I am hoping to buy and resurrect a 1950's skip loader with a front scoop and rear drag box that I noticed in a wooded shaded area past the end of a long dirt road. I saw it while on a walk about 7 years ago, was interested, but could conceive of no use or storage space for it at the time.
Now that I own the 3.7 acres that came with my barn, I have both a use and space for it. I found out that the owner had the whole thing rebuilt 9 years ago, but inexplicably had it delivered with a new flat rear tire.
This combined with his subsequent discovering that if he ever used it to improve the very bumpy dirt road that he lives off the end of, that he would be legally responsible for maintaining the whole road forever, persuaded him to let it sit where it is, never used in all these years.
I know that the engine will spin over with a new battery, so feel confident that I can get it running, and expect a good deal on it.
I bring all this up because in addition to it proving invaluable at saving me many hours per season on weed control, and becoming handy at reconfiguring the overall fairly level lot, I would like to use it for the purpose for which it was originally intended - creating and maintaining a dirt road. In this case, a one way micro car road. This will allow myself as well as visitors to become enabled to drive my smaterring of micros, as well as the 8 Sans permis vehicles that are likely the better part of the way to the Panama Canal by now.
I live but a 1/4 mile away on a very low trafficked 60' wide residential street, and admit to tearing around my neighborhood in my other often unlicenced micro vehicles from time to time, risking limb more than life at worst due to the lower speeds attainable by these vehicles. But it is my health at risk, not any body else's.
With the wide low trafficked streets, you'd really have to work at it to engineer a collision, and no children playing in the streets, as the lots are fairly large. The only thing I worry about is making too much noise, being stopped by the Police, or breaking down further away from my drive than I feel like pushing the car home. So far no neighbor complaints or Police pull overs, as everyone seems so overwhelmed by the unusual spectacle as to be thrust into a state of near hypnotic wonderment that prevents their entering complaint mode.
However I agree that if I were to make this a more routine occurance, as I am planning, and having non residents join in on the fun, from at least the stand points of maintaining neighborly relations and legal liabilities, I would be better off with my own private circuit, and having prospective pilots sign waivers before heading out into my long abandoned lemon grove.
Which brings me to the point of this post. The area where I am considering putting in a micro car course is about 150' wide by 750 feet long. However if I utilize more than about 75 feet of the width of the course, one would be driving on a featureless open, and unshaded straight, as the full length of the abandoned orchard got dug up to place an underground drainage structure, so the trees were lost there.
Becoming a one way road course is necessary to avoid the possibility of collisions. But other than that consideration, I haven't a clue as to how to configure the course, or how to groom the dirt road surface yet.
A perimeter route, as was so nicely present at the old B W Ranch would have a very boring, hot, and somewhat useless straight in it, considering the vehicles low top speeds. So we must be more creative here.
Suggestions?
