Building a Racing lawnmower

[ctc1111]

I found an old craftsman tractor on the side of the road so i brought it home and got it running just for fun. Its the same thing as all these racing lawnmowers i see. How to they make them so fast? Do they get rid of the gears and use a cintrifugal clutch like on a simple go kart?

 

[Mith]

Hi,
There were a couple threads on the Lawn and garden forum a while back, bit of reading for ya /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Supercharging
Discussion, similar train of thought

As far as I know
They dump the gearbox, explodes at high speed /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Remove governor (can you say boom!)

Im guessing that a stright foot clutch is used with a 90 degree gearbox from horizontal to vertical drive. To make a proper one I think you effectively have to rebuild the tractor from the ground up.

You caould use centrifugal clutch like on karts, much more control with a foot clutch though. The clutch on a LT is just a moving pulley that tightens the drive belt to go and loosen to disengage, pretty simple stuff.

Use google, read lots, there are alot of rules.

I got in a conversation with a guy who was doing rather well in the UK series but he kept trying to buy my rather unique Wheelhorse that got rather old fast so we never got round to discussing the finer points.

Depending on how serious you are, if you wanna join races you gunna need disk brakes, safety stuff ect to make it more boring and safe. If you wanna have fun with it, lighten up the front, change the belt drive ratios, ag tyres on back, governor off, tighten up the clutch, hold on and bomb it around the back garden.
If ya want real excitement, take the brake rod out /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I would never suggest you do all these things, if you do, top up you med insurance first.

 

[Bowhunter]

An old college roommate of mine grew up in a town that held an annual lawnmower race every 4th of July. He told me that many of those guys replaced the stock motor and tranny with a motorcycle engine and tranny. It's pretty funny seeing a lawnmower hit 40 mph. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RonR]

I think the funniest thing I've seen on TV was a Rototiller Drag Race. These people had taken big rear tine tillers and installed roller type deals in place of the tiller blades. Then they'd geared them up and souped them up.

From the starting line, they reved them up and when the flag dropped, they were off. The machines would run so fast, the people couldn't keep running behind them and most ended up being dragged across the finish line.

Not that was some entertainment!

Ron