John Deere 112, Off Road Racer/Mudder Project

Welp i have thought and thought and thought about it and i decided to make it a off road mower. Heres the stats as it sits
10 HP Kohler K241
4 speed Peerless 2300 Trans with Variator
23X8.50-12 rear 16X6.50-8 front.
What i want to do is a pulley swap to make it faster, its pretty fast now but id like more speed. Lock the trans. Upgrade steering with new bushings and tie rod ends and stuff. New seat because it needs a new one. Fron bumper. Stack to keep the exaust up out of any water or anything. Snorkle or something to keep it from sucking in mud and water. And for tires i want to do the exact same setup Fearlessfront is doing with his Sears tractor, not trying to be a copy cat or anything i just really like that tire setup he has and i think it would work very good on my Deere. Thats what i have planned right now, anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Been doing some thinking and i think i am gonna paint it flat black but keep all the decals and the yellow wheels. Also i wanna make this thing run at least 20 MPH so i can use it on the road and go to the general store to get a soda or something. I do want a stack like i said in my post earlier and also thinking about a bumper. Oh and LED lights, lots of em. Headlights, tailights, underglow. This is also gonna be a bit of a trailer puller, nothing heavy just a regular lawn cart that i may modify to pull 20 MPH lol i want to upgrade the steering in every way possiible (could definelty use some help there if yall think of anything) and also how can i make this safer? Id like to make it safe as possible and also upgrade the brakes if possible. Would like a foot pedal throttle too lol this is really gonna be more of a fun run arround tractor but will get used for mudding when it rains and the ground gets soft. One thing i am worried about is the variator, if i do a pulley swap will it still work? If i do a pulley swap i only want to make the trans pulley smaller, engine pulley is fine. This aint like MTD variator set up this is a bit different. I found out today when the variator gets wet it kinda cant make up its mind how fast it wants you to go lol. If anyone has ANY ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them

Wow youre very lucky. I wish I could ride to the store haha. Pully swap seems good too. Post pics if you can.

The more i think about it the more i see the need for a lighter, more nimble mower for some things id like to do, not all but some. I have a free Murray Widebody like the one FearlessFront has, i just have to pick it up. I think i will make that one into the light nimble off roader and make this Deere into the one that hauls the Murray around and pulls it out if it gets stuck. I also want to build a little trailer to haul the Murray on. The deere wont be reserved for just towing tho i would still have fun with it and play in the mud but for small or tight areas or when i need a lighter mower i will use the Murray. Best thing about the Murray is its one of the kinda rare ones with the red Frame! They only had the red frame for a year or two all the others had red or black bodys with black frames but this one has red body and red frame so its pretty cool. But yeah the deere will be the hauler and tower and also gonna have a winch and the Murray (when i pick it up and start working on it) will be the light nimble trail blazer

Oh and yes i will snap some photos of the deere tomarrow

If anyone has any ideas or can answer any of my questions that would be great! I would love to hear any ideas yall might have

I would recommend getting a bigger pulley for the engine, less likely to belt slipping because there is more surface area for the belt to grab on. put a extra spring or a stiffer spring on your clutch, should help with the variator action.
Good Plan on the winch, I really miss mine

also On the steering, brace up the knuckles before you bend them. Look at my wheel horse build if you need Ideas. these old garden tractors are HEAVY, they will bend the knuckles if you use them hard. I really like atv tierod ends but they are expensive unless you find used ones.

Thanks for the ideas!!! I thought about putting a larger engine pulley on but with this setup and the way the engine is mounted its almost impossible unless i do some serious modifacation which id like to stay away from for now. Anyone have any ideas on frame streigthning? Its a garden tractor so its pretty tough as is but i want to make this thing a tank that can take lots of abbuse

I highly doubt you will need to brace the frame, just go through it and make sure all the bolts are tight, only frame failures Ive had on garden tractors were due to loose bolts allowing things to move and eventually breaking the mounts

Ok, i will go thru and make sure every last nut and bolt is tight. It doesent have many bolts like on the frame, its just all frame lol but i will check the bolts that are there. I may replace the bolts just because i like replacing bolts on old stuff, its kinda a fettish lol i will use Grade 8 stuff, its definetly overkill but i want the best for this thing.