Mower Trailer

[frederic]

Phase I - mower trailer.

I was looking for my old thread however my browser kept blowing up so I chose to start a new thread. Hope no one minds. I bookmarked it so I'll add to this thread as I make more progress.

First, a little background. I have a simplicity riding mower, which is fairly bare bones, but it did cut the grass nicely. Last summer I rebuilt the B&S engine and early spring this year, I worked the transmission over. I rebuilt the mowing deck a few months ago, yet it died again so I've decided to build a "mower" trailer out of the good parts of the mowing deck, an engine from a rusted out push mower, and scrap out of this large garbage can of metal "things" I'd love to get rid of. I'd only have to buy wheels and an oil seal for the engine I'm going to use since I dropped the old one in the grass and I cannot find it.

Here is the mower deck before I stripped it down:

And here is the rusty mower I'm stealing the engine from. This mower carcass was a "trash night" freebie.

Since the engine base is round, I had to find a reasonable way of cutting a near-perfect circle without freehanding it. I was going to use my plasma cutter which would have made this job incredibly easy, however I couldn't find any good tips so I figured "sabre saw, how hard could that be?" So I made a really lame jig for encouraging the sabre saw to go in a circle.

Here is the hand-cut engine mounting plate. Wasn't difficult, just time consuming, but it came out pretty nice. Much better than if I tried to follow a sharpie line.

Next is to make the smaller round mounting plate that will fit into the existing holes of the mower deck, in place of the double-bearing spindle.

Then, weld together some square tubing and spacers between the two, so the motor sits off the mower deck and the mower deck mounting plate.

And, prior to painting, this is the end result, and where I stopped for the day:

Using large clamps (and a lot of them) I clamped the mower deck to the sawhorses, attached the gas tank, yanked the cord, and viola, it started on the 2nd yank. I let it run for a minute or so, shut it down, drained the tank and removed it, then put the large blade onto the spindle.

While this level of detail is probably more than is necessary, I thought it might be useful to those who are considering using lawnmower engines for other projects.

Tomorrow I start construction of the surrounding chassis, the axle stubs, mounting of the wheels, a trailer tongue, and most important - the cutting height adjustment. I'm waffling between making four seperate mechanisms with stops in the same place, or go through the aggrevation of linking them so one larger lever controls the cutting height all around.

 

[frederic]

Got started on the chassis today. 1" sq tubing, mostly out of the scrap pile:

 

[mrcaptainbob]

Good project, Frederick. I have a couple decks I plan to do similar to. I was considering two 'wing' type frames as carriers for those decks. Mimic the attach points from their original mower frames and let them float as they used to. I'll be using a 10 HP to drive a couple 48" decks. Hopefully it'll be strong enough to drive them both.

 

[have_blue]

Man, you have ALL the fun! I've got to get off my duff and start doing projects like that instead of wasting my time working.

I have a large round model air field (~300')that I mow with a 42" riding mower. I like to keep it nicely manicured. Although mowing a round field is much faster than mowing a square field, it still takes way too long. So,,, I'm always thinking about something to tow behind my mower or tractor to make the job faster... and without breaking the bank.

I think some day I will get a pair of cheap 21-22" mowers, fabricate a square tubing "harness", separate them by ~38", and pull them behind my riding mower. That should get me a 78-80" cut, and reduce my mowing time by half for under $300.

Only thing I wonder about is how 3 motors will sound, and how fast I could pull the rig.

Thanks for the inspiration Fred, and please keep those pictures coming!

 

[frederic]

Captain Bob - I use approximation math for these types of things.

For example, my "tractor" has a 5 HP briggs, which drives the deck and the 5-sp transmission. The motor I mounted on the deck is a 3.5 HP briggs-craftsman copy. I figure it takes about a horsepower and a half to move my butt on the tractor.

I'll know soon enough!

If your deck(s) were originally driven by a 5HP motor, then you know that one 10HP motor probably can drive both just fine.

BTW, driving multiple, smaller blades seems to require less HP than one huge blade like I have.

Have-Blue - I didn't think anyone was particularly interested in this thread since it's a mower-tractor and not a "real" tractor like most everyone else has. When I finish today's welding, I'll be sure to post pictures from today and yesterday.

Not sure about your neighborhood, but around here people throw out stuff all the time. The engine for this project was a freebie. As were the front double stroller wheels. As was some of the steel. And even some of the bolts... the guy across the street threw out a large beat up wooden box full of smallish stainless steel hardware - #10 through 3/8", ranging from an inch to about 3" long, nuts, aircraft nuts, etc. Not bad for free. For outdoor projects I prefer stainless because it doesn't rust and fall off.

Anyway, more pictures later today or tomorrow morning.

 

[frederic]

One of the rear wheel "axles". Originally I was going to thread 1/2" stock, yet no matter how much of a point I ground onto the stock, I couldn't get the 1/2" die to make any threads. All I did was narrow the round stock, and make shavings all over the place, so to move forward I bought a cadmium plated grade 8 bolt, beheaded it, and welded it through the supports to a 1/8" flat I welded on the back of the 1" square tubing, for strength and rigidity. Not exactly good engineering, but it will do.

Here I'm building the nose of the chassis, and yes it looks very bizarre. I've decided as a temporary solution, I'm using double-wheeled casters off an old baby stroller a neighbor just put to the curb. My attempt to make free-rotating casters didn't come out as nicely as I hoped, but I'll revisit it after I cut the grass the first time. Though, if this project goes any slower, I won't have to see my lawn this fall, it's about to seed itself ;-)

Here is the basics of the chassis. Notice how the nose of the chassis tilts up. I was going to try and miter cut the steel, but after several poor attempts at using a protractor, I decided to weld it on straight, then hack through it with an air saw most of the way, put the casters on, then bend at the cut until the casters were angled correctly, then weld on a piece of 1/8" flat into the gaps for strength.

Fits around the mower deck nicely!

Originally, I was going to set things up with a lever, and a mechanism, to adjust the height of the mower without tools. As I'm watching the grass grow longer and longer, I decided to skip the complexity and just use bolts through square tubing with holes spaced 3/4 inch apart, allowing the height to be adjusted with four bolts. Not the easy way of course, but I don't think I've ever adjusted the deck height in the last 5 years, so any kind of fancy effort is a waste of effort:

Tomorrow I'll weld together the front mounts, triangulate this chassis a bit in case it bounces off a large rock or gets twisted by one of the wheels falling into a gopher hole, or something like that. Then I'll weld up the trailer tongue and start mowing!

 

[Mith]

Frederic, loving it, just keep those pics coming and lets hope it mows soon.
Enjoying reading about this, I have plans for the future.
You have 333 views, so dont think no-ones reading this.
Thanks and keep the pics coming (btw, hows your truck progressing?)

 

[bobodu]

I rigged up a frame to pull two "push" mowers behind my Gravely L with a steering sulky.One mower and a caster on each side .Mounted up ridigly to the sulky...gives the whole deal a ZTR type feel...and a 66 inch cut.Uses less gas on two acres than the wifes 42inch MTD (yuck...)
I find at least one fixable mower a week.Hadta stop hauling em home...The last one was a two year old 22 inch Crastman with a sticky needle valve!!!

 

[frederic]

Aaah, people are viewing. Didn't notice that feature. Just wasn't sure because my tractor is a "toy" compared to some of the really nice machines some of you have.

The twin-turbo crewcab hasn't progressed much. I still have to finish welding together the exhaust manifolds, and cut a few more elbow sections.

I acquired the software and hardware necessary to hack into the Ford EEC (the fuel injection computer) I'll be using, which is off a 92ish mustang. I also have to integrate that computer, and my homemade wiring harness, into the engine bay as well.

And add wires for AC, the second alternator, etc.

Though I spent a good part of this summer removing rust off the frame, crossmembers, wheel wells, etc.

Also rebuilt the big-block ZF tranny that's going in with the new engine, that's on a dolley still waiting. Also rebuild the new sterling 10.25" rear which replaces the one I have now, giving me dually. With the current rear off the truck, and the truck supported by jackstands, it looks like the new dually rear will fit under the bed tight enough that it doesn't stick out too far, I could "hide" it by adding fender flairs rather than making, or buying, dually fenders. The gap between the two rear tires per side lines up with the single tire on my existing rear.

I can't wait until this truck project is over. Well, at least assembled... I can get 2/3 of the garage bay I call "a shop" back. Tired of standning on the transmission while operating the drill press. Not comfortable for sure!