Bolens Build

[Carlman]

Gday gents!

This will be my thread for giving you updates on my mower.

First a little background.

About 5 weeks ago i bought a Bolens LTX14 Hydro from a local mower shop for $50 flat.  It had no engine or bonnet.  You see he was going to mount it on his roof for a sign.  So he painted it orange besides the wheels seat and so on.  A gust of wind blew the hood off the table and it broke on the floor.  So from then on (this was 7 years ago) it sat under a tarp at his place...until i came along!  It has the oringinal all trac tyres on it with tiny nubs where the manufactuaring strings were, so not much use.

3 weeks ago i picked up a 13 hp Briggs Diamond I/C flathead without a carb.  by phoning tonnes of places i found a carb without a bowl and from there i bought a new bowl.

Stuck her on and she started after jumping her on the mighty camry in about 2 seconds!  From there on ive been adding things as i went such as fuel tank (orig 10hp engine side mounted one that i mounted at firewall) as the internal monster of a tank had a bad rotted grommet.

I then purchased a bigger pulley for the engine to get the better tension from stock belt and for a tad more speed.

Im building this for torque rather than speed at the moment, later on the list will be a 5 speed swap then we will see about speed changes.

I had found myself a pretty beat up bonnet but it is of no use to me now as ive stripped her back.

I took all body pannels off and welded the seat in a new position (alot lower).

Added pull start from a trash picked honda gx240 with 2:1 reduction box (seling to gather funds for the machine)

Pictures below are as it stands now.

whole machine:


clearance:


new seat mount and peerless 250:


gem of an engine, 13 hp Briggs Diamond IC:


new fuel tank mount:


ass:


me on my machine and the trash picked gx240:


Immediate things to be done:
-Setup throttle return and mount (as per rules)
-Build mounts for jerry can and toolbox (also providing protction from very fast moving pulleys...)
-new roobar
-new taller front wheels and spindles (as per rules)
-seat belt
Posted on: March 04, 2009, 02:43:35 AMcome on guys no comments?

[money89tractors]

Good start you have there.

You dont want to regear that trans too much, it will just blow. I have a spare peerless 4 or 5 speed here that i will sell, but have to figure up price with shipping (price will depend on shipping so i can make it as reasonable as possible)

Check out www.bmikarts.com . They have some of the best prices on live axles and other parts, just takes some looking around on the site.

-Phil

[Carlman]

thanks money! really appriciate the offer for the manual tranny, but do you realise im over here in australia?

what can you sugest as a next major move for this thing?

[Chris]

You might want to rethink that larger engine pulley. You won't get more speed out of the hydro by changing the pulley ratio, but you will overdrive the hydro tranny and burn it up. I made some cool plans a while back to use a hydro tranny with a chain drive to a live axle - but I don't have any time to work on my mowers anymore.

[Carlman]

allright cool thanks for the tip, might just have to mod the tensioner or extend the wheelbase to get the right tension.  Should get a 5 speed soon anyway. what do you think of it so far mate?