MTD off-road romper build.

well I think I uploaded it right. Anyways, heres my first tractor. Ive always wanted to tinker with something, so here it is. a cheap mtd for free, and I didn't have any intentions other than mods and beating on it. I picked it up last fall, and did the following things.



First I took the deck off.


took the front clip off to clean everything. put the grille back on.


Being a 1:1 off road buggy, truggy, jeep fan I am kinda a flex freak haha.


I headed out for my first ever romp with my best friend and his craftsman. still no seat if youre wondering, it was in terrible condition.


Hood mod because im a 1:1 offroad freak as I said haha.



Decided to do a front tire mod with a small, almost to small, snowblower tires. (toro)


One of the bigger must-have mods. I mocked up a beefy front bumper.


Me burning it in. You will see it in other pictures of the mower, as a whole.


Decided I needed a new pipe, so bought some 90's and welded them on the cut pipe.


Then I made a hanger bracket for it, and painted it. I wish I got a solid pic of the side pipe. ill do that soon guys


Well this will have to do, and yea, haha, it works great!!!


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnd this is where I basically screw it all up. I had a Honda hawk cb400 that I was eager to drop in. I tear the hole thing apart in preparation on the new motor. I was planning on a atv rear axle and later realized that I was way over my head.


But hey, sometimes you gotta dream


Tore it down to the chassis and it sat over January and febuary, until I got my sane, and motivation back.

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This was like three months ago, when new York, in the fingerlakes got dumped on. this is when mtd's double clutch sh*ty design got me. I had the rear belt set up so I never had a clutch, and the whole shift on the go rear axle has no speeds at all, just gears for forward neutral and reverse. both belts got burned up when the idler pully decided to eat the rear belt. oh well, I hated it anyways.

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NOW, we are all up to current date. as of last Saturday, I went to the junkyard and got a $10 pearless 5 speed. that's more like it. and a few extras.

Nice.
That should do the job.

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So this is how it sits. I re wired it, and it was confusing but I bypassed all the safety switches, and got rid of the headlights. Needs some rear boggers, and I think im going to make a nice grill for it, and redo the hood mod in reverse. so it flips up like most mowers. Next step is the new homemade clutch and pulley swap. so I need to run out to tractor supply this week and try and get this thing rockin' and rollin' in the next month. If anyone wants to know im in 10th grade, 16 years old, nd wont be on the forum daily, maybe weekly. ill try and keep you all up to date as much as possible.

Sounds like you have some good plans for this mower.

I consolidated your first 10 or so posts into 1 post. You are allowed to have more than one images in your post. Plus it helps keep everything cleaner.


Welcome to the forum! The Peerless will do you a lot more good. I actually have one of those pan frame MTDs but havent used it. If you havent done the belt yet, youll notice the rear pulley will sit higher because of the vari-drive that was in it. A 1" spacer between the body and the transaxle should work well.

Doug Fackler wrote:

I consolidated your first 10 or so posts into 1 post. You are allowed to have more than one images in your post. Plus it helps keep everything cleaner.


Welcome to the forum! The Peerless will do you a lot more good. I actually have one of those pan frame MTDs but havent used it. If you havent done the belt yet, youll notice the rear pulley will sit higher because of the vari-drive that was in it. A 1" spacer between the body and the transaxle should work well.

Thanks, ill do that's with the pics that are upcoming. And like you said about the peerless, thanks for the advise. romp on!

truckin42 wrote:

Sounds like you have some good plans for this mower.

Yep, I cant wait to get rompin. I'd say I cant wait for it to do finished but its never going to be finished haha! Thanks.

Yeah.
Were are always gonna be moddin our mowers.

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The hood is now level, and I found some front Yamaha blaster tires and rims that have deceit tred that will work. Im making the hood and grille one piece, and the hood level for looks. it looks ALOT better. The grille will be chicken wire maybe back to back, and braced framing for it. Why? Well I like ramming things,
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Not shure what size tires but there stuffed! yeaaa! I'm probably running these skinny tires for ground clearance, and side bite, tell me what you think of them. id cut the center circle/hub outta the old rims and weld them right on. And I don't hane to mess with fender flares to much! haha seems near perfect.
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I love the flames and Sparks! and the SidePipe.

Ariens YT11 wrote:

I love the flames and Sparks! and the SidePipe.

4
Thanks! The sparks were from dirt or some crap inside the pipe that I didn't get out, and the flames have burned some hair before!

it is looking good ill put pics and updates for my travtor when i can figure out how to put pics up lol

Its usually not a good thing if fire comes out your exhaust.

Those Blaster tires should do great. Anything but turfs really.

Doug Fackler wrote:

Its usually not a good thing if fire comes out your exhaust.

Those Blaster tires should do great. Anything but turfs really.

yea I was revving it and it much be running on the rich side. I just went from full throttle to idle and it crackled down, and caught that pic on film.

I like the look of this mower.
Looks cool.

redline i posted more pics of my mtd on the monadnock offroad mowers facebook page.

nicely done!
im not sure what you indending to do with the tractor but to me those tires seem alittle to thin.
they got good grip but if your front tire go into mud they will just sink.

just giving you some impute.

I was thinking that the knobs on the four wheeler tires are work, what I'd I cut them, like grounded the front of the logs in the tire flat so it digs a lot better, make the lugs in the tires more square like a normal knobby tire? I'm not shure. I think I'm doing the lawn mowers old rim/four wheeler rim weld job today. I'll see.

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A little flex and sneak peak of the new hood/grill.
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Front 7" pulley, 1" hub. cut out the original belt retainers.
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Rear 4" pulley. welded to the original rust welded shaft, and pulley that was partially cut off. Not shure how im going to be able to split the case but I think I still can if I turn it upside-down, I can crack it open and make it pozi. (since the pulley is rust welded to the input shaft. )

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Well ive don't a lot to my mower, but I haven't taken a lot of pictures of the most recent stuff. Pics coming soon! In the mean time, heres my friends craftsman that you've seen before. Just took the plow off it.

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This is my atv tire mod. I started with the stock rims.
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Then I cut the sides of the rim off
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This is the center hub, grinded flat to the mating surface of the atv rim
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Gotta get it perfectly center........
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Beaded the rim to the atv rim. worked awesome.

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Next subject, the hood and grill.
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I wanted something raw, like madmax and ratrod looking. I love how it turned out. tell me what you guys think.
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Lots of bracing, its quite solid. doubled up chicken wire stuff, and some tube laying around.
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I like the front brush graud.