Live axle hubs and rims

Hi folks, I have like 5 or so mowers all running and Im ready to lift and beef em up. I have almost everything figured out, standard vertical shaft, stock sucky tranny ect.. my plan is belt to peerless 700, sprocket on 700 to sprocket on fulley keyed live axle, pillow block bearings and the rest I can figure out. But the thing is, Im having one hell of a time figuring out how/what hubs for the axles! Not like I can walk in a store so my question, I need maybe a standard 4 bolt atv hub, to a live axle, once I get them do I just weld them or or what? Pics if you have them would be awesome! Also I keep hearing "keep the chain as short as possible", why exactly? Thanks again folks

chains short = less chain slack to deal with, make sure you leave enough room to change/ upgrade sprockets down the road

most cart type axles are keyed, so no welder required, if your going 1" its generally 1/4" key stock, if it were me I would get a long step axle from bmi, a 36" axle with 2" steps is around 32.5" face to face on a quality hub. this gets you wide enough for big tires but not grossly wide, a shallow step would be close to 34" face to face on a 36" axle, the step gives you a place to put a washer and nut, to capture the hub to the axle. you need a collar or some sort of filler (I like 1" pipe if you smear the axle with grease or anti-seize) if you want to avoid them siezing together put washers on the end of some schedule 40 pvc pipe. the collar or this pipe and washers hold the key in, the pipe would also keep the axle from slipping in the pillow block.

hope this helps