Big ride on mower

[Renze]

Dont forget that with 4wd and only one axle steering, you tear the grass up when turning tight, because the steering wheels run a wider turn than the fixed axle...

 

[AndyUK]

Dont forget that with 4wd and only one axle steering, you tear the grass up when turning tight, because the steering wheels run a wider turn than the fixed axle...

l hope it dosent do that to badly, l was going to leave the centre diff unlocked to start with and see if it equals itself out, if it does chew the grass up when cornering then this can become a tug for the roller and l will have a go at an artic steer mower next :drool:

 

[AndyUK]

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

l guess if l was to mow at 75 mph then the cutting tip speed would go up by 75 mph, must be a good thing right ? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[joshuabardwell]

l guess if l was to mow at 75 mph then the cutting tip speed would go up by 75 mph, must be a good thing right ? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Only on the left side.

 

[94BULLITT]

l guess if l was to mow at 75 mph then the cutting tip speed would go up by 75 mph, must be a good thing right ? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Wouldn't a 75mph wind be hard on the grass:confused3::laughing:

 

[Marcle]

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

Hi Andy,

I see your based up the M5 from me.

I had a look at your videos and noticed the AWDC sticker, looks like the trial scene has moved on tremendously since I used to compete. Mine was the only space frame trialer around at the time (some being used for trials), let alone four wheel steer. The introduction of easy access to the internet has clearly helped to share ideas.

I have a long wheel base 4 door Vitara/sidekick in my orchard waiting for a project, you've given me some ideas, unless I swap it for some thing else.

Clearly you've got a lot of spare time on your hands (envy), good luck with your projects.

Steve

 

[AndyUK]

hello Steve

yes just up the road not far at all,
you sound like me with suzuki's sitting around waiting to be turned into something, l have a pair of lwb diesel vitara's sat here one with a duff engine and one with a duff gearbox, l have a crazy idea that l am going to strip them both then cut the chassis's in half and weld the 2 front halves together to give me 4 wheeldrive, 4 wheel steer and independent suspension all round, then drop a honda vtec in the middle to make a "racer" to go razzing round the fields, the thing that screws the gearing is the vitara diffs at 4.88 to one, however l have been looking at 4 wheeldrive golfs and the rear diff would seem to be in the 1.5 to 1 range which might just be whats needed to "fine tune" the gearing ?

and a couple more mower/tug pics

cheers Andy

 

[AndyUK]

Wouldn't a 75mph wind be hard on the grass:confused3::laughing:

it would save me collecting the grass cuttings up :laughing:
someone else 3 blocks downwind would have to do it instead :laughing:

 

[KubotainNH]

You have some cool projects and videos. Looking forward to more.

 

[94BULLITT]

it would save me collecting the grass cuttings up :laughing:
someone else 3 blocks downwind would have to do it instead :laughing:

So I take it you will not be building a bagger:laughing:

 

[AndyUK]

a little progress has been made but l keep getting distracted by other things lol :confused2:

chassis went of to the shotblasters and came back looking all clean and shiny

a coat of primer and an undercoat and its getting ready to go green

 

[AndyUK]

so next l have to strip all the suspension and get that blasted and painted, l quite like that bit, while in the meantime something else crept in the workshop while l wasent looking :licking:

ok its a bit battered and bruised, well more than a bit really its well rotten

but its a start l might just weld this up and use it to get around the field, l do like the look of a gator more so the later one HPX is it ?, l have allsorts of ideas running around in my head about making something that looks like a gator but is a little more resilant to british weather maybe a gator front end on a side kick chassis with a V6 engine and auto box and a little tipper body on the back. a gator lookalike but 10% bigger

 

[Rasher]

any more progress on this?

 

[Scooter78]

Just checking on progress?

 

[AndyUK]

Just checking on progress?

not much im afraid, the workshop was needed for something else and the mower got pushed into the barn for storage, allegedly for a month but 10 years seem to have sailed by
so im going to start again as the original is so far towards the back i can no longer see it let alone get to it

 

[AndyUK]

so ive been using an old fiat tractor with a wessex tow behind mower deck for the last few years its done the job just fine but the tractor is on its last legs it over heats after 20 mins and i cant see where the water is disappearing too and now the clutch is giving up only drives in lowbox 1 and 2 now , slips in all other gears last cut of the season is done so now is the time to replace it ready for next years, now i know people are going to say just fix it but its well past its sell by date and the cab is almost rotted away,, and i like making things lol,
so i only have 4 or 5 months so i dont want to start from scratch and make a chassis etc
so heres the question has anyone use a 4wd pickup/jeep/landrover added a pto and successfully towed and mowed with it, over here land rover discoverys are ten a penny the body rots of them but the drive trains work fine, they are around 120 hp 2.5lt diesel, lowbox is 3.3 to 1 to get the ground speed down to somewhere near mowing speed, i think the pto is driven off the gearbox mainshaft so the pto speed will be what ever the engine is doing ,
can i mow at 1100 rpm input into the mower or do i need to cut that in half with a 2 to 1 box ?

the victim, i was planning on chopping the wheelbase down to a more manageable 80" and drop some sort of fiberglass body on it, do you think it will drive a set of 6ft wide cutters, my old tractor was 70hp and never ever had a problem power wise ???

 

[Renze]

, they are around 120 hp 2.5lt diesel, lowbox is 3.3 to 1 to get the ground speed down to somewhere near mowing speed, i think the pto is driven off the gearbox mainshaft so the pto speed will be what ever the engine is doing ,
can i mow at 1100 rpm input into the mower or do i need to cut that in half with a 2 to 1 box ?

You will definately need a 2 to 1 box because that LaRo engine doesnt do it at 1100hp... it has no coolant flow and it doesnt have the airflow to spool the turbo. At 1100rpm it may have 25hp without the turbo spooling. At 1800rpm youre right at peak torque where the engine runs clean, lean and cool, it will happily deliver 40-50hp in the long run. So 1.7 to one would be ideal, putting the engine at a healthy 1800rpm

 

[AndyUK]

You will definitely need a 2 to 1 box because that LaRo engine doesnt do it at 1100hp... it has no coolant flow and it doesnt have the airflow to spool the turbo. At 1100rpm it may have 25hp without the turbo spooling. At 1800rpm youre right at peak torque where the engine runs clean, lean and cool, it will happily deliver 40-50hp in the long run. So 1.7 to one would be ideal, putting the engine at a healthy 1800rpm

thank you for the reply its more or less what i imagined, i was just trying to be lazy and not put one in lol

ive got 2 options, a suzuki sj transfer box which has a low range pf 2 to 1 it might be a bit lightweight but its only turning a mower ?
or i have a gearbox out of a dodge 50 truck/van, i think its 4 speed 4th being 1 to 1 so i would have 3 low ranges, will look up what they are in a bit, ive got room for it under the rear floor

 

[AndyUK]

i think this is the box ratios its a non over drive box so ignore that bit

so it would give me 1.6 and 3.02 sure i could juggle my road speed to make one of them work

 

[Renze]

Your LaRo engine, the 2.5 is a 5 pot or a 4 pot ?

Industrial engines have a different governor, with an rpm corrector which gives more fuel when the rpm drop under load.
A 4 cylinder fuel pump from a tractor would be easy to find when down the road, you find the on-road governor doesnt work in a mower. 5 cylinder pumps with a speed governor is harder to find.