Author Topic: Quadractors (Read 5076 times)

Blue Sky · « **on:** October 30, 2007, 06:55:31 am »

I have been the owner of three quads in my career. Had to learn to tinker with them. I have lots of experience tearing them down and rebuilding them. And trouble shooting annoying things like' Why won't it steer in a straight line", etc., etc., etc. Also copied an Owners Manuel and made copies of them too. Any Questions? Enchanted Forester

Rick Alger · « **Reply #1 on:** October 30, 2007, 08:23:11 am »

Are they still being made?

beenthere · « **Reply #2 on:** October 30, 2007, 10:14:29 am »

Interesting outfit.
I remember seeing a video of one, as well as seeing early articles like in Popular Mechanics years ago.

There are several sites found when Googled.

http://www.quadractor.com/
that indicates only 400 were built.

Dale Hatfield · « **Reply #3 on:** November 17, 2007, 11:36:15 pm »

Sure would be neat to give one of them a spin. Prolly want one then.Wonder what kind of load /log they could pull. Im close to where the last ravens plant was i have to put some feelers out. see if their are any hiding roud these parts. wonder what one costs today?
Dale

jpgreen · « **Reply #4 on:** December 06, 2007, 11:24:19 am »

Needs a roll bar..

newhampshirefarms · « **Reply #5 on:** December 07, 2007, 08:02:06 pm »

I'm the guy in that video you posted,

My friend RJ and I run the Quadractor forum. There's a link to it off the Quadractor.com site. We have a lot of pictures and literature too that you can see on the website. We'd love to hear from you guys on the forum, tell us about your experience with them or ask us about them.

If anyone is looking to sell or buy one, I might be able to help you too as I have helped match a number of people up with them over the years. I collect them.

I'm in Rochester NH too if anyone wants to see one up close. They are pretty neat rigs, built with 4WD, 4 wheel steering, 72:1 gear ratio capable of skidding a 4,000lb stick of wood underneath it with just an 8hp Briggs motor. They are a very low impact machine too.

Thanks,
Matt

Dale Hatfield · « **Reply #6 on:** December 07, 2007, 09:55:15 pm »

Ya had to post what it could pull. Now I really wish I had one.

jpgreen · « **Reply #7 on:** December 09, 2007, 02:46:19 pm »

That one on eBay that sold for $600 bucks looked like it rolled. Flatened the steering wheel good.

I think some ROPS are in order for those little buggies..

Cool machine..

newhampshirefarms · « **Reply #8 on:** December 10, 2007, 10:42:38 am »

I sold that one one ebay. It was a good one for someone to restore. The reason the steering wheel was bent on that one was not because the quadractor rolled during use, but because it came out of a scrap/recycle yard where the owner had just dropped it into a pile of metal without concern for damaging it

. Someone told me about it and I quickly went and rescued it before it went to the crusher. I actively try to help rescue them whenever I can, and find good homes for them.

If anyone is interested in owning one, I have one at my house (Rochester NH) that runs and drives that I'd consider selling

... I'm at 603-312-2142 if interested.

Matt

simonmeridew · « **Reply #9 on:** February 18, 2008, 09:58:57 am »

Every so often I see a quadractor in someone's back yard or field here in Northern Vermont; mostly looking like the top of a scrap pile. Haven't seen one operating in years though.
simonmeridew

zopi · « **Reply #10 on:** February 18, 2008, 08:27:16 pm »

Quote from: jpgreen on December 06, 2007, 11:24:19 am

Needs a roll bar..

or a wet bar...

shinnlinger · « **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2008, 04:36:05 pm »

I just saw one sitting in the weeds not far from here...hasn't run in years, but the owner knew what he had and didn't say I could load it up or anything. I guess a few people thrugh the years have stopped and offered him $$ from time to time.

He to was impressed with what it used to be able to do, and it got me thinking. Why not do the same thing but with hydraulic orbit motors running each wheel instead of the linkage that the original ones used? It seems that the real beauty of the thing was it could sling a log up into it's belly so it used the weight of the log to increase traction. I have dial up, so I cant watch the video above.

I happen to have an old hydrostatic cub cadet and wonder if I could run it with that as my power plant.

StorminN · « **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2008, 07:21:19 pm »

Blasphemy, considering scrapping a Cub Cadet!!!

just kidding Dave,

-Norm.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #13 on:** February 19, 2008, 07:32:37 pm »

Sort of like this thing , shinnlinger

It's hydraulic, 4x4 but would be a little tippy

shinnlinger · « **Reply #14 on:** February 19, 2008, 10:24:46 pm »

Dont worry Norm, I dont intend to make one, but that thing SpruceBunny shows is the same deal. What is that? a corn sprayer? I have heard they can be had for cheap(of course with scrap steel going platnuim all that changes)

StorminN · « **Reply #15 on:** February 20, 2008, 09:14:25 pm »

When I was at UMaine Orono, the Forestry / AG engineering department made a cool rig that was 4WD, each wheel had its own hydraulic motor and it was independent suspension... it was the start of a small wood harvester that was made for small trees (6" and under)... cottonwood and such.

-N.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #16 on:** February 21, 2008, 05:48:10 am »

Shinnlinger, yup, a Hagie corn sprayer, detasseler or something . It's for sale near me $4000 ( last I knew) . I was going to make it into a snowcat/skidder

but it's too much work and the drive motors aren't fast enough.

I'm over that

shinnlinger · « **Reply #17 on:** February 21, 2008, 07:58:51 am »

Well the quadtractors were never fast...That guy I met said you could walk faster than it could drive.

but that is the idea, a self propelled logging arch. Straddle the tree and use the weight of the log to provide traction as you winched it up in the belly. You could probably shorten the legs a bit on that corn sprayer and still have decent "log Straddlle" But then I suppose before you went through all that you would have to be pretty disatisfied with how you are currently getting your logs out of the woods.

I'm no hydrualic expert, but what would happen if you increased flow to those orbit motors on that detassler? Would it speed it up or blow them apart? Would they have enough power to pull a 5000lb tree out of the woods?

Deadwood · « **Reply #18 on:** February 23, 2008, 09:39:17 am »

Quote from: shinnlinger on February 21, 2008, 07:58:51 am

I'm no hydrualic expert, but what would happen if you increased flow to those orbit motors on that detassler? Would it speed it up or blow them apart? Would they have enough power to pull a 5000lb tree out of the woods?

It might work. The only thing you would have to watch for is that your motors did not gain too much speed (freewheeling while going down a steep hill). In that case, the hydraulic motor could displace enough hydraulic oil that it literally robs it from the hydraulic pump. That is what is called Cavating the pump, and a hydraulic pump without oil equalizing pressure against the swash plate will destruct in less then a second.

To combat that, you would have to add small accumulator tanks to each motor and more then likely the pump itself. When the freewheeling occurred, the bladder inside the accumulator, charged with nitrogen would feel the lack of hydraulic oil and pressure from the bladder would rush in to keep the pump and motors supplied with oil.

As you said...that is a lot of work to retrofit something when other logging options exist. As for my little tale, don't ask me how I know all this, but trust me that is what would happen, and that is what you would have to do to fix the problem.

newhampshirefarms · « **Reply #19 on:** May 28, 2009, 03:30:14 pm »

Two of these rigs are on ebay right now... http://cgi.ebay.com/2-QUADRACTOR-QUADTRACTOR-SKIDDER-TRACTOR-4WD-4X4-RARE_W0QQitemZ150347589290QQcmdZViewItemQQptZTractors?hash=item23016a26aa&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A4%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A200

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Author Topic: Quadractors (Read 5076 times)