Building a roll Bar for my 312-8

[Stigian 1,234]

Good evening all, first of all i hope Im posting this in the right section of the forum.

If i have made a boo boo then feel free to move it to the right location

Second of all, i have to say it's great to be getting back into metal work again after all the workshack extension fun and my disability has been playing up with the weather getting colder leaving me not wanting to do anything at all

At least it has given me time to think on other projects, more on that in another post

Anyway, that's enough rambling on Onto the build..

I have been thinking of building a roll bar on the 312-8 for a while, so i thought it was about time that i got on with it.

The 312-8 gets the most use and abuse so a roll bar is a good thing to have safety wise, and it will also give me somewhere else to bolt the lights onto making the poor ol WH look a lot less like a kiddys cartoon tractor

Sorry, rambling on again

The best way to mount the roll bar is on the trans each side, which gave me my first problem of the build....

Problem?? well yes, the rear quick release hitch is mounted onto the trans.. And its quite handy for mounting the snowplow/blade onto

The solution was to make my own hitch that is part of the roll bar mounts

Ok, so how to make a copy of this

A rummage through my box of "might come in handy one day" metal produced a couple of bits of angle and some bent flat bar.

You can tell by the smile on the metal it has no idea what it's let itself in for

A bit of cutting, grinding and clamping down later it was ready to be zapped with the magical sparking arc welding sticks

Zapped...

My arc weldings getting better i just need to get welding T joints worked out.

Oh, the holes got plugged up too.

With two of the odd length bit of angle knocked up a couple of latch :thingy:s were next on the hit list.

If you squint hard enough you might just be able to make out the pencil making lines

After a bit of cutting/grinding/sparking/filing action, i had a close-ish copy of the WH latch.

Looking good during a quick mock-up.

The slot for the plow to hitch into has been cut out, just need to drill a few holes to bolt it together.

[Stigian 1,234]

:banana: :banana: Both sides of the hitch fit the... er hitch

Another search through the metal box turned up some more flat bar which came in handy for joining the hitches together.

To bolt the hitch onto the trans a couple of brackets that sit on top of trans was needed..

So.. i found this

A little while later it had been trimmed down and bolted in places

The idea being the roll bar gets welded to the ends and will clear the tin work on its way up

I will add a brace that bolts to the trans, using the bolt hole just below the dipstick, and maybe a brace that goes down to the pin that holds the towing hitch in place.

A closer view of the hitch under the trans.

And last photo for now is the old and new hitches getting to know each other

Its not the most of thrilling of builds, but its something do do while collecting funds for Project 6x6x6

Tune back for more metal mayhem :D

[Duff 206]

Ian, your illustrated posts during your builds are among my favorite on this whole site!

Thanks as well for the inspiration!

Duff :USA:

[Rollerman 290]

Ian, your illustrated posts during your builds are among my favorite on this whole site!

I beleive Duff summed it up very well!

Ian your buildup pics make your fab work look all to easy.

Your a very talented fabricator ....but thanks for your pics & threads....it gives us "less" talented fabricators the confidence & leaned wisdom to go at it ourselves.

Well atleast me anyway! :USA:

[Stigian 1,234]

Wow! Im blown away.. Guys

Glad you like by posts Duff, as for the inspiration.. Your welcome

Your a very talented fabricator

Stop it Stephen, your make me blush..

I think part of this fabrication lark is being in the right state of mind..

Don't think, "that looks complicated i wouldn't know where to start".

Think, "that looks fun to build, now where's the best place to start from"?

Also problem solving can take a while, if you cant work something out dont start pulling your hair out because: A. It hurts. And B. You might end up looking like me

What i mean is, walk away and do something else, let your brain stew on the problem for a while and a solution will present it's self

Right, onto today's fabrication fun

First on the list was to fix yesterday's slight mistake

For some reason when i welded the bit of flat bar between the hitches, i didn't copy the WH part and put the flat bar at the bottom of the hitches.. Result being the flat bar hit the base of the trans

So, off with the hitch and out with the grinder.

That's fits much better now

I also found some nice strong bolts to bolt the whole thing onto the trans.

Nothing is safe from the grinder in Stig's Shack, here's an old pipe bender about to get the chop

And here is where the bit of pipe fits

Now, if you were thinking "hhmm that bit of pipe looks a bit thin walled and not the strongest", You'd be right

I thought the same so a length of Westwood rear axle found itself being welded in the pipe first.

Some sparking later and it was tacked in place. Im starting to quite like this ARC welding lark

Time for bit mocking up of the actual roll bar

Masking tape is such handy stuff

Shame the roll bar will be too close to the tire..

A view from the front shows the roll bar will be too close to the seat as well

Don't panic, i have a cunning plan But your have to wait til Monday to find out what it is :(

[KyBlue 652]

Hey Stig, Your newest proejct is and your Welding is really looking good - far better than I could do with a Stick welder im sure.

Couple ?s thou.. whats the measurements on the angle pcs you used?? Specifically the side you lengthened...and Exactly how far apart are they?

Ive got to make another set to replace the crummy ones I bought off ebay, and yours looks soo nice, instead of buying a OE set...Ill just use ur pics for inspiration!

[saguaro 0]

Don't panic, i have a cunning plan But your have to wait til Monday to find out what it is

I'll be on pins'n'needles. Dang good work from a grinder. :banghead:

[Stigian 1,234]

Hi Scott, Ive just had a measure up of the angle on the hitch for you.

The short side is 2" long and the long side is 3 1/2" long. I think the long bit on a puka Wh rear hitch is about 1/4" shorter (why didnt i measure it while a had a tape measure in my hand ), but i didnt see any need to cut mine down as the extra metal wont be in the way of anything

for the kind comments on my stick welding, its getting better slowly and will improve (i hope) the more i do of it

Dont be scared of the magical sparkling stick machine, have a go you might be amazed at what you can do

To show the point My good friend Garry who had never used an arc welder before had a bash at making the sparks.. It didnt take him long to produce this bit of fine work

I'll be on pins'n'needles.

:D

[kj4kicks 151]

Looking good Ian ! Always fun to watch your projects take shape.

:USA:

[Stigian 1,234]

:D Eldon, these projects are always fun to build

And onto today's fun and games, or should the be grinds and welds

First task of the day after lighting the wood burner, making coffee etc was to cut the ends off the green box section in a nice fun angle.

I say fun because i didnt take the blasted things off first

Anyway, with the cut off bit placed on top the roll bar is finally going in the right direction.. yep, up

There are some times that even the most careful measuring and marking before cutting can go wrong

These two bits of box should of been the same size

Oh well, nothing a quick trim couldn't sort out

Ta-daa all four bits of box tack welded in place

And onto..................................... The lathe

A Westwood drive shaft spacer was bored out a couple of mm's.

If your thinking the cutting bit looks a bit high, i hadn't set the lathe up fully at this point

A little while later the first of two 5mm thick spacers was cut...

But more on them a bit later

I thought it might be a good idea to put the clevis hitch on the back of the trans, just to check there was plenty of space for it.

Oh, the bent clevis hitch....

It's what happens when you don't notice the hitch has dropped and you only find out when the WH wont turn left because the hitch is pushing against the trailer draw bar that's behind you

Back to the grind, this time a few notches.

Notches for... 2ft of slightly rusty scaffold pole.

Just right for mounting the rest of the roll bar on with plenty of space for the seat and driver

Oh, remember those 5mm spacers...

well, they now look like this, but more on them next time

[KyBlue 652]

Great update!!!

[Sparky-(Admin) 19,439]

Absolutely great reading Ian!!

And as usual your project is coming together real nice, but I have to ask this....."What prompted the rollbar build??" Did you flip this tractor? Any pics ??

Mike..........

[Rollerman 290]

"What prompted the rollbar build??"

Ian isn't this the tractor you are working on makeing into a 6X6?

If so...I think Mike should be asking...who is going to draw the "short straw" & test the roll bar.

Ian really enjoying following another buildup from you...was feeling inspired even today & played with my arc welder even. :banghead:

[saguaro 0]

Looks good. I'd kill to have a lathe and torch. Dont know whare I'd put um. :banghead:

[Stigian 1,234]

Great update!!!

Scott

"What prompted the rollbar build??" Did you flip this tractor? Any pics

No photo's of a flipped tractor Mike, as so far (he says with fingers crossed) all my 'orses have stayed on their wheels so far

But there's always that "well one might get flipped one day", thought. And as the 312 gets the most use and abuse it makes sense to fit the roll bar onto that

Ian isn't this the tractor you are working on makeing into a 6X6?

You'd be right there Stephen , but while Im selling the last of my old Westwood parts to pay for the project 6x6x6 parts Im going to need, i thought i might as well build the bottom half of the roll bar on a Wh that's at a nice handy working height and transfer the lot over to the 312 when it's ready.. Which may well be today

Ian really enjoying following another buildup from you...was feeling inspired even today & played with my arc welder even.

Happy to inspire you

Isnt this arc welding great on a cold day, it soon warms you up

Looks good. I'd kill to have a lathe and torch. Dont know whare I'd put um.

Thanks Matt

Space in an workshop is over rated, the more space you have the more stuff you find to fill it, so you need more space again

Or is that just say saying i need to tidy up the Workshack a little :banghead:

[T-Mo-(Moderator) 4,337]

Ian,

As always great reading and great pics. Oh, and the work isn't bad either. :banghead:

[HorseFixer 2,012]

Ian you do good work! Nice pics and tutorial!

Cheers Duke

[Stigian 1,234]

:lol: for all the great comments guys

Bit of a big update this time, so draw your chairs closer to the pc and get comfortable this might take a little while to get through

Right, back to those 5mm spacer thingys..

As you might of guessed they slot onto the hitch pin on the back of the trans.

Yet another old pipe bender got cut up to link the spacers to the rest of the roll bar mounting frame. I didn't ever use the pipe benders so i didn't feel bad about cutting them up

A little bit of spanner work soon had the all the metal work unbolted from the back of project 6x6x6 for final welding..

HHmmm the left hand bit of blue pipe might not be quite square

Oh well, not straight but strong enough for the job

You might just be able to see the small bits of box section that link the blue pipe to the main bits of green-ish large box..

The big question is... will it fit onto the back of the 312-8

Almost is the answer..

The left hand hitch pin mount didn't quite line up to let the hitch pin go all the way through...

Must remember about heat distortion from stick welding in the future

Soon had it sorted though.. A quick cut and bend later has the pin going all the way through, a zap with the stick welder made sure it stayed put

[Rollerman 290]

Ian you must have some BIG gears in your head...or when they get spinning they stay spinning.

Looks pretty good....looking forward to seeing the roll bar itself.

Just a thought...the box section at the top of the axle tubes would be a great place to add a slide in or quick release weight box?

Yeah your probably way ahead of me. :banghead:

[Stigian 1,234]

Finally the time had come to build the actual roll bar part :banana:

A porta-cabin leg was just the ticket

It just needed cutting in the right places.

Smokin!!

It turned out the pipe had an inch odd of sawdust in the bottom carefully hidden by the "foot" of the porta-cabin leg.

A mixture of measuring, cardboard template, grinding and plenty of guess work had one of the 'bar uprights fitting like this

To copy the notch on the other pipes more cardboard came into play..

Just slide the cardboard onto the pipe making sure it's in the right place (guess who forgot to check and had to slice an extra inch off the height )

and spray with paint to mark out where to grind..

Speaking of grinding... Here's Garry sparking his stuff:D

A few tack welds later had the roll bar held in place.

Here's Garry testing it out for size.

Shame we couldn't find a white cat so Garry could complete his "Bald Bond Baddie" impression

The roll bar taken off for welding.

[Stigian 1,234]

Not being the sort of chap to waist anything, the "foot" of the porta-cabin leg was marked up and cut into four.

Time for another "action shot"

This time welding.

You wont be surprised to find out that the four bits of "foot" were welded into the corners of the roll bar.

Garry is getting this stick welding knack down to a fine art, this is some of his very neat welding

My welding is strong but no where near as neat

And that's about it for this build, a quick (quick so not to make it look too new) spray with a rattle can produced a kinda "lived in look" that matches the rest of the tractor and the lights got moved from the hood and wired in..

Of course the extra weight on the back did have one side effect

To finish off here's a few photo's of the finished roll bar on the 312-8.

The plow, harrow and duels were bolted on just to see how it looks.

all for reading, i hope you have enjoyed reading my build as much as I did building it :lol:

[KyBlue 652]

Awesome Project!! You sir do have some great Fab Skills and some really really good ideas!!

[Stigian 1,234]

Ian you must have some BIG gears in your head...or when they get spinning they stay spinning.

Looks pretty good....looking forward to seeing the roll bar itself.

Just a thought...the box section at the top of the axle tubes would be a great place to add a slide in or quick release weight box?

Yeah your probably way ahead of me.

Not sure if it's the big gears or the welding and paint fumes in my head Stephen

Nice idea on the weight box I was thinking maybe wheelie bars :lol:

[Butch 194]

Sure wish I had neighbors with those kinda tools and their kinda know how! :hide:

[canam1991 2]

now that looks sweet :hide: