ROPER Utility\Trail Build

Lookin good. Does your engine have the steel access cover on the opposite side from the intake/exhaust or do you have an aluminum finned one? My 14hp opposed had a steel cover. Not sure if all the smaller ones did or just because mine was an older one.

mr.modified wrote:

Lookin good. Does your engine have the steel access cover on the opposite side from the intake/exhaust or do you have an aluminum finned one? My 14hp opposed had a steel cover. Not sure if all the smaller ones did or just because mine was an older one.

i think it has a steel one ill have to check.

Heres an update !
i got the engine mouting blate finished and reinforced
i made a pulley for the engine (but its not big enough, i need to order a bigger one because its not fast enough, and my belt is too long with this little pulley

i fninished the pulley setup but as i said with the smaller engine pulley my belt is too long so i have 2 idler pulleys that i could remove if i had the right engine pulley.

i mounted the engine and testes everything, it works bbut i have to put belt retainers so the belt stays in the pulleys when i press the clutch.


Some pics after i stopped working at the end of the day.






this is the small honda clone engine i pucked up for 40$, it wasnt running at first but a little carb cleaning fixed that.


Pulley setup


you can see the 2 pulleys that im going to remove when i get the right engine pulley (a bungee cord tensions them)


the engine from the output shaft side





this is the engine mounting plate before i painted it


this is under the engine mounting plate that i reinforced

i worked on it again today, but i did not get much done i got home late...





i made an ajustable belt tensionner.

oh and i also made the belt retainers now i have some issues getting my blt to slip when i press the clutch the belt gets loose but it doesnot stop, so i guess i need to make some belt brakes...

i bought a 7inch cast pulley at my local hardware store just to do a test fit i knew they where not good to use with lawntractors but i only wanted to use it to see if a 7inch would be a good size and everything worked out the belt was the right length but i also did a test run and the pulley blew up, fortunately i had plenty of time to determine that its the right size. ( i have a 7inch on the engine and a 6 inch on the trans)
i will get some pictures of the blown up pulley tommorow, it cracked where the keyway is.

soooo... i got sick of the crappy single pulley clutch and i made a double pulley one, the tractor works much better now.
i also got some steel, i went at the steelyard and i god 50$ of random square flat and angle stuff, im planning to make a bumper soon, i also need to make a hitch to attach my trailer. i qill try to get some pictures tommorow.

i have some pictures !!


here you can see the belt brake wich consist of a bolt and a piede of steel bent in an L shape to keep the belt from flying off


i still need to make a clutch pedal, i had to cut the other one because it was was too short


the gas pedal on the engine side


this is the gas pedal


i also picked up some nice lights i will be putting them on the bumper that i sill have to build



aboutt an hour after i took these pictures the belt fell of one pulley and it destroyed itself soo i dont have enough belt keeper...

tomorrow i am going to fix the belt keeper problem
i also want to start making a front bumper and a hitch

i started building the font bumper today, i will post some pics tomorrow.

today i worked some more on the front bumper

the weather was not on my side at all... it poured rain all day but i still found a way to work on the tractor a bit.

its just a simple square tube bumper but it should be more than strong enough to push stuff out of the way.


im still deciding on where i want to put the lights on the bumper, i do want to install an alternator on the tractor because these lights consume 5.5amps each.

Looks good. Easy to add stuff to it later if you get bored with it too. Lights on top look ok.

mr.modified wrote:

Looks good. Easy to add stuff to it later if you get bored with it too. Lights on top look ok.

yeah true i will add some d rings or something similar too, but for now i just need to buy some more welding wire i ran out while building the bumper...

i made a simple hitch out of 1/4 inch plate

i made some brackets to mount the lights to the bumper



i made the brackets to mount the lights behind the bumper this way i will not destroy them if i run into something



i also worked on a trailer for the tractor

i jut finished making a tie rod because the old 3/8 ones were not good at all (this is the left side tie rod).

the old bent tie rod its only 3/8





the new tie rod is made from a 9/16 round bar and i reused the tie rod ends so i just had to drill a 3/8 hole in the 9/16 round bar to fit the ends in it.





it is supposed to rain today do i may have to do the right side tie rod another day

so the rain never came....
i just made a right tie rod
i forgot to take pictures of this one but its the same thing as the other one

i love it now the steering feels much tighter its probably because the old tie rods were flexing much more tahn the beefy new ones.

a couple of days ago i made a trailer for the tractor.

i made it especially for this tractor because its too high for a normal lawn tractor





i used fearlessfront's method of welding a bolt to the axle to keep the wheels on. its much easier and faster to take the tires on and off with just 2 bolts locking the tires on.

i made modifications to the bumper to protest the lights from branches and stuff
also it looks much cooler !

so today the belt tried to destroy itself again, so i found out what was causing the problem.

my belt alignment wasntt great at all... now its fixed and it works hreat again

this idler pulley was the major problem so i made it adjustable from side to side using 4 bolts and a 3/8 threaded rod

Trailer came out neat. I still want to make a trailer for my machine, but didn't get a chance to start on one yet. Front bumper mods look nice too.

thanks for the feadback !

and now im getting a real sears lol its going to be a work tractor and it has a snowblower !

i dont know what model it is i thinks it had a 12hp tec engine (ss12??) but the engine does not come with it.

going to make a new thred in the utility machine section for the sears...

i just got a new tractor its a roper rt13 (i think) and it came without the engine but with the starter generator, so i want to install the startergenerator on this build. this way i am going to have electric start and a charging system on the 212cc clone engine. now i just have to free up some time to do the modifications...

oh god aligning pulleys is a pain ! so yeah i have been trying to get my belt to stay on my pulleys. i think my belt is too long, ill have to get another one... i made some progress on the starter generator on the 212cc clone. i am probably going to have to make a jackshaft to get the starter to spin the engine the right way...

I starter to work on my roper. i decided to use the starter generator and an automotive alternator.

i went to the scrapyeard and found a 1 year old mazda B4000 alternator got it for 20$ its a 130 amps alternator.
the starter generator came of an old roper rt16 it was on a tecumseh hh120.

since i wanted to have a really solid charing system i decided to use an alternator instead of the generator to charge the battery.

today i made a pulley to put on the starter generator because i used its pulley for the alternator.

heres a photo.



so those are ready to be installed.


i already tested the starter gen with the 212cc clone and it works perfecly. i also tested the alternator just in case and that also works very well.
now im moving the engine closer to the back of the tractor to put both the starter and the alternator in front.

here is a video of when i tested the starter:
https://youtu.be/0IWD-qmSFUY

tommorow ill finish mounting the engine and ill start to build the mounts for the alternator and the generator, i also have to get a new drive pulley and a new drive belt.

i got everything working right.

i wired up the alternator and the starter.

i also did a pulley swap again now it has a 7 in the front and the original in the back.

some pics












hebergeur image

now 7hp is not really enought power with the alternator and the aggresive pulley swap i did but it still works good enough but i do need a more powerfull engine...

im going to a little mud romp this weekend ill try to take some pictures... the electric start works great, but the alternator stalls the engine at idle, i also can hit 3rd speed high range very often because the engine isnt powerfull enough... i need to swap for a bigger one...

Yea 7hp might be a bit small, alternators make a lot of drag.