Homesteading as you age? What are the hacks?

[joel]

One of my best “hacks” is having sons who on occasion can be convinced to come out and help me with projects. Yesterday one son came out and helped me with a project that required mechanical skills and physical strength to complete. We often “butt heads” on such projects like we did yesterday, but in the end, we got it done.

I did that until my son became a responsible adult & went to tech school & got a full time job & does side work every week. So I have to bribe him with a dinner just to see him some weeks. At least he is not laying around the house living off me at 27 years old.

 

[Aerindel]

I tell ya what.....this little thing may be the greatest 'hack' to a middle aged homesteader with a bad hip:

Costs less than a cellphone, will climb most hills and so easy to ride anyone can do it.

 

[joel]

I tell ya what.....this little thing may be the greatest 'hack' to a middle aged homesteader with a bad hip:

Costs less than a cellphone, will climb most hills and so easy to ride anyone can do it.
View attachment 72896

GOT a link?

 

[Aerindel]

GOT a link?

Its a Coleman BT200, about $700-800 brand new, sold at a variety of places, or $900 on Amazon (I assume the price of shipping is rather high)

I've had one for about a month and so far think its worth every dollar. Its not a 4wheeler, but then it doesn't cost anything like what they do and is just a perfect little tool to get around on the homestead, even if its all on a steep hill like mine.

Mine is slightly modified with a larger sprocket for more torque getting up my hillside, and I built a custom front cargo rack for a little toolbox, although you can just buy those.

I have a few more mods in mind to make it a little more utilitarian but right out of the box I was using it everyday. It makes 'doing the rounds' down the greenhouse, up to the standpipe, down to the mailbox, etc just a lot faster and more fun.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Its a Coleman BT200, about $700-800 brand new, sold at a variety of places, or $900 on Amazon (I assume the price of shipping is rather high)

I've had one for about a month and so far think its worth every dollar. Its not a 4wheeler, but then it doesn't cost anything like what they do and is just a perfect little tool to get around on the homestead, even if its all on a steep hill like mine.

Mine is slightly modified with a larger sprocket for more torque getting up my hillside, and I built a custom front cargo rack for a little toolbox, although you can just buy those.

I have a few more mods in mind to make it a little more utilitarian but right out of the box I was using it everyday. It makes 'doing the rounds' down the greenhouse, up to the standpipe, down to the mailbox, etc just a lot faster and more fun.

View attachment 72898

Definitely cool and I could see some usefulness for my use with that thing. What is the range of that thing with just under a 1 gallon tank? How noisy is it compared to an ATV? If I had loaded backpack I would be at max load on hilly terrain. Thoughts on this? Curious as you said you modified the sprocket to get more torque.

 

[Jay]

Not much of a homesteader here, I have no animals except for my dog. I buy my firewood for the most part, cut, split, and delivered. Back issues, age, and COPD limits my activities. Bringing wood into the house I use a two wheel dolly which works well to handle the porch steps as well as I can lay it down with the wood so as to hold it till used. I do have raised garden area, but am going to start growing certain things using pails as I have heard it works well. I also have a two wheel cart for outside hauling. I have no motorized vehicles, etc, so I reckon I am old school for the most part. I have considered, rabbits, and chickens, but living in the mountains with bears, etc, I don't know the wisdom of this.

 

[Aerindel]

Definitely cool and I could see some usefulness for my use with that thing. What is the range of that thing with just under a 1 gallon tank? How noisy is it compared to an ATV? If I had loaded backpack I would be at max load on hilly terrain. Thoughts on this? Curious as you said you modified the sprocket to get more torque.

Range is about 30-35 miles on the dirt roads I've tested it on. Online people say 40-50 which could be true if you where on flatter ground.

Its about as loud as a lawnmower when up to full speed, pretty quiet at idle. It uses the same kind of motor and muffler as a small rototiller, water pump, generator, etc. So if you've ever run one of those 6.5 hp horizontal shaft motors, thats what it sounds like. The motor starts with a pull cord and so far as always started on the first pull.

The max load on the box is pretty much irrelevant. Concern about max load was the main reason I held off so long on buying one but then I found video after video on youtube of guys way over the posted weight limit shooting around their yards on them and decided to go for it and it seems to have no trouble with my 250lbs.

I often ride it with me, my daughter and my backpack which puts us 80lbs over the limit and we still have no trouble going up hills as long as we are on a road. It did struggle a little on the REALLY steep hills off road when loaded like that which is why I put a larger sprocket on it.

Out of the box it has a 50 tooth rear sprocket and a governor set to about 20 miles an hour max speed.

After having it for a couple weeks I put a 60 tooth sprocket on it, only about $20 on amazon and about a half hour work (you do need to make the chain about an inch longer too), which has the effect of lowering the gearing. This also lowers the max speed to about 16 so I re-adjusted the governor until it was back to about 20, which is plenty fast enough for what I use it for.

If what you want is more speed you can do the opposite with the gearing, or if you don't care about how high you rev the engine you can easily get 40mph out of these. Mine was doing 35 at one point when I was playing with the governor but I don't really think its a good rev these little engines that high so I just tweaked it until I was back to about 20 with the larger sprocket. But the way I have it set up, it will climb a 30º hill with 300lbs of riders on it. Yeah, its not meant for two riders but my daughter easily fits on it so I've been taking her on most of my rides.

I really didn't have to do anything too it at all but for me half the fun of something like this is playing with the mechanics of it. There is a huge aftermarket for parts, and people have done things like put turbos on them and raced them etc but if you just want to run around the woods you don't have to do anything to them to do that. A common modification is to fit them with a CVT transmission which will allow them to go much much faster on flat ground while still having low speed torque but I probably won't bother as really this isn't a 'go fast' machine for me but rather a 'go up hills easily machine'

 

[Alaskajohn]

Range is about 30-35 miles on the dirt roads I've tested it on. Online people say 40-50 which could be true if you where on flatter ground.

Its about as loud as a lawnmower when up to full speed, pretty quiet at idle. It uses the same kind of motor and muffler as a small rototiller, water pump, generator, etc. So if you've ever run one of those 6.5 hp horizontal shaft motors, thats what it sounds like. The motor starts with a pull cord and so far as always started on the first pull.

The max load on the box is pretty much irrelevant. Concern about max load was the main reason I held off so long on buying one but then I found video after video on youtube of guys way over the posted weight limit shooting around their yards on them and decided to go for it and it seems to have no trouble with my 250lbs.

I often ride it with me, my daughter and my backpack which puts us 80lbs over the limit and we still have no trouble going up hills as long as we are on a road. It did struggle a little on the REALLY steep hills off road when loaded like that which is why I put a larger sprocket on it.

Out of the box it has a 50 tooth rear sprocket and a governor set to about 20 miles an hour max speed.

After having it for a couple weeks I put a 60 tooth sprocket on it, only about $20 on amazon and about a half hour work (you do need to make the chain about an inch longer too), which has the effect of lowering the gearing. This also lowers the max speed to about 16 so I re-adjusted the governor until it was back to about 20, which is plenty fast enough for what I use it for.

If what you want is more speed you can do the opposite with the gearing, or if you don't care about how high you rev the engine you can easily get 40mph out of these. Mine was doing 35 at one point when I was playing with the governor but I don't really think its a good rev these little engines that high so I just tweaked it until I was back to about 20 with the larger sprocket. But the way I have it set up, it will climb a 30º hill with 300lbs of riders on it. Yeah, its not meant for two riders but my daughter easily fits on it so I've been taking her on most of my rides.

I really didn't have to do anything too it at all but for me half the fun of something like this is playing with the mechanics of it. There is a huge aftermarket for parts, and people have done things like put turbos on them and raced them etc but if you just want to run around the woods you don't have to do anything to them to do that. A common modification is to fit them with a CVT transmission which will allow them to go much much faster on flat ground while still having low speed torque but I probably won't bother as really this isn't a 'go fast' machine for me but rather a 'go up hills easily machine'

Thanks for that update! I seen Sportman’s Warehouse carrying some of Coleman’s other mini-bikes so I know I can get one from there. My problem will be convincing the wife that it would have practical uses around the compound other than me having a blast! I suppose I could put a chain on the rear wheel for some winter use.

 

[viking]

I think they call them Goats around here, they seem to be made really good.

 

[Aerindel]

Thanks for that update! I seen Sportman’s Warehouse carrying some of Coleman’s other mini-bikes so I know I can get one from there. My problem will be convincing the wife that it would have practical uses around the compound other than me having a blast! I suppose I could put a chain on the rear wheel for some winter use.

Thats where I got mine. In my case my wife talked me into it. I think she is trying to get ride of me...or maybe just tired of me complaining about having to walk up and down the hill ten times a day.

There are like four different models of coleman minibike that all work the same way, my specific model has the heavier frame, and front shocks, which I think is the way to go over the slightly cheaper models with thinner tubing and no shocks. They made a slightly nicer version than mine, the RB200, which has a rear disk brake instead of a drum brake, but I don't think it really makes much difference as my brakes seem to work fine even when going down hills that are too steep to drive up.

I'm much in the same boat in trying to justify it as practical. Its unquestionable fun, but I usually don't spend that much money on fun. I do genuinely find it useful though for all the little errands around the homestead, or the situation where you hike up to the top of the hill and find out you forgot to bring the 10mm wrench you needed up there etc.

Really, if I had known about these 10 years ago, I would have gotten one. There is no question that a proper quad or UTV is a lot more useful, but those are also a lot more expensive, and can be expensive to fix. One of the things I really like about the coleman mini bike is that all the parts are pretty much off the shelf generic components and not expensive. Coleman makes a big deal that they have like 5,000 service locations for these bikes but really there is nothing on it that you couldn't order off amazon and fix yourself in under an hour.

As for snow, people have made their own studded tires for them, which is something I plan to do for winter

 

[Peanut]

I concur, mine's older, maybe 8 years. It's still fires right up. I change the plug/oil etc, take good care of it.

When I first got it I had several horses. Say, I notice something odd up in the high field, cows acting funny or there was wind during the night and I had a mile of fences to check... It'd take me a half and hour to get a horse to the house and saddle him. If I hadn't ridden him in a couple of weeks he'd be a pain in the butt! and it'd take longer so I'd usually walk.

This scooter was great for quick errands, say 400yrds away. It starts right up and I'm away. I can check a half mile of fence in the time it takes to ride that far.

The most surprising benefit was hunting for new born calves. We have about 35acres in timber here. It's better than a 4-wheeler for maneuvering in thick timber.

Negatives - The headlight, 12vdc. Mine is fed power directly from a small generator. I would rather rely on moonlight. It's only bright at full throttle. If you stop or slow down it almost goes off. I used it twice at night. The first time I didn't die, the second I almost did!

The light destroys my night vision making it worse than no light. It's bright then dim, bright then dim. The last time I went out I was going fairly slow downhill on a cow path. Riding the brake, looking down at tree roots across the path. My light had dimmed... I was standing up on the pegs and I clothes lined myself on a dogwood tree leaning across the path. The tree didn't hurt. Landing flat on my back did! knocked the wind out of me. I'm to old for that crap.

Mine is weak on steep hills, wish it had a little more engine. (6.5hp) Mine's the MB200 sold by TSC. They want $900 now, I paid about $450. Mine has a fake gas tank I keep a few tools in but still wish I had a rear rack to carry a few more items.

I'm very happy I got it... I still use it some, not as much since I don't see after the cows now, except when they get out.

Hey @Aerindel Do you still have the link for that sprocket? I didn't know I get buy a different one.


Edit to add... I have an issue on mine with both the throttle and brake cable sticking if I don't ride it for a while. (lots of humidity here)

 

[Aerindel]

Hey @Aerindel Do you still have the link for that sprocket? I didn't know I get buy a different one.

This is the one I got:


You will need to make the chain a little longer. Our bikes use 420 chain. You can pretty cheaply just make a new chain, or add new master links to your existing chain until its long enough. You have to add something like 1.5-2" of chain for the larger sprocket.

This is will also make your bike a little slower unless you modify the governor. The easiest way is to just run a zip tie through the governor spring to limit how far it will stretch. If you keep from stretching at all you will double the speed, which I think is probably not great for the engine but if you just tighten it part way, you can get back up to stock speed while still having the extra torque.

I also converted my headlight to LED, which doesn't completely eliminate the dimming while idle, but helps. The onboard generator makes about 20volts AC, so if you want to convert to an LED you have to wire in a rectifier, I got a generic one, again off amazon for about $20, and stuck it inside the existing headlight bucket. This would also let me charge a small battery, which I plan to hook up at some point and which would fix the headlight dimming and brightening. I drive quite a bit at night and always have my 1000 lumen headlamp on which is honestly brighter than the headlight.

I also want to experiment with seeing if it makes enough juice to run an LED floodlight for some real light at night.