Murray Wide Body Project Build.

I have a nice little Murray, older wide body styled. I got a rack, lights, air horn, bigger read tires, 20 HP motor swap, and a 6 speed differentional, Upgraded brake system, gas pedal, It's amazing so far, but it's not what I want. Any ideas how to make this thing go off into the FOREST! I dont like mudding to much, But I do it sometimes, I have a nice little lake the back yard I run through pretty regurlarly, But I like foresting better, Ill grab a few pictures later own. But for now, any additions...questions...concerns about any kind of setup a may have here?

We really need more info and pics. Can't ever forget the pics. It would also be nice to know if its an actual 6 speed gearbox, or a variable drive belt with a F-N-R transaxle.
Oh, and BTW,


Welcome to the boards

I use mine in the woods 95% of the time... Sounds like you've got a great start so far.
You didn't mention it, but have you changed pulleys at all? I've got mine geared to run 15MPH in 6th at 3800 which is fine for the woods.
I'd recommend locking the differential too, it makes a huge difference. I've got larger tires on the back, and taller tires on the front.
I'd also suggest upgrading the rod ends on your steering. Stock ball & socket type ends will pull apart when stressed... and bouncing thru the woods will definitely stress them

Sounds similar to what i want my trail murray like - the base tractor is a 90's GT murray, has 1" spindles up front and 1" axles from the trans - for an inital setup itll get 4 large ATV wheels, a 14HP OHV briggs , some sort of rear rack to haul stuff and mount a winch to - ill also put a trailer ball setup on it.

Ill see how that works then maybe ill add a trans up front for a 4x4 setup - ill probably keep the speed just a lil over stock.

I have to say my last 'off road' tractor was a stock agway with 10HP briggs - had plenty of power , was totally stock - only downfall was its stock turf tires out back - had some serious traction issues in mud ( which was where it went 90% of the time).

It was pretty decent crawling over small fallen trees and roots surprisingly.

Chopperhed wrote:

We really need more info and pics. Can't ever forget the pics. It would also be nice to know if its an actual 6 speed gearbox, or a variable drive belt with a F-N-R transaxle.
Oh, and BTW,


Welcome to the boards

THe gearbox was originally a 5 speed, I tried to lock the transaxle and 4 gear endedup blowing apart somehow..So, I did a little "transplant" and pulled ALL the gears from another transaxle.

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I would say git some better tires bigger tires maybe 22s in the back and 18 or 20s on the front and maybe mod the front end to give more flex.
And have you done a pulley swap.

I've swapped front and back, 6 in on front, 5in or rear, Id have to do ALOT of trimming for the tires you sugessted, 20's on the rear, and they had to have so trimming done.

I have 22's on the back of my widebody.

Well if you dont wnt to do any trimming you could just do a few inches of lift . I was able to fit 23s on craftsman stock but just barely less than 1/4 inch of clearence with no trimming so i did a 2 inch lift .

This trator is similar to yours and you can see in some of his other videos he does some serious offroading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSMZl2o2h6E&feature=channel&list=UL

Remember this is to go on trails with, not mudding.

For me, trail riding means axle articulation, torque to pull you throgh, gearing to give you the torque, and the tires to put it to the ground.

I"d set up a close to stock pulley ratio, increased traction, by means of agressive tires, extra weight, by any means handy( for traction), Possibly liquid filled tires. High ground clearance ( from the tallest tires you can get, don't forget the driveline ratio changes from the tall tires) Gearing low for crawling can be compensated for with a tall tire


Reinforce the front end. locking it won't help on the trail.

You could avoid trimming by lifting the fenders up higher - with some spacers. For decent articulation some sort of dampening shock should be mounted - keep the front axle from hopping around at higher speeds.


On my old agway, simply adding larger front tires gave it some serious ground clearance and alot more articulation.

If you look at the picture of the side, You can (maybe) see the engine is a v twin, and the exhaust have been flipped backward, and ran staight pipes completely back to the stransaxle. Sounds like my Corvette now. so my front end is kinda limited on space. And I like the ideas of reinforceing the front end, and the shock on the front end.

Have you got a pic of the transaxle. It looks like its pretty much identical to mine when it was basically stock.

One option for a lift is to add some plates and bracketry to the back of the frame at the transaxle mount to lower the trans, problem is its a belt drive with a vertical input shaft.

A problem, but not insurmountable. A small jackshaft ( or intermediate shaft) with a couple of small pulleys, and a pair of pillow blocks can be used to drop the rear belt near the transaxle. It would require some fairly simple bolt in fab work. A jackshaft works the same vertical or horizontal. Or you could go with chains at the transaxle to prevent wet belts. Take a look at some seriously lowered race mowers for ideas. then turn it upside to lift it.



That would give you the clearance clarence but only for larger tires under the fenders.

Ground clearance only comes from one thing. Tire size.

Unless you want to build a fancy IFS/IRS sytem