Big ride on mower

[AndyUK]

hello Roger

yes a little progress but then a delay, as usualy happens a big job came in and l needed the workshop space so the mower got pushed into the shed for a few weeks and now winter is here and the need for mowing has vanished, the chilly weather has made me think about some form of insulation and heat in the workshop so before l drag the mower back out to carry on l am going to line the walls of the workshop with 3/4" ply that l can paint white to brighten the place up a bit, however l cant be with out a project to tinker with lol so l have started something a little smaller that can live on the bench while l work on it, l am building a small 3 wheeled trike for spraying weedkiller on the doc's that seem to be taking the place over, l will get some up todate pics of it but here is the general layout from a few weeks ago

 

[94BULLITT]

Thats cool. I just wanted to check in and see how you and your project were doing. Around here I have been trying to switch gears for winter too.

 

[Marcle]

Hi,

Lovely project.

Looking at your Suzuki axles, I built a 4 x 4 x 4 years ago using two Suzuki front axles. If your looking to have a narrow track, you could have used two front axles, but chop them down to use two short halfshafts. Instead of using a transfer box, you could use the engine and automatic gearbox from a front wheel drive car, remove the diff (or weld it up so the planet wheel don't rotate) and rotate the engine/gearbox 90 degrees so the outputs from the diff face the axles. This will give you low ratio with good torque and low speed.

Here's my transmission layout.


I also used a single point attachment (similar to the front axle on a tractor, but sprung).

More info >>here<<

 

[Sledgie]

Wow, Marcle, you went to a lot of trouble to show how the tranny layout worked. I might have just tried to draw a picture...

 

[Gator6x4]

Since a mower engine is required to run at high constant RPM's how are you going to regulate ground speed with a manual automotive transmission? Even at low engine RPM's in the lowest of gears you will be traveling at a fast ground speed. With a automatic transmission you still have a problem. Engage the mower, rev the engine up and jerk into drive and suffer whip lash. The hydro transmissions on mowers and tractors are rather complicated pieces of engineering.

 

[94BULLITT]

Since a mower engine is required to run at high constant RPM's how are you going to regulate ground speed with a manual automotive transmission? Even at low engine RPM's in the lowest of gears you will be traveling at a fast ground speed. With a automatic transmission you still have a problem. Engage the mower, rev the engine up and jerk into drive and suffer whip lash. The hydro transmissions on mowers and tractors are rather complicated pieces of engineering.

We discussed that earlier in thread.

 

[AndyUK]

Hi,

Lovely project.

Looking at your Suzuki axles, I built a 4 x 4 x 4 years ago using two Suzuki front axles. If your looking to have a narrow track, you could have used two front axles, but chop them down to use two short halfshafts. Instead of using a transfer box, you could use the engine and automatic gearbox from a front wheel drive car, remove the diff (or weld it up so the planet wheel don't rotate) and rotate the engine/gearbox 90 degrees so the outputs from the diff face the axles. This will give you low ratio with good torque and low speed.

Here's my transmission layout.
View attachment 288211

I also used a single point attachment (similar to the front axle on a tractor, but sprung).

More info >>here<<

hello Marcle

the mower is as you describe, a cut down suzuki axle using 2 short shafts on the rear and a front wheel drive car engine and box,
and l do like suzuki bits, nice and light, when l started my little rockcrawler l experimented with all sorts of layouts such as this subaru engine and box midmounted with suzuki axles

and whilst a central engine might seem a good layout it dosent work going up hill dose it ? lol

l worked my way through several different layouts on the garage floor including this one with ford diffs and a fwd engine and box

but in the end l came back to an all alloy fwd engine and box and suzuki sj axles, about as light as it comes

as you can see from this pic the engine and box were pushed well forward to try and keep the nose down

not much room for the passenger but just enough


my pal built one as well

this vid shows some of the abilities of a transaxle buggy

20090205-040620.mpg - YouTube

 

[AndyUK]

We discussed that earlier in thread.

lol thanks Roger l was just about to post that, l seem to remember working out it would travel as slow as 1.5 mph, l tried to work out how fast l was going on my ransomes last time l used it and it was more than that l am sure
Andy

 

[AndyUK]

well things have changed a bit recently, by accident really, l bought a vitara ( sidekick ?) rolling chassis for $120 just to get the alligator tyres that were on it

once the wheels and tyres were off it and onto another project l was left with a rolling chassis that l dident have any plans for:confused2:
well that dident last long l have decided that it might be usefull on the mower project, originally the mower dident have any suspension but was going to rely on the big tyres for a bit of flex plus a tilting back axle, not any more :laughing: l am going to use the sidekick chassis and suspension
l did start off thinking of using the drive train too as it is all there

however low box just isent anywhere low enough to get the slow ground speed l need :thumbsup: so its back to the diesel engine and box from a front wheeldrive car that gives me a 4 to 1 reduction on the gearing,

it was a little to long in the wheel base to to l chopped a bit out

not quite as much it appears in the pic as l used some of the chopped out section to taper it back towards the rear

then l took 17" out of the width of the rear section to give me clearance for the wide tyres

so the chassis ended up a bit like this

it is now front wheel steer using all the standard suzuki suspension which makes it pretty wide at the front while at the rear is a much narrower than usual axle with a limited slip diff

the diesel engine and box have been back in it just a couple of little jobs to do before it goes off to the shot blasters so as l can get it painted up in a nice shade of green
Andy

 

[94BULLITT]

Wow that is quite a change. You should be able to mow real fast with a suspension.