Scotts S1742 Trail & Trailer Pulling

Doing small things to the Scotts machine. I put a muffler from a 20hp B&S on it. The old muffler took a couple hits and was cracked in a few places. no pics of it. Nice and quiet now

Also took the time to figure out what size bolt I needed for the driveshaft. You can use 7/16-20 or M12-1.50. Either one will fit. Tractor supply didn't carry either size, so I got them from McMaster-Carr. These:

92620A695 High-Strength Steel Cap Screw - Grade 8, 7/16"-20 Fully Threaded, 3/4" Long, Zinc-Plated, Packs of 25

Had to cut down a spacer and find some washers. My pulley was slipping down the shaft. The belt and retainers were the only thing keeping it on the shaft   

Here is the "trailer" part of this project. This MTD:


Which turned into an exploded view.


Had some time to remove the guts from the hydro axle. It probably would've worked fine if I just changed the oil, but the wheels are seized onto the axles (very common) and that alone isn't worth the effort to fix.


The pump is quite heavy. Took everything out except the diff.


The axle/diff goes back in with some grease.


Pulled the front axle off. Giving it to a family member to so he can make a trailer with it.


And this is as far as I got. Going to use a steel bed frame for cross rails and I have some thick steel to make a tongue. I will have to buy the hitch receiver though. Nice wide tires so it doesn't dig in when loaded.

Worked on making a bumper today. Found an MTD bagger mount in the scrap pile.... looked like a bumper to me  


Used a few pieces of a bed rail to make supports coming off the frame. This frame is horrible for front end add-ons.


Here you can see my header and muffler from a 2008 B&S 21hp. I had to move the support over because of the pipe location.


Everything is bolted together. The welder was sitting next to me, but I didn't feel like using it. The bumper is there for two reasons other than protection; mounting lights, and adding weight to the front.


I've got two more brackets to weld on and then I can hang various pieces of heavy metal off it. That way I don't have to shift my weight forward while turning to get the front tires to grab.

Not sure about you, but theirs a few things if do to the bumper, maybe loose some of that metal, take it down to the first horizontal beam. then build a brush guard with some mesh. Im sure you'll think of something.

Were I you...



I'd cut it off vertically at the green lines.

Then cut it horizontally at the blue lines.

Then cut a piece out of an old mudflap, and lay it on that bottom part. Set a full size battery there. Then use the big piece that you cut off, in front of the battery.

Kind of like if you cut all those lines, then "Hinged" at the blue lines, and let the piece fall forward. Move it down until it is surrounding the battery, just like the red lines, and weld it in place.

There you go. Big beefy bumper for protection, and a full size battery, for weight.

Ok, wait. I just had a better look at the other picture.



Unbolt the red piece and remove.

Cut along the green lines.

Then flip that piece, following the yellow arrow.

Line it up. Slide it back some, drill some holes and bolt it on.

No welding!

Now fill the bottom of the cavity with a piece of mudflap or something similar, and place a full sized battery in there.

I suppose it doesn't need to be that tall. I will have a better idea of how to finishe it when I decide what weights I want to add. The only items I have of significant mass right now are a couple brake rotors.  

If you wanted to fab up something, im sure their is a lot to work with that material.

Maybe this will be some inspiration.

Those are some nice front bumpers!

I pulled apart the rest of the LTX1000 frame. I think it can be used to extend my trailer a little.


Hmm, I wonder if I have another junk transaxle somewhere? I could make it dual axles.....

whos massey is that? its badass

Creepycrawler wrote:

whos massey is that? its badass

David Ireland , hes a really nice guy.

After moving a few tractors that are half-torn apart from the back yard to the garage, I realized that I really need a better way to move a machine that isn't a complete tractor. I think my firewood trailer will become a transport trailer.

I still have everything I need to make it, except for a crane. I'm thinking about using this one from Harbor Freight:


http://www.harborfreight.com/12-ton-capacity-pickup-truck-crane-with-cable-winch-60731-10018.html

Imagine a tractor frame that I can load a partial tractor onto using the crane. I haven't decided if it should have one axle at the rear like a normal trailer, or two axles at each end with one steerable like a farm trailer.

I finally decided on a frame to use. Someone had been poppin' wheelies on this one and opened up the spindle holes on the front axle. Perfect donor for a trailer   


Just had to remove any plastic bushings, hammer the holes shut as best I could,


give it a quick 'n' dirty weld,


and a little paint to keep it from rusting.


Needed a trailer tongue, so I found this piece of steel, which I think came from a big box store sign?


Cut it into this,


and bolted it up. This was very springy. Needs a brace. The receiver came from Harbor Freight; $10   


Used the other section of the sign piece and welded it (after removing the thick paint   )


This is as far as I got. Still needs a lot more, but at least I can try it out.


The axle needs to be welded; I don't need a trailer that tilts. The upper section needs a flat sturdy base for the crane to mount to. I may add plywood to the base to give it width. Not sure yet.

Finaly someone found a good use for a craftsman.   
Looks good like the build

First test of the trailer: A success!



This snowblower/mower has a locked up engine and trans. so moving it around, or more appropriately, dragging it around, was tearing up my lawn.

Trailer is looking great! Are you going to weld the front axle so the chassis doesnt tip all around? Or did i miss something?

CornShuck4CE wrote:

Finaly someone found a good use for a craftsman.   
Looks good like the build

Woooooah!

Yes I'm going to weld it. Need to strip paint off and maybe even add metal before welding.

Did a little work to the Scotts last night. Forgot to take pics   

I removed the transaxle, replaced the 4" steel pulley with a 6" aluminum pulley. 6" is actually the stock size for the spicer tranny. I wanted to go a little slower as it's more useful that way. Didn't have to change the belt because the belt-tensioning system gave me enough slack for the larger pulley.

Filled the trans with gear oil (didn't remove the grease) to try and tone down the whining noise. Drilled a hole though the neutral switch and put a rubber hose on to vent it.

Just little fixes here and there. This is still my favorite, and most reliable machine. At some point, I want to treat it to some better front tires.

Weight! for the front. Two brake rotors and two flywheels to be exact.



It really needed it because of the ATV tires. They are very grippy and I was always having to shift my weight forward to turn. Now I can just turn the wheel and she goes! Less unintended wheelies when taking off too. I'll add a bracket to the top for support later, but it stays in place pretty good right now.

Changed my muffler today. The "down-in-front" muffler style isn't all that great for off-roading, or in my case, pushing brush back. My buddy's Murray with B&S OHV has a much simpler design that has the muffler right on the exhaust side. I've been patiently waiting for a cheap one and found it on a friend's MTD that had a hole in the block.

Just making sure it fits. You can see the old muffler still attached.


Took it off, painted and refit.


It stops just before the tire.


I did have to modify the hood.


The sound is the same. Actually, it's a little quieter because after I hit something with the old muffler, it separated it from the header pipe and was louder

B440 wrote:

Yes I'm going to weld it. Need to strip paint off and maybe even add metal before welding.

Ha, I've changed my mind. I found an easier way to stop the front axle from pivoting. A couple bolts:


Carefully placed into these holes,


and Bam! No more pivoting.


Not sure why it took me that long to do this? I haven't used the trailer in awhile. It got some use today when I had to grab a parts machine and take all four wheels off. Still thinking about the crane hoist attachment, but that's at least $100 away


That's all I got for now. I've been busy with a JD 212 that I've been setting up for plow duty.

Crane attachment? Yea know HF has there 2500lb winch on sale for $50 this weekend or something.

Also, what about your 4x4x4x4 thing?

It's been cold, and rainy, and did I mention cold? I lose a lot of interest in building when it gets real cold out. But, I found someone giving away gym equipment on CL, which leads me back to working on the trailer. This is where the tower will go:


Mocking up the metal. These are pieces from a bed rail and a large box store sign.




Two pieces of angle iron should be strong enough for the base.


I thought about bolting the large angle piece, but just welded it. I didn't want to remove any structural integrity.


Here is the part from the gym equipment. Already has a pulley up top.


It's bolted in three places and I reused the plates that came with it. You can sort-of see the plates. They are acting as washers on both sides.


I still need to purchase the hand-powered winch from HF. It'll mount where my hand is. A mock-up of the cable location;


This is how it will sit until I get the winch. I don't think I want to get an electric one. Trying to keep it simple. I may add a ramp to the back to make it easier to load.

I think a little too much time has past since my last post.

But I have been doing a little bit here and playing a bit there. The tractor popped the welded diff while I was doing donuts in the woods. No damage, I'm back to an open diff

I bought the hand winch a long time ago and it collected dust in the garage. Today, it is mounted and ready to use.


I did as much welding as possible today. I even beefed up the towing plate on the tractor. Hard to see, but the ball hitch sits a little higher now.


I made up a better mounting point so the winch handle didn't hit anything when spun.


So here's a Scotts 20/48 garden tractor. Nice and heavy.


I really need to add a ramp. The tractor still required lifting, but I didn't have to completely dead-lift it. More like; Turn the winch a little, shove tractor, turn, shove, turn, etc. Didn't even break a sweat.