MasonMcK's Massey Snow/Offroad Rig AKA "The Mule"

Well I've got a bit done to the Massey.

Firstly, I have another nickname for it which I like better than The Mule. Sorry Doc.

I can't take credit for the name, it was either my friend or his dad, I can't remember who, but we're calling it THE NASTY FERGUSON now.

I can't remeber where I left off but I got my new carb, installed it and got it adjusted. I'm still playing with the adjustments here and there though. Then I got a MidWest Super Cub gas pedal mounted and hooked up. Works real good. Also figured out why my clutch was not working, it was missing a belt guide. So I got one off ebay and now everything works great.

Next thing I need to do before I get tires is get a new battery and a new voltage regulator since it isn't charging. I hope it is just the voltage regulator and not the starter generator.

For tires, I need something that I can load full of fluid, and take across the lawn without ripping it up too much. That's why I'm going with the Tru Powers because people say they don't tear up the lawn much. If I didn't have to watch out for the lawn, I would go for the executioners and save a few dollars.

Well that's it for my recent progress report.

Ive seen a few people filling their tires with veggie oil o.O biodegradable and stuff use a tube to avoid rim damage!

Ahhhhh, don't worry about tearing up the grass...It'll grow back...maybe. Don't forget to post plenty of detailed pics when you start any of those diesel modifications.

So it's been a while and haven't gotten much done. It's been too cold or wet out to do anything. But I had to make a decision. The Nasty Ferguson's front tires didn't hold air well so I put my Cub Cadet 1000's front tires onto the massey. Well now my Cub Cadet is going back together and I didnt have enough good tires to have both going at once. In addition, I need to start saving money right now for things like my truck so I can't get the big expensive tires right yet, so I bought a cheap set of front tires to use until then.

Then the other day my hood broke up at the pivot support so I need to get it welded soon.

Also ordered a voltage regulator to hopefully fix my charging issue. I need to grease the clutch pivot because it screeches, but other than that it is in great mechanical shape. In about a month when spring has sprung, I will get much more work done than now. It's just too cold.

This spring I will hopefully get things painted, and lots more done.

Well that's it for this update.

Okay guys sorry it's been a while, life took over for a little while there, and then I ran into some issues with it that made me abandon the project for a while.

So I'll try to get you guys up to date in this post. I'm thinking it was about a week after my last post; I discovered the weak link on my built motor. When I was building my motor I was already going way over my budget so I just decked the stock head .020" and called it good. Well it wasn't good. The higher compression, combined with 4th gear and the engine turning at 5500rpm on 89 octane shot that spark plug out of the head like a bullet. Luckily I had the hood off while I got the carb dialed in or it would have a hole in it. This is when I decided that I had too much money into it and I pushed it off to the side while I caught up on other things.

Fast forward about 3 months and I started to feel remorse about it so I ordered a custom billet head for good flow, and even higher compression. I now run 93 octane, at 5200 rpm with no further engine problems of that sort. Also made a carb spacer for more low end torque, plus it gave the intake a nice whistle

So story aside, it's back together and going well for the past 3 or 4 months and I've been doing little mods in my free time.

So here is what I've added since then:

~Side exit straight pipe exhaust exiting under the floor board

~Bosch Blue high performance ignition coil with my magneto-battery ignition swap (ruined magneto due to spark plug fiasco)

~Kirk Engines Points Saver

~small side view mirror, mounted on copper tubing for that patina look

~Midwest Super Cub gas pedal

~steering column rebuilt

~I made all new wiring, and enclosed it in looms

~Shifter extension

~push start button

~new starter generator

~new voltage regulator

~new starter solenoid

~bought a new hood in better shape

~TWO brand new batteries, wired in parallel

~two new round tail lights to be mounted up, possibly buying two more for that "Corvette" look

~two new headlights to be mounted when my hood gets fixed

~brand new 2500lb ATV winch to be finished mounted

~2x brand new 3/8" D-rings to be mounted

~6' safety flag to be mounted

~2" ball hitch mounted up

~15' recovery chain kept in under seat toolbox

Well before I bore you guys to death, I'll call this an update lol. Tomorrow I'll get some pictures and lay out my new plan for it to you guys.

~Mason~

Be cool to see that motor. Custom head and intake be nice to see.

Well I finished making my winch mount last night and then sprayed it with bedliner. Then today I finally got to go test the winch out. Works great and my dual battery setup is having no trouble keeping up. When I made my winch mount I made it extend past the winch so I could mount two 3/8" D-rings and maybe some Pod lights.

So originally the plan for this was to be used as a work horse, but we got 8 other tractors and attachments are so hard to find for these that I've about given up on finding a plow or a snow blower. I don't really want to adapt one either. So now it is going to be pretty much a full time play rig. I won't go too far into detail on what's left to be done cuz it's getting late, but next thing I'm looking at is tires, lights, and then paint. Haven't looked too much for front tires yet but can't decide for the back. For the rear, I'm torn between the Carlisle Tru Power 26x12.00-12; Kenda Executioner 27x12.00-12; and the Swamp Witch in 26x12-12 or 27" possibly 28".

I'd like to spend as little as possible but I don't want to end up wishing I got a bigger size or a different tire so any opinions? I'll measure again tomorrow to see exactly how big I can go but for now Tru Power, Executioner, or Swamp Witch?

Thanks,
~Mason~

looks good. what size batteryies are you using?

I'm using two identical Huskee 280 CA batteries wired in parallel. They both have 235 CCA if I remember correctly.

Well the pictures don't want to attach so I'll try again tomorrow. So today I wasn't able to physically do much to the Massey but I went and flexed it out to measure my front tire clearances. Front left side tire has clearance for up to 18" tires, but the front right had not even half an inch of clearance to my exhaust so I adjusted it and tucked it up out of the way of the front tire. For the front, I'm not sure but I think I will be going with the Kenda Kutter XC 18x8.00-8. Not 100% sure but I'll make up my mind tonight. Then for the rears, I measured again today and I can NOT fit 27's without relocating my floorboard supports forward about an inch, then removing my front fender panels, and chopping an inch off the back of the floor boards. Last but not least, I must raise my fender pan up an inch or two, and then make new, extended front fender plates.

Way too much work in my opinion and I don't really want to hack the body of this one up at all if possible. So I'm going to go with the Kenda Executioners for the back in the size 26x12.00-12. The way I measured it out, 26's will be a tight fit as well, and might possibly rub, but I can do some very slight trimming, and bend the front fender plates to fit. If it hits the top of the fenders, I'll just body lift my fender pan until it clears.

Seems unlikely since these MF10's are not very common, but does anyone here have one and run 26's or bigger on it?

I'll try the pics again tomorrow

cool. Massy's look neat with big kenda's bearclaws, I have a set of 25x12.5x12 bearclaws on my pulling tractor, they are great. work great in the swamp

1997 Murray wrote:

cool. Massy's look neat with big kenda's bearclaws, I have a set of 25x12.5x12 bearclaws on my pulling tractor, they are great. work great in the swamp

Very good to hear. This will be seeing lots of mud in its future.


So let's try yesterday's pics again:









Now for today's...





So didn't get a whole lot done today but every bit counts. So besides trying to decide what front tires I will be buying, I managed to get outside and bend up a piece of 1" pipe for a stinger bar. Sure it's not going to protect my front end all that much, but it's mainly for looks, and to keep most of the branches off my winch so that's good enough for me. Ran out of day light before I could bed line it though, so that will come tomorrow.

Well that's my tiny update for the day. I expect tires within the week, and lights within 3 weeks.

Looking good!

Tires are to be ordered this evening after I get home. Final decision is 26x12.00-12 Kenda Executioner's for the back, front 18x8.50-8 Carlisle Turf Masters, new used 12x8.5" rear rims, and a set of LED pods.

One idea that I've been tossing around lately, is making a mini camper trailer to pull behind this out of a small spare wagon we have sitting around, and some wood. The current rear 23" tires from the Massey will go on this wagon when my new ones arrive so I'll be able to take my camper down trails and such. Since it's such a small wagon, It's going to be like a recliner type bed and be no frills for now. Later I may add lights, radio, etc.

Again this is just an idea, but any opinions are helpful. If it proves like this will turn out great, I'll get going and add the camper to my build off build.

Aside from the camper brainstorming, not much has gotten done on the Massey. I'm holding off on bed lining my stinger bar so I can weld more bars onto it and some LED pod mounts. Also soon getting my hood fixed, buying a new nose cone, installing lights, and then paint will come. Possibly a new seat too. And a lack of money lol.

I finally got my tires ordered last night. Ended up going with the 26x12.00-12 Kenda Executioner's for the rear, and 18x8.00-8 Rhox Rxal atv tires for the front that have similar tread to the Executioner's. They should be here by Thursday or Friday.

I love getting new tires.

Well my front tires arrived today... Woo hoo!! They look better than I expected them to. The tread is 3/8" deep and matches the rear tread pattern close enough to make me happy. Got my new valve stems installed in my spare front rims, and set the 18's by the furnace to loosen up and retake their correct form. Checked the tracking on the rear tires and they are going to arrive tomorrow. Might be getting my rear rims either tonight or Friday night from a friend and then I'll send them all off to get mounted up. 4 ply 18's and 6 ply 26's aren't exactly the most pleasant to mount up at home.

More pics will come when my 26's arrive and when I get my new rims.

It feels like Christmas!!!



As you can see the new rear tires arrived. Really happy with my tire choice, provided I can forget how much the combo cost. Tomorrow afternoon I'll hopefully be getting my rear rims from a friend and then they'll be sent off to the tire shop. Hope to have them mounted up by Sunday at the latest.

I'm hoping that I'll get lucky and not have to touch anything to fit the rears but it shouldn't be too hard to body lift the fender pan and modify the front fender skirts to fit the taller height. The next things on the list for this is to get the hood fixed, lights installed (12" light bar, 4" pods, 35W halogen headlights, corvette style tail lights) and then bed line the whole thing, and paint the top coat over the bedliner. Then I should be just about done unless I choose to build the mini camper.

Slight delay, but got tires dropped off at the tire shop this afternoon. Being picked up tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see how they fit. I'm hoping they'll fit with no mods whatsoever but I doubt it.

Pics to come tomorrow.

The day has finally come!!!









So as a precaution I body lifted my fender pan using 1" steel square tubing and longer bolts. Worked well, looks good. Might have been able to get away with no body lift but I guess it's too late now. So far no rubbing anywhere and both fronts and rear got great traction. When I put my foot into it these rears will really tear the ground up.

So tomorrow I'm ordering my new nose cone ring, and welding my hood this weekend. Pics of that will come along with pics of this in its first mudding spree with the new tires this weekend.

That thing looks great tires are everything turns a stock mower into a mud machine. I really like that front end you must have a wide front axle to mount tires that size. I hope to find a wider cast iron axle this coming spring to do the same set up.

the old guy wrote:

That thing looks great tires are everything turns a stock mower into a mud machine. I really like that front end you must have a wide front axle to mount tires that size. I hope to find a wider cast iron axle this coming spring to do the same set up.

Thanks. It's really starting to get right where I want it looks wise. I'm actually running the stock front axle for now. Before I ordered my tires I just flexed it all the way out and measured clearances in all positions of steering on both sides to see how big I could go. I might have been able to go with 20's up front but it wouldn't sit level and my wallet couldn't afford more than 18's so I went with those.

I'm more than happy with the 18's and 26's though. Any bigger on the rear and I would have to cut my body up. And the tires make it look much tougher for sure. This weekend I'm starting to bed line it and will fix my hood and start an exoskeleton for it. Yep that's right an exoskeleton. Still have a long list of things to finish on it before the 30th.

Tires look great. Makes the whole tractor look a lot tougher.

Wow, crazy how tires can make it look so much better. I really like how you still rock the vintage paint, I'd never touch it.

How's she drive? Steering, clutching, performance? Sure looks good!

mr.modified wrote:

Tires look great. Makes the whole tractor look a lot tougher.

Thanks! I still myself can't believe how big the difference actually was. I really love it now.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Wow, crazy how tires can make it look so much better. I really like how you still rock the vintage paint, I'd never touch it.

How's she drive? Steering, clutching, performance? Sure looks good!

Thanks! I really like the original paint too, but sadly I'm going to have to do some paint work, at least to the red paint. Both the original hood, and the extra one i bought are cracked in the same spot so the hood catch strap wont hold it open and makes it a pain to work under the hood. I'd just have fixed my original hood, but it had cracked in two other spots and one of the previous owners did the crappiest weld job and its more work than necessary to fix. So I found another hood needing less work, but it turns out that the red currently on the tractor is not the original MF red; which is what is on the new hood. So the colors between the two hoods don't match.

So I have two options right now,

1) I fix the new hood, and then repaint all of the red on the tractor a red just like the red on it now (vs the original orange-ish red), and keep the rest of the paint old and as is. Though I would have to paint the new rear rims because I can't stand the wrong colors. So all red repainted, and the rims painted silver with the red centers. I also need to do something with the primer on the engine. I cant leave it like that so that will be painted silver again too.

2) or I'll fix the new hood and then bed-line everything black, and then top coat over that the red and silver again.


The second option is definitely much more work (and money $$) and it would ruin the patina look I kinda got going on right now; but I feel it would look sweet; but I am also really super partial to the old look that I have right now so I'm kinda torn between the two. Any help... well, would be helpful.

Onto performance of it, I rebuilt the heavy duty Ross steering column, so it is nice and tight and I'm ordering new tie rod ends tonight. But even with the old ones there's very little play. When I got it the play was so bad you could turn the steering wheel 1/3 of a turn before the wheels would move. Clutching; works fairly well, when you shift it into gear from neutral you really have to push the pedal down far or else it will grind a bit which is just an adjustment issue. But once rolling, shifting between gears it doesn't grind at all. The belt slips a little bit though but that is an issue with my vari-drive which will be eliminated soon for much easier pulley swaps. If anyone has eliminated a Vari-drive system or can help with ideas for building a regular belt clutch system that would be appreciated. I do have access to a welder but I don't really want to chop up the frame if I don't have to.
Other than the minor belt slippage, she's a beast. Throttle response is amazing, First gear is slow enough for rock crawling, and 4th is fast enough to break the tires loose. And she's pretty fast for a tractor in stock form. 10 mph on 26's.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be taking it over to my friend's house to test her out in the mud, fix my hood, and weld more tube work onto the stinger bar. Also maybe start an exoskeleton and start looking at the clutch. I'll post some pics if anything happens.

So I took it over to my buddy's house and got to test it out. Tires grip beautifully, BUT my belt slips worse than I expected especially with the addition of water. Although, even with my belt slipping terribly, I never got it stuck once. Just had to put it in a low gear and crawl out of the mud. So today I'll get the fender plate off and get pics of my clutch set up right now and maybe you guys can help me figure out a good way to convert it to a regular belt clutch. Also my spare hood is being welded today and I'll get it back from him this coming Wednesday. Lights and paint will follow soon after.

I also got to use the winch more today. Once was pulling out my friend's 1977 Sears 18/6 since he got stuck every single time and then when I got home we used it to put tension on a tree when cutting it down. Still have yet to drain my batteries with it.

Here's some pics of the belt drive system. I think I know how to get rid of the varidrive and convert it to a normal belt drive system. I'm just going to remove all the variator linkages, put a double stack V-belt idler pulley on the 3/4" mid shaft in place of the variable drive sheave, and a regular pulley on the front and back. Think I'm going to go with 4" front, 4" mid, and 4" rear for now for a 1:1 belt ratio. I'll adjust pulley size from there as I see fit.

I also need to weld up the tensioner linkages in several spots and redrill the holes to get rid of all the slop, and combined with a heavier spring I think I should have no belt slippage. The clutch will still disengage the belts like it did before, just no variator will be there.

Let me know if you think this will work before I buy anything. And I will need to find a double stack pulley with identical size belt grooves, that has bearings for a 3/4" shaft, and the entire pulley needs to be about 3.5" long. 4" diameter.  If I can't find one (no luck so far) I'm thinking I'll have to weld two idlers together and balance them. Not really looking forward to that. So please let me know if you know of anywhere where I could find something like that.

Thanks