Grind Hard Plumbing Co is back with another absolutely absurd project (and I mean that with great fondness): A Humvee trike with a ride-in tractor wheel in the front.
Neither Ethan Schlussler nor Edwin Olding – the OG crew from Grind Hard Plumbing Co – are plumbers. The name stems from a joke about welding and fabricating (aka "grinding hard") and then adding "Plumbing Co" at the end to make their gig sound like a legitimate business. It caught on pretty quickly as the duo's crazy fabrication videos started going viral on YouTube.
And every time these kooky guys (again, said in pure admiration) release a new video on YouTube, we can't help but get excited. The last project we covered of theirs was a fully custom "Monster Chopper" on 46-inch Mickey Thompson tires with hydraulic steering with "around 3,000 lb-ft [4,067 Nm] of torque," they said. What's not to like?
"I had to do something more ridiculous than the chopper, you know?" says Ethan Schlussler, certified mad scientist and master builder at Grind Hard.
Now, this new trike project is nowhere near done – in fact, they're just getting started. But it's been a great start for viewers like myself, watching the vision start to come together from the ground up. As of yet, the only thing they've purchased specifically for this build is the 80-inch (204.5-cm) tractor wheel and tire – that's taller than your average NBA hoop-artist. All the other bits so far have been scavenged from their property from past projects and/or incidents.
The guys at Grind Hard just so happened to have an older BMW 2.5L E36 motor just lying around – a leftover from an E-series they smashed to bits some time back while jumping it like any respectable BMW owner should. The M50B25 engine should make around 190 hp and around 181 lb-ft (245 Nm), which will be adequate, at the very least, considering what the rear axle will be comprised of.
Oh, speaking of rear axle, also laying around the property was what looks to be a standard US military issue M998 variant High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (we'll call it Humvee for short) that the boys had to yank out of the snow near the shop ... with another Humvee.
Schlussler plans to transplant the entire rear end of the Humvee – subframe, brakes, suspension and all – onto the trike. Features in the Humvee's derrière, like portal hubs, will not only give the trike copious ground clearance but will also make significantly more torque thanks to built-in gear reduction. Assuming it is a stock M998, we're looking at a 2.73:1 reduction at the diff with a 1.92:1 reduction in the hubs ... and unless my math is way off, we might be looking at a trike with over 900 lb-ft (1,200 Nm) of torque.
Remember that Monster Chopper mentioned earlier? Well, Grind Hard had two wheels and tires left over from that project, so they've been repurposed into rear-end-trike usage now – all 46 inches (117 cm) of Mickey Thompson off-road rubber. Which, not surprisingly, look pretty tiny relative to the 320/105-54 tractor tire they're using up front ... a mere 6 ft 8.5 inches tall (204.5 cm). They had to ship the wheel and tire combo in from the Midwest as Northern Idaho doesn't exactly do the type of farming that requires tractor tires of this size.
Schlussler's plans are for the rider to sit within the hub of the front wheel rather than atop the trike – so the bigger the better. It's about a 5.75:1 far cry from the classic Big Wheel Trike with its puny 16-inch (40 cm) front and 8-inch (20 cm) rear wheels.
Riding within the hub of a wheel isn't new – kids have been rolling down hills in tires since they were invented! – but this adds an entirely new level of complexity to the build.
"This vehicle is gonna be probably the most Mad Max thing we've ever built," laughs Schlussler, with a slightly worried look on his face.
... And we can't wait to watch this beautiful madness unfold!