Craftsman 18hp Rally Mower

Welcome to the forums... Nice rig you have there.

Thanks. Alot more work on it. Working on installing a onepeice axle.

Welcome to the forum! Nice looking paint job on that Briggs oppy.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Welcome to the forum! Nice looking paint job on that Briggs oppy.

Thanks

Welcome!

I like the start of this thread a lot.  I like the olive drab engine tins and the rear rack with twin 50 cal ammo cans.  They're handy storage when riding.

Crazy_Carl wrote:

Welcome!

I like the start of this thread a lot.  I like the olive drab engine tins and the rear rack with twin 50 cal ammo cans.  They're handy storage when riding.

Thanks

Nice rig! Looks like a good clean one to start with. A bit of frame reinforcement, front axle and steering redesign, and a little bigger front tires and you'll have a solid rig to do whatever you want.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Nice rig! Looks like a good clean one to start with. A bit of frame reinforcement, front axle and steering redesign, and a little bigger front tires and you'll have a solid rig to do whatever you want.

Thanks it has a one peice axle in it and I replaced some of the plastic steering bushings with bearings.

Welcome to the forum, that rig is nice!

I went for a romp on this thing on sunday and was pretty happy with the way it performed. It has a doc locked spicer in it, a 5in rear pulley and a ton of other mods.
Here are some things I still need to do:

Front pulley swap

Custom exhaust

Bumper
And I really need to deal with my rim issue. I startedthis thing last year and weld my stock rims on to the atv rims like a total amateur. But not much else I'm satisfied with most of the mods I've done.

I got some work done on this Craftsman today which I'm sort of taking a new direction on. I was inspired by redzz02 Haspin mower and so I've decided to call this the rally mower and put some small tires on it and some fairly aggressive pulleys. My hope is it will be capable of hill climbs and drift.


The 3/4 in live axle I put in my spicer got bent but it was plenty long so I cut it down and slid it over.

I twisted it!! I had 25 in tires on it and I think they were a little tall cuz I managed to twist the axle pretty bad. I'm proud of my oppy though that thing has plenty of torque if it can twist an axle.

Boy, that axle is pretty tweaked! Sounds like a good plan you have for this rig, looking forward to seeing it come to fruition.

Also I like those braces you added from the transaxle mounts to the frame. Good call!

Holy hell man, that's one way to break it! Surprised it didn't just snap, that's what usually happens.

Thanks AllisKid
I have a lot of time in this build and I'm really hoping it will all pay off soon and I'll finally get to ride this thing.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Holy hell man, that's one way to break it! Surprised it didn't just snap, that's what usually happens.

Ya its because it's not hardened. Its a
36 inch I got on Amazon. It's probably crappy steel.

I also like the green engine tins, I'm glad one of my builds has inspired you! I also have one of the cheaper steel 3/4 inch live axles laying around for a few years now, I'm still worried of putting it on a build in case something like yours happens to it

Ya once again redzz02 I'm a big fan of the haspin mower I like how thorough and truly custom it is.

Also Doc Sprocket put a 3/4 live axle his MULE and as fare as I know had no problems.
I was running WAY too large tires for this transaxle so maybe that was the issue.

Well I bypassed the relays and buttoned up some other loose electrical. I charged the battery but when I went to start it it turned over a couple of times but then the starter started free spinning so I took off the engine shroud and found this! Time for a new starter gear I guess.

Ah, that sucks. I've had my Ford wreck three starter gears on me. Stripped the teeth off one, then the other two it actually split the gear right off. The nylon starter gears were really a horrible idea on Briggs' part, especially on the opposed twins.

Ya the metal fly wheel and the nylon gear is not a good combo.

Just ordered some stuff on Amazon for this project!


New tires!


Decided to run tubes. I do all my own tires and some times getting the beads to take is a pain. Tubes are just easier.


New starter gears. 2 for $5 nat a bad price.


Stretch44875 has a great video on YouTube on how to adapt a Honda GX340/390 pull start assembly to an opposed twin. I'm gonna try it out!

Money well spent here. that’s the beauty of living in the USA is that we can order parts from eBay dirt cheap. Are those new tires for the rear?

Yes Crazy_Carl those are for the rear. I know there a little small but after the carnage caused by the big tires I decided to go small. I also want it low the ground for stability because its super steep where I live.

Looks like you’ll be building more or less a mowron clone. I don’t blame ya, they’re very well put together. I got to drive one at haspin. I flipped it late one night and the next morning we replaced the steering wheel and a tube and she was back out on the trails. And I flipped it pretty hard