Tractorhead says Hello

Morning Gang, quick intro to me ~ my first ride-on mower about 4 years back was a 1982 Westwood with Briggs engine, ugly little fecker used for smashing brambles down on my smallholding.  "makes mowing the lawn fun" a friend said and he was right.
Then I accidentally bought an old tube frame Bolens with Lister Diesel and hydro drive. Fun but slow and noisy as...
More recently I've got a small Roper, not for the lawn, just for fun, ispired by Fearlessfront's Sears.  It's the smaller version so the engine sits lower, more stable in theory but you lose ground clearance as a payoff.  Steering rods very vulnerable so a shield needed.  Plan to put a Yanmar 10hp diesel in. I think it'll fit  I've already painted the easy bits dark brown, mostly because I had a tin of dark brown but also I think it'll look good and be a good base colour for rust effect paint later maybe. It left the factory red with white hood but by the time I got it was green with yellow wheels
Non runner. I took out the spark plug and pulled the start cord. A cloud of orange dust blew out with a scratchy noise.  Junk, so easy decision to go diesel.
I've also got an Allen Roper RT13 which is a Sears Suburban by another name. That one stays as it is I'd add a pic but photobucket is almost unusable due to parasitic advertising ***** popups. Laters

welcome! would love to see pics

Here's one of the Allen Roper. I am getting the photobucket app right now so more to come soon ok.
Cheers

nice, that looks like a great trailer tug, thanks for sharing

Yeah photobucket is a pain for ads. Welcome! Nice little machine. Looks pretty much like a sears custom I guess. Maybe same frame.

mr.modified wrote:

Nice little machine. Looks pretty much like a sears custom I guess. Maybe same frame.

Yep seems the back half is pretty much identical to a suburban, only detail differences, then it's a shorter dash and dropped engine frame keeping available engine height the same but lower centre of gravity. Against that is less ground clearance but you got the droopy old transaxle at the back anyway, swings and roundabouts
Still not sure about brakes

I've taken the brake bands off both Ropers and given them to Friction Services, a company that relines brake shoes etc. In about a week they'll come back with fresh friction material bonded on then I can test the RT13 see how decent factory brakes behave. I liked your disc upgrade of the Baja Sears, would you recommend? But unless I lock the Diff I'd need discs both sides and it starts to get silly. My brother says have independent tickle brakes but that's Crazy Talk, in full panic you want to just stamp on the pedal Chrysler Voyager has correct stud pattern but the discs are so much heavier than is needed. If I had the funds I'd have them thinned down and use a smaller motorbike caliper but hey... it's the stuff of dreams.
I wonder if simple cable operated cam caliper from a mountain bike would work? On a big diameter disc it would have more effect.  Anyone tried it?
Btw photobucket app is worth getting, doesn't have the ad pollution of their website (if you're on a smartphone)

Ryf wrote:

nice, that looks like a great trailer tug, thanks for sharing

Thanks. yep, just for you ~ a pic of the old Roper on trailer duty

i think i just bought the same tractor as your roper but mine came with the snow blower it feels like a beast haha. nice find ! and welcome !

sadeoo7 wrote:

mine came with the snow blower it feels like a beast haha. nice find ! and welcome !

Thanks, beast for sure No snowblowers here, not enough snow  mine came with a massive 3 blade cutter deck in decent nick though.  Too much fun booting around as it is so I doubt it'll ever get fitted