Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

Since I have nothing else to do, I've decided to fabricate and install a ROPS on my 6520PS. (Ok, "6520" is my own imaginary model. TECHNICALLY it's a 4020PS with a fully removable loader, which I consider to be an upgrade over a 6020. So I call it a 6520.)

Anyway, what I really want is a shade canopy. But a shade canopy mounts to your ROPS, so first things first.

The verticals are made of 2" EMT, and the horizontal is 3" EMT. I began by putting two bends in the vertical members, the first bend to conform the the slope/angle of the trailing edge of the fenders, and the next bend to turn back upward so that the member stands mostly plumb. In reality, the vertical members are angled just a bit toward the back. But it looks natural enough. The bends don't look factory at all, but I can ignore them. The truth is, if I ever do roll this machine the EMT will bend. But I think it should be strong enough to keep the tractor from rolling fully upside down, and I think it will be strong enough to at least leave a protected/sheltered pocket for the operator to crawl out from.

But the EMT has to be bolted to more than the fenders, because in case of a rollover, the fenders themselves aren't adequate to support the ROPS. The bottom end of the verticals needs to tie into something more significant. At first I intended to run a heavier pipe down to the axle and fab a clamp to go around the axle tube. But in my case, the way I built the 3 point hitch, there happens to be a u-shackle that holds the front end of the lifting arms, and I was able to drill through the back face of that u-shackle, and bolt the bottom end of my "heavy" support pipe right to that face. So in a rollover situation, the heavy pipes are securely bolted to the meat of the 3 pt. hitch, and the 3pt hitch is heavily bolted to the frame. All I'm really asking the fenders to do is prevent the ROPS from pivoting backward, and I think they'll be ok for that. For the "heavy" support pipes, I bent some 1 1/4 schedule 40 steel pipe to around 30 degrees, and drilled a 1/2" hole into the lower end and welded a 1/2" nut inside there. A 1/2" bolt goes through the back face of the lift arm u-shackle and screws into that nut.
Then the heavy support pipe leans against the fender wall, where I drilled through the fender,the emt, and into the heavy pipe. The upper bolt hole has a 5/16 nut welded in place. There's another bolt about 8" lower down, but for that one I had to use a rivet nut, because I cant get way down in there with a welder. So two 5/16" bolts serve to clamp/sandwich the fender to the EMT to the heavy support pipe.
The final part is joining the horizontal 3" EMT to the two EMT verticals. For those kinds of joins, you can make a strong, decent looking joint by holesawing through one wall of the 3" pipe just big enough for the 2" pipe to slide through. Then you build an insert out of regular schedule 40 steel pipe that slips inside of and is welded to the 2" EMT. The top face of the insert is a hole-sawed slug from a piece of pipe, so it is outward-bowed such that it nestles against the inside wall of the 3" EMT. And from there you drill/tap/bolt that insert to the inner wall of the 3" EMT.

I intended to weld the upper joints all together after I bolted them together. But for this second I've just left them bolted together. I may weld them later, but I doubt it. In case of a rollover the strength of that joint isn't terribly critical, other than maintaining the spacing of the two verticals, and it will do that with no problem.

You can also see some extra welding around the upper end of the driver's side vertical, where I had to weld an extension onto it, because the reclaimed piece of EMT I was using was a bit too short. So I butt-joint welded on an extension, as well as a heavier inner sleeve to reinforce it there. I'll mount some LED lights up here, and I'll either buy or build a canopy to put up here.
But that's for another day.

Bob

Very neat! You're on a roll Bob!

ROP is not a bad thing, you hope you never need it, but.... Plus it looks cooler and is more of a project than putting an umbrella on a broomstick.

You will appreciate the sunshade . When the doors are off Frankie , the top acts as a sun shade . Makes a nice rain Hat too . So when you have nothing better to do . What you going to use to make the top out of . The factory built one are mostly plastic or fiber glass . I made mine out of a old piece of 1/4" lexan that was too scratched to use anymore . Heat formed it to shape and then sanded and painted it . Interested to see what you come up with .

Eugen wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 2:49 pm Very neat! You're on a roll Bob!

"on a roll". I see what you did there, Eugen!

Bob

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 5:30 pm You will appreciate the sunshade . When the doors are off Frankie , the top acts as a sun shade . Makes a nice rain Hat too . So when you have nothing better to do . What you going to use to make the top out of . The factory built one are mostly plastic or fiber glass . I made mine out of a old piece of 1/4" lexan that was too scratched to use anymore . Heat formed it to shape and then sanded and painted it . Interested to see what you come up with .

That's a great suggestion, David. I've been mulling it over. I can buy something workable, not amazing, for about $90. I can buy something very nice/just right for about $180. I thought of the translucent wavy roof panels, but I think they're too hokey looking. I have some 1/8 sheet steel that would be good and strong, but hard to work with and heavy. And I think perhaps dangerous. If iever I rolled the machine, it could come down on me like a cleaver. . I have a piece of lexan that's large enough, but I think it's less than 1/8" thick, so it doesn't have much inherent strength. I'd have to give it some structure to rest on. 1/4" lexan would be great, but I don't have a big enough piece right now, and the last time I priced 4x8 sheets of 1/4" lexan it was over $100, so I'd be better to buy something pre-made than that. Coro-plast plastic is too flimsy and won't hold up to UV. Street sign-style aluminum would be fine, but I don't have any.

I briefly considered poor-man's fiberglass (latex house paint over cotton duck canvas stretched/glued over 1" foam insulation board) but that's too hokey.
I briefly considered actual fiberglass, but again the expense would be well over $100.

The $90 canopy product is vinyl stretched over a tubing frame. It would cost me about $35 for the tubing (1/2" EMT) and around $15 for the vinyl. So for some labor and $50 I could make an acceptable product. But I would rather have a rigid canopy if I could.

So I'm still mulling it all over, hoping there's something my brain hasn't presented to me yet.

But I hadn't even thought of lexan, so thank you for that! Thinking of lexan makes me think of FRP. I might stop at Home Depot and get a feel for how rigid/self-supporting FRP would be...

hmm...

Bob

Looks great Bob!

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Ok, I think I may have found my canopy, and it's not FRP. FRP apparently cannot be cleanly bent. And it's not UV rated. So "no" to FRP.

But what about these?

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/grq/ ... 04505.html

cut a 55 gallon drum vertically and unfold it into a flat-ish arc shape.
cut it into a canopy shape, rounding the edges.
Paint it as desired.
Install rubber sheet metal edge protector around the canopy's perimeter.
https://www.amazon.com/Car-Door-Edge-Gu ... B07DKZRV2K


Make support brackets and install to ROPS.

Place the canopy on top of the support brackets and attach with drill-tip roofing screws.

Total cost $40 plus metal scraps, paint, and screws. A complete bargain. It should resemble this:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/ECOTRIC-Trac ... /465967089

I know that a barrel will spring open a little bit as soon as you vertically slice it. Any guesses/predictions on how cleanly I can flatten it out to a gentle arc? Is it just going to want to kink and crinkle and look awful?

Bob

Maybe a golf cart roof if you can find one cheap. @Jancoe 's doesn't look bad. the flat top, little one that Ford used to have on their small tractors would look good too.

or a barrel

@Jancoe can you post a picture of your canopy?

Bob

What about the plastic from one of those white smooth sided barrels, the ones without the ribs. Make a light frame work like that Walmart canopy. Don't know how it would take paint.

Timj wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 12:22 am What about the plastic from one of those white smooth sided barrels, the ones without the ribs. Make a light frame work like that Walmart canopy. Don't know how it would take paint.

Yep, good thought. If I could find a white one, or even one of those white poly square water tanks in the metal cage, I could use it, and just leave it translucent white.

Good idea. I'll poke around.

Bob

Looking good so far. But let's be honest, anything with those bends looking to fold is not a rops. It's nothing more than a roof over top. Its just to block the sun and give us a way to mount some lights to. Those bends with a pipe bender is not gonna do it. The radius is already crushed. Mine is made out of 3/4" or 1" emt? Simply a sunshade and light bar. One day I will have a true rops. (When I find time to properly bend up tubing with my bender.) Too many projects under fire. My roof is from a cb34 cab. The plastic windows were toast when I got the cab and decided I needed a roof and lights on my 6018lbh. Nice to keep the sun off you when your hard at work. The cb34 would have been a great roof if not for the backhoe controls. (Can get a little wet as the roof isn't long enough).

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Very nice looking, thanks for posting that.

You're right, this tubing was never truly stout, and the bends haven't helped. But give me a choice to rollover with or without it, and I'll definitely go on the "with" side.

But I'll admit I'm grasping to refer to it as ROPS.

I thought someone was saying you had used a golf car canopy, and I've seen those for sale used. But they seemed too large, so if one looked good I wanted to see what it looked like.

And yours does look good. Really nice neat work with clean bends, nice hardware and paint. Well done.

But as you alluded to, it isn't a golf car roof, so I still think a gc canopy is too large.

Thanks again,

Bob

Just for a reference. My 2006 Club car ds roof is 42w x 59l. The CB34 roof is 35.5w x41l. The cb34 roofs width is perfect and since i have the backhoe i couldn't get it to cover the controls. Its been on there for 2 years now. Cant imagine not having a sun shade and lights. Looking at the golf cart in the yard, that roof would look big and out of proportion. I'm sure there is some things out there that will fit and can be cut down. Is this what you had in mind doing?

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Exactly. I mean I'd love to just buy it, but I don't want to spend the money. IF a 55 gallon drum could be unrolled cleanly (and the more I think about it the more I think you'd need some kind of a slip-roll kind of mechanism) then it seems like you could produce that exact curved surface.

And then just bolt/screw/rivet it to a couple of brackets.

I have some 6" emt that I could cut to about 48" inches, insert some bearing end caps, and insert that in some kind of frame. And then create a couple of smaller countermanding rollers and make their gap adjustable so you can roll the tube through and every pass would cause the "tube" to flatten out just a little bit. Cycle it through ten or 15 times and you have a canopy lid.

But that's a lot of work and materials and effort just to save a couple hundred dollars.

Unless I went into the NorthWest Georgia Tractor Loader and Canopy business.

But I'm not feeling it.

Bob

An English wheel with a v-groove upper roller. That would do it. That would flatten out a barrel cleanly.

You'd need a smaller wheel on the upper and a larger wheel on the lower, and as those wheels squeezed nearer each other, they would force the curve out of the barrell "tube".

I do have some decent sized cast iron pulleys that would serve as rollers. Then I just need a heavy steel frame. Surely I have enough junk around here that I could cobble together something large and strong enough. I think I shall consider it for a bit.

Bob

Looking at this video: https://youtu.be/bV1gRu6bc_w?t=207 I think I'm overthinking it.

Cut the ends off, slice it lengthwise, and flatten it open with your two hands. It's not as strong as I imagined. You can just pull it open.This guy isn't being too careful, but if you were careful it looks like you can leave it in a very clean gentle arc.

I think I may actually try it.

Meanwhile, I have a bead on a set of 42" forklift forks. The forks I have are homemade from 2.5" steel bars standing up on edge, welded to a back/vertical frame. They're pretty strong, I've picked up at least 600 or so lbs with them. But when that base corner weld does fail, at whatever force it takes, it will be instant, the broken off fork will basically fly off of there. And that could cause damage or injury. So real forks would make me more comfortable.

And real forks taper to an edge so you can slip under heavy things. My current forks are 2.5" high even at the tip, so you can only get under things that already have a gap underneath them.

BUT: They're 42" long. That's longer than I really want. But I think they'd still be workable, as I wouldn't pick up anything truly heavy until I had gotten it to the back of the forks. But does anyone have any experience with that kind of thing? Any advice?

Bob

I've got 42" forks on my 646. When I was in the market, I was closing down my warehouse, and both my machines had 42's on them, so that is what I was used to, and also what I was used to loading pallets for. On a 6xx, they're a little long when you're in tight quarters, but I still think they were the right choice for me. I can't lift any more weight with the longer fork, but the extra 8" over a 36" option will keep more pallets from their tipping point. Since I work off road, tipping is more of an issue than max weight these days...

I've seen some pickup rear bed caps get repurposed for trailers and I was thinking of cutting one down for a tractor. To many projects in the way to get to it. I see them for free quite often in my neck of the woods!

Keep the Peace
Harry

I made the mistake of telling the that I intended to buy a set of commercial forks.



Rookie-level unforced error.

You keep that up your gonna get moved down to triple A!
Now you have to sneak them in at night.

All this talk about the real forks make want a pair even more.

My forks are 36". Wish I'd have 42" but I've put the 36" through alot of work. They have moved several hundred logs. They have also kept me out of trouble. The 36" does the job for me though. Mine were meant for kubota and I cut them up to fit.

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thebuildist wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:53 pm I made the mistake of telling the that I intended to buy a set of commercial forks.



Rookie-level unforced error.

This is my simple multipurpose head . It holds my bucket . Have 2 tubes ( forks ) seen that are now bevelled at the front and stepped down at the back to be flush with the bottom of the receivers. I put a trailer receiver in the centre top for easily manoeuvring trailers . I use it all the time to pull t-post . What I lack in width adjustment and looks it makes up for versatility in other ways . At the time it only cost me $40 in material . Just ideas for those on a budget .

Ok, it turns out that ain't no dummy. I held off on buying the set for 175, based on a request to "think about it overnight". Fair enough.

And now this morning, there's a set available the same distance away but for $50!

Smart woman I got there.

Bob

thebuildist wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:58 am Ok, it turns out that ain't no dummy. I held off on buying the set for 175, based on a request to "think about it overnight". Fair enough.

And now this morning, there's a set available the same distance away but for $50!

Smart woman I got there.

Bob

That's got to be the deal of the day!!! go go go

I've done "went went went!"

42" forks for $50. "Back rest" for another $10. It's all bent up, but in a way that will be easy to fix.

Hooray for me!

Bob

thebuildist wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 2:10 pm I've done "went went went!"

42" forks for $50. "Back rest" for another $10. It's all bent up, but in a way that will be easy to fix.

Hooray for me!

Bob

Yaaaay! Happy you got it!!!

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:58 am 20200309_134032.jpg20200309_133715.jpg
This is my simple multipurpose head . It holds my bucket . Have 2 tubes ( forks ) seen that are now bevelled at the front and stepped down at the back to be flush with the bottom of the receivers. I put a trailer receiver in the centre top for easily manoeuvring trailers . I use it all the time to pull t-post . What I lack in width adjustment and looks it makes up for versatility in other ways . At the time it only cost me $40 in material . Just ideas for those on a budget .

That's a lot of benefit for only$40!

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 7:58 am 20200309_134032.jpg20200309_133715.jpg
This is my simple multipurpose head . It holds my bucket . Have 2 tubes ( forks ) seen that are now bevelled at the front and stepped down at the back to be flush with the bottom of the receivers. I put a trailer receiver in the centre top for easily manoeuvring trailers . I use it all the time to pull t-post . What I lack in width adjustment and looks it makes up for versatility in other ways . At the time it only cost me $40 in material . Just ideas for those on a budget .

I really like your system Dave, it's simple and it works. I wish I could do something similar to you for my 644.

I went ahead and took the plunge. The jury is still out, I may or may not be happy with how it turns out.

But I bought a $20 barrel and $16 worth of rubber sheet metal edging.

I cut both ends off the barrel using an electric shear. I bought that for $10 at a flea market more than 5 years ago, and this is the second time I've used it. But for this job it was perfect.
Then I sliced the barrel lengthwise and cleaned the inside out. The barrel contained some kind of water soluble emolient, and its only warning label was "harmful to aquatic life". So I had to be careful not to let any of it wash into the yard or down to the stream. So I had to go through a bunch of paper towels to mop it up and wipe it clean.

Then I uncurled it with my hands and toes. That worked but the ends were curlier than the middle. So I laid it on the floor and put a 2x4 on one curled up end and rested the full weight of my shop press/welding cabinet on the 2x4. Then flattened it downward. That made a huge difference.

After working both ends, I got where I could flex it to the arc I want, but it wouldn't hold there.

So I ran some 1/2" EMT conduit through the pipe roller and gave it the desired arc. And then cut and welded that into a frame.
And then put about 75 lbs weight on the sheet to flatten it downward while I screwed in drill tip screws to attach it to the frame.
I've since painted both sides, and tomorrow after it's dry I'll apply the rubber edging and then decide how to mount it.

I'll post a few final pictures then.

I think it's going to look... only "ok". Not great. But not awful. There are so dents visible from its barrel days, and one large kink where it didn't uncurl cleanly.

I suppose for $40 invested I'll hopefully be happy enough.

Bob

thebuildist wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 10:58 am Ok, it turns out that ain't no dummy. I held off on buying the set for 175, based on a request to "think about it overnight". Fair enough.

And now this morning, there's a set available the same distance away but for $50!

Smart woman I got there.

Bob

And she ain't going to let you forget it either


Gordy

Well.....

Let's just say that doesn't know all the details about this set.

Details like that they exist. Or that I went and got them.

But she's bound to figure it out sooner or later...

thebuildist wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:30 pm Well.....

Let's just say that doesn't know all the details about this set.

Details like that they exist. Or that I went and got them.

But she's bound to figure it out sooner or later...

Oh she knows , she just hasn't figured out when to use it against you .

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:25 am

thebuildist wrote: ↑Fri Aug 19, 2022 9:30 pm Well.....

Let's just say that doesn't know all the details about this set.

Details like that they exist. Or that I went and got them.

But she's bound to figure it out sooner or later...

Oh she knows , she just hasn't figured out when to use it against you .

And then Bob will be grounded and we won't see him for awhile.

Once finds out, I may have to myself out of a hole!!!

But I was too to tell her!

Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.

Timj wrote: ↑Sat Aug 20, 2022 4:24 pm Sometimes it's easier to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.

Oh I am sorry dear , I didn't think you would mind .