Sears Suburban Bogging Mower

This is one of my, and most complete, Sears Suburbans. This one has a Kohler K301 which is being removed in favor of a 13hp generator motor due to the 13hp having both pull and electric start. Today I put the AT489s on the front and started on some other small mods. Plans are paint, bumpers, 1:1 ratio pulley swap, Kevlar belt, skid plates, and mounting the hood.



Plus this is the main reason I'm getting back into mowers, MurrayMayhem recently bought this Troy-Built, with a 3/4" F-N-R and a 25hp Kohler Courage Twin, and got it working with 22" knobbies on the rear and 20" turfs on the front.

At first I thought it said, sears suburban bogging. Thought we were having running issues. Looks tough with those tires. Should be able to paddle your way through some deep holes with those on there.

Yeah the rear tires are pretty great, even though they don't hold air they are super hard and are still 26x12x12. They really dwarf the front tires which don't look like 24s on thia

A bit of progress on the tractor today...


Then a minor set back


Sadly all I had time for today was to remove the K301 and start ripping the generator apart. Hopefully more progress tomorrow!

Might be a sight problem, I've found a tampered to 1" shaft adapter for $60 but I'm not sure I want to fork out that much and might just weld a pulley on there

What kind of engine is it? Clone?

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

What kind of engine is it? Clone?

Yes it's a 13 hp 'PowerTrain'

Another picture of the motor


Little header I made




Beginnings of a bumper


Some decent welds








With the prerunner bar bent and welded on





By the way the turfs are temporary while I get the AT489 valve put in

Do you have the other part of the generator? I've heard of people beating the windings off the shaft in the generator part and using the shaft for the pulleys. If you get what I mean.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Do you have the other part of the generator? I've heard of people beating the windings off the shaft in the generator part and using the shaft for the pulleys. If you get what I mean.

Thanks for that Redline, kinda feel stupid for not think king of it myself lol

I found a pulley and mounted it today







Thinking about putting these lights here





I am also in the process of tearing this apart for paint. Other than that, I have to slightly modify the clutch to work with the larger pulley, get a belt, mount the gas tank, and build a skid plate.

Looks pretty mean. I like the front bumper, seems to be lots of room for a winch! Hahaha!

Cool! Glad to see you got it figured out. Are you just gunna chop that aluminum part off that the generator part bolted to? Or does it unbolt from the block?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Looks pretty mean. I like the front bumper, seems to be lots of room for a winch! Hahaha!

Thank you and yes that's the plan eventually

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Cool! Glad to see you got it figured out. Are you just gunna chop that aluminum part off that the generator part bolted to? Or does it unbolt from the block?

I'm going to cut off where the belt would contact and use the rest as a belt retainer/splash guard (and it's part of the block).

If that isnt the most convenient thing ive ever seen haha. Fits the pulley perfect

When you're building something like this and things just go right, it's awesome.

Everyone loves surprises right?

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

If that isnt the most convenient thing ive ever seen haha. Fits the pulley perfect

It really is, it only took digging through piles of mower scraps dumped off at MurrayMayhem's house to fine the one pulley that slid perfectly onto the center of the armature stub and was the right size for the case

Progress today (even though it looks like it's going backwards)


Got the case cut to clear the belt (needs a little clearing up)


Modified the clutch to work with large front pulley, dont know if it'll work good but I can hope


Finally I mounted a gas tank from a Briggs with a grinder and a lot of zip ties.

Awesome rig man, what did you do for front hubs? I'm building a similar rig and plan on using rear 4 or 5 lug wheels on the front of mine as well.

moparjim wrote:

Awesome rig man, what did you do for front hubs? I'm building a similar rig and plan on using rear 4 or 5 lug wheels on the front of mine as well.

my front hubs are 12" rims that mounted on a 3/4" transaxle that were garbage except for the center so I cut them and smashed them flat and drilled holes. if I were you I would get a set of five lug hubs for a 1" shafts and put bushings with a 1" od and a 3/4" id which is what I'm eventually doing so I don't eat through spindles

Also I finally got around to working on this again (I picked it up yesterday from MurrayMayhem's house) and I just painted the frame. It's not dry in the pictures and there was already runs from where the previous owner hand painted it but it's whatever it's just a mower

Sweet! Glad to see ya working on this thing again. I wanna see how those Ags do in the mud, those things are wild!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Sweet! Glad to see ya working on this thing again. I wanna see how those Ags do in the mud, those things are wild!

Ik it has definitely been long enough I've just had AP classes and FFA competitions and truck projects but I finally got back to this. I hope the 25 year old ag tires will keep up but they're super hard, dry rotted and don't hold air so I have a feeling they wont last

craftsmancole wrote:

Also I finally got around to working on this again (I picked it up yesterday from MurrayMayhem's house) and I just painted the frame. It's not dry in the pictures and there was already runs from where the previous owner hand painted it but it's whatever it's just a mower

Runs would bug me to no end...

Them ags look mighty fine on the back however... just fill em full of that expanding foam.

TheBeal wrote:

craftsmancole wrote:

Also I finally got around to working on this again (I picked it up yesterday from MurrayMayhem's house) and I just painted the frame. It's not dry in the pictures and there was already runs from where the previous owner hand painted it but it's whatever it's just a mower

Runs would bug me to no end...

Them ags look mighty fine on the back however... just fill em full of that expanding foam.

I'll probably go back and fix it eventually but they aren't as bad with the two coats I put on... and either that or I'll finally get some aqua torques like I've always wanted