Other uses for your off-road tractor.. and the damage it took.

I know many of us built our tractors to romp and have fun, but have you found that your tractor excels in other activities such as working them?  Not mowing the yard but things like:

Pulling out small stumps or bushes that are dead?
Assist in pulling over large trees to make sure they fall the right way?
Tugboat cars around the yard,
Pull sweepers that require a little more speed that the lawn tractor can not achieve?
Help unstuck other compact tractors and vehicles?

I have done all that with Lil' Red.  I need to be sure I start taking pictures and/or video of that stuff for sharing.  Yeah, Red looks pretty, that's only because I didn't get a chance to test it in the good mud, but I have sure worked it this past year. I have screwed up one doc locker, as I didn't get my key-ways straight.  Luckily I didn't blow the case apart.  That is also when I stripped out the rear bolts and blew my oil seal.  New bolts later and a new locking hub, everything at this point is peachy.  



I did twist my Murray frame.  I was able to straighten and strengthen.



I've blown the seals out of my engine.





I am not sure if you noticed, but most of my pics are from the front.  I also knocked off my rear tail-lights at one point and have not replaced.



But here she sits today.



Now....

Let hear some of your other jobs for your tractors and the war stories from it!

yeah our tractors are very versatile.. i pull alot of stuff around with them the heaviest ive pulled is probably a electric golf kart with 3 person on it. or my big trailer wich weight 1000lbs empty and it worked good for all that.. i have to say i need a little more power to pull 600lbs of golf kart around in 5th gear but it worked.

however i need to build myself a nice GT to really work hard with.. im always scared of blowing the transaxle in my yard man. they already dont last long with my ''normal'' use.....
i will build axle supports for it soon since i bent my last axle, so that might help but the mst is still a light duty transmission.

and yeah i also tried the doc locker 2.0 with the slotted hub and the big key but without being really carefull its hard to get the slots straight and you can easily get things to bind up. that why i went with the welded pin..

i guess one of my ''other use'' would be jumping a snowbank.. that also ended up in a bent axle hahaha

I use both the simplicity and CQ for work. The simplicity is a purpose built worker. I pull the sweeper with that, have hauled (drug) big posts to the burn pile with it, and romped it a little.

The CQ pulled the sweeper while the Simplicity was down with a broken transaxle. CQ was also my mode of transportation at a point where mom grounded me from my car and took my keys.

CQ also trashed a transaxle while I was showing off and doing a 3rd gear wheelie. Tore 7 teeth off the 3rd gear in that 920, been replaced with an MST and I have a few spares now

Oh man. I've done a lot of stuff with my tractors that wasn't offroading. Gonna dig for some old pics

Dragging a rock outta the yard with the stone boat. This is an old pic, February 2016. Not long after I moved to KY. Back when this Snapper still had its old deck, original trans, original front tires, engine I swapped into it(swapped the original back into it after I seized this one up). I've also pulled a car outta the yard with this Snapper, pulled some tree limbs, pulled other mowers, and some other stuff.


In this pic I have Mutt in front of a 30s or 40s IH side rake. Was just pulling it around the yard so I could mow where it was(with the above Snapper, lol). Engaged it just for fun and Mutt didn't even mind, she kicked the reel right over. I've also knocked over a few stumps in the woods with Mutt(then got a few of them jammed up under me, wouldnt ya know), skidded some cedar outta the woods, dragged a horse cart around, hauled wood(always fun when you load the trailer so much that when you step on the gas it picks up the front end), used it as a chainsaw rig. There's prolly other stuff too but I dont remember lol.

That pic of the mutt pulling the rake is cool

Very cool. Exactly what I was hoping for in this thread.

Thanks. Next hay season I kinda wanna throw the weights on Mutt and try and rake with her. Fields are level enough, I know she could handle it for a little bit at least. Kinda worried about the trans overheating from the constant duty though. It's one thing to pull 500lbs for a minute, whole other to do it for a few hours. Would make for some cool footage while it lasted though.

@mr.modified you should post pics of the Snapper lol

Little work today...

Poop patrol

Doug wrote:

@mr.modified you should post pics of the Snapper lol

Yeah I need to get pics of it. Think I had one but deleted it by accident. Too preoccupied with other things these days.

Pulling a storm fall up outta the lawn. 3rd gear(that's 4th gear for all you guys lucky enough to have a 6 speed) all the way up the hill with a lead foot is not friendly for turf. Not sure I would've made it up without the momentum, though.




Dropping smaller sticks off back at the shop, have the woodstove going to drive the moisture out from this rain we've been getting.

I really like how the grill part being black makes MUTT look.

Me too. Wish the grille screen stood out a bit more though. Would look pretty nice if it did, I think. Maybe I could find some of the flat stainless steel expanded stuff. Used to have some of it around. Or maybe dad used it all on the back rack on his old truck(long story short he broke the back right window and spent months looking for a window that he could make work for it, and he was NOT doing that again lol)