-= Li'l Red =-

Brianator wrote:

Looks like you bottom the seat springs out in the rough stuff ya? You could add another pair of seat springs or maybe even a pair of valve springs from a car engine inside the originals!? That could make them act like progressive rate springs! I've been planning on adding a stiff valve spring (or springs) to the Mud Ducks seat/fender pan spring thing to limit the amount of bounce and allow me to carry a little extra weight in the rear toolbox.

There's some food for though for you!

It was fun watching that video again too thanks for bumping your thread! Lol

I've used several different springs in the past to no difference in stiffness.

MightyRaze wrote:

I forgot, I did upgrade my seat spring and added more foam to my seat on RED for haspin later this year.

fbisurveilancevan wrote:

A nice thick foam padded seat might also help, mine is far from smooth but at least helps absorb my asscheecks a bit

I've tried to add foam to the seat, but I think a seat change may be in order.

Yeah that's exactly the same setup as on my snapper /Murray/simplicity and they are horrible.
It's mostly to do with the angle and the fact that they have a very short pivot point which will make changing springs almost useless.
Iam kind of thinking about getting a proper suspension seat base.

If you can snatch one off of a John Deere mower those are pretty comfy.

You should try pulling a air ride seat off a school bus or something?

Aye... been a little burned out again lately. I went ahead and put the Rat in the shed and brought Red to the garage. I did pull off the winch that didn't work. I realize only after taking it off that I noticed a busted ground wire. That may actually still be good. I'll sit on that. I also mocked up a craftsman bumper on it since the one I had on Red was bent and busted from the 2021 haspin roll-over. I also realized; this thing is still a bit bent from that wreck. I think it may just be the front extended frame I built for it. When bringing it around, I need to check the rear end because I thought I felt the rear trans wiggling. I thought I went over it pretty well.

Pic of the mock-up. You can tell the hood is still bent.

I think I got the hood straight"er" now.  Found a couple issues that I worked on.  May need a doner hood in the future.  ...or move back to the '85 hood.

Found the cracks in the bumper.  I'll weld those back and repaint. I'll put that back on as well.  Didn't like how the craftsman bumper was working out.  I'm also going to see if I can source a new ground cable for the winch and see if it will work correctly now.

I checked the winch and control.  It works fine.  I'll reinstall that.  Maybe solder the wires back together.

Some pix of the winch control, Extra wires are where I added the manual dash mounted control.





I also pulled off the outer rubber portion of the seat.  Not much foam.  I plan on adding another thin layer of foam.

Scratch that.  Additional foam made the seat too firm.  I'll look into other means such as tire pressure.

Some other changes to this tractor cometh!  We will be seeing the return of something that was well received in the past.

Tire pressure is 4.5lbs on both sides. Maybe I can deal with that. In the meantime, here is a teaser of things to come.

HA! I just knew that would be happening. I don’t know how or why but I’m not at all surprised lol.

Also, did you combine all 3 or 4 threads you had on Lil Red? I don’t ever remember this thread being 43 pages long.

Shh....  

Actually I did.  If AK was around or Rich, I'd probably do theirs as well or anyone actually.  More I think of it, best to keep the builds coherent.

It was Doug's idea to break them up.

Ah okay. I agree too. I’ll stop here I guess so I don’t jack the thread lol

The Shhh... was over this.

Murraymountain wrote:

HA! I just knew that would be happening. I don’t know how or why but I’m not at all surprised lol.

Allright... time to start phase 4 of this tractor's life.  I got it out and rode it actually not in my yard today.  I got to do some offroad stuff today.  I have a list of things I need to work on for this new phase!  Tire pressures was good enough not to hurt my back, or it is getting better. (Hopefully the latter)

Well, here is the look of phase 4.

similar to phase 2.



After the riding today, I do have a few things to work on.

• Holey Pulley mod.  I thought at one point I had belt slip after getting it wet, but it was something else.  Next item.
  
• The issue was a limb stuck up in my clutch.  I need a belly plate to protect.
  
• Need to replace the bent front bumper.  I thought I had it fixed, but it is off and that is getting on my OCD nerve.
  

Things that did perform well.

• Transaxle performed well.
  
• Engine performed well, even though I stalled it once.
  
• Traction was AMAZING
  

Found front axle damage mentioned in the video.  I did some checking.  The damage was done today.  I'll need to come up with a plan to fix.  Maybe change it up?  We'll see.

Removed the front axle from Red today.  Did some detective work and I think I figured out what happened.  Sometimes you have to dig in and see why something happened so it doesn't happen again.  This thing survived a roll at Haspin.  Several wheelies, most recent in my video "Bearclaws are sNOw fun".

So what is the issue now?



Clue 1:  The obvious is the panhard mount on the axle being bent.
Clue 2:  The round monolink bar on the link side is more bent than the opposite. (hard to see this one in a pic, easier to see in person) *ignore the old booger weld.  It's held well.




And clue 3:  The scratched up and nicked mount for the classic hood.



So, these clues tell me that the hood mount I welded on is interfering with my panhard and not allowing my axle full flex on the front right.  So I went to the video I shot yesterday, and I had a good idea when and where it happened.  The first time I went up the shallow dry creek bed that goes to the pond.  I come up on the right side.  You can't really tell in the video each time I did this, the front left is off the ground and full weight is on the right front.  I think I found the exact moment well, the frame before and after the bend.


Not sure if it is a trick of light, but I'm pretty certain one of the times in this washout was the culprit.  

Before bend, the left front tire is suspended already.  This is about a 2.5-3 foot rise.  Lip of the side hides the fact the left front is about a foot in the air.  Note the sun on the axle and the direction of the shock mount on the right front of the tractor.



A frame later again note the front axle and the shock mount bolt direction.  Going to try other software to see if I can see the missing middle frame where the mounts hit.  Then again, I think I did this several times yesterday.  





So now with the damage done.  How to fix and keep this happening again. Obviously, I will need to trim that hood mount. Repair the monolink or try something new?

things to work on is growing.

• Holey Pulley mod.  I thought at one point I had belt slip after getting it wet, but it was something else.  Next item.
  
• The issue was a limb stuck up in my clutch.  I need a belly plate to protect.
  
• Need to replace the bent front bumper.  I thought I had it fixed, but it is off and that is getting on my OCD nerve.
  
• Fix monolink
  
• replace steering bushings.  These are shot. size 3/4-7/8-13/16ish
  

Tractor seems to be venting gas.  I do not see a leak. Wondering if I need to take The Green Machine and move it around to the back porch for safety.  Don't need to blow the house up.

Researching.  Lowes metal which I think is $$$ is 11 gauge, TSC is 16 gauge and also price to show for that.  A steel place that will work with you is at least 30 miles away and they use any thickness, but we'll use the 11 gauge for reference.  A few bucks more than Lowes.  Checked craigslist and marketplace for metal scraps for free... no luck.  Too many drive-by scrappers in the area. (they snag all the tractors too).

11 gauge is approximate 1/8th thickness.  16 gauge is half that and would probably bend under stress again.

Have a welding shop near ya? Often times if you ask nice they'll sell you remnants. Could probably get some 1/4 or 3/8 plate and I bet that'll hold.

I have a neighbor, but I need to catch him out.  I think 1/8 would be good enough.  What I have now is about 1/16 and pretty soft.

The monolink is chopped off the axle.  I thought about just tweaking it back to shape, but the more I turned it over and looked at it, the more I realized it not only was bent but a little twisted.

Started building a new mono link yesterday and found out real quick that I forgot to buy new welding rods. I’ll hit the hobo freight later today. Also noticed I still have the oil leak off the right front bolt area on the engine sump. I’ve changed that gasket almost 3 times now as well as the valve covers. Valve covers were good, it is clearly coming from sump gasket. I’ll just send it for now.

Are you sure you don’t have a crack or chip in your engine block or sump? Maybe a factory casting flaw?

Not sure.  If I was guessing, possibly a casting flaw.  Engine is on its last go round so I'm going to send it for now.  The 21hp is looking mighty inviting.