Mitsubishi mini cab van, Mattracks installation
- Thread starter m1west
- Start date
welded to the U bolt
Today the fat lady is singing. I finished the front brackets and did some testing, I drove it around the property up and down hills and some pretty steep ditches testing the anti rotation. The tracks never rubbed the body, everything seems to be working out with the original set up. After running it hard nothing broke or bent. I will continue to play with it around here and now cleaning it up. Next I will change the oil and tune it up. after it warms up the idle is set a little low at 500 rpm I will re set it at 800 rpm, after that its time to put it on the trailer and wait for snow. The van is going to be great for the winter cabin trips, at 1500# easy to tow so I don't have to store it up there that saves $110.00 a month. The room on the inside is great, plenty of room for the wife, dog and everything else. I still have the winch from the Suzuki but the remote and controls burned up.I plan to fabricate new bumpers with receivers so I can plug in a winch or tow something. I saw another set of used Camso tracks on an equipment auction, if they can be had cheap maybe there will be another Suzuki in the future. Having a truck up there that can handle the terrain was very helpful. A dump bed would be nice.
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Hi all, today I put a set of seat covers, front and rear to keep the dog from ruining them. When I went to start it after sitting 3 weeks or so the battery was low. So I made a trip to NAPA and picked up a garden tractor battery the same size with 230 CCA. After installing it, now it cranks over way faster than it ever did. We don't need any dead batteries off grid. Then I did some more testing around the property getting use to what gear to be using in different situations. There is one more thing I need to check, I want to pull the timing cover off and inspect the belt even if I don't change it this season.
Did some more testing around here. Either the Mattracks have less parasitic drag than the Camso tracks or the supercharged engine in the van makes a lot more power than the Suzuki. I drove it to my buddies house up the road today and it is much more zippy than the Suzuki and was able to pull 3rd gear up the hill. The Suzuki would not. The mountain got some snow this weekend, just a few inches but its a start.
They really weren't that bad at $4100.00, I really wanted the MAXI's but could not justify almost double the price at $7100.00 for a little longer track and 2 more bogie wheels on each side. If they were 25% more I would have bought them. I have a 2' gap between the front and rear tracks, the MAXI's would have nearly closed the gap so it would have been completely tracked under the van. There is 3-4 days of snow reported to come around Thanksgiving up on the mountain, hopefully I can go up there.
that is SO cool! i love it. i built a similar type of thing out of a pt cruiser that was pretty fun in the snow. I am curious as to how easy (or not) it is to steer. the mattrax seem to be engineered quite well but i wonder if they have the same steering issues that mine has.
will be looking forward to a report on how it performs.
great looking vehicle.
will be looking forward to a report on how it performs.
great looking vehicle.
Thanks, I've been busy with work and we haven't got much snow but next week looks promising, testing around the property it turns easily even on grass. The turning radius is about 15-20 feet. I will be loading it on the trailer soon and would like to make a trip right after the first of the year. I will take pictures and short video clips of the trip.
Its been snowing the last few days bit a colder bigger system moving in and snow forecasted on and off for a few more days. Today I took the Burned Suzuki tithe scrap yard then loaded the Minicab Van on the trailer. When it stops snowing I am planning to make a trip to the Mountain for a few days.
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I've not got to work with Matt T's due to there exorbitant cost. But all the brands I have you can roll the tracks around the shop in order to move them when off the machine. The tracks rotate on the pods quite easily..
Hi all, I made a trip to the cabin and was the maiden voyage for the track van, when we got there after waiting for the snow to stop for days, it was the same as last year. The snow turned to rain and melted most of the snow down low and the road was solid ice. We made it up but not without some slipping and sliding on the steeper par
ts, and there is plenty of 15-20 degree hills. It doesn't look that steep in the pictures but it is. Only had one pucker time though when going down a very icy steep grade early in the morning the day we went to town, It kept wanting to swap ends on the way down where I had to add power to keep it straight. Lucky there was no turn at the bottom of the hill. I just ordered 1000 screw in studs. The van did very well in everything else and had no problems with it except I blew a brand new air shock in the rear, 80# of air and had maybe 300# of gear in the back?? Not even close to capacity, must be a defect. Really liked the extra room over the truck I used last year, very comfortable. Also has plenty of power with the supercharged motor, it runs a little fat up there so I need increase the idle speed as it wanted to load up at low idle.
Not as bad as you think, ground pressure is .68 psiCool little vehicle!!! I always wanted one of those. Got the bombi instead cause I wanted more floatation in the snow. I thought about picking one of those up chopping it, and using the cab for my bombi instead of the stocker.
Nice work!!!
it weighs 1500# with tires I would say 1800# if you include the track weight. Supercharged 550 cc, I'm paraphrasing but I remember it being 84hp and 65 ft. pounds of torque come to mind. 4 speed manual with hi-lo transfer case.