Looking to start a rock crawler project.

I'm new to the forum and this is my first project. I had been thinking of doing something with an old mower i have and was searching on youtube and saw FearlessFront's videos. I really like the rock crawling type tractor because I'm not looking for speed or mudding and would like my kids ( 7,8, and 10) to be able to ride it. So I was looking over my tractor and comparing it to others and see i have some things that will make some of the modifications a challenge. Like the front axle. It seems very complicated and i'm not sure how to get more articulation from it. I'm going to try to tag some pictures and see what people think as far as possible Nubie modifications. Also i was wondering what Pro's and con's people see about using this tractor. It has some issues and will take a fair amount of work to just get it going. so what do you guys think?
Thanks for your input.

I have one of those - for a few years it was a plain mower, then when i moved south i turned it into a 'stock mudder' - meaning it took a bath in the swamp everytime i visited the folks - it did pretty darn good for a stock tractor - only complaint was the stock rear tires didnt have a ton of traction .

Ive since dragged it down here and did a 'few ' mods- ive went back n forth about wether keeping it stock or making a mud/trail runner - so far im making it the latter.

Ive made a thread about it : http://atltf.forumotion.com/t146-agway-offroader-project but heres a pic of it as it sits:




I welded some 3/4" bolts onto the ends of the spindles to fit the rear tires on the front - put some steering stops on the back side of the front axle - only real issue is the steering radius is dramatically reduced , has plenty of ground clearance tho and flex - itd probably work better if id bring either the stock axle lower down or swap it for a whole new one.


The rear wheels came off a larger tractor with a 3/4" keyed hubs ( stock type trans) - fronts came off another murray . I did swap pulleys - because the stock 3 speed was toooo slow , i just wanted a bit more speed then it originally had, not racing fast tho.

Front i think is a 4-5" and rear is a 6" (original was a 8-10") .

Im planning on using a 11HP briggs, eventually id like to make a rack for the back , maybe a brush guard for the front - and places to mount my winch.


For hard core offroad, youd want a sub chassis under the stock pan chassis - specially if youre gonna lift it at all .

I did notice in the pic of the transmission- one of the transmission brackets ( ubolt) is broken/loose. I had the same issue with mine- i just used an old muffler clamp.

For traction alot of people use ATV tires - id say those stock front tires would need to go ( i had those on mine- thing wouldnt turn hardly at all in the mud- replaced em with some turf tires) .

looking forward to updates.

Thanks for the reply. Yea, your tractor looks sweet, it gives me a great referance. well, i had a reality check today as i worked on my tractor. The thing is a piece of junk The carb is messed up, the governor has an internal problem, the belt has a deep gouge 3/4 threw, the thing wont crank sometimes-possible solenoid, leaks tons of oil, the positive on the battery is actually the negative, two tires are flat, etc etc etc. it was very frustrating. I couldn't find my tools or even walk around in the garage because there is junk everyplace. I needed to just walk away ( and i'm just starting this project, not good ) LOL I tried to put together a short video as well. youtube video

Next on the priority list is I'm going to need to figure out how to have a fool-proff throttle, get the brakes working, and also figure out why it wont let the belt go when the clutch is depressed.

I don't know how I forgot but i just remembered i do have another engine in the shed someplace. It's a 12hp briggs. I think the carb is plugged but it's probably better than the one that's in the tractor now. I might try to swap engines as the gas leaking, oil leaking, govenor issues are a real bear. I wish i had another parts machine, right now, i'm trying to save all the parts from the deck for later "fabricating".

The engine on mine was actually a replacement - originally had a 10HP teccy - my friend ( who i got it off) put a 10HP briggs on it - it was an ok motor, just never seemed to run right to me - i had bolted a 14.5HP OHV on it, but it barely fit under the hood ( a long motor) , plus had to take the motor plate out it originally had . Im thinking the smaller 11HP should do good enough.

Ive made up a couple throttle setups - for a steering wheel type i used a ATV brake lever ( didnt like that) - that kind only needs a single spring on the carb - a foot pedal needs two usually - one to snap the pedal back and one on the carb - Arlid has a video on YT about setting one up - on my mod MTD i used parts i had laying around :





I used a regular 10 speed bike derailer cable , springs i had around, made up some cable holders till i could get some small u clamps, pedal is a clutch pedal off my parts 69 wheelhorse - the air cleaner was a vacuum cleaner filter on clearance and a 4" PVC endcap- the filter was too restrictive tho- had to ditch it.