walk-behind tractor
It’s not difficult to make a motorized towing vehicle yourself. It is important to decide on the engine. You can buy both domestic and foreign engines. Yamaha and Honda engines have good performance reviews. They are universal, so they will fit any device model. As for the caterpillars, you can make them yourself; you only need materials, a little time and patience.
Homemade tracks for a snowmobile attachment
There are many ways to make a caterpillar, but today we will tell you how to make it from V-belts and chains. To do this, we take belts, fasten them to lugs or wheels, thus getting simple homemade tracks.
The assembly of a caterpillar from chains is no less simple. You need to take two identical chains, find the last links, open them and bend them to form a vicious circle. Then we fix the links and weld them with a soldering iron. Reinforcement of chains is done made from steel plates. They are secured with bolts. For presentation, you can see the diagrams:
If you don’t want to do it yourself, you can simply take a caterpillar from other unnecessary equipment.
More details about. or other materials, is written in a separate article.
Assembling a crawler attachment for a walk-behind tractor
When assembling a snowmobile attachment, you need to outline a drawing that will prevent unnecessary mistakes.
- First you need to select support bearings, and machine bushings for them.
- We take a welded frame in which the pipes will be located to give required form cover them with sand.
- We cover the 2 ends with wooden plugs, place them in a vice and slowly begin to bend it using a soldering iron. The bend should be maximum, so in order not to make a mistake, it is better to make a template that you can use as a guide.
To make it easier to imagine, you can familiarize yourself with the diagram:
It’s easy to make a snowmobile attachment; you just need a little time, ingenuity and provide for all the little things, since saving on good equipment is stupid. A self-assembled motorized towing vehicle will serve without interruption.
Having bought a walk-behind tractor, its happy owner solves most of the problems associated with cultivating the site.
Rich set attachments allows you not only to plow the soil efficiently, but also to cultivate it, harvest potatoes, clear snow and pump water.
You can always buy a trolley for a heavy walk-behind tractor, which will turn it into a mini-truck.
What should the owners of medium and small walk-behind tractors, which are not structurally suited for transporting goods and performing other “tractor” work, do?
One thing can be firmly said: you shouldn’t sit back and wait for a miracle. Anyone who understands the mechanics of cars can make many interesting cars out of a walk-behind tractor.
Mini tractor and all-terrain vehicle made from a walk-behind tractor
Almost all homemade products from a walk-behind tractor are made to increase comfort at work. Indeed, why waste energy driving a heavy unit “by the horns” when you can ride it, turning it into a maneuverable mini tractor?
However, one important note needs to be made here. By sitting astride a walk-behind tractor, you will increase its center of gravity. This will increase the risk of rollover during sharp turns. To increase stability, you need to make the second driven axle quite wide (1-1.2 m).
It is very desirable to expand the narrow wheelbase of the walk-behind tractor itself. Today, you don’t need to look for an experienced turner for such alterations. There are ready-made bushings (extensions) available for sale that are placed on the drive shaft to increase the distance between the wheels of the walk-behind tractor.
If a light or medium walk-behind tractor does not have a differential, then you can increase its maneuverability and at the same time increase the wheelbase by installing locking rotary extensions that perform these functions.
Anyone who is not confident in working with hardware and does not have great experience in the design of machines, he can make a mini tractor from a walk-behind tractor by purchasing a ready-made kit.
It includes:
- frame with engine mounts;
- footrests with pedals;
- seat;
- axle shaft lock release levers;
- steering with rods;
- front beam with brake discs and wheel hubs;
- rear linkage with manual lifting mechanism;
- wings.
The price of such a kit is in the range of 20-22 thousand rubles. There are no special problems when converting a walk-behind tractor into a mini tractor if the listed assembly units are available.
As a result, you will get a homemade tractor on which you can comfortably cultivate the area and carry loads by attaching a trolley. An important advantage of the finished technical kit is its design - precisely calculated and tested in operation. When independently adapting a walk-behind tractor to a homemade tractor base, most of the components will have to be manufactured and docked independently. This process often requires rework and fine-tuning.
Anyone who made a mini tractor with their own hands can assemble an all-terrain vehicle from a walk-behind tractor without any problems. To do this, just change the standard wheels to wider ones and install off-road tires on them.
It is best if the base for such a mini-all-terrain vehicle is a walk-behind tractor with a water engine, and not air cooled motor. It is more resistant to prolonged loads and overheats less.
Snowmobile and swamp vehicle made from a walk-behind tractor
There is no fundamental difference between these homemade products, since a snowmobile made from a walk-behind tractor, like a swamp vehicle based on it, has one fundamental requirement in common: minimum pressure on the ground. Converting a walk-behind tractor to a new 4-wheel chassis Special attention You need to pay attention to the quality of manufacturing of wide snow and swamp wheels.
It is best to make the lugs in such a way that they can accommodate standard walk-behind tractor wheels.
Owners of heavy walk-behind tractors with a trailed trolley can make it homemade snowmobile without changing the design at all. To do this, it is enough to change your manual tractor into new off-road “bast shoes”. Before doing this, you need to deflate the tires, then jack up the frame, insert the wheels into the lugs and inflate them again. After this simple work, you can safely go on a trip through wetlands or deep, loose snow.
Practice confirms that such a homemade swamp vehicle, even with a not very powerful 6-horsepower gasoline engine, drives quite briskly on the plain and confidently overcomes small slopes.
Motorcycle dog and caracat
Anyone who has had the chance to ride an imported motorized towing vehicle will probably see in its design a lot of similarities with a conventional walk-behind tractor. Almost the same front traction unit with the engine, a similar method of transmitting torque, similar controls on the steering wheel. The only thing missing is rubber tracks, with the help of which the motorized dog will pull the sled and rider across the snowy field.
When realizing their dream of a motorized towing vehicle, avid fishermen and hunters can go in two ways: buy a ready-made snowmobile attachment or make it yourself.
Today at industrial scale Tracked attachments are produced for almost all types of walk-behind tractors (Neva, Salyut, Agat, Favorit, Cascade, Forza, etc.). The price of this unit is quite high (about 30 thousand rubles).
Therefore, anyone who is trying to save money and at the same time is well acquainted with the caterpillar undercarriage structure can make it and ski sleds themselves. To do this, you need to weld a strong frame on which the engine and steering wheel, chassis and driven sprockets, as well as two intermediate shafts with rubber rollers will be placed.
Speaking about what can be made from a walk-behind tractor, it is worth mentioning this interesting homemade product, like a caracat. The strength of this car is in its huge wheels, which are ordinary inner tubes, tightened with strong belts.
Sometimes truck tires are used to make ultra-low pressure tires. They are made easier by carefully cutting out part of the surface electric jigsaw, leaving only part of the bead and lug tread pattern.
They put homemade ones on the carakat from a walk-behind tractor. wheel disks, modifying and expanding standard automotive ones. You can also put a very original wheel on a lightweight walk-behind tractor. To do this, two aluminum basins are welded along the contour, the bottom is cut out to fit the size of the hub, and they are equipped with stiffening ribs and side stops for fixing the camera.
Despite its external clumsiness, the carakat based on a walk-behind tractor is surprisingly passable and stable. It not only easily overcomes swampy lowlands, but is also capable of carrying quite a significant load (up to 100 kg).
Anyone planning to build an ATV When using a walk-behind tractor as a basis, you must be prepared for the fact that it will not reach super-high speed. But in terms of maneuverability and maneuverability, such a device is in no way inferior to its more expensive branded “brother”.
The seating position in a home-made SUV remains traditional “motoblock”, and not motorcycle-like as in a “quad”. There is no need to make rims for this ATV yourself. You can use standard ones from any passenger car, designed to install wide-profile “mud” tires.
After the sale of the snowmobile, it was decided to make a motorized towing vehicle based on a Greenfield 15 hp engine, Ride caterpillar and Buran roller suspension... With a leading Safari variator from Buran and a driven one from the Taiga snowmobile. The variators and motor are assembled on a separate frame for quick disassembly into blocks... 
Buranovsky bogies have been converted into symmetrical ones + expanded to accommodate a 500 mm track. The guide shaft is an expanded Buranovsky, the driver sharpened it himself, according to his sketches... The rear Kamazovsky is installed as a mudguard, 
cut into two parts, long at the back and short at the front...
Photos of the first fishing trip to Morozovo 
After which the body kit was made 
and the towing vehicle was converted into a pusher 
, now, if desired, you can go fishing, both on a pusher and in a towing configuration, 
depending on fishing conditions...
To prevent the pusher from lifting his nose in deep snow, a special lock is installed, 
which prevents the tracked block from making spark plugs, thereby increasing good cross-country ability...
For remote control The choke included in the pusher configuration is a choke cable from a VAZ 2108 
, and the choke handle is located on the front wall of the pusher behind the seat...
The disadvantage is that for transportation you need either a trailer or big car like a loaf... Rolling in pusher mode (needs skill)... Well, the pluses are good cross-country ability and power...
P.S In winter, there was a big shortage of old Buranovsk skating rinks 
- when water gets into the ice, it gets into the bearings of the rollers, after which it freezes there with all the consequences... To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to install plastic rollers 
, they provide for the installation of sealing seals... In the spring I changed the rollers on my axlebox to plastic ones...
A little short photos and video
To pull drags, it is easier to purchase a ready-made mini snowmobile, motorized towing vehicle or pusher than to make it yourself. However, as practice shows, factory models have many shortcomings, ranging from low quality parts to design flaws. These motorized dogs don’t want to pull drags. It is not surprising that in the instructions for motorized towing vehicles you can see a warning not to drive further than a kilometer from home without being accompanied by another driver. Do you agree, getting stuck in the snow far from home? not a very encouraging prospect.
In Chinese motorized dogs, the carburetor constantly breaks down, the clutch gets upset, the caterpillar weakens, or something else breaks. Therefore, to avoid such troubles, it is best to make your own motorized dog or pusher completely from scratch, or remake the factory version. The main disadvantage? This is a labor-intensive process that requires time and skill to manufacture the frame and fit the parts.
Why homemade motorized towing vehicles are preferable
What shortcomings can be avoided by developing your own model? Due to improper design, the tracks of towing vehicles can become clogged with snow. In another case, a motorized dog rears up and buries itself in deep snow, throwing it onto the rider and the drag. Homemade motorized towing vehicles with a front engine, unlike most factory ones, where it is located in the rear, are much preferable. Road traction is much better, which allows you to save fuel and pull the drags faster. In addition, additional compartments for supplies and gear can be provided in a tow or pusher for fishing and work.
In addition, the towing vehicle’s grip on the road directly depends on the installed track. The Buran track has good traction, which, unfortunately, is not installed on all modern towing vehicles. To improve traction, you can add studs to the tracks if desired.
Well, the main advantage? for the price of the cheapest Chinese towbar, you can make a more durable homemade towbar or pusher. For the same money we get an excellent engine, a powerful track and better parts.
Using a snowmobile attachment for motor cultivators
If you are the owner of walk-behind tractors: Salyut, Neva, Cascade, Tselina, MB-2, Luch? or “Favorite?”, then you can purchase a two-track snowmobile attachment. So far this The best way make a towing vehicle or pusher from a walk-behind tractor. Previous models of such consoles were criticized by users. However, these are strikingly different from their predecessors. Unlike a chain drive, like conventional motorized dogs, two plastic sprockets are mounted on the axle of the walk-behind tractor, onto which the tracks are mounted. There are special slots in each track for these drive sprockets.
Using a walk-behind tractor to pull the drags is very convenient. The design can be quickly disassembled, allowing it to be placed in passenger car. However, the disadvantage of the walk-behind tractor is that the engine installed in it has a power of 6 or 7 hp. With. A motorized towing vehicle made from a walk-behind tractor and a drag will move at speeds of up to 15 or 20 km/h, and the average speed may be even lower. Such a towing vehicle can hardly pull some drags, not to mention the others.
How to make a motorized towing vehicle with your own hands
To collect homemade model, some spare parts are better to buy ready-made. The caterpillar and rollers can be taken from Buran. Can the engine also be purchased separately? today on the Internet huge selection. Among the many Chinese, it is better to give preference to a 9-13 liter engine from Honda. With. For the carburetor to work well, pay attention to the presence of the Design in Japan inscription. Such a carburetor will give you less problems when servicing. This carburetor is better tuned and adjustable.
For the manufacture of a mini-snowmobile, towing vehicle or pusher, an engine from a chainsaw? Ural? is unlikely to be suitable, since it will pull the drags in best case scenario at walking speed. Chainsaw power? Ural? 5 l. pp., and this is not enough for a full-fledged motorized dog. Chainsaw motor? Ural? Only suitable for installation on a children's or adult snow scooter. Instead, you can use a moped or motorcycle engine. Most likely, it will be more powerful than that of the Ural chainsaw, but do not overdo it, since the motor is too heavy? this is also bad.
Unlike other parts, the towing vehicle needs to make the frame itself. For this, you can use metal square pipes 20 x 40 x 120. Mountings for the gearbox, engine and track need to be welded onto the finished frame. Like the frame, from 120 metal pipe you need to make levers for control. However, for this it is better to take a pipe round section. Two pipes are fastened with jumpers, and the clutch and gas are placed on one of them.
The housing to protect the engine of a motorized towing vehicle is made of tin, but in some cases you can do without it. If the engine is installed in the front, then the housing is not so necessary. If the engine is at the rear, then protection from snow dust will definitely be needed. In any case, whether to make a body or not is up to you. You can also use the body from an old motorized towing vehicle.
So, you don’t need much to create a homemade motorized dog. The main thing is the ability to work with welding machine to weld the frame, and some understanding of mechanics. How about adjusting the carburetor, adjusting the clutch or tightening the track? it's all a matter of practice.
And so, you decided that you need a motorized towing vehicle for hunting, fishing, transporting goods, or just for driving, but you want a more powerful engine, larger standard headlights, heating, and a special color. But in the product catalog there is no such individual model, just for your taste. But it’s not scary, today you can assemble high-quality DIY motorized towing vehicle. You just need to have a little experience in locksmith work, a set of tools and a desire to get unique equipment. The assembly process can be divided into several technological stages:
- Choosing the configuration of a future motorized towing vehicle: at the first stage, you need to decide what kind of motorized towing vehicle you want, write down its description and specifications: determine the load capacity, engine power, type of start (manual or electric starter), select the type of transmission, sled (drag) and frame color. And also decide which additional equipment you want to equip a motorized towing vehicle with manual assembly: for example a winch, protective casing, circuit protection, additional headlights, etc.
- After you have decided on the configuration, you need to select necessary details on our website. You can buy separately the motor, electrics, base for the motorized dog (chassis and body) and other necessary spare parts.
- Order all the parts for self-assembly. All components will be packaged and shipped. The necessary instructions will be attached to the main components.
- After receiving all the spare parts, you will need to familiarize yourself with the parts and their descriptions. Be sure to check the package.
- Assembly is the most important point in independently designing a motorized towing vehicle. It is necessary to install all the components on the base, connect everything according to the attached instructions. If you have any questions, you can call and get advice.
- Test it. Now you need to make sure that you have assembled everything correctly, check the reliability of all components and connections for your safety.
That's it, ready. Thus, you get exactly the equipment you want at the cost of a regular model, and sometimes even cheaper. And it will be a self-assembled motorized towing vehicle, which is doubly nice. But still before self-assembly It’s worth studying the catalog carefully, maybe you can find the model you need.
By making a motorized dog ourselves, we are not responsible for the final product; all work is performed entirely under your responsibility.
