Li'l Red 1

Yeah, I believe it is a 6 if I remember right. Wanted some speed, but not "fly" :-)

Yeah, I believe it is a 6 if I remember right.  Wanted some speed, but not "fly" :-)

Yeah, too much speed in an off-roader can make it unstable.

Yeah, I agree.  I still have the pivot in my front axle so speed could be an issue with stability.  

Now I know why Doc has the motto "Wrench, Wheel, Wreck, Repeat..."  Beat the fool out of the transaxle today and Yay! The axle seals now work properly and do not leak!  But I am getting a leak from one of the bottom 2 bolts.  I think I will be able to clean up that hole and coat the top of the bolt with gasket sealer and reinstall.  

Yeah, a locked front axle makes all the difference at that 15-25mph mark.

Did some exhaust playing today.  The video does not do it justice!

**Caution, it may be loud.**




I know there is a lot of play in the gas petal, I have both the foot and dash throttle.  The dash was set about 1/2 way at the time of video.

Put the old back tires on a narrower rim and put them up front.  :-)

Created a bumper and created new hood attachment point.

Looking good!

Thank you!

So...

I was messing around with the Murray yesterday making my new bigger noise.  There were these kids from down the block that are flying up and down the street on a 4-wheeler.  While I was tolling around the back yard I got the bright idea to somewhat chase them down.  I waited, hanging back.  I heard them down the street coming down.  I was in the perfect place.  Just as they were approaching my house, I nailed the gas.  I came flying around the side of the house full speed engine blaring with the new straight pipe.  Almost instantly they slowed down, almost stopped and were like !!!  I could hear one of them say, "THATS A LAWN MOWER!"  He was going to catch us!  Needless to say, every time they would pass my house the rest of the day, they were only doing about 5-10 mph.  

Hahahaha I love the looks I get when I ride around on the CQ. I drove it to church one day just to see what people would say and it was pretty funny. Me and my sister both had to ride home on it

Hahaha, nice!! I find it a lot more fun to build up some lawn cutting machine to great capabilities than it is to just go buy a four wheeler or something.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Hahaha, nice!! I find it a lot more fun to build up some lawn cutting machine to great capabilities than it is to just go buy a four wheeler or something.

Cheaper too

That's also very true, hahaha!

Murray is looking good. Do you notice any difference with the steering now you have larger front tyres?

Not so much steering difference but smoother since I am running tubes with less than 5lbs pressure in them.

The bumper looks good, but I would weld something to the mount part to reinforce it, and add gussets. Beef it up so in the event youdo hit something it doesnt mangle it or the machine up too bad, especially since your hood mounts to it.

Definitely.  It's just a start to build from.  I'm planning something that drops down to the mower connection point under the front axle, maybe a skid plate of sorts.  Then maybe something back to where the original hood mounts are. That would give me 6 points of connection.  I hope to have at least 4.  I did a lot of digging in my scraps today and I am having a loss of material to do what I want so, new materials will be needed.  I hope to make a "slip in" point on the front like a hitch to where I can change out things in the future should it be a bigger bumper, etc.

Here's a little something that was for fun today.

*Caution if you have headphones!

Doug Fackler wrote:

The bumper looks good, but I would weld something to the mount part to reinforce it, and add gussets. Beef it up so in the event youdo hit something it doesnt mangle it or the machine up too bad, especially since your hood mounts to it.

Here is my current plan:



The red brace I guess would act like the gusset you mentioned.  The blue is the other part I was thinking.  I was hoping to attach a plate across those two to act as a skid plate and maybe a little "side to side" support as well.


edit: forgot the picture. LOL

So...

Bonehead move of the day.
As you can see in the pictures previously, the big front tires I have on the Murray are pretty old and rotten. I figured, they will be ok till I can get me some new ones. I've been trolling around for deals and hoping for another craigslist gem. Well anyways, I was goofing off today, and drove down the road about 1/4 mile and back cutting through the ditches an such getting a handle on how this thing is working. In the back yard there is a 60x40 cement pad where the previous owner of the house had a shop. It's raised about 2 feet all around and about 5 feet on one end where the property starts to taper. Well as I returned to the yard I cut across the back yard and up onto the pad where you can tell was the door. I continued across and gunned it launching off the other side at a place it was about a 2.5 foot slope.

2 things crossed my mind that last split second before flying off,
1) WHAT AM I DOING? I'm a big guy and I am going to break this tractor.
2) I hope I land right.

Thankfully I landed pretty well, I did land front tires first, but not by much so it was not a nose dive. I was pretty much done for the day and while I was heading to the garage I noticed my front left tire had a wobble to it. When I got to the garage, I realized I had somewhat "popped" that old rotten tire. It now has a bit of a sidewall bulge. Looks like I need to go ahead and try to find those tires or put the old 6 inchers back on.

LOL

Upon further inspection tonight the tire just popped the bead. Popped it back on all good.

So the other day I was trolling around the back yard seeing if I had gotten a transaxle leak resolved. (stripped bolt)  The youngest daughter came out, "Can I drive the tractor?"  I'm like, OK.  I bust out what we call the Purple People Eater.  A Troy Bilt Husky that I put a 6.5 Pressure sprayer motor on. Mentioned HERE in another thread.


I've not drove around the yard with her on the Murray yet.  It's always been on the Craftsman "Sasquatch", which is not pulley swapped on the transaxle.  She likes to come up beside me and "race" me.  Her mower with her on it is pretty fast.  It will almost keep up with the Craftsman.  Well, she does this to me on the Murray which is pulley swapped and proceeds to try and outrun me.  I was in 3rd so she was barely pulling away with me at 1/4 throttle.  I drop it into 6th and punch it.  Basically I ran off an left her.  In my get away I hear,  "AWE COME ON!!!"

Hehe...   I was talking with the wife later while she was still riding it.  I was mentioning how well she handles it.  Wife says, that as fast as it goes?  I'm like yeah.  Can you make it faster?  I was, yeah.  Think she can handle it faster?  I told her she probably could.  So, sometime this winter I may go ahead and pulley swap it and see about getting it more speed.  It has I think a 9 inch pulley on it.  I am going to look into dropping it to a 6 inch if the little mower can handle it.

Done some work on Li'l Red this week.  Had some setbacks again, but I think its manageable.  Been dealing with a flooding issue with the carb.  Now I have it too lean.  Go figure.  Then again I am down to the bottom less than an inch of gas in the tank, so it may be a non issue.  I have seen these run bad once down to the bottom of the tanks.  I need to go ahead and drain what I have left, put on a new filter.  I still have a leak somewhere when the tank is almost full.  When empty, I need to fill it with water and see if I can pinpoint the leak.  I have fixed 2 other leaks.  I got my braces installed.  You can kind of see them in the first picture below.




My original plans for the front and back bumper, etc will have to go on hold or do something else as I have some other stuff come up!  Looks like I will be moving first/second week of Dec.  Glad to get out of this rent house into our own house!

YAY!

Nice man. Congrats on moving!

Dem stickies lookin goooooooooooooooood.

Gratz on the move. New house have a decent size shop?

Thanks!
Shop... It has a cluster of sheds that have been merged together with electric. I will have plenty of room to place all the tractors I have and more. I do plan on building something "bigger" for the future.

Love the Autobots sticker on the front man!