XC Racer Build “Fancy” 27hp Kohler, 820, tons of fab work

Hey all, been a long time since I posted much but I’m gonna try hard to document my new build. There’s a offroad racing driers in PA that’s hosting there first ever Lawn mower Harescramble, which if your not familiar with harescrambles they are woods races, through the trees, up and down hills, through mud etc. Well this got me all hot and bothered to dig out my old racer project from the weeds and try to resurrect it and race it. I’ve been collecting parts for it for years now but never actually did anything with them, so I figured what better time than now to try to make it happen. It’s a old old Murray frame, I’m reinforcing it and adding a 820, and a 27hp kohler Command.

Picture of it right out of the weeds where it’s been sitting for about 13 years


Stripped clear down



3/4 square tube sub frame mocked up

More work on the subframe, I wanted to use both sets of mounting bolt holes to try to strengthen the 820s case, but the Murray frame was almost exactly on top of the inner bolt holes. I ended up making a set of threaded bungs out of 1/2 steel rod and welding them in so that you can just thread the inner bolts into that.



You can see the skid plate setup that’s coming together also, it will run basically the entire underside of the tractor, the part that goes under the trans will be 1/16 and the rest thin sheet metal


Tacked into the frame, I didn’t get one side quite right so I need to cut a few tacks loose and realign

I really need a better welder so blowing holes in these thin frames would not be so easy.. LOL  I should have done some kind of bracing like that on KAL.  Looks good.

Thanks mighty! I’m really happy with my Miller 211. I’ve been ordering parts and doing some figuring. I was out in the garage the other night and I though man I’m tired of getting up and down so many times working on this thing I need a different solution and this is what I came up with


Needs a few tweaks but it works as is, should help speed this build up a fuzz and save my back and knees

Worked on this a bit last night, got the crane trued up, the front wasn’t quite right the first time. Rotisserie is working good, I shortened the distance between the uprights because it had to much flex the way it was before



Also added a handle to help move it around, and I got a whole cut in the frame above the input shaft so I can start figuring out the location of the support bearing and shaft extension

Nice work! Its gonna be sweet!, no doubt about that.

Been bad at updating, but here’s a photo dump of some work getting done, got the Ninja 300 brakes worked out, also designed up a wheel adapter for my hub system out of aluminum, had my cousin cut it out for me on his home built CNC mini mill, turned out great I think! Really loving the rear tire and wheel setup on here.

Can you shoot a pic of that kolher? 27 HP sounds like a ton of power

yep, its a command, ill try to grab a pic in the next couple days

Nice work! I will steal the idea for the ‘deflector’ under the frame to both strengthen and protect the transaxle.

Those brakes are the way to go, IMO. Put on two and there’s no reason for a locker. Like a regular tractor, just brake the slipping wheel.