Would a Sears Surburban be too heavy for a off-roader?

I want to build an off-road tractor. Would a Sears Surburban be too heavy? Was going to replace the cast iron engine with an aluminum one. I don't need to go fast, bones too old and brittle.

check out tommartyn on youtube, he uses bolens garden tractors and they are great with the weight they get lots of traction

A suburban would make a good off road tractor. I use my roper which is a variation on the sears tractors. Added some chains and wheel weights and it will go just about anywhere.

If the old motor runs fine - id run it as is - i ran my 80's agway with a 10HP briggs stock for years thru the swamp behind my folks place - it had its limitations ( tires being the biggie) .

Remove any low hanging pieces ( old deck hangars) - it sounds like its a horizontal shaft motor- so you shouldnt have any pulley issues.

A big thing is water/mud in the trans- you might want to put some fresh gear oil in, check the seals and check the oil ocassionally - depending how high it sits off the ground, you might want a front tire swap to a larger size, mainly for ground clearance.

You might also want to make a couple skid plates - depending where youre going with it.

It wouldnt hurt to make a rack or haul a trailer for some spare parts, gas , oil and even a cooler for those long distance trail rides.

Thanks for all the replys. After watching the Bolens and Roper videos I think the old Sears will do OK. The Onan twin didn't run when I got it and I didn't want to spend much on it. Sucker sure is heavy. Figured an aluminum Briggs would save a lot of weight on the front end. Thought I needed Kenda Bearclaws but after seeing what the Roper would do with turf tires and chains I'm not so sure.

Oren wrote:

Thanks for all the replys. After watching the Bolens and Roper videos I think the old Sears will do OK. The Onan twin didn't run when I got it and I didn't want to spend much on it. Sucker sure is heavy. Figured an aluminum Briggs would save a lot of weight on the front end. Thought I needed Kenda Bearclaws but after seeing what the Roper would do with turf tires and chains I'm not so sure.

suburbans will work great. frame is amazing strong enough to support my front end loader. only bad thing about lawn tractors is weight distribution like the motor is in the front weighing it down alot in the front get a winch on it, i wouldnt want to try to get one of those beasts unstuck by myself. Id also sugest locking the transaxle if you know what your doing for awesome tractors

If the trans is anything like the ones in my GT's - dont even attempt to crack one open - those are full of springs and gears .

Mine are '3 speed ' hi / low side input type transmissions - ive seen a parts list of them- theres a whole lot in em.