Hello All

[tntchitwood]

Hi all,
   I have been playing around with an old MTD and having a blast. Nothing terribly difficult to do.....welded up rearend, ATV tires, redid the steering. My brother tried it out and enjoyed it so much, I gave it to him. I plan on starting on something a little more serious, so in doing research on the net.........here I am.
   The old MTD had a hydrostatic drive and I welded up the spider gears. This worked very well. How do any of you recommend achieving posi status? Would you stay away from the hydrostatic drives?
    I have been fabricating for years, mostly motorcycles, none of your advise or wisdom will go to waste here.     Thanks, Tom 

[tractorman]

Hydro's not so much of a good choice. They dont last at all. What you need is a good transmission like a peerless 820 and lock it with a live axle and use it. The good thing about these tranny's are that they have 1 inch axles they stand up alot better.
But welcome to the forum!!!!!!!

[MTDrider1160]

Welcome to the ATLMA!!!!

[tntchitwood]

Thanks guys. I've got plenty of ideas. I'll just have to see what pans out. I have a 4-wheeler but it occurred to me that any idiot can BUY an atv and ride the trails. It takes something special to be able to build a mower that will navigate those same trails, and we have plenty of trails here in Pine Knot (yea really), KY. So..... consider yourselves special......or crazy LOL.

[money89tractors]

I have a 4-wheeler but it occurred to me that any idiot can BUY an atv and ride the trails. It takes something special to be able to build a mower that will navigate those same trails

THAT is the ATLM spirit!!

Welcome to ATLMA Tom, please read through the rules for the forum and the classes of mowers.

A word on the hydro drive, i believe a good hydro can and will hold un in the limited class, but without changing pullies. A Hydro will not, however, hold up to extreme RPM, which wouldnt work for the other classes.

-Phil

[Chris]

Welcome to the site!

Like everyone else said, the hydros aren't that good for anything other than mowing lawns. If you re-pulley and overdrive them, they'll just burn up. Great for pulling and general use - but for how we abuse our machines, it's just not all that suitable.

[tntchitwood]

I intend on using a seperate transmission/ axle setup on my next project. I tried a mower with a standard shift transaxle and the wheelie/kneck jerking (on take-off)factor was too much. Is there any way to reduce the jerking on take-off? Maybe a gas pedal to reduce RPM's or does it just take practice and finess on the clutch pedal? With my limited experience it seems the ctutch is either IN or OUT (with an idler pulley set-up). No in between. Maybe I just need to improve my driving skills.                            Thanks, Tom

[tractorman]

The clutch can become a little jerky some times if the rpms are spining at a good 5,000 rpms. Usually turn the idle down real low and then take off then you can turn it back up.

[money89tractors]

The clutch is just like the clutch on a car or ATV when setup right. Let out on the clutch at an idle on near idle slowely until you feel it grab slightly, then apply throttle as you release the clutch fully. Let the clutch out in one smooth motion and it shouldnt jerk.

-Phil

[tntchitwood]

10-4, Thanks, I'll have to work on that.I have found a few videos of people off roading their lawn mowers, but nothing too rough. How about some of you posting links to some videos. Would love to see how rough you guys really get.     Tom

[money89tractors]

i dont have any videos, but i know where a few are, check out:

http://southernmonstermowers.com/video.html
and
http://www.myspace.com/southernmonstermowers

they do not follow ATLMA rules, but they run fairly safe mowchines.

-Phil

[tntchitwood]

Today I did a little work for my neighbor for an old yard king lawn tractor. It is HUGE. He said he was going down a steep hill and something(he thinks) let go in the transaxle. It quit pulling. He kept the motor but gave me the rest to put the motor on one of his other lawnmowers.  I need help identifying the transaxle to see if it is worth trying to fix.     It is a peerless Model # 2348A  70924849. It has 1" axles, and is a 4 SPD. with vertical input shaft, and a huge brake rotor.If it is worth taking apart to fix, what would be the likeliest culprit, and where to get parts?    I have read of you discussing peerless 800's and such but I can't seem to equate the numbers I have with any mentioned on this board. Please help.     Thanks, Tom   

[money89tractors]

i dont know many numbers on peerless transmissions or transaxles, but with it having 1" axles i say its worth digging into. My guess is that a keyway broke or came undone. Check the keyway on the drive pulley first, then check the shift pins and so on.

-Phil

[tntchitwood]

Thanks. I guess I will build the lawn king. I have a 14 horse briggs that runs very well. It's a start.......I just need to lighten that sucker as much as possible. It is very heavy, But has alot of ground clearance. If I come up with anything worthy of pictures I'll try to share(if I can figure out how). Thanks again for all your help and encouragement.
                                                                  Tom

[money89tractors]

Pics of any sort, even the small things, will be great. Start off with pics of the starting mower and then the upgrades you do to it.

-Phil

[STEELMAN]

sorry to chime in late but i just noticed the talk about hydro drives. first thing is as far as lasting they can pull more than any other (normal) transaxle ive used. by normal i mean excluding the real big stuff you find in some j.d, simplicity, cub .....etc and as far as rpm a jackshaft solves that and is less work than swapping to a 700 tranny. with all that said my old craftsman hydro was the best trail mower i ever had. (swapped it to a 700)

[Chris]

Hydros are excellent, the only problem is you can't overdrive them. You'll burn 'em out and not gain any speed. If you could got from a hydro to some type of gearbox that would be optimal.

[STEELMAN]

as far as rpm a jackshaft solves that and is less work than swapping to a 700 tranny.

maybe this will be the mission this winter so hydro's can have a name

[Chris]

Hydros would be excellent, but your speed is limited w/o a gearbox of some sort. I had an idea once for my Recovery mower to run a Hydro to a 700 so I'd have the variable speed of the hydro and the extra gears to fine tune the speed for torque (pulling/towing someone) or speed (running the trails).