The Swamp Rat

So here it my 2002 murray RER. Stock it had a 930 or 920 peerless, 14in rear tires, 11hp briggs, and 9in front tires. Since then it has evolved in to what it is to day.
Here are the mods
The motor has a 16hp briggs carb on it
6in engine pulley
3.5 transaxle pulley
new metal idler pulleys
more clutch springs
20in turfs in the rear
15in tires off a murray
a hole different fron end from a murray
swapped in a 5 speed spicer
Lifted 1.5in's
Stretched 4in's
Here how it was with just the deck off a few years ago

I quickly put bigger rear tires on it, but because of the 5/8 spindles on the front i couldn't put bigger tires on the front with out some modifications


mock up from years ago



It has been out of commission for 2 years, just got it running a week ago but the motor threw a rod lol. I'm rebuilding it now.
Thats with 18's up front


Thats after it was stretched







I also did the honda recoiling pull start on this mower. I have a thread on it.

I also wanted to show my trailer hitch that i extended up. It makes it so a trailer doesn't lean down when towing it.





It also has a left hand shifter that is opposite of a normal one.

nice truck

looks good. i had that same year and model. i wish i had kept it because it looks like an awesome base for a build

the mower that is. just so you dont get confuzzled

crazykid1994 wrote:

nice truck

looks good. i had that same year and model. i wish i had kept it because it looks like an awesome base for a build

Yeah its a great platform to start with. They are way better in the mud or any thing because the weight is on your rear tires. But i've never rolled this lol. They are kinda rare to.

*nods in approval* now theres some footage of the little rat... very good!

and as for that Dodge - nice choice. Not an old gen like mine, but still really cool lol

prometheusedi wrote:

*nods in approval* now theres some footage of the little rat... very good!

and as for that Dodge - nice choice. Not an old gen like mine, but still really cool lol

I'll try to get some. I was gonna make one of the recoil but the engine threw a rod. I'll have to make some romp videos. The dodge isn't really any thing special but its getting dana 60's front and rear with 37's soon. May be some 3rd gen dodge seats.

i wanna swap in d60's and upgraded steering everything... but its my girlfriends and she doesnt want me to. so oh well. i did what i did to the engine and am going to do a little more "maintenance" to it soon.

Well this engine rebuild is going to be harder than i thought. The rod is extremely scored, so bad the rod won't rotate on it with the bolts tight. I plan to sand it down to day, if this doesn't work i have the parts motor i can get the crank from, but i'm thinking about throwing a 5.5hp predator in it and putting the 11hp in something else. Would the little 5.5hp do ok with 23s and a 1:1 ratio?

I can tell you this the predator motor will not have enough power

Ariens YT11 wrote:

I can tell you this the predator motor will not have enough power

What I was to gear it with like a 6in engine pulley and a 8in transaxle pulley? I guess I could mod the motor to with different parts. I'd assume the 212cc predator parts would work on these to.

Ok its back in action! Last week end i bought a 1995 murray rer for 60 dollars. It had a 12hp briggs on it that was so post to run. We fired it up at the guys house but only for a few seconds and stalled because i thought it was flooded. I bring it home, put my 11hp shroud/recoil on it and it started up on the 2nd pull.

I ran it around on that mower for a little but it ran like it needed the carb cleaning. It wasn't till I tried to drive it up a pile of dirt till i realized it wasn't getting enough gas. I put a new fuel filter and line on it and its ran perfect since then. I swapped it over to the swamp rat and it does awesome. I took it for a romp yesterday and ran like new. It goes reasonably fast.

More pictures today!

needa do a mud vid

You could build the little predator!

GenevaCustoms wrote:

needa do a mud vid

I'll try to get one lol

TroyBilt Pony wrote:

You could build the little predator!

Yeah but i got this 12hp for cheaper and a hole mower with it to

Well i had a few romp pictures on my phone but it broke lol. I'll have to get some with my real camera. I have these that i uploaded before it broke.


thats the mower the 12hp came off of


I had a lot more lol idk if i'll be able to get them back or not

Been a while since i last updated this. It looks like this now







Its burnt up like 3 belts lol. I fixed that now. I also geared it down a little with a 6in pulley in the back and a 5in pulley up front. So its super slow now, and to make matters worse the shifter bent (long story lol) and won't put the transmission in 5th gear any more. So i gotta make a new shifter. I also put 23in dirt devils in the back which make it crawl through every thing. And the 4 wheeler rack is new.

is the murray the same as the rat? frame/transaxle wise?

1997 Murray wrote:

is the murray the same as the rat? frame/transaxle wise?

I'm not sure what you mean lol. The frame is stock but the motor and transaxle are not.

I went ahead and got a new belt for it today. Motor still runs awesome started on the 1st pull after 3 weeks of sitting.

She did some working today lol. Thats a old window unit and on the bottom is a hole bunch of scrap steel for my build off mower and stuff. I found the window unit in the trash lol.




Need to do more work to the rack and fender flares/mud flaps still.

That's a unique looking tractor! I like how it has a ton of ground clearance. Looks like a swamper for sure!