Craftsman stretched, lifted, pickup junk....

Any older mower looks great as long as its not an mtd..... Like the simplicity hood he got at the scrap yard, it looks great !

Yeah, pretty much. The new stuff like the new troybilts look pretty good, but they are all hydros.

Well , hydros have their place , but not in my yard!

Yep! LOL

hey woah woah hate on the hydro haha, the cub cadet i have is a shaft drive no belts, hydro beast compared to any other junk I own....

Im gonna stick with hydro on this build to start, see how it works out, I think the shifting will be easier to work out since it shifts up and down instead of left to right like my other craftsmans. If it sucks ill toss it for something else.

The craftsman LT1000 is one of the ugliest mass produced looking tractor around I get sick of looking at them in the classifieds...

Got the metal for my frame extension last night....time to cut

I mean the frames are basically the same on all post 1998 ish year craftsman models, but yeah they don't look to nice.

Cool! Can't wait to see this start getting stretched!

Well, I've heard it's not that hard to swap a geared into a hydro's frame.

This build should turn out awesome!

Yeah, they use the same stamped and drilled frame. Just a different plate here and handle there.

tractor is cut in half, i am waiting for the belt i ordered before i tack the sections back together... not exactly sure how i will figure it all out perfectly, so if anyone has any recommendations let me know....

Looks great, what tires are you gonna use on the rear?

Honestly, I'd stop working on it and enter it in the build-off for the heck of it. Stretching a tractor isn't something that's done everyday and I'd like to see it in the build-off. It would be unique.

As carl said, that is just 10 days away for the start.

mightyraze wrote:

As carl said, that is just 10 days away for the start.

thats cool I would be down for it, how I didnt catch how long the build off lasts?

9 months. ends Midnight Nov 30.

mightyraze wrote:

9 months.  ends Midnight Nov 30.

ok that would work, I know with life in the way it may or may not take that long to do all this....

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Looks great, what tires are you gonna use on the rear?

22" in the front and 25" in the rear.. I am building the front axle custom a bit wider than stock, we will see how it works, I might go back to a 20" if its hard to steer...

you are really 14? holy crap my parents were barely letting me cut the grass then, I wish i had a few tractors at that age..Im fawkin 38 playing with this junk....

mrshaft696 wrote:

mightyraze wrote:

9 months.  ends Midnight Nov 30.

ok that would work, I know with life in the way it may or may not take that long to do all this.... 

I was looking at all the project threads I might have time to take pictures of all my parts this week, looks like everyone has some kind of magic password they write in the pictures...

Yeah the password is released in the beginning of feb. thats how the admins know the build isnt in a finished state when started .

You really should enter, it looks like a very promising build.

Im 17 and have been working on mowers since 12 and modding them since 13 or 14. Mom still gets MAD when i come inside smelling like 2 year old gas and grease.

Lol my Ma does too!

So does mine. But what really sets her off is when I sit down on the furniture in my greasy clothes or leave black fingerprints on the white doors

Yeah mine always says Im such a redneck, lol!

Got my belt today 146", looks like it will be exactly what I need & picked up a tire changer since I couldn't fine anyone local to mount atv tires. Ive done it by hand & minimal tools before but I hate it, so we will see how this works out, because I have lots of tires that need mounted & unmounted.

If that tire changer works well could you make a video of it? I use the harbor freight manual tire changer to break beads, then I use some motorcycle tire spoons to work the tire on and off the rim. It works but it’s a pain in the butt and I’ve pinched a few tubes doing it this way.

So are you doing dual axles or leaving it single? thats a nice long belt !

biggasmowers wrote:

So are you doing dual axles or leaving it single? thats a nice long belt !

just gonna go with the single axle and try to get it to land sort of centered under the "dump bed"




do not tell my wife but im buying this, not running tomorrow for 50 bucks, if it runs ill use it, if not ill use the parts for this and other builds....It has that same front end I want to use...

That’s almost identical to the simplicity I have. Yours just would’ve had a bigger deck. Very well put together frame. I’d build it as an off roader and tear down another craftsman honestly. The steering is very beefy, thick frame, should have a heavy peerless 801 rear end, cast iron front axle and is just a great base to start with. Also a huge gas tank at 3 gallons. Hood latches itself down so it doesn’t rattle around. Man. I need to get the belt sorted on mine....

And the storage trunk under the back. Jeez I just keep thinking of more and more good things about it lol