Big ride on mower

[AndyUK]

I think you will be happier with a manual but a auto would be just about as easy to put in it. Is it a hydraulic clutch?

hello Roger

its a cable operated clutch as it comes, l am in 2 minds here, l could run the cable forward as far as it reaches which is about 2' short of the pedal and then have a rod from the pedal back to join up with the cable, the benifit of that would be that it keeps it a standard cable available from any auto parts store
or l might fit a slave cylinder and convert to hydraulic and then the distance to the pedal wont matter ??

Andy

 

[jenkinsph]

Andy,
Nice project keep up the good work.

 

[94BULLITT]

hello Roger

its a cable operated clutch as it comes, l am in 2 minds here, l could run the cable forward as far as it reaches which is about 2' short of the pedal and then have a rod from the pedal back to join up with the cable, the benifit of that would be that it keeps it a standard cable available from any auto parts store
or l might fit a slave cylinder and convert to hydraulic and then the distance to the pedal wont matter ??

Andy

You might be best off with the cable, it would be more reliable.

 

[AndyUK]

cable seems the way to go since l just found one 2' longer that might just reach, and as you say it wont play up,

took the axles down to the shot blasters and had the cases cleaned up, man l do like cleaning things lol,
l cant be doing with rusty axle casings,

certainly gives a good surface for the paint to stick to after a couple of coats of red oxide primer

the chassis also had the same treatment

while l was waiting for the paint to dry on the axles l started getting the fuel tank prepped

think l will do another one for the hydraulic tank, might even weld some cooling fins down the side

 

[94BULLITT]

Looks good. Are you going to go with automotive brakes on all 4 wheels? Have you thought about using it for anything other than a mower like a snow blower or plow?

 

[AndyUK]

Looks good. Are you going to go with automotive brakes on all 4 wheels? Have you thought about using it for anything other than a mower like a snow blower or plow?

hello Roger

funny that l was thinking about the brakes today, the short answer is yes automotive brakes all round, l was pondering switching the front brakes to discs from drums( was a sidekick rear axle) but as it has a hand brake already built in perhaps l will stay with the drums on the front and discs on the rear, a bit arse about face l know but its only a slow moving mower
l also think l will have 2 brake pedals one for the front and one for the back as l want to try the mower with out welding up the centre diff, l have different scrub radiuses at each end and welding the diff up might impose quite a bit of strain on the drive train so l think l will just use the brakes at each end to shut down any spinning wheel if this dosent work l will have to hunt down an LSD for it, but its a mower for flat ground not a rockcrawler so l expect it to work with out welding the diff up, maybe,

not enough snow over here to warrent a blower but l was thinking about a powered sweeper/brush for the yard and l would also like to be able to tow a big roller around possibly a powered roller

Andy

 

[94BULLITT]

hello Roger

funny that l was thinking about the brakes today, the short answer is yes automotive brakes all round, l was pondering switching the front brakes to discs from drums( was a sidekick rear axle) but as it has a hand brake already built in perhaps l will stay with the drums on the front and discs on the rear, a bit arse about face l know but its only a slow moving mower
l also think l will have 2 brake pedals one for the front and one for the back as l want to try the mower with out welding up the centre diff, l have different scrub radiuses at each end and welding the diff up might impose quite a bit of strain on the drive train so l think l will just use the brakes at each end to shut down any spinning wheel if this dosent work l will have to hunt down an LSD for it, but its a mower for flat ground not a rockcrawler so l expect it to work with out welding the diff up, maybe,

not enough snow over here to warrent a blower but l was thinking about a powered sweeper/brush for the yard and l would also like to be able to tow a big roller around possibly a powered roller

Andy

Andy,

Drum brakes should fine but disc look cooler. Another thing you could do is run pinion brakes. I think it should function good without welding the center diff. With having your independent brakes front and rear you can transfer the power to the front or rear. If you weld it it may tear up the grass a little when you turn. I did not know how much snow you got, I was just curious if you where going to have any other attachments. Keep the pictures coming and Keep up the good work.:thumbsup: Do you have a long mowing season?

 

[AndyUK]

Andy,

Drum brakes should fine but disc look cooler. Another thing you could do is run pinion brakes. I think it should function good without welding the center diff. With having your independent brakes front and rear you can transfer the power to the front or rear. If you weld it it may tear up the grass a little when you turn. I did not know how much snow you got, I was just curious if you where going to have any other attachments. Keep the pictures coming and Keep up the good work.:thumbsup: Do you have a long mowing season?

lol l agree discs look cooler but with such deep dish wheels the drums will never be seen again, l think having the handbrake already built in is enough reason for the drums to stay, sure l could fit some discs of the rear of a car so as l have a handbrake but it seems a lot of work for no gain

well normally we dont get much snow but who knows whats in store,
this year has been all screwed up we started with warnings of drought and water shortages as we have had 2 winters with below average rain fall, and then the heavens opened 6 months ago and it hasent stopped raining since.
some weeks we get a years rainfall, crops are rotting in the fields all over the uk, if this level of rain continues into the winter months then we will have some proper snow

l would like to make as many attachments as l can find a use for, certainly a driven brush for the front, and a big flail, maybe buy some thing like this that wants repairs and make a new deck for it

Flail Mower/Topper. 5'6" cut. Restoration Project. | eBay

we have a reasonably long cutting season and could be longer if it wasent so wet before and after it, and during it now lol,
part of the reason for the for the wide wheels was to let me get out on the ground earlier and later in the season while its wet without causing to much damage to the ground,
l dont have a commercial use for the mower its just for my own use, l have a buggy track l have mown out and like to keep it cut short, you can see the track l want to use this mower on in this vid from much earlier in the season, was wet then as well

gopro on bonnet - YouTube

l sectioned off 4 or 5 acres at the bottom of the main field and each year l plant a few hundred trees around the track, one day it will be a wood lol, l have also been working on a pond/lake as and when l can afford diesel for the excavator :laughing:

l will get some upto date vid next week as the rain is forecast to run out, grass and trees are much taller now

edit: found a better vid showing the area l want to use the mower on, camera mount fails halfway through and drops off though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmMGUCmSPQ4&feature=plcp

 

[94BULLITT]

Looks like you have a lot of mowing to do.

 

[94BULLITT]

Any updates?

 

[AndyUK]

hello Roger

yes a little progress but then a delay, as usualy happens a big job came in and l needed the workshop space so the mower got pushed into the shed for a few weeks and now winter is here and the need for mowing has vanished, the chilly weather has made me think about some form of insulation and heat in the workshop so before l drag the mower back out to carry on l am going to line the walls of the workshop with 3/4" ply that l can paint white to brighten the place up a bit, however l cant be with out a project to tinker with lol so l have started something a little smaller that can live on the bench while l work on it, l am building a small 3 wheeled trike for spraying weedkiller on the doc's that seem to be taking the place over, l will get some up todate pics of it but here is the general layout from a few weeks ago

 

[94BULLITT]

Thats cool. I just wanted to check in and see how you and your project were doing. Around here I have been trying to switch gears for winter too.

 

[Marcle]

Hi,

Lovely project.

Looking at your Suzuki axles, I built a 4 x 4 x 4 years ago using two Suzuki front axles. If your looking to have a narrow track, you could have used two front axles, but chop them down to use two short halfshafts. Instead of using a transfer box, you could use the engine and automatic gearbox from a front wheel drive car, remove the diff (or weld it up so the planet wheel don't rotate) and rotate the engine/gearbox 90 degrees so the outputs from the diff face the axles. This will give you low ratio with good torque and low speed.

Here's my transmission layout.


I also used a single point attachment (similar to the front axle on a tractor, but sprung).

More info >>here<<

 

[Sledgie]

Wow, Marcle, you went to a lot of trouble to show how the tranny layout worked. I might have just tried to draw a picture...

 

[Gator6x4]

Since a mower engine is required to run at high constant RPM's how are you going to regulate ground speed with a manual automotive transmission? Even at low engine RPM's in the lowest of gears you will be traveling at a fast ground speed. With a automatic transmission you still have a problem. Engage the mower, rev the engine up and jerk into drive and suffer whip lash. The hydro transmissions on mowers and tractors are rather complicated pieces of engineering.

 

[94BULLITT]

Since a mower engine is required to run at high constant RPM's how are you going to regulate ground speed with a manual automotive transmission? Even at low engine RPM's in the lowest of gears you will be traveling at a fast ground speed. With a automatic transmission you still have a problem. Engage the mower, rev the engine up and jerk into drive and suffer whip lash. The hydro transmissions on mowers and tractors are rather complicated pieces of engineering.

We discussed that earlier in thread.

 

[AndyUK]

Hi,

Lovely project.

Looking at your Suzuki axles, I built a 4 x 4 x 4 years ago using two Suzuki front axles. If your looking to have a narrow track, you could have used two front axles, but chop them down to use two short halfshafts. Instead of using a transfer box, you could use the engine and automatic gearbox from a front wheel drive car, remove the diff (or weld it up so the planet wheel don't rotate) and rotate the engine/gearbox 90 degrees so the outputs from the diff face the axles. This will give you low ratio with good torque and low speed.

Here's my transmission layout.
View attachment 288211

I also used a single point attachment (similar to the front axle on a tractor, but sprung).

More info >>here<<

hello Marcle

the mower is as you describe, a cut down suzuki axle using 2 short shafts on the rear and a front wheel drive car engine and box,
and l do like suzuki bits, nice and light, when l started my little rockcrawler l experimented with all sorts of layouts such as this subaru engine and box midmounted with suzuki axles

and whilst a central engine might seem a good layout it dosent work going up hill dose it ? lol

l worked my way through several different layouts on the garage floor including this one with ford diffs and a fwd engine and box

but in the end l came back to an all alloy fwd engine and box and suzuki sj axles, about as light as it comes

as you can see from this pic the engine and box were pushed well forward to try and keep the nose down

not much room for the passenger but just enough


my pal built one as well

this vid shows some of the abilities of a transaxle buggy

20090205-040620.mpg - YouTube

 

[AndyUK]

We discussed that earlier in thread.

lol thanks Roger l was just about to post that, l seem to remember working out it would travel as slow as 1.5 mph, l tried to work out how fast l was going on my ransomes last time l used it and it was more than that l am sure
Andy

 

[AndyUK]

well things have changed a bit recently, by accident really, l bought a vitara ( sidekick ?) rolling chassis for $120 just to get the alligator tyres that were on it

once the wheels and tyres were off it and onto another project l was left with a rolling chassis that l dident have any plans for:confused2:
well that dident last long l have decided that it might be usefull on the mower project, originally the mower dident have any suspension but was going to rely on the big tyres for a bit of flex plus a tilting back axle, not any more :laughing: l am going to use the sidekick chassis and suspension
l did start off thinking of using the drive train too as it is all there

however low box just isent anywhere low enough to get the slow ground speed l need :thumbsup: so its back to the diesel engine and box from a front wheeldrive car that gives me a 4 to 1 reduction on the gearing,

it was a little to long in the wheel base to to l chopped a bit out

not quite as much it appears in the pic as l used some of the chopped out section to taper it back towards the rear

then l took 17" out of the width of the rear section to give me clearance for the wide tyres

so the chassis ended up a bit like this

it is now front wheel steer using all the standard suzuki suspension which makes it pretty wide at the front while at the rear is a much narrower than usual axle with a limited slip diff

the diesel engine and box have been back in it just a couple of little jobs to do before it goes off to the shot blasters so as l can get it painted up in a nice shade of green
Andy

 

[94BULLITT]

Wow that is quite a change. You should be able to mow real fast with a suspension.