MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) "2"

Can you imagine the news stories?
Announcer: Beaking news! A 19 year old kid drove a lawn mower off Niagra falls!
Viewer: World's getting crazier every day!

hehehe just send it

So I decided to get to work raising my steering arm and drag link. Basically I just bent the steering arm up (easier said than done) and cut and re-shaped the drag link.

Before:



After:



Much better!



I feel a lot netter about that knowing it's not gonna be hanging so low. Also I got my steering evened out as well, before it wasn't very sharp to the right but now it's perfect!





Let me know what ya think!

That looks way better.  The Jacobsen I had when I was a kid had a pitman arm on the lower left side of the dash, and a drag link that ran to the front left spindle along the left side of the frame way up of the way for good ground clearance.  I always thought that was a good design. Although I could put my foot on the pitman arm which made the tractor turn hard left.

Haha, It definitely looks a lot less goofy now. Yeah Carter's Jake and the parts Jake both have that same setup with the pitman arm and what not. They are on the right hand side on his tractors though.

That’s cool that they have the same set up. I scrapped my Jacobson over 10 years ago so I don’t remember exactly what side it was on.

Maybe they had a setup with the pitman and drag link on the left too, who knows. It seems like a nice setup, but a bit too high ratio for me. I've driven Carter's a few times and I really don't like how high the steering ratio is. But then again I'm used to the steering box in the MTD, hahaha.

That is a Enormous improvement.  Did it mess with the steering much?

Thanks haha. Actually it's much more even now so I can turn pretty sharp in both directions, before I couldn't turn very well to the right.

Excellent!  

Yeah it should definitely be an improvent. Don't have to worry about something ripping it off as much, haha

I was romping this thing around most of the day today, had a great time.



This thing's been performing very well lately, which makes me happy. The one problem I had was breaking a right angle bracket for my adjustable idler pulley today, but I made a new one out of like 3/16" steel so it should hold up. Maybe next I'll make a spot for my little tool box to sit. I'd like to put it somewhere that it wont get wet or muddy. Hopefully I'll start on that sometime soon.

Ah ! such a pretty sight ! nothing like driving a mower on a nice day and nothing breaks right?

Always wondered, do you like that seat?

biggasmowers wrote:

Ah ! such a pretty sight ! nothing like driving a mower on a nice day and nothing breaks right?

For sure man, makes you feel kinda proud of the machine you've built... Hopefully it stays in a reliable mood though, haha.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Always wondered, do you like that seat?

Yep. I love the low profile seat look on this thing, makes it look kinda sleek. It's not uncomfortable or anything either.

I wonder that every time I look at it double W

She looks hella aggressive man! Sweet!

Yknow, I had Mutt the way I liked her and not breaking things once. But then I went and broke something and just had to try and make it better than before, and well yknow how that worked out.

Thanks Rich! The new fronts definitely change the look. I've found when you try and vastly change something trying to improve it, sometes it actually becomes less reliable and more difficult to work with. Haha, but once you got it all dialed in it's totally worth it.

Well, now I really done it.....



POOF!!



Haha, It's probably no surprise that this was the plan for the pressure lube opposed all along, should be a nice upgrade for the ol' Dominator.

Anyway, here are the new holes drilled:



Figured I should add a little plate where the one mounting hole is pretty close to the big hole in the frame.



All burned in!



Wiring for the kill switch, stator, and the lights tucked nicely along the cylinder head tin.





And with the hood and grille on. Looks nice under there don't it? Hahaha. Also you can notice the grille support rods hanging down, they're gonna have to be reconfigured as they wont fit above or around the engine. Shouldn't be too hard to change them up though. I'm also fabbing up an exhaust setup so more to come later hopefully! Let me know what ya think!

Yes Allis!!!! That MTD deserves a nice looking oppy under the hood after all the other hard work you've put into that tractor.

Poof? I think itd be more like... WHAM!














Good time to pulley sw....

Ain’tcha gonna pulley swap it?

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Yes Allis!!!!  That MTD deserves a nice looking oppy under the hood after all the other hard work you've put into that tractor.

Thanks Carl, haha. Yeah it'll be a nice upgrade for sure!

TheBeal wrote:

Poof? I think itd be more like... WHAM!

Poof, wham, whatever. It was some extravagant noise.

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Ain’tcha gonna pulley swap it?

That's enough outta you young man, adults are talking. Hahaha.

So I sorta got some exhaust rigged up here.









I'm still sorta deciding whether I like it. I had a collector on there so it was a 2 into 1, but it just didn't look right to me. So I'm thinking about just making the ends a bit more even and leaving it like this. What do you fellas think?

That exhaust is going to sound sweet.  Awesome to see the Oppy in there.  Maybe we should rename the thread from

MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) "2"

to

MTD off-road build (Mobile Terrain Dominator) Ver 2.0

Looks good allis! how does the added weight affect the coil travel?

Put some mufflers on that girl or your gonna be deaf with those dual pipes off of an oppy.