MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) "1"

An LT 10 or 11, it's sorta hard to tell with all the weeds around it.

Ah yeah. I think some of those LT's came with peerless 700's aswell.

Ok everyone, a little update on what's gonna happen to the MTD this weekend. I didn't plan on it, but if all goes well it will have a transverse leaf spring front suspension. I got a couple small helper springs from work and some mounting hardware. The idea I have is bolting the helper spring down to the top of the front axle through a hole in the center of the spring, so the slipper ends are facing up. Then I'm going to grind away the big pivot dowel thing-er on the axle so it can move up and down freely. As far as the spring goes, I'm gonna have C-channel welded to the frame of the mower upside down for the slippers to slide in. As the axle moves up, compressing the spring, the slippers will slide outwards in the C-channel and slide back in when the spring de-compresses. I also have plans to prevent the axle from moving side to side and what not. I'm excited to try this and I can't see any problems with the design so far. If anybody has any suggestions or improvements on the idea, I would appreciate some shared knowledge. I hope to get pictures sometime soon so stay tuned!

Sounds like it should work. You might want something there for the slippers to 'wear' on when the axle compresses/decompresses. Also check Red's MTD build as he had leafs on his front end for a while.

Yeah that's probably a good idea. I've been through Red's build thread a few times hahaha! Although his axle had two sets of snowmobile leaf springs parallel to the frame. But, same idea.

You could even just put a wee bit of grease in the C channel for the slippers to rub up and down.

Yeah, I could maybe install grease fittings somewhere. But I'm getting ahead of myself, hahaha!

Yeah haha. How are stiff are the leafsprings?

Not very stiff. I can compress each one by standing on it, which is good.

Good they should work well. Good luck and I hope to see plenty of pics man!

Thanks! Will do, hahaha!

Yeah a little grease and wear shouldn't be too big of an issue I wouldn't think. Looking forward to seeing pics!

Thanks man, yeah I hope to incorporate a couple grease fittings somehow

A wee bit of progress tonight!              
The MTD sans front axle.

Then I stared mocking up the helper spring.




As you can see the slippers are awfully close to the tires, but I will be fixing that tomorrow. Let me know what you guys think!

Ok so I got some more done today.













I'm calling it done for now, but I've still got quite a few bugs to work out. Only time will tell, hahaha!

Cool man! Do you have one of those stabilizer rods on each side?

How well does it work?

MatthewD wrote:

Cool man! Do you have one of those stabilizer rods on each side?

Thanks! Yeah there are two of them. Fun fact, they're old sway bar links, hahaha!

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

How well does it work?

Well at first it was too stiff, but I put two old seat springs between the angle iron and the axle. It works great now!

Does this still have that vari drive under it? what are the plans for the drive train?

Nice! Hopefully it stands the test of time.

Okee doke! I'm pretty happy with the results of today's work, got all the issues pretty much sorted out. Here are a couple of pictures.
This is the actual spring set up.

And I also braced my grille a bit


And finally, some post romp pictures!




Let me know what you guys think!

TheGreenHornet wrote:

Does this still have that vari drive under it? what are the plans for the drive train?

Yes it still has the vari-drive, but I've modified it a bit. If all goes well, I'll be putting in a Peerless 600 with the vari-drive still intact.

Looks like a really simple way of adding front suspension. The real weak link of the MTD drive train is the F-N-R transaxle, although the vari-drive does have it's own share of problems when submerged in water...

Yeah it's simple to disassemble as well. Haha, yeah my transaxle is on its way out I think. Pops in and out of reverse most times, oh well hahaha!

Yeah easy to fix when you're mudding in the woods. I think the axle shafts are different on a FNR tranny compared to a Peerless/Foote/Spicer etc.