Grassroots car pusher

My new 5.5" clutch is ....new. My race car goes about 15mph at idle. NASA MA has an enforced speed limit of 10mph. I don't want to slip the clutch and epically reduce the life of this thing. 
 

I toyed with a 3 wheel atv. Too big for my open trailer. I considered a vintage lawn tractor. Nearly the same issue with size, plus that's a thing and prices are up there for the cool stuff. 

I need something that will move a 2600 lb car easily on flat paddock roads and can make it up the incline to the false grid at vir.

Ed Higginbotham threw out an idea on Thanksgiving. Some sort of one wheel drive that would telescope up and down like a trailer roller. 

I threw out the notion of a self propelled rototiller sans tines.  Ed simultaneously said "genius" then moved to other ideas, likely because of the sheer embarrassment of probably being the tiller driver  

Stuart in mn educated me on the already available car pushers out there. (I've never seen one, or recognized I was seeing one)

The tiller is thought #1- I could probably make that into a functional thing in an hour or two and cost of entry looks to be $200-300 on marketplace. I would weld on a push bar and weigh it down with ballast and make the handle  a leverage tool for downforce. Or rig it as a surry. But I am going too far....

Thought #2 is to find a 12 volt motor I can gear down to about 3-5mph and make a box with some deep cycle marine/RV batteries to power it and weigh it down. I think that's what some of the commercial units are based on. 

Thought #3 has not occurred to me yet.  What do you have?

Some variation of this?

Trailer dolly

In reply to OHSCrifle :

Yes. I'd like the total investment to be somewhere between free/scrounged to $400.

Used for RV and Boat applications:  Trailer dolly.  Fashion yourself a ball receiver at the rear bumper and use to push rather than pull  

Northern tool electric $1,200   Maybe a used unit could be had for $400

Northern tool manual $220

Exploit a teenager. They should be good for something.

Two wheel tractors are very popular in 3rd world countries.  

Sample: 

In reply to John Welsh :

That's killer. On the hunt. Thank you. 

Appleseed said:

Exploit a teenager. They should be good for something.

That is more or less how the last weekend went. My fear is I need to locate a fresh crop each event. The thrill of pushing a car wears off pretty quickly evidently. I don't get it personally.....

I have used electric pushers that were more or less self propelled rototillers without the tines.  Swap the two 12v batteries from parallel to series and you'd break the 10mph limit for about fifteen seconds and then the motor's commutator will explode

How about those cart pushers they use at Walmart? 

Or this 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/4278197392266185/

John Welsh said:

Two wheel tractors are very popular in 3rd world countries.

Gravely used to make a two wheel tractor, you can still find them from time to time.  For that matter, most any old four wheel lawn tractor could probably be made to work.

In reply to BionicTigerShark (Forum Supporter) :

The Walmart cart pusher would be pretty uptown. There's one for sale near me actually but it's pricey. I'm not so sure if it would work on gravel though. 
The gravely is killer. Ed, strap this to the Mercedes on your way back from PA?

jh36 said:

In reply to John Welsh :

That's killer. On the hunt. Thank you. 

You're welcome. You know what they say, "you have to break a lot of omletes to not see this from your house...or something." 

How about a big old snowblower? I used mine once to push a car up my driveway and into the garage. I just put an old tire between the bumper of the car and the snow blower. 

Write a nice letter to the people who decided a speed limit that's lower than your car can go without damaging itself and request a variance?

Our max grid/paddock speed is "walking first gear", not a particular MPH.   Some race cars don't even have speedometers.

In reply to John Welsh :

Brilliant!

We usually refer to that as "crew guys" lol

I'm really leaning toward the gravely idea. And if I find a complete one, I could actually mow with it. My 72" in JD tractor only gets me so far and my old push mower was crappy when new. 

The other option would be to scratch build an electric device but I think I'd rather work on the project cars. 
 

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2973672646204403/
 

that was fast. Very nice shape. Pushing the budget. 

Some variety of electric pallet jack might work. Definitely the right speed. 
 

..And you could use the lift mechanism to get it up on your trailer (like the building material delivery trucks)

One issue with something to push a car is the traction-to-weight.  Trailer dollies use the tongue weight of the trailer to help keep the dolly from breaking traction under load.  Something capable of pushing a car will need to be fairly heavy simply to keep enough vertical pressure on the tires to keep them from spinning under load.  So whatever you build will need to be pretty damn heavy. A pair of bus batteries might do the trick. 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Another reason a gravely might be cool. I've never used one but I think the seat can essentially be a counterweight. 

There are a ton of those 2-wheel tractors & a whole culture dedicated to them. David Bradley was the main one I'm familiar with, but they were built in Kankakee so they were a bit more local to "home".

Also, the guys who own & restore them typically make a 2-wheeled buggy to pull behind them, so it could double as your pit vehicle too!

Edit - like this:

I've used a snowblower in the driveway, get a used one and add weight to it for traction. 

A rigid pipe to a trailer receiver type thing (well, a vertical hinge for bumps, but otherwise rigid) in the back would be best. Remote cable a clutch engagement lever and a cutoff switch (in case clutch cable fails).

That makes for a really convenient "drive through the paddock" option.

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That is gorgeous. Wow.