The restoration of Kettenkrad 116714

Is the ground pressure pretty even along the tracks or does it lessen closer to the front of the machine?

It all depends on load.

Driver only, the steering brakes do have a bit of a response lag. I suspect this has a lot to do with wear and slop in linkages, but also the
brake shoes need to bite and make the Cletrac steering respond. The faster you are moving, the less the problem.

The vehicle's handling is very different 1 versus 3 persons on board. There is quite a C of G change, thus with 2 people on the back, it is tail
heavy and doesn't want to respond very well to normal steering, even less to brake steer. You would not think that it wouldn't matter for
brake steer, as the steering brake is proportioning power output to the tracks and regardless of C of G, one track going faster than the other
is all that matters. Apparently not.

Normal C of G is about 2" forward of the 2nd road wheel hub when nobody is on it.

When sitting on it, I am positioned effectively on the C of G line, full petrol tanks would move that forward, but not greatly.

Put 2 x 100kg people on the back and you have a large "moment arm" (ie. leverage).

I try to avoid having any more than 1 person on the back.
If you have 2 passengers, you need to adjust the steering brake settings, but it is a right pain
and if you forget how many turns of the L and R adjusters you made, whilst trying to find the correct settings, you now
have to rediscover the correct solo settings all over again when the bods get off.
Not worth the hassle.
It is one of those things, that once you get the steering brakes balanced and working nicely, you leave them alone and enjoy the handling.
 
Kettenkrad brakes
While we are talking brakes here are some pics of the stopping brakes that are rather large to stop such a hefty vehicle. The drive sprocket also containes the brake drum.


Kett drive sprocket with brake drum. The rollers are replaceable but looks like a serious amount of work to drill out pins and reweld, the rubber blocks are to prevent metal on metal contact on the sprocket/track there are a series of shims that slide in behind the blocks as they wear so 410mm space is maintained. And as the Germans loved making things complex there is a left and right (links und recht) sprocket.

Sprocket brake drum.

Getting all the small bits and pieces ship shape (stopping brakes).

Steering brakes
Looking rather nasty, that seal coming off the diff is a bit of a weakness, seems they always leak eventually and are a odd ball size, seems Splod and I came to the same fix he in Oz and I in Canada on our own.

Sometimes a little brute force goes a long way to get things done. Note the kett brake pedal to the left. All mechanical brakes on a kettenkrad and when I had the brake linings replaced I went with woven linings as they have great grip.


And all cleaned up.

Now to devote a weekend searching for the AWOL card.
splod, cover me man with some Oz kett pics.
 
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I have to wonder why they call it "Cletrac steering" when it first appeared on the Ruston Hornsby crawlers, if I'm not mistaken.

Sort of like calling compression engines "diesels" when Herbert Akroyd Stuart was the real inventor - and of fuel injection.

In 1892, Akroyd-Stuart patented a water-jacketed vaporiser to allow compression ratios to be increased. In the same year, Thomas Henry Barton (who later founded Barton Transport) at Hornsbys built a working high-compression version for experimental purposes, whereby the vaporiser was replaced with a cylinder head, therefore not relying on air being preheated, but by combustion through higher compression ratios. It ran for six hours - the first time automatic ignition was produced by compression alone.[citation needed] This was five years before Rudolf Diesel built his well-known high-compression prototype engine in 1897.

Diesel was, however, subsequently credited with the innovation, despite the adduced evidence to the contrary.
 
Hey, how about the whole article please?

Was this one of their sendups (aimed at Kettenkrads) or just something they
threw in without any further comment?
 
Hey, how about the whole article please?

Was this one of their sendups (aimed at Kettenkrads) or just something they
threw in without any further comment?
 
Are you referring to the top gear picture? It's from the tv show and it was a challenge for each presenter to build a cross country vehicle.

Hey, how about the whole article please?

Was this one of their sendups (aimed at Kettenkrads) or just something they
threw in without any further comment?
 
Thanks to both of you.

There is a bloke I know who is busting to buy a KK.

His wife is making him save up to buy a house first, so the KK has to wait (they are changing cities, so don't have to save up the whole price).

So I am going to send him that photo and suggest he contact Richard the Hamster and buy it until such time as he can afford a real KK.

That should be good for a bite.

Thanks.
Doug
 
Alright, enough of this crazy talk of souped up mobility scooters. Still no sign of the awol SD card so I will have to get some more real kettenkrad pics up and carry on. Stand by.
 
Dark Alley I will get this thread fired up again by the end of the week but have been making hay as the sun shines on the schwimmwagen, I can now add adjusting cable brakes on a Type166 Subject Matter Expert (SME) to my resume. Sadly I doubt the card is going to be found till it wants to be found and right now there is a HUGE gapping hole in the restoration timeline.
 
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