Which roller/tractor to choose for gravels ?

Raide Baron · Which roller/tractor to choose for gravels ?

Hi at all,

I'd like to buy my first steam tractor and I would like the best to ride on small gravels : do you rather recommend a tractor or a roller for that ?

And what about the guard to ground ? How can we do to improve its height ?

I'm thinking about a Wilesco D416 kit but I can change my mind.

My english isn't very good I'm afraid, so please don't kill me !

Wonderful site.

Andy

imho, a wilesco would be better because they have more power. I would go for the tractor but a roller should do it. As long as in resonably level you shouldn't have any problem.

And welcome to the forum

TRAPPERKEEPER

A wilesco should make it ok, but you may want to add tires or rubber bands to the wheels to help it out. A picture of the gravel could help us tell you if they can really make it over or not.

Welcome!

James

Welcome to the forums!

I see you're in Belgium?

Great country, with nice chocolate!

Don't worry at all about your English, it's perfectly fine, and we can understand it easily enough

I too would suggest a Wilesco Roller with rubber tyres!

All the best

James

IndianaRog

Hi Raide, welcome to our forum. Your English is fine...no problem.

I have a Wilesco roller and one thing to be aware of is the low clearance under the firebox...just a few millimeters. You could INCREASE that clearance by adding tires to the rims. Those are available from www.forest-classics.com, but tires would only add a couple of millimeters.

Depending on how smooth your gravel is, the Wilesco roller or traction engine might catch that firebox on the stones. Because the Wilesco is geared, it might be a bit more powerful than the Mamod TE's and rollers, but neither are very good on rough surfaces.

Hope this helps,
Roger

Raide Baron

Thanks, girls.

My gravel is 7/14mm calibered.

So go on for a Wilesco with rubber bandages for better grip and keep of guard increasing.

I could also have the firebox modified... eventually.

Raide Baron

Do you think it' s possible to fit Mamod Traction Tyres easyly on a Wilesco tractor ?

I' d like to have two sorts of transmission, powerfull or fast as a Mamod one.

IndianaRog

Raide,

If you put tires on your Wilesco...you need the slightly larger size Forest Classics makes for Wilesco traction engines. I ground a groove into one of the tires so that I could run a spring belt off a pulley on the flywheel when desired. This allows normal geared running (slow, more realistic speed) or band to wheel running (fast like a Mamod). The engine will have more power when run under geared drive, but higher speed when drive belt is hooked to the wheel. I DON'T think belt to wheel will work on gravel however, too much resistence as the wheels try to go over the bumpy gravel.

cheers,
Roger

Raide Baron

No problem, Roger, it's not for gravel I need more speed... but on the road with the new radiocontrolled system...

Did you have to change axis for pulley adaptation ?

If you did, where did you find or buy those parts ?

I' ve got another project : adapt this tractor like a primitive logging loco "free style"...

But have you got a idea of this tractor' s scale ?

Going to bed now, bye !

IndianaRog

Raide,

The Old Smoky comes standard with approximately 3 mm of axle extending out of the flywheel. I used a 25 mm diameter Wilesco pulley (taken from a spare lineshaft) and put it on that axle...held tight with the built in pulley grub screw (set screw). Since that pulley did NOT line up with the groove in the tire tread, I added another pulley "like" fitting by epoxying that fitting onto the face of the Wilesco pulley and adding a rubber O ring onto it's groove to improve traction for the drive belt.

The fitting I epoxyied onto the Wilesco pulley was made of brass and I got it from a hardware store...sold as a lamp part. I used other similar lamp parts to top off the headpiece AND create the appearance of a drain on the side of boiler...all epoxyied in place and holding well after 6-7 steamings to date.

If you look at the following post I made in November, you can see much more detail of how this all worked:

http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about7086.html&highlight=

I will be very interested in how you find the new RC unit for the Wilesco Roller...that should be great fun on a smooth road surface to operate it.

cheers,
Roger

Raide Baron

Nom de dieu, Roger !

I'm quite speechless...

What a fantastic transfiguration !

toxx

H'llo, Raide, and welcome to the forum!

If you're planning on buying a new roller or tractor, Mamod now makes an excellent slide-valve version of both.
Wonderful machine, wish I had one ...
Welcome from Vienna!
Tom

tmuir

Hi Raide, don't really have much I can add to your questions just thought I would welcome our first member from Belguim.

We are a friendly lot here and I hope you enjoy yourself, your English is certainly good enough for you to get your ideas across and thats all that matters.

So Welcome from Australia.

Cranko

Big welcome to thr forum from New Zealand mate , hope you enjoy it