Homemade Garden Tractor

I thought you guys would enjoy seein some pics of my most prized possesion. No I didnt make it and no it does not run yet. I have been talking with the editor of Lawn & Garden Tractor Magazine about having it featured in the mag. She has looked over the photos and write up and may put it in the mag so yall may be seeing this in the magazine.

Tractor's history
This tractor was made in the mid 1990's by a man who lived in north Texas. He was a very good welder and made many alluminum boats. When his old riding mower broke down he decided to buy a new one that he could use for mowing his lawn, working in his garden, and moving trailers. He looked at John Deere, Kubota, Cub Cadet, and even Sears but he could not find a garden tractor that met his requirments so he decided to make one. He got to work and started buying materials. He started making it in December 1993 an finished it in July 1994. He used the tractor almost daily for mowing, working in the garden, and moving trailers. He used the tractor up until he passed away in 2003. When he passed his property and equipment was auctioned off. The auctoneer was a good freind of the creator of the tractor and when it came up in the auction he bought it. He used the tractor for a couple years and then it was parked in the barn out back. The tractor sat in the exact same same spot until October 2012 when I purchased the tractor and brought it home. I have not done much to the tractor but I plan on fixing it and using it for mowing and gardening. The creator made afew attachments for the tractor including a modified Brinly 12 inch plow ad a homemade disc cultivator. These attachments have been lost over the years.

Tractor's spec
Waukesha 23 horsepower 4 cylinder gas engine
Borg Warner T83 3 speed transmission with 2 shifters (3 forward speeds one reverse)
Narowed Chysler rear axle from the 1950's
Has 12 volt electrical system
5 gallon gas tank
Waukesha radiator
Water temp guage
Oil pressure guage
Amp guage
Hydraulic brakes
5.70/5.00 front tire size
9.5-16 rear tire size
38 inch mower deck from 1970's Sears/Roper GT
Has electric start with genorator
Tractor is about 80 inches long, 46 inches wide, and about 4 feet tall at the top of the steering wheel (highest point) measurements taken with mower deck attached

Dude are you crazy!!!! That mower looks as though its the best mudding mower of all time, i say you make it a mud mower by taking the deck off, straight piping the exhaust, and locking the transaxle which you can learn on FearlessFront @Youtube

Wow! Thats incredible! I cant believe thats homemade and its that professional looking. Nice find!

Thanks. It would probably never get stuck with those rear tires lol. The rear axle came out of a car so I dont know how I'd lock it but I am going to leave it just the way it is. It has 2 brakes, one on each side that are currently hooked up to one pedal but I am going to change that by adding another pedal and hooking it up with indepindent rear brakes so I can spin this thing around like a zero turn. Heres a pic with the mower deck off. I took this pic with a cheap camera so its not very good

The absolute best thing about this tractor is that it only cost me $50

dude, you can't mess with that. It has to be kept original, or at least, keep it returnable to original.

Yea, I wouldnt mess with it at all. $50 for a 1-of-a-kind tractor, leave it.

I 2nd that for sure! Leave it stock. That thing is a one of a kind tractor for sure. If that thing uses automotive drive train, It should be tough as nails and indestructible. A nice find for sure and a steal at that price. Take that to farm shows and you'll get lots of looks. How fast does that thing go?

Well I havent had it running yet so I have no idea how fast it is. I plan on using it for mowing and working my garden. I do want to add a hydraulic outlet system for pull behind impliments like plows, discs, etc. And I really would like to add the individual brakes so I can operate this like a full sized tractor.

That is nice.

Marines2621 wrote:

That is nice.

Thats a good lookin early 80's Murray GT you have. Is that a 39004 or 39003? The difference is the 16 HP or 18 HP Briggs

its a 16 horse

Marines2621 wrote:

its a 16 horse

That would make it a 39003. You should check out MurrayOwnersWorld.com it has lots of info photos and reference material on all Murrays including your 39003

One of a kind! I like it! Since it's a Chrysler axle, maybe you could put a select-able locker in it so you could unlock it when u needed to turn. Being from the 50's might be tough.. that would be sick though. The only thing the surprises me is the fact that it only has a 38" deck.. I have a 11 hp briggs that runs a 36" deck.
Is it diesel or gas?

FearlessFront wrote:

One of a kind! I like it! Since it's a Chrysler axle, maybe you could put a select-able locker in it so you could unlock it when u needed to turn. Being from the 50's might be tough.. that would be sick though. The only thing the surprises me is the fact that it only has a 38" deck.. I have a 11 hp briggs that runs a 36" deck.
Is it diesel or gas?

Its a gasser. Would be cool if it were a diesel. I could be rollin coal on a lawn mower!

Great looking tractor! I love home-built machines

i bet she pulls a plow like non other! totally awesome man!

Thanks for all the positive comments! Right now she is just a lawn orniment but I hope to have it running soon

Hey guys, I got it running. More info later

Ok heres more info.

I emailed a magneto repair company a few days ago and asked how much it would cost to rebuild my magneto. I got an email yesterday from them and they said to rebuild that magneto would cost about $250 so I thanked them for replying with a quote and went outside to see if I could fix it myself. Took apart the magneto last night and looked at a damaged gear inside the magneto. The gear is missing a tooth but seems to work just fine so I put the magneto back together and put a good battery on it.

Now before I go any further with the description I must mention that the first time I attempted to start it I used the orignal battery which was no good so I had to jump start it. When I started it the first time the motor turned over very slow but at the time I just thought it was supposed to be that slow so I thought the magneto was faulty because I wasent getting spark.

Ok back to the description. I hooked up a nearly new 420 amp lawn and garden tractor battery on the tractor and attempted to start it. I noticed the motor spun over much faster so I got a little carb cleaner and sprayed in the carb and the motor busted off. When I get some gas I will try and get it running.
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nice looking tractor. at first i thought it looked like a jeep. bet that will win a couple tractor shows without a doubt!

Got the tractor running. Runs ok but has a timing issue. Its not good but heres a video



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl5GjUbQD28

That's really amazing I love that.