Some of you may have spotted the Lawn Ranger before on here or my YouTube channel, I figured since I do a lot of screwing around on it I may as well have a thread for it here. I will do some “build” updates on it too as I do them.
Here it was right after I got it back in last July. You can see how small it is compared to mutt
Got some 18” ag tires shortly after
Most work I’ve ever done to it is fix the transmission a little. It would fall into 2nd gear or fall out of 3rd, and sometimes get stuck between 1/R and 2/3. Made it a little tricky to drive. Turns out one of the roll pins on the shift shafts was broken, leaving the fork floating on the shaft with no detent. A fresh roll pin and she was good as new.
Flipped the pinions for no more one wheel peel (or turning random directions in a wheelie). This isn’t really strong enough for a full size tractor, but fine for this 200lb backflip machine.
Gonna do some work to the clutch soon. Here’s some videos!
This is the end I finished at. I cheated and bent an eye on the end and then looped it back around to the hole I drilled and tapped.
Tacked this support on just ahead of the trans pulley. More of the same material.
Just a plain straight one to support the belt going to the engine pulley, not necessary really but why not?
Went and found these knobby tires for pretty cheap. 18x9.50-8. Should be a nicer ride than the ags.
Then I immediately spun a valve stem off a tube.
Luckily I had a spare tube out of a wheel horse front tire. Went ahead and pulled out a @donaldcon trick and self tappered through the rim into the bead. Hopefully I won’t have any tire problems now. And yes I know- kinda jank. But these rims are no good for tubeless use anyway.
Amazing work as always Rich. Curious, steel is expensive. Where do you score your loot?
Working in a machine shop, I generally get my hands on any scrap I think I can make something out of. I do buy new sometimes though, my local supplier is super cheap as they order a huge volume of steel from their supplier and don’t throw on much of a markup. It also helps to be friendly with the folks at your local metal shops, they’re usually pretty generous with their scrap.
Ifitaintbroke wrote:
I don't think my gt18 would fit in an elevator. What engine are you running?
It’s a 42” wheelbase and 31” width, thing will fit in a standard door lol. And just a regular old predator 212 with a hand throttle, no need for a gas pedal as you can do all the work with the clutch
I guess you have something else worked out? Or you just wanted to break it?
Oh I’m just gonna put another 3D printed pulley on it. The one I broke really wasn’t worn much so I think it’s worth continuing with those for now.
Got the spindles welded on. All I have left on the knuckles is to weld the tie rod arms on, I suppose.
Got the first lathe op done on the hubs. Have material cut for the flanges as well, those will just be a mill job til I weld them on the center section.
Cut the flanges and fixtured up the hubs to make a nice straight weldment.
After I welded them I got a chance to use this big bullnose center I bought a while back, truing up the hub flange on the lathe. You’d be amazed how welds will pull thick metal (3/8” here) and warp it like a potato chip. These did clean up within .02” though, so not too bad.
I still have to finish one bearing bore on each (left the weld side of the hub undersize so I can bore it nice and round after welding) but I went ahead and painted the hubs so they could dry overnight.
Finished up the hubs and tried the wheels on the tractor. The hubs here are in narrow configuration.
Welded tabs on the knuckles for steering arms, and drilled for tie rod holes.
Stock tie rods look a little goofy I put the tabs on top so I could put tie rods on the bottom, stock tie rods won’t stay for long but do surprisingly work fine here.
Here you can see more detail on the tab I guess, and see that the hubs are in the wide configuration. Or as we in Kentucky would call it, “bass ackwards”. I realized with the hubs like this I get the same track width front and back, at the cost of increasing scrub radius. I do have a plan to correct this and maintain track width, though.
Took it out with the new fronts and this thing is a beast off-road compared to before! The crazy wheelies are a little harder but still doable!
So the fender had four cups pressed into it, to raise it off the frame and give it places to bolt to as well. I cut those out and dropped the fender about an inch to the frame. Then I drilled some holes and put the seat on the wheel horse seat springs that came on the 414. Overall only gained maybe an inch of seat height. Much better on my back and isn’t any more tippy at all.
The shifter set screw backed out. It practically fell apart when I went to put it back in. Wheel horse guys know how hateful these things are.
Made a new one out of a grade 8 bolt. All this does is hold the shifter in the right place so the little ball on the end of the shift rod can move the shift forks.
Cut the ends of the tie rods off and drilled and tapped them for 3/8” heim joints.
The steering block bushing was pretty wore out, I pressed it out and then teamed out the block to accept a 7/8” OD flange bushing rather than the odd 13/16” sleeve one
Added a grease fitting too. The steering on this thing is tighter than the 414 now!
Subject: 
April 9th 2024, 10:27 am
