LawnBoy UTLTV aka MULE

Rubber washers are a good idea. Foam weatherstripping tape would work well, too. You could make an adjustable pin by cutting the head off a shoulder bolt. On the pin mounting surface, you could drill the hole and tack weld a nut on the back side. Thread the pin in as far as you need to, and use a jam nut to keep it in place.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

Rubber washers are a good idea. Foam weatherstripping tape would work well, too. You could make and adjustable pin by cutting the head off a shoulder bolt. On the pin munting surface, you could drill the hole and tack weld a nut on the back side. Thread the in in as far as you need too, and use a jam nut to keep it in place.

ive used the weather stripping before, it works good

richie thomas wrote:

Doc Sprocket wrote:

Rubber washers are a good idea. Foam weatherstripping tape would work well, too. You could make and adjustable pin by cutting the head off a shoulder bolt. On the pin munting surface, you could drill the hole and tack weld a nut on the back side. Thread the in in as far as you need too, and use a jam nut to keep it in place.

ive used the weather stripping before, it works good

Yeah weather stripping works good.

Lord- You see your post quoted a coupla times, and those typos POP out at ya! LOL- edited...

Doc Sprocket wrote:

Lord- You see your post quoted a coupla times, and those typos POP out at ya! LOL- edited...

Lol.
Im confussed what you talkin about lol?

look at fearlessfronts mud murray on youtube he took box end wrenches and made a hinge.

I was out for most of today, and didn't get a lot of playtime. I DID stop at Princess Auto and bought some goodies. I've been wanting to try this little tidbit on a such a project for quite awhile. Booster cables are booster cables, but wouldn't it be cool to not even have to open your hood to give a boost to your buddys mower? Yup. Got it covered.

I picked up an inexpesive 12 foot, 6ga booster cable assembly, and a set of electrical quick connects like you see on forklifts and things. I cut the clamps off one end, and tossed them. Then, I cut about a foot of cable off the same end. I soldered the QC lugs onto the remaining 11' of cables- so that now there's a QC on one end, and clamps on the other. I stripped and soldered QC lugs onto the short cables. Then, I cut two pieces of 1/2" soft copper pipe, and slipped them halfway on to the free ends of the short cables. I hammered the copper flat and then soldered the cables in. I drilled a 1/4" hole into each flat copper piece and trimmed the ends round- thus making my own battery lugs. Here you have it- Whip out the cables and connect them to the dead machine. Plug it in to the UTVLT and light 'er up!

Great minds think alike, I did the exact same thing on my Fiero in case the battery goes dead from having the doors open at a carshow.

NICE! Looks like you had a heckuva cool car, too! When I turned 25, my birthday present to myself was a 1985 Fiero. Nothing fancy, a bone stock 2M4. But I absolutely fell in love with that car. I swear- the kids get old enough, I'm gonna buy another! Maybe my 50th birthday? LOL.

Don't you have to open the hood to connect the plug tho

But cool mod. Those are mini forklift connectors, do you know how much they're rated?

No- the plug is accessible through the side cutout of the hood, and easily, too. I tossed the packaging, but I think they are 150A continuous duty. I could be wrong.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

No- the plug is accessible through the side cutout of the hood, and easily, too. I tossed the packaging, but I think they are 150A continuous duty. I could be wrong.

Cool

The one I used was rated for 300 amp but if I remember correctly they make them in different sizes. As for the Fiero, it started out an '87 2M4 but we swapped in a 383.

WellThatsSurprising wrote:

The one I used was rated for 300 amp but if I remember correctly they make them in different sizes. As for the Fiero, it started out an '87 2M4 but we swapped in a 383.

300A burst I would think, and 150A continuous. Not sure tho. It's plenty anyway.

Next up, WINCH!!! I picked up a 1500lb 12v winch today, too. But again, didn't have much time to get into it. I yanked the factory exhaust off (in the way, gonna make a new one anyway) removed the hood, and cut a chunk of steel plate to fit. With the plate tacked in, dinner was ready, and the hockey game came on. Guess I'll get back to that tomorrow if the weather's nice again!

Doc Sprocket wrote:

Next up, WINCH!!! I picked up a 1500lb 12v winch today, too. But again, didn't have much time to get into it. I yanked the factory exhaust off (in the way, gonna make a new one anyway) removed the hood, and cut a chunk of steel plate to fit. With the plate tacked in, dinner was ready, and the hockey game came on. Guess I'll get back to that tomorrow if the weather's nice again!

this thing is looking good, with that winch, you dont ever have to worry bout getting stuck lol

That's the idea, my friend! Since I have no plans to build a 4x4 out of it, I need recovery options! Hell, I can't decide whether to lock the diff. I CAN, but I also know it will steer like hell when it's done. My wife would be pissed!

Since she thinks this is hers,

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Sorry.

Where was I? Oh, yeah- since she thinks this is hers, I can justify the project easily, but I gotta make sure she's happy with it.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

Next up, WINCH!!! I picked up a 1500lb 12v winch today, too. But again, didn't have much time to get into it. I yanked the factory exhaust off (in the way, gonna make a new one anyway) removed the hood, and cut a chunk of steel plate to fit. With the plate tacked in, dinner was ready, and the hockey game came on. Guess I'll get back to that tomorrow if the weather's nice again!

What type of winch is it?
And were did you get it?

It's an off-brand (I ain't rich). Got it at Princess Auto today. Now- I have bought off-brand winches before (put one on my ATV) and as far as cheapies go, this thing is pretty sweet. Planetary drive, very solid casing. Comes with solenoid pack (the other cheapie I bought didn't even USE solenoids) a roller fairlead (had to buy that seperately with my last one) a really cool little handlebar or dash mount weatherproof rocker switch (other one had a plastic handheld thing i had to waterproof myself) heavier gauge wiring, split loom, and all hardware. I'm actually quite impressed. I expected much worse.

FYI- Princess Auto is kind of like Harbour Freight and/or Northern Tool to you guys.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

It's an off-brand (I ain't rich). Got it at Princess Auto today. Now- I have bought off-brand winches before (put one on my ATV) and as far as cheapies go, this thing is pretty sweet. Planetary drive, very solid casing. Comes with solenoid pack (the other cheapie I bought didn't even USE solenoids) a roller fairlead (had to buy that seperately with my last one) a really cool little handlebar or dash mount weatherproof rocker switch (other one had a plastic handheld thing i had to waterproof myself) heavier gauge wiring, split loom, and all hardware. I'm actually quite impressed. I expected much worse.

FYI- Princess Auto is kind of like Harbour Freight and/or Northern Tool to you guys.

Yeah sometime it just as good as the Name Brand stuff.
I know i buy some of the cheap stuff too.

Made some good progress today. Got the winch mounting plate done, a couple of supports underneath for strength, too. Fabbed up a couple of brackets to mount the fairlead, and bolted it all up. Just have it tacked for now. After work in the next day or two, I'll switch over from GMAW to FCAW and burn in all the welds.

I had to hack out a chunk of the lower grille shell to make room for the winch and fairlead bracketry, so for now, the hood is just sitting there until I figure out how to remount it. The good news is, I got the winch tucked up tight to the engine, and only the fairlead sticks out. The winch stays sheltered from the elements.

I mounted the control switch and solenoid pack, got it all wired up and tested it. Very good.

Now- I had to remove the factory ehaust sysem to make way for the winch- leaving me with no exhaust system! After staring at things for awhile, I decided against a stack. For now, anyway. A few years ago, I fabricated my own Cherry Bomb. I had it on my go kart for awhile. It sounded awesome on my Honda GX340. Not obnoxiously loud, but had a nice, subtle rumble. When you buried the throttle, it'd give you a Harley-like "Braaap!". Perfect. After my kart, it ended up on the kids' kart for awhile, and now needed a new home.

I dug into my scrap pile, and came up with some steel tube from a chair. Here a zap, there a zap. Presto- instant exhaust system! If anyone wants some Detail on the homebrew Cherry Bomb, I can do a write-up. On to the pics!

Looks great!

I wouldnt mind a writeup on your cherry bomb. If you do it well, ill put it on the FB page.

It looks good.
I like the exhaust and the winch.

Thanks! Gimme a few days, I'll poke around for the pictures. Write-up's no problem. I majored in English in high school (LOL).

Onboard air to go!

I gutted one of those little 12v air compressors you plug into your car cigarette lighter socket. Fabbed up a quickie mounting bracket and buried it under the dash. I cut a hole in the dash for the pressure gauge, and drilled another for a toggle switch. I wir ed the compressor to the battery, through a fuse and the switch. I cut the factory tire chuck off and adapted in a quick connect, mounting it just below the booster cable connector. I got a coiled PVC air hose, putting an air chuck on one end, and a male qc on the other... Done.

While I was in there, I used FF's pull start mod. Works great, thanks for a great and cheap idea!

i like the compressor idea i would have never of thought of doing that