TTC 2012 Warthog prep

Well it's less than a year away and I've decided I'm going to run the Warthog in the upcoming ttc. I can run anything but the warthog is what got me to first place so I'm  taking it back to defend it's title. It's been neglected for a year or two  this is how it sits now.






I'm going to try and keep up with the rebuild over the year in this thread.

Clay  

I haven't had space in my shop  for over a year and was starting to wonder if would would ever get a chance to pull the motor. Not having axles under it kind of posed a problem as well. Then my pops asked if he could store his backhoe at my place. So I said sure.





Other than a few parts that we forgot to unhook got ripped in half, backhoes make great engine hoists.



And the mess of crap that has built up over the years prepping for each event. After thought add ons etc...

 

Hmmm ran into a snag. I love my stak t case but I need parts to freshen it up. I've stood up for stak every time I see a thread with someone knocking them. I helped them up here in canada when they had the t-case popping out of gear problem. I put new gears in for free for them. We went to order parts today and were told they won't send anything to Canada. So I can drive 16 hours to pick up parts,across the boarder round trip, or find a new t-case and spend the 16 hours changing mounts. Since I was going to make quick change mounts anyway I guess I'll be tossing the stak in the scrap.

Wonder what I should use?  

Sorry to here the issues, what case are you leaning towards?  

sorta can't blame Stak for not wanting to deal with the border. Customs makes everything so hard and Stak being north american made it should be easy to ship. But it almost makes it harder. You'd think all brokerage companies are chinese owned. Anyway I'm looking at the profab mud truck box. Or beefing up a 205. The 205 would allow front or rear drive and a selectable hi low range. The low range ratio is desirable for me with the planetaries and v- drive. A little more speed less crawl. Any suggestions? I'd like to use a chain drive like a 273 but don't know if it could take it. The planetaries help keep the driveline alive, by reducing the shock load through the hubs, so I can abuse some stuff a little more than normal.  

Any new updates? I can't wait to see the Warthog run again, keep up the good work Clayton!  

The block has finally been machined. I have to go pick it up. My friend Mike and I have been figuring out how to make a 271 t-case work in the buggy. What's been decided is a heavy billet case with good bearing supports. A shorter chain to allow it to fit in my belly and maybe a rear drive disconnect.


On a side note. It's not that I have a ton of money to put into this thing. However if I need a part I can build it myself. In the magazine write up for ttc 08, everyone got together and guessed how much it would have cost for the average person to build this thing and it came in around 200 000 dollars. I only had $27 000 into it, 15 years of planning and a ton of hours, made up by me and some really good friends. I get a kick out of reading people *** about guys winning TTC by throwing money at their rigs. This rig is all heart, determination and thinking outside the box.  

Cool! Keep it up. Post some pics of that T-case!  
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John Cappa
Editor
Four Wheeler
john.cappa@fourwheeler.com
www.facebook.com/fourwheelermag

I will when we get to the point of cutting. I've spent the last month designing some new rod ends. It's tuff running the shop, making the product and designing new stuff by myself. At least I have people helping me with the buggy. In the mean time I'm gonna put up a little info on the diffs.



They've been to ttc twice. Once in my rig and once in Barkers ranger and in the KOH where in pratice we hit our highest speed at 80 mph in a very large whoop section. They are what allows me to punish my rig more than any other rig and allows me to run a weaker motor with the same result as a high dollar power house.


It all started out one day when I was running a Cat telehandler for a company. I got bored and started doing cyclones with it in the snow. Then crab walking it etc... I got out and looked at the housings. I couldn't get over how much diff clearance they had. Or how sharp they turned. It got me thinking. So I did a little research. I found nothing and no one new jack *** about them. So I took a gamble and started looking for a wrecked telehandler. HAHAHAHAHA yeah. Eventually I found one that had burned in a barn fire. I got a hold of the wrecking company that bought it and made a deal for the diffs. I was told they were matching. Same gears front and rear. Same hubs, same everything. The housings were weldable and  it would all be plug and go. Parts would be easy to get yadda yadda. I raised some money through local sponsors and had them sent in.

 

 


They showed up on a pallet. All 4200 or so pounds of them. The from was a big barrel with bolt on side housings and the rear was a one piece square almost I beam with a removable 3rd member. WTF????  We spun the yolk and counted how many times the hub spun. The front had 20 something to one and the rear was only 15:1. WTF????? And they were open no lockers. OMFG!!!! The front set had wet brakes and the rear had nothing.(Later we found out that through the hydrostatic drive "on some loaders" the gear ratio comes out different front to rear. Most of the driving and all the breaking is done with the front diff) The yolks were yolks not flanges and the housings were a high tensile forged steel. Almost impossible to hurt which was cool but the weldability sucked. You could weld to it but any shock load and they would crack off. We did this in a test with a test plate and a sledge hammer.





At this point I just spent my entire years worth of sponsorship on something that seemed like a waste. On top of everything else the hubs were to big for my 16.5 inch rims so I would need a new set and a new set of tires. Now the axles went on the back burner. TTC 07 was coming up and we had to figure out how we were going to get through that.  

TTC 07 came and went. I broke the locker in my meritor 3 tons and 1 stub axle. After the event I got wedged in a thing called v-groove, on a trail called the jungle. In that groove I killed the stub axle, u-joint and twisted the inner shaft along with destroying another locker. Once I got home I found out that I had used up all the old spare axles for my diffs in the surronding area. I went to pats drive line and they told me a stub would cost 2000 dollars they weren't sure about the long one. To top it off it would be 6 months. I took a small dump in my pants when I heard that. I needed those new planetary axles. On a side note Overson axles would have been cheaper. I thought they were too expensive and wanted to save money by building my own. But being cheap can make you spend alot of money.




 

Wow! That must have sucked! What did you do next?  
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John Cappa
Editor
Four Wheeler
john.cappa@fourwheeler.com
www.facebook.com/fourwheelermag

Now the fun part. Rip the axles apart. Learn about them. Source parts and make them how I want them. Luckily theres always people around that know a thing or two about stuff  :blink:

Vern and Marty stopped by to help out



And so did little Dave and Mike.




Little Dave and Marty went with me to TTC 07 when I was the alternate. They got to see first hand how cool the event really was and wanted to make sure I was ready for the 08 entry.  

before I get ahead of myself this is the machine that my diffs came out of. Only it was a burnt twisted piece of metal.  

A little tech info for those guys that like to read. I'm a picture guy myself.


Front diff


ITL SD 70 ptr
Performance
Dynamic Load Capacity: 7000 Kg (15400 lbs)
Static Load Capacity: 21000 Kg (46300 lbs)
Maximum Torque Output
Continuous: 14000 Nm
Intermittent: 42000 Nm
Lock Angle 38° Degrees
Available axle ratios: 13.7
15.78
18.16
24.97
Axles available with multi-plate oil immersed brakes.
Optional limited slip differential






Rear axle

ITL SD55 PTR
Performance
Dynamic Load Capacity: 5500 Kg (12100 lbs)
Static Load Capacity: 16500 Kg (36400 lbs)
Maximum Torque Output
Continuous: 9700 Nm
Intermittent: 29000 Nm
Lock Angle: 52° Degrees
Available axles ratios: 10.46
12.24
Axles available with multi-plate oil immersed brakes.
Optional limited slip differential

Funny reading the spec sheet I can't have 15:1 in the diffs. I'll have to look at the gears. Maybe we went with 12.24 and 13.7
I'm pretty sure they're 15ish to one.  

okay it my note book says we have 15.78 in the front and 15.30 in the rear. Must have crossed parts. I do rember worrying about  different gear ratios


The biggest surpise was that the plantary hub was held on by the wheel nuts and two tiny screws. At first this was thought to be gay. Later on it proved to be lightning fast in changing broken parts out.




In my diffs the planet gears are three small gears that attatch to the outer hub. Each sits on a forged stem.




The orbit gear is part of the hub that is pressed onto a bearing that is in turn pressed onto the spindle. In the shot above you can see the sun gear. In most cases it's machined into the end of the axle. In my axle it's another gear that slides onto the end of my axle and is retained by a snap ring. I wasn't sure about that until I broke one and it cost 100 dollars to fix and took about ten minutes. Normally you'd have to replace the whole axle. The gearing in these hubs is 5:1. Older hubs like the ones used in monster trucks(clarks or peti bones) run 3:1. They need to run larger axle shafts because there isn't as much reduction in the hub. Meaning more torque is seen at or on the shaft. The most beautiful thing about planetary hubs is that when power is delivered to the wheel it actually spins from inside the wheel not through a long flexing shaft. So you may loose power through all the gears but gain instant torque because there is not loose of energy in the shaft. 5:1 in the hub also means a stronger gear set at the crown and pinion. At a final ratio of 15:1 you have 3:1 in the center. This means a large pinion, A large pinion means you're less likely to rip the pinon gear teeth off.