Starting an "odd" build...

[rusty ol ranger]

I know, I know i havent been around in a long while but i decided to come here to ask for info on this crazy idea of mine...

I got a lawn mower/tractor thing basically givin to me, it has no deck, no hood, etc etc, its a mid 70's (im guessing) Sears and i believe its a "Suburban" or something similar, it has a 3pt hitch on it, 19.9HP onan V twin, 3sp trans with a Hi-Lo auxilary...

anyways, i want to make this into some sort of off road vehicle...Ive toyed with the idea of building a lawn mower, i was going to use my old Ford LT8 but figured this big Craftsmen was a better canadate, seeing as how the Ford has 8hp and a weaker drivetrain...

I dont wanna hear the "your crazy", or whatever else, just useful input....Im going to mount a winch, and weld up some kind of cage and brushgard for it, and i wanna mount bigger tires up front.....

any other suggestions?

later,
Dustin

 

[Heavyfire14]

widen the wheelbase and put some coil-overs on it and do 4x4 haha anything is possible with the right amount of time and money

 

[Will]

I've welded the diff in one of those before. I have a winch on my garden tractor. It's a little 1 or 2,000" harbor Freight job. I welded a chunk of receiver tube onto the end of the tractor frame and made a little mount for the winch. I also put V-bar Ag tires on it, which makes all of the difference.

 

[Dan B.]

Man....if I knew where you were and you were not too far, I'd buy that Sears off of you in a heartbeat!!! I need that machine.

 

[97RangerXLT]

You're Crazy

you might see if you can score a front axle from a Kubota and possibly the transfer case as well, assuming it isn't integral to the transmission (I am not sure on how they are set up), maybe from a quad? maybe get both axle assemblies from a quad, at least you will have matching gears.

Just throwing some ideas to you.

AJ

 

[Protowrxs]

Lots of ideas here...

http://www.offroadmowers.com/

 

[rusty ol ranger]

I have a set of the Ag style tires for my little Ford, but the craftsmen has Turf tires on it...

Heres a question...would i be better off with Ag tires filled with fluid? Also, when wireing in a winch can i wire it directly to battery or should i hook it somewhere else?

Ive had it in some pretty sloppy stuff and it handled it pretty well, but theres always room for improvment

I want to make it more for general trail riding....not just mud...

later,
Dustin

 

[nb11]

Not crazy, just thinking outside of the box. A locked differential and little 1-2k pound winch would be sweet. The other day I saw a commercial for a side-by-side atv and got to thinking of how expensive those things are and thought it would be sweet to modify an old golf cart for offroad use. It would be easy to lift, strengthen the frame, throw on some atv tires, some kind of lawn mower engine, winch, etc. Would be sweet and a fraction of the cost.

 

[Jraymer360]

Not crazy, just thinking outside of the box. A locked differential and little 1-2k pound winch would be sweet. The other day I saw a commercial for a side-by-side atv and got to thinking of how expensive those things are and thought it would be sweet to modify an old golf cart for offroad use. It would be easy to lift, strengthen the frame, throw on some atv tires, some kind of lawn mower engine, winch, etc. Would be sweet and a fraction of the cost.

yeah plus you can make it how you like it, why spend like 8-9k on a Polaris ranger type thing when you can spend that much and get twice the atv-thing.

 

[nb11]

Exactly. And the very very basic models start at like $8500. Ridiculous. The top of the line Ranger RZR 4 seaters are like $17k.

 

[AgPete139]

Pics ??????????