my 1st major build attempt

i've wanted to build a 4x6 ever since i saw murray mayhem's murray-gator, and while I've done some simple builds, like my murray lt widebody and my brothers craftsman, I've never done much more than basic repairs, maintenance, pulley swaps and tires, but i'm going to attempt to take an old noma
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at least that's what the sticker i found today says it is, and using the 2 speed heavy duty transaxle out of my brothers old yardmachine,
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i'm going to attempt to build a 4x6, today i mounted the yard machine's axle under the noma chassis, i'm going to need to make some modifications to the body work to allow the shifter to function, but that's no big deal, the real problem is going to be how to extend the chassis to put in the third axle, it has a shallow pan frame, and i'm not sure if i can mod it to add the extension, but if i find i can't use the noma because of my meager fab skills and lack of equipment, i have another idea for a 4x6, i recently picked up a little john deere rear engine rider with a peerless 700 series transmission really cheap,$25 U.S. i was planning to use that as a gocart speed build, but as it's already chain drive i may have a better chance of converting it to a 4x6 than the noma chassis, it'll cost me a little more since i'll have to buy a few extra items, but then I've never seen a rear engine 4x6 and think it would be a cool little tractor

it sounds like you’re doing this on a budget and you don’t want to buy a lot of steel. why don’t you find another pan frame tractor, Cut the rear section out of it and weld it to the rear section of the noma to extend it?

Crazy_Carl wrote:

it sounds like you’re doing this on a budget and you don’t want to buy a lot of steel.   why don’t you find another pan frame tractor,  Cut the rear section out of it and weld it to the rear section of the noma to extend it?

you're right, i am on a very tight budget, i'm disabled, both physically and mentally, a bad combo of a heart condition and a mental disorder that causes me to get highly stressed when out in public called agoraphobia, and stress and a heart condition don't mix well, it's put me in the hospital twice, on top of that nobody will hire me because their insurance won't cover me as an employee, at least that's the excuse i'm constantly being given for being turned down whenever i apply for a job, so i live off of S.S.I. doing odd jobs when i can for a little extra money,
i have thought about that, but my welding skill is pretty poor, i have only welded 3 times in my life, i also thought of cutting  out the rear  of the pan and using a combo of bolts and welding to attach another pan frame section on with 1x1 or 2x2 square tubing as a support and sort of subframe between them, i figure this way if my sorry welds didn't hold up it would still be connected securely with the bolts and tubing, but everyone around where i live seems to think the old mower rotting behind their shed is gold and it's nearly impossible to find one here for less than $150 even if it's a non runner, another problem i found today are the wheels on the yard machine transaxle, as they are mounted now they are to far in to give me clearance to run a chain to the rear axle, but i may be able to reverse them to get the clearance since they are offset,

darkside0914 wrote:

Crazy_Carl wrote:

it sounds like you’re doing this on a budget and you don’t want to buy a lot of steel.   why don’t you find another pan frame tractor,  Cut the rear section out of it and weld it to the rear section of the noma to extend it?

you're right, i am on a very tight budget, i'm disabled, both physically and mentally, a bad combo of a heart condition and a mental disorder that causes me to get highly stressed when out in public called agoraphobia, and stress and a heart condition don't mix well, it's put me in the hospital twice, on top of that nobody will hire me because their insurance won't cover me as an employee, at least that's the excuse i'm constantly being given for being turned down whenever i apply for a job, so i live off of S.S.I. doing odd jobs when i can for a little extra money,

I'm real sorry for you man. Hope you find a good job soon!

A 4x6 - nice! Reminds me of a 4x6 mower I saw on ebay a couple of years ago. It had 2 transaxles with independent shifters. Looked really cool. 

MatthewD wrote:

A 4x6 - nice! Reminds me of a 4x6 mower I saw on ebay a couple of years ago. It had 2 transaxles with independent shifters. Looked really cool. 

I remember ypu showing me that thing!! Haha, it was super cool.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

darkside0914 wrote:

Crazy_Carl wrote:

it sounds like you’re doing this on a budget and you don’t want to buy a lot of steel.   why don’t you find another pan frame tractor,  Cut the rear section out of it and weld it to the rear section of the noma to extend it?

you're right, i am on a very tight budget, i'm disabled, both physically and mentally, a bad combo of a heart condition and a mental disorder that causes me to get highly stressed when out in public called agoraphobia, and stress and a heart condition don't mix well, it's put me in the hospital twice, on top of that nobody will hire me because their insurance won't cover me as an employee, at least that's the excuse i'm constantly being given for being turned down whenever i apply for a job, so i live off of S.S.I. doing odd jobs when i can for a little extra money,

I'm real sorry for you man.  Hope you find a good job soon!

don't feel sorry for me, i don't, i prefer not to have people feel sorry for me, i just felt i needed to explain a little why i may take more time to do a build or cut a few corners on things to cut down costs of a build, i don't have much, but for the most part i'm happy with my life, and i get by fine, just takes me longer to do extra things, like work on my mowers and my other hobby rc crawlers,

MatthewD wrote:

A 4x6 - nice! Reminds me of a 4x6 mower I saw on ebay a couple of years ago. It had 2 transaxles with independent shifters. Looked really cool. 

that is a really cool looking tractor, initially i planned to use 2 hydros for this build, i already had them and they were identical transaxles out of two mid 80s mtds me and my brother got for doing some work for a friend, and they both worked great, but that plan went away when we had to retrofit one into a 2013 cub cadet we sold that had a bad hydro in it, i still have one hydro i can use but it needs taken apart and cleaned, it had water in the oil, plus the clip that held one axle in broke so the shaft comes out, but i'm still keeping that as an option, atm my plan is to run a chain from each axle shaft of the transaxle to a solid axle in the rear, basically exactly what murray mayhem did on his murray-gator build