New guy with John Deere LX170

I had to laugh when I found this forum because way back when before I even had dial-up (mid to late '90s) my friends and I were fixing up old lawn tractors, putting chains on the tires, and running them through the woods because we didn't have money for quads or go-karts.  My tractor was an 11HP Murray that had been rotting away in a shed for years before I pumped the tires up, cleaned the carb, and went to town with it.  By the time I was done it had bigger tires, a homemade bull bar with a hand crank winch, auxiliary lights, and a bunch of other mods.  We ran our tractors all over the 40 acres of woods behind my parents' place, did hill climbing competitions, swamp buggy races, and snow runs when we had days off of school.  We had no idea other people were doing this stuff until we got older and started seeing videos on Youtube-if only we had videoed the stuff we did back then!

Anyway, now I'm looking more at building up a tractor for work, rather than play because I don't have a place to ride anymore, but the way I see it, no matter what, "seat time" is time well spent.  I have a 1989 John Deere LX170 which is a little bit of an oddball-Deere only made them for one year.  It's not a big beast like a 110-more like a standard MTD/Yard Machines clone, but with beefier components.  The frame, steering gear, front axle, etc...is all heavier than you'd see on a Craftsman.  It's got a Peerless 800 transaxle which I understand is decent one, but it's the one with 3/4" axles-not the 1" axles rated for pulling a plow.  I basically use mine for hauling firewood up from the woodshed, but I'd like to put a snowplow or snowthrower on it.  The engine is a 14HP Kawasaki with overhead valves, an external oil filter, and a fuel pump.  I've also toyed with attachments for it to hold tools, a bigger battery/batteries, and just make it a "support vehicle" so that I can pull it into the backyard if I'm working on a project or into the driveway, etc...

Here it is with the mowing deck on it.  I took it off because it was more trouble than it was worth on my small lot with too many things to go around:



What I'd like to do with it is put larger tires on the front and do some kind of body lift on the rear in order to clear maybe 22" tires (4" taller than stock).  I'd love to put some kind of hubs on the rear so that I could mount 14" automotive or ATV wheels and have a little more flexibility as far as tires.  I'm concerned about the stress on the axleshafts though.  From what I understand, the Peerless units only have bushings, not bearings, and place all of the stress on the shafts themselves.  Has anyone come up with any kind of axle truss or similar type of brace to alleviate this problem?  This seems like the only real weak point in the transaxle.  I'd love to see what other folks have done as far as mounting hubs, etc...

I had a tractor similar to that one it was a 130 and it had a 7 or 8 hp kawasaki was one of my first tractors no matter how long i left the thing outside it would always start up and run. didnt run great but it ran i repainted the thing to but i sold it and bought more tractors. i feel bad for the person who bought it from me lol. And is it a 5 speed?

Craftsman1998 wrote:

I had a tractor similar to that one it was a 130 and it had a 7 or 8 hp kawasaki was one of my first tractors no matter how long i left the thing outside it would always start up and run. didnt run great but it ran i repainted the thing to but i sold it and bought more tractors. i feel bad for the person who bought it from me lol. And is it a 5 speed?

Yup-it's a 5 speed.  It doesn't owe me anything-my FIL gave it to me for nothing after my wife and I got married.  It runs pretty strong but would definitely benefit from more weight over the rear and a locked rearend. I'm in NJ too-Hunterdon County

YotaTruck wrote:

Craftsman1998 wrote:

I had a tractor similar to that one it was a 130 and it had a 7 or 8 hp kawasaki was one of my first tractors no matter how long i left the thing outside it would always start up and run. didnt run great but it ran i repainted the thing to but i sold it and bought more tractors. i feel bad for the person who bought it from me lol. And is it a 5 speed?

Yup-it's a 5 speed.  It doesn't owe me anything-my FIL gave it to me for nothing after my wife and I got married.  It runs pretty strong but would definitely benefit from more weight over the rear and a locked rearend.  I'm in NJ too-Hunterdon County

I'm in cumberland county so your pretty far from me. Nice to see more mower modders from jersey. Check out Mister Modifieds builds hes from new jersey too.

NICE. I have a JD 111 which has the same fenders you got, but you have a slightly nicer grille and headlighs. I need headlights bigtime. you must have a newer or more "loaded" model of a same tractor. It may have 3/4 axles but mine is built real stout. You can tell a JD from a craftsman that's for sure. Mine has 3 lug hubs on 3/4 axles and 8 inch 5 lug wheels from the factory. Probably to make it look like a garden tractor.

802 Customs wrote:

NICE. I have a JD 111 which has the same fenders you got, but you have a slightly nicer grille and headlighs. I need headlights bigtime. you must have a newer or more "loaded" model of a same tractor. It may have 3/4 axles but mine is built real stout. You can tell a JD from a craftsman that's for sure. Mine has 3 lug hubs on 3/4 axles and 8 inch 5 lug wheels from the factory. Probably to make it look like a garden tractor.

The headlights are a nice touch, but they're not that bright. I'm thinking of replacing them with LEDs eventually because I do use them if I'm pulling wood up to the house at night. In other news I may have found a Peerless 820 with wheels and tires for free! Going to look at it this weekend.