Craftsman GT 6000 Build

Well, this is what stuff being frozen to the ground, and one too many reverse gear clutch dumps will get ya:





Yep, LOL. Whoops. Broke the mount.

So I cleaned everything up and welded it all a bit better. Then I figured the front mount bar could use some support underneath:



Just a couple pieces of flatstock:



Not the best overhead job, but oh well. Hahaha. Either way it should be stronger now for sure.

Added a couple braces up top too for the bumper, while I was in the bracing mood, haha.



Had to learn the hard way this time, but she's all fixed up now and ready for action! Maybe I should quit abusing it a little bit now.

Let me know what ya think!

Only using two of the mounting holes on the winch? Seems kinda unlike you, Allis. Lol

I figured someone would mention that.. It actually only has two holes believe it or not, the previous strap winch of the same make did too. I'm not a huge fan of that particular design, but it doesn't seem to be a problem I guess.

Those flat headed bolts you see aren't mounting bolts, they just hold the planetary gear mechanism to the base of the winch.

Oh I see. I suppose it'll be ok for 1500lbs, in theory.

Broke through a new trail with the ol' GT on the weekend. Got a neat picture of it up on an old foundation:



Big long stretch of trees, she does a pretty good job folding small trees and stuff over to clear a path. Everything held up well, but I think a skidplate or two and a belt guard are in order, haha.



I saw the tie rod take a few hits, so I should probably get at least a front skidplate fabbed up pretty soon. Might be the next project if I get sick of the Build-Off tractor one day.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Broke through a new trail with the ol' GT on the weekend. Got a neat picture of it up on an old foundation:


Big long stretch of trees, she does a pretty good job folding small trees and stuff over to clear a path. Everything held up well, but I think a skidplate or two and a belt guard are in order, haha.


I saw the tie rod take a few hits, so I should probably get at least a front skidplate fabbed up pretty soon. Might be the next project if I get sick of the Build-Off tractor one day.

haha I do that quite a bit, let the tractor run over the little shrubs & pricker bushes to make the path, always afraid im gonna get something stuck in a belt or something....

Yep, haha. This ol' girl is usually the trail maker. I worry about a belt getting thrown off too sometimes, hasn't happened yet though! Hahaha.

Bought a nice mounting kit for a trailer axle a few days ago:



It's for a real small axle, so the U-bolts fit over the GT's front axle quite nicely!

The plan is to upgrade the leaf spring setup a little bit, I'm gonna have two clamps per leaf as opposed to the current setup.



Just has a rear clamp on either side and the bolts in the front. Hasn't failed yet, but I'd just trust it more with some better clampage, so it will instead have two clamps on both sides 90° to the way the current ones are mounted. I'll put grooves in the axles so the clamps lock in place.

Should be a nice upgrade.

Well since the MTD is up and running again, the poor ol' GT has been left alone in the shed for about a month! So I figured I should get 'er out and do a bit of messing around

Too damn cold to be taking a bunch of pictures so unfortunately I only got these two:





Had lots of fun! I went wheeling with my cousin and his JD 110 and we hit a bit of mud and did some crawling through one of the forest trails I made. The ol' GT performed great!

I'm planning on dropping the front axle assembly so I can do the clamp conversion for the leaf springs, modify the rack and pinion mount a bit, and finally paint everything. Of course now that the miserable snow decided to come back, the plans to do that might have to wait for a bit, haha. Ah well, I'll get to 'er eventually!

Well I took the GT with the suspension trailer out to do some trail work today, then did a bit of playing and got some neat pictures!











Not much else new, just wanted to share those pictures. Haha.

Well even though it was too cold for any painting today, I decided to drop the front axle assembly out of the ol' GT and do some work.





Had to do a little adjusting with the rack and pinion mount, as it was a bit crooked. Then I decided to take a shot at doing the leaf spring clamp conversion:

Had to cut the half pieces of pipe for the old clamps off for the new ones to clear:





Worked out pretty good!



Had to cut out a little half-circle to allow for the bolts in the leaves to clear:



Also while the rack was out I added a grease fitting in the bottom of it so I can give 'er a shot every now and then:



Everything seems good, time to grease it all up and throw 'er back together!







Test drive went quite well, she should be good to go! Let me know what ya think!

Nice!  I need to get around and redo the rack for my GT.  As always a great job AK.  Do those bolts hang down low on the leaf braces?

This image...

Thanks Mighty! Yeah they hang down maybe just a hair more than the previous clamps did, the tie rod never makes contact though so I'm not too worried. I figured at the very least they could serve as front mounts for a skidplate someday! Haha.

Looks good

George Gooding wrote:

Looks good

Thanks!

So I did a little steering shaft upgrade here today, something I've been kinda thinking about for some time. If you remember back when I first did the rack and pinion setup, you might remember I used a 1/2" socket universal in between the two main universals. The socket universal was real worn out which caused a small amount of play at the wheel. Also since it was in between the two main universals I had to have to have these stupid little guide bolts the keep the shaft in place. Not the best setup... So today I did away with it!

First thing I did was cut a slot higher up on the steering shaft for the E-clip, which allowed the shaft to drop down and put the first universal at a better angle.



Made it so the steering whel is a bit lower, which I like!

Then basically I just cut the universal out and welded the pieces of the shaft together. Since I have a slider shaft at the rack end I did have to worry about it being too short



Turned out good!





Works just as good as before, which is nice. Feels good to not have that worn out joint in there anymore, haha.

Let me know what ya think!

The universals you have in there now look like a factory setup. There must be a lot less play.

Well thanks Carl! Yeah I like it this way a lot better, haha.

Also, as always, I had to take one more shot of 'er after some wheeling time:

Looks great man! What was that rack and pinion out of again? Was it pretty close to the rite length? Does it articulate with your axle to reduce bjmp steer? How much travel does your suspension have? Sorry about all the questions thanks.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Well thanks Carl! Yeah I like it this way a lot better, haha.

Also, as always, I had to take one more shot of 'er after some wheeling time:

i like the looks of this build it reminds me of this guy

Thanks fellas!

I bought the rack new but it was meant for a Yamaha Rhino SXS, the housing isn't too long but I ended up only using one steering rod coming from the rack and making a conventional tie rod to tie the wheel together. Also it is mounted directly to the axle so there are no bad angle to worry about during front axle articulation. If you scroll up a bit you can see some pictures of how it all works.

Used the ol' GT to skid a couple 8' ties a little bit ago:



They're not hard to move obviously, but it's a lot more fun to do it with a tractor than by hand, haha.

Gonna have to get that front end back out and do some chassis painting soon too, now that the nice weather is here!

Looks fun.

Maybe you should paint the rims on the ol MTD too haha

Yeah I know, still not sure why I never got around to that...

Maybe because it doesn't matter and it's just a meme at this point lol.

Hows the steering wearing in?

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Maybe because it doesn't matter and it's just a meme at this point lol.

Sounds like a lotta stuff anymore, I really hate that.. Haha.


Haven't had any issues with the steering at all, the grease fitting I added makes me feel better about the life span of the rack. Being able to keep it lubricated internally is a nice feature, haha.

Did a little tinkering with the GT today. Got an idea to add some steel plate to brace the bumper a little bit, so I used some nice 3/16" stuff for it:





Might not be neccessary, but you can never have too much steel! Haha. Also should help things slide out from behind the bumper instead of getting stuck when I'm backing up in a trail, I've had that happen a few times.

Also, while trying to carry a bucket of nails on the hood, I got the idea to try and make a simple, removeable hood rack for it! So I started tacking up a frame out of some 5/16" rod:



Washers welded to the front as you can see, then the wing nuts for the hood hold it down at the front.

And the middle bars welded in place:



Just had a single support bolt at the back, but that allowed for too much flex, so I ended up having one on either side. Worked much better.

Then I threw some paint at it! Had some grey lying around that actually sorta matched the original colour of the tractor:





Turned out pretty good! I imagine it'll come in quite handy, haha.

Let me know what ya think!