Wide-Track ATV Built From Car Parts

1994 - Volume #18, Issue #5, Page #24

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Illinois farmer Butch Uhnken didn't want to spend the money for a commercial-built 4-wheeler so he built his own "wide-track" ATV using parts from a pair of junked Volkswagen cars.
"It's as wide as a car and has only 8 inches of clearance so it won't tip over easily," says Uhnken, of Jacksonville, who uses the rig for spot spraying in soybeans and to seed waterways and terraces.
Uhnken's ATV is equipped with 28-in. tall "fat tires" (12 in. wide) off a Deere small square baler in back and 12-in. Ford Pinto tires in front. A 20-gal. spray tank on back is powered by an electric pump. He can also mount an electric-powered grass seeder on back.
Both axles came off VW Beetles. Uhnken cut 3 ft. off a Super Beetle frame and then welded a steel plate across one end, welding the front axle on. He bolted another steel plate across the top of the frame to make a floor. Power is supplied by a new Kawasaki 2-cyl., 20 hp water-cooled engine - the same engine in Deere's 425 riding mower. The ATV's belt-driven, 4-speed manual trans-mission came from the Super Beetle and is geared down by a 2 1/2-in. double belt pulley mounted on the engine crankshaft and an 8-1/2 in. pulley mounted on the ATV's drive shaft. The original Volkswagen engine was mounted backward so Uhnken had to reverse the direction of the new engine. He solved the problem by bolting the input sides of two identical hydraulic gear pumps together in order to reverse direction. A pulley mounted on the output side of the pumps is used to belt-drive the transaxle.
"I can go almost anywhere without worrying about tipping over," says Uhnken. "The wheels are spaced 6 ft. apart and will straddle two 36-in. rows. I have 10 1/2 miles of road sides to spray so the wide track re-ally helps. Top speed is about 23 mph. It has the Volkswagen car's torsion bar sus-pension system, steering wheel, and steering gear so it drives just like a car. It also has the original foot throttle, clutch, and brakes. I wish it had a little more than 8 in. of clearance so I could use it in taller soy-beans. I paid $1,050 for the engine, $100 for the Super Beetle, and $200 for a new Deere tractor seat. My total cost was about $1,600. A 4-wheel ATV would have cost at least $4,000.
"I had been using a tractor-pulled trailer and spray tank to spot spray, but getting around all the drainage tile stand pipes and waterways and dams on our land was awkward and slow. One problem is that the radiator, which came out of an old Yugo car, is mounted right next to the driver's seat so the driver gets hot. I plan to move the engine back and mount the spray tank next to the seat."
The rig also has speedometer and oil and temperature gauges and is fitted with a rear-view minor.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Butch Uhnken, 25 W. Fair, Jacksonville, Ill. 62650 (ph 217 245-4359).

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Wide-Track ATV Built From Car Parts ATV'S ATV'S 18-5-24 Illinois farmer Butch Uhnken didn't want to spend the money for a commercial-built 4-wheeler so he built his own "wide-track" ATV using parts from a pair of junked Volkswagen cars. "It's as wide as a car and has only 8 inches of clearance so it won't tip over easily," says Uhnken, of Jacksonville, who uses the rig for spot spraying in soybeans and to seed waterways and terraces. Uhnken's ATV is equipped with 28-in. tall "fat tires" (12 in. wide) off a Deere small square baler in back and 12-in. Ford Pinto tires in front. A 20-gal. spray tank on back is powered by an electric pump. He can also mount an electric-powered grass seeder on back. Both axles came off VW Beetles. Uhnken cut 3 ft. off a Super Beetle frame and then welded a steel plate across one end, welding the front axle on. He bolted another steel plate across the top of the frame to make a floor. Power is supplied by a new Kawasaki 2-cyl., 20 hp water-cooled engine - the same engine in Deere's 425 riding mower. The ATV's belt-driven, 4-speed manual trans-mission came from the Super Beetle and is geared down by a 2 1/2-in. double belt pulley mounted on the engine crankshaft and an 8-1/2 in. pulley mounted on the ATV's drive shaft. The original Volkswagen engine was mounted backward so Uhnken had to reverse the direction of the new engine. He solved the problem by bolting the input sides of two identical hydraulic gear pumps together in order to reverse direction. A pulley mounted on the output side of the pumps is used to belt-drive the transaxle. "I can go almost anywhere without worrying about tipping over," says Uhnken. "The wheels are spaced 6 ft. apart and will straddle two 36-in. rows. I have 10 1/2 miles of road sides to spray so the wide track re-ally helps. Top speed is about 23 mph. It has the Volkswagen car's torsion bar sus-pension system, steering wheel, and steering gear so it drives just like a car. It also has the original foot throttle, clutch, and brakes. I wish it had a little more than 8 in. of clearance so I could use it in taller soy-beans. I paid $1,050 for the engine, $100 for the Super Beetle, and $200 for a new Deere tractor seat. My total cost was about $1,600. A 4-wheel ATV would have cost at least $4,000. "I had been using a tractor-pulled trailer and spray tank to spot spray, but getting around all the drainage tile stand pipes and waterways and dams on our land was awkward and slow. One problem is that the radiator, which came out of an old Yugo car, is mounted right next to the driver's seat so the driver gets hot. I plan to move the engine back and mount the spray tank next to the seat." The rig also has speedometer and oil and temperature gauges and is fitted with a rear-view minor. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Butch Uhnken, 25 W. Fair, Jacksonville, Ill. 62650 (ph 217 245-4359).

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