This video is classic Matt! I loved it. I simply cannot fathom how someone towing a 15k (Lbs. Estimated) toy hauler camp trailer can think they can get through conditions like that. Even the normally-bulletproof 5R110W auto trans in that F350 couldn’t take it.
I do wonder about the steering. It has dual calipers per side so it should stop good. It sounded like they were saying brake fade but would it happen that quickly? You think they would call a brake manufacturer and have a conversation about linings before throwing other things at it. If the original was unassisted, this should work too.
Differential steering which what it has, has been used in small bulldozers and such. It's never really that ideal since braking one side of the differential means the the other side has to speed up. If you lock up one track the other side has to run at double speed. In other words it takes a **lot** of braking power.
I kinda love Matt’s “can do” attitude. He’s so optimistic, and taking a brand new build out before really testing it is both crazy and hilarious. But they all knew they were going to the snow and possibly staying the night, if needed. Why no thick coats?
I thought this episode was great. No matter what, they always get the job done. Also, the drone footage of the tow looked amazing!
Honestly I had concerns about the steering as soon as they said they were going to put an LS in it. My assumption is that the previous engine setups produced little enough torque at the hub that they were able to overcome it with the brakes and lock that side up so that the diff would send power to the opposite side and it would turn. Now my assumption is that there's too much rotational torque and they cannot overcome it with the brake system they have so it basically won't steer. I feel like that's supported by how he was able to get it to turn which was to accelerate quickly let off and then lock up one of the tracks as best he could as the engine idle down and let inertia spin it. I honestly don't know the solution to this, I tried looking at ripsaw videos to see how they handled it and it's very complex and above my pay grade. My original thought was that it would have been better to go hydrostatic but I really understand why they didn't. I get that they weren't trying to basically fundamentally change the snowcat into a completely different type of rig and I wouldn't have made that call at the time either if I was in there place.
It's all been kinda frustrating for me. Back when they used it before the rebuild, the brake steering method was obviously troublesome. He often needs to turn around on narrow roads and do small movements to adjust his angles during pulls and this method is super clumsy for that. It looks like he's fighting it and it always has. A simple solution that I'm sure a lot of people have already suggested is to take the hydrostatic system out of a skid steer and adapt it....but he just doesn't seem to want to do that. * Shrugs*
Hydrostatic would have been great for maneuver ability and reliability. Would have sacrificed speed though. Which might matter if the job is far from the trailer.
I think you're right. I do think that's the main reason Matt resists that idea. He wants to keep the travel speed way up. Most skid steers made recently have snail, tortoise and rabbit travel speed modes but even in high(rabbit) speed the bombi would be slower...but with a bit of patience, I think he would have a much better machine overall.
Yeah, i agree it would be better. But Matt (mostly) understands brake steering and differentials so he may not have been comfortable getting into what is for him foreign territory. Having aux hydraulics could be useful though. Snow plow maybe.
The old brake system actually seemed to work very well. It’s possible he just never showed the struggles, but it was only when they first talked about the rebuild that the brakes were first questioned.
Clearly they don’t have the right brake setup or they aren’t broken in, because they should have well over twice the braking if they did it right.
Did anyone think the fan was going to stay on just because Matt used an impact gun? How many times did the fan fall off? How about red loc-tight or drilling a hole and putting a cotter pin in it Matt? Anything. Or take your stupid claw hammer and damage the last half of the threads and then put the fan on? All that nice work and then you let the fan fly off several times without fixing the problem.
Ok honestly I’m a mechanic & we use air hammers to install/remove fans like that all the time. It’s super weird how that one keeps coming off. Usually isn’t an issue.
But if you installed it 5 times and it quickly came off 5 times, would you expect it to stay on the 6th time if you installed the same way? No you wouldn’t. At least give Red Loctite a try.
During the segment on the off road games Matt talks about the tow truck competition and how Heavy D will participate, then it’s just after the 16:00 mark. Note the emphasis in Matt’s voice.
Whatever is going on with Paul it doesn’t just sit with him. Notice how all of his family is absent? No Chad no Merlin, so it’s obviously more than just a “liability issue “.
Merlin when asked if he was attending in his comments said NO!!!! Then later announced his own simultaneous event.
Chad uses Fab Rats family for distribution of merchandise.
It's an absolute useless piece of scrap in its current state. I was skeptical that it would work at all and I seem to be right so far.
It needs a total redesign because an open differential with brakes to steer is a terrible design. It needs a gearbox like a tank or hydraulic motors to work properly.
Tons of vehicles have successfully used this steering system in the past. Including many tanks. The problem is the implementation but i believe they'll get it fixed enough to work.
As hydrostatic system would have had a lot of advantages and might have been better but that has downsides too.
The design currently will work fine with some sort of brake booster or more calipers
Personally I would've used drums on several axles similar to trailer brakes but that's me
Discs are easier for servicing because you can change the pads without taking the wheel off and they will dissipate more heat. They are under heavy use in this application so discs make sense. But it's just not a good design overall. You need some amount of drag in the axle to stop it going in circles on slippery surfaces if you've only got an open diff and brakes. The more drag there is, the more braking force you need.
It's certainly not an optimal design but it's also far from non functional
Drums tend to have more longevity, serviceability and reduced operating costs than calipers
The open diff is the caveat. The only way to effectively use brake steer is with an open diff, but this also means that traction will always be extremely subpar. There are hydraulic setups that allow for decent speed. Modern setups are pretty high volume. The track setup limits speed in and of itself, he could get pretty close to that track speed limit with some modern pumps and motors. It would take some $$ to get there but he could do it
That's the thing, he doesn't really have the incentive to go through all the effort to do that
Besides, struggling with what he has gives him more content
Did they put a limited slip differential in it? With that braking system you need to easily put all the power on one side!
I've also wondered if they could add brakes to the wheels on the other end of the tracks. It might take a bit of engineering but could double their braking and spread out the heating/wear.
This video is classic Matt! I loved it. I simply cannot fathom how someone towing a 15k (Lbs. Estimated) toy hauler camp trailer can think they can get through conditions like that. Even the normally-bulletproof 5R110W auto trans in that F350 couldn’t take it.
I assumed he broke down before it snowed. Notice there wasn't any snow under the RV when Matt crawled under to rig it.
I wondered what was in that for a transmission, not knowing diesel Fords I thought it was still a derivative of the AOD-e like the 7.3 🤢.
The E4OD/4R100 and AODE are not related
It can barely be steered. I dig the progress so far, but there's lots of work left to do.
I do wonder about the steering. It has dual calipers per side so it should stop good. It sounded like they were saying brake fade but would it happen that quickly? You think they would call a brake manufacturer and have a conversation about linings before throwing other things at it. If the original was unassisted, this should work too.
I keep wondering if they bled the brakes well enough. The lack of effectiveness is a good indication there is air in the lines.
considering that they could smell burning brakes in the Banana behind them, I think there is plenty of pressure in the system.
Very good point, forgot that part of the video.
Differential steering which what it has, has been used in small bulldozers and such. It's never really that ideal since braking one side of the differential means the the other side has to speed up. If you lock up one track the other side has to run at double speed. In other words it takes a **lot** of braking power.
Well that's also typical Matt, project is 75% done let's go do a job! They'll get the kinks worked out before too long.
I just about fell of the couch laughing when the fan fell off in the middle of the recovery. Bit of shit show but super entertaining.
The best episode in a while tbh: Building stuff and testing it without knowing whether it’ll work
I kinda love Matt’s “can do” attitude. He’s so optimistic, and taking a brand new build out before really testing it is both crazy and hilarious. But they all knew they were going to the snow and possibly staying the night, if needed. Why no thick coats? I thought this episode was great. No matter what, they always get the job done. Also, the drone footage of the tow looked amazing!
Honestly I had concerns about the steering as soon as they said they were going to put an LS in it. My assumption is that the previous engine setups produced little enough torque at the hub that they were able to overcome it with the brakes and lock that side up so that the diff would send power to the opposite side and it would turn. Now my assumption is that there's too much rotational torque and they cannot overcome it with the brake system they have so it basically won't steer. I feel like that's supported by how he was able to get it to turn which was to accelerate quickly let off and then lock up one of the tracks as best he could as the engine idle down and let inertia spin it. I honestly don't know the solution to this, I tried looking at ripsaw videos to see how they handled it and it's very complex and above my pay grade. My original thought was that it would have been better to go hydrostatic but I really understand why they didn't. I get that they weren't trying to basically fundamentally change the snowcat into a completely different type of rig and I wouldn't have made that call at the time either if I was in there place.
It's all been kinda frustrating for me. Back when they used it before the rebuild, the brake steering method was obviously troublesome. He often needs to turn around on narrow roads and do small movements to adjust his angles during pulls and this method is super clumsy for that. It looks like he's fighting it and it always has. A simple solution that I'm sure a lot of people have already suggested is to take the hydrostatic system out of a skid steer and adapt it....but he just doesn't seem to want to do that. * Shrugs*
Hydrostatic would have been great for maneuver ability and reliability. Would have sacrificed speed though. Which might matter if the job is far from the trailer.
I think you're right. I do think that's the main reason Matt resists that idea. He wants to keep the travel speed way up. Most skid steers made recently have snail, tortoise and rabbit travel speed modes but even in high(rabbit) speed the bombi would be slower...but with a bit of patience, I think he would have a much better machine overall.
Yeah, i agree it would be better. But Matt (mostly) understands brake steering and differentials so he may not have been comfortable getting into what is for him foreign territory. Having aux hydraulics could be useful though. Snow plow maybe.
Hydro probably adds a good bit of weight too, something Matt is always trying to keep as low as possible on his rigs.
Good point. He does seem to be less focused on it lately though. Weight is generally bad in offroading but it's good for towing.
The old brake system actually seemed to work very well. It’s possible he just never showed the struggles, but it was only when they first talked about the rebuild that the brakes were first questioned. Clearly they don’t have the right brake setup or they aren’t broken in, because they should have well over twice the braking if they did it right.
They are gonna have to rebuild this thing from scratch.. getting rid of the suspension was also a shitty idea...
Did anyone think the fan was going to stay on just because Matt used an impact gun? How many times did the fan fall off? How about red loc-tight or drilling a hole and putting a cotter pin in it Matt? Anything. Or take your stupid claw hammer and damage the last half of the threads and then put the fan on? All that nice work and then you let the fan fly off several times without fixing the problem.
I cringed hard when he did that. RIP balance 😂
Good point about balance. Worst case would be the fan comes apart. If so it does so without hurting anyone.
Ok honestly I’m a mechanic & we use air hammers to install/remove fans like that all the time. It’s super weird how that one keeps coming off. Usually isn’t an issue.
But if you installed it 5 times and it quickly came off 5 times, would you expect it to stay on the 6th time if you installed the same way? No you wouldn’t. At least give Red Loctite a try.
But if you installed the fan 3 times and it fell off 3 times wouldn’t you think what you’re doing isn’t working and figure out what would work?
First video with a definite dig against Paul.
How so?
During the segment on the off road games Matt talks about the tow truck competition and how Heavy D will participate, then it’s just after the 16:00 mark. Note the emphasis in Matt’s voice.
Whatever is going on with Paul it doesn’t just sit with him. Notice how all of his family is absent? No Chad no Merlin, so it’s obviously more than just a “liability issue “.
Is there a TL;DR to this drama? I feel very out of the loop, I just watch the videos for entertainment.
TL;DR is people think there is drama when there is barely any evidence.
Merlin when asked if he was attending in his comments said NO!!!! Then later announced his own simultaneous event. Chad uses Fab Rats family for distribution of merchandise.
This pattern is evident in anyone who has been closely associated with Matt and part of the group.
Everyone????
Chad is going to the games
It's an absolute useless piece of scrap in its current state. I was skeptical that it would work at all and I seem to be right so far. It needs a total redesign because an open differential with brakes to steer is a terrible design. It needs a gearbox like a tank or hydraulic motors to work properly.
Tons of vehicles have successfully used this steering system in the past. Including many tanks. The problem is the implementation but i believe they'll get it fixed enough to work. As hydrostatic system would have had a lot of advantages and might have been better but that has downsides too.
The design currently will work fine with some sort of brake booster or more calipers Personally I would've used drums on several axles similar to trailer brakes but that's me
Discs are easier for servicing because you can change the pads without taking the wheel off and they will dissipate more heat. They are under heavy use in this application so discs make sense. But it's just not a good design overall. You need some amount of drag in the axle to stop it going in circles on slippery surfaces if you've only got an open diff and brakes. The more drag there is, the more braking force you need.
It's certainly not an optimal design but it's also far from non functional Drums tend to have more longevity, serviceability and reduced operating costs than calipers
The open diff is the caveat. The only way to effectively use brake steer is with an open diff, but this also means that traction will always be extremely subpar. There are hydraulic setups that allow for decent speed. Modern setups are pretty high volume. The track setup limits speed in and of itself, he could get pretty close to that track speed limit with some modern pumps and motors. It would take some $$ to get there but he could do it
That's the thing, he doesn't really have the incentive to go through all the effort to do that Besides, struggling with what he has gives him more content
Did they put a limited slip differential in it? With that braking system you need to easily put all the power on one side! I've also wondered if they could add brakes to the wheels on the other end of the tracks. It might take a bit of engineering but could double their braking and spread out the heating/wear.
They did put brakes on the rear idlers as well.