Ford Transit powerd lawn tractor!!!

I have all ways liked the ford transit DI engines they are pretty bomb proof, we also have a couple laying around the yard complete with the gearbox's I was actually thinking on my long commute to college that how bad ass and how much POWER a lawn tractor would have if I could set a beast like that in the front of a lawn tractor..

>Is it possible?
>Would the power twist the chassis?
>Would the chassis hold the weight?
>How big will the tyres have to be to make it look good?
>WOULD IT STILL BE CLASSED AS A LAWN TRACTOR?

These are just a few of the problems I have thought of, I would love to make this a summer project and use when the snow falls I would like to keep things as standard as possible..

>what would be a good downer tractor for a chassis?

Would needs lots of reinforcement on the chassis and a shortened rear axle.

Panzers are kind of like that with an actual rear end but a regular engine. Just lots of fab work.

A shortened rear axel would not be a problem as i already have one this was acquired from a from a buggy which was in a load of scrap as my dad being a scrap dealer many things are in my reach the axle is still connected to the rear end of the buggy but around an hours worth of work that could be changed pretty quickly.. And the steel is also around the yard to reinforce the chassis so really every thing has been given to me on a plate to be fair..

Then grab a really good welder and start fabbing!

I can't wait to see this in working progress..How fast do you think it'll go??

Going to start fabbing a rectangle frame from 2 by 4 steel to the size the of the engine and gear box mounts and build it up and around that. Going to cut the tractor about and use most of it like the foot pans the rear fenders the seat the bonnet will have to be cut down the middle and have some more tin welded in it to make it wider got some steel chequer plate i want to throw in to the build some were i have measured the axle and it is 3 ft from hub to hub looks a perfect size.. the rear is going to have to have some suspension of some kind i was thinking of using cut down leaf springs.

speed?? I don't have clue if im honest it will depend on the size of the wheels and tyres but I am leaving the gearing standard so i expect around 60 mph if you dare to that fast on it.. the gear box is standard from a 1996 ford transit 5 speed box it was from the swb low top van it is a 2.0 litre with 165478 miles on the clock ran fine when it was removed from the van so no reason why it wont fire again..

This is a project I have started on and have got a good start have made a chassis from 4 by 2 steel I have welded the engine mounts and gear box mounts on and have the engine set on next step is to put the back axle on with some sort of sus but with the Girlfriend having my camera for some stupid art project for college don't tell her that or I will be in the dog house.

While i have no doubt you can build it strong enough... that's going to be very dangerous....

pro, come on, all of our builds are dangerous to some degree, lol, well, mine are anyways, they always like to flip....

you gotta post some videos when its done!

richie thomas wrote:

pro, come on, all of our builds are dangerous to some degree, lol, well, mine are anyways, they always like to flip....

Sure, if you say so  

My builds are USUALLY as safe as a build like is seen here can get lol... that's why it takes me so long to complete just the design phase... breakage at speed hurt a lot lol

ANYWAY - it seems like a good idea - but a literal killer if not done right.. Wouldn't have been any different than a Taunus V4 in a simplicity 7012...