LifeTrac II
Lifetrac / LifeTrac II
Contents
Overview
The LifeTrac II was a departure from the articulated steering design in LifeTrac I to a skid steer design. The tractor is powered by 2 Power Cubes and has 2 loaders - both on the front and on the rear of the tractor.
Design rational for this change involves greater lifting capacities, tighter steering in confined spaces, greater flexibility on lift height and a wider range of tool attachments. Unfortunately one of the downsides of a skid steer style tractor is that it is much harder on the ground than articulated steering tractors.
This page tries to capture the work done on the LifeTrac II for easy reference. Please go to the LifeTrac page for the latest version of the LifeTrac with more complete instructions.
Design Status
This version was prototyped with a loader arm at the front and the rear Sept 15, 2010. The design was then moved on to LifeTrac III where minimal changes occurred.
Technically the LifeTrac II is prototype 2 of 3 in the "design process". However with such a departure from the previous design, it should viewed as the start of a new design. It is easy to group LifeTrac II and III together but for the sake of wiki reorganization, they are separated.
Additional design work was done on a LifeTrac II - Mark 2 which was 26" shorter than the original LifeTrac II. However this version did not progress past the design stage so was never prototyped.
Research & Development
- Summary of Design - Great summary of the LifeTrac II with design rational from bugs found in LifeTrac I
- LifeTrac/Research_Development - Ongoing Research & Development for the LifeTrac skid steer design. This is a common page that is used for later versions of the LifeTrac as well.
- Motor Coupling - Initial proposal for Motor to Wheel Coupling strategy
- LifeTrac II - Mark 2 - Proposal for a shorter LifeTrac II
- Hydraulics Sketch
Build and Operate
Bill Of Materials
- Part Sourcing - Detailed Bill of Materials and some videos
- Hydraulics BOM - Shortened bill of materials for the hydraulics
- Material Cost - Materials cost of LifeTrac II build
Fabrication
- Frame Fabrication - Main frame sizes and hole locations.
- Frame Design Blog
- LifeTrac II Build - Full Videos and pictures of the complete build of the LifeTrac II
Operation
- Operation Video - Video of the LifeTrac II in operation
- Field Test - Field Testing the LifeTrac II lifting capabilities
