AWD MOWER IDEA ( seriously hear Me out)

Soooooo as I continue to go down the rabbit hole
On possible ideas for my poulan garden tractor I have
A borderline crazy idea I understand it would involve fab work
But would be very cool if it worked so hear me out.....

A 3 cyl or 2 cyl Diesel (likely a 3 unless a 2 cyl would
Have enough power)

Take a fwd manual trans out of a geo metro, mount it to
The diesel run the cv axles to atv differentials in front and
Rear, then use atv cv axles to take power to the wheels

And seeing as you are running atv cv's use atv brakes!

This would not only give off road torque and power but
Fix the braking issues we all fight with

I need to draw this out but in my head it looks good

Feedback is appreciated

If you’re going to that kind of trouble with transmissions and differentials, why not just build one of these? I think the guy had a build thread on here



EDIT: found it Amphibious tractor

That would probably work, although it would make a fairly large machine compared with a stock sized lawn tractor. I have thought about the best way to make a 4wd tractor for awhile, and I do think ATV front axles and possibly hubs would be the best way to do that part at least.

While any size machine is ok as it just depends what you want to build, I have always had my own "rules" or idea of what guidelines I would want to follow to build one in 4wd. Personally, I would like to make one which somewhat follows the lines of most other 2wd tractors people build. For the most part we use bigger wheels and they end up wider than stock, but nothing too crazy as far as really wide suspensions ect. With the exception of those couple people who have built snowmobile powered tractors. But they are getting farther away from actual tractor parts and more or less just using the tractor hood and fenders on a tube chassis.

The all wheel steer transaxle route has been tried a couple times by people, but the AWS knuckles are a bit on the fragile side, and the ones I saw didn't have much if any front axle toggle, so with a solid 4 wheels, one wheel is always off the ground and it sort of canceled out the 4wd effect. Also, a complete extra transmission is heavy.

What I would do myself is this: Start with a normal tractor layout and frame, at least some kind of stock transaxle. Maybe an older one like a wheel horse transmission or sears 633a. Use ATV parts up front. Might have to shorten the axles a bit to keep things as narrow as possible. Then lock the rear end and run a chain sprocket off one side of the rear axle. May need a jackshaft or two in order to route power up to the front axle. Either you have a belt you engage somewhere to connect them when you want 4wd, or you just have it full time 4wd. You would lose a few hp in the transfer up there, but it would work and you'd have a small compact system. Only thing would be to make sure your gearing stays close so that nothing binds up. But you could work that part out. It sounds like a super heavy deal, but I think it would actually be lighter and more rugged than using a second lawn tractor trans.

The geo transmission would work too I'm sure, but you'd need some (somewhat) oddly shaped brackets and things to hold everything, and it would need some fabbed up connections, such as some kind of way to adapt a pulley on the geo input shaft. I suppose you could just weld a hub on there permanently as the transmission would probably hold up fine. There's probably lots of ways to do it. I would just like to find a light weight way of doing it.

@mr.modified it makes sense what you are saying 100%
What I would prefer is a vertical shaft diesel ,
I wanna roll coal more than anything

> What I would prefer is a vertical shaft diesel

The most likely one you will find for sale in the USA, because of EPA restrictions and such, is the Yanmar 2V750. These recently sold out as far as I can tell.

YANMAR 2V750 Engine For Sale

https://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/for-sale/yanmar/2v750/engine/26000?Model=2V750

JB_4x4 wrote:

> What I would prefer is a vertical shaft diesel

The most likely one you will find for sale in the USA, because of EPA restrictions and such, is the Yanmar 2V750.  These recently sold out as far as I can tell.

YANMAR 2V750 Engine For Sale

https://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/for-sale/yanmar/2v750/engine/26000?Model=2V750

Damn those aren't cheap, I didn't even know they made vertical shaft, you would almost be better off buying an old wrecked smart car diesel and retrofitting that

Well, those are cheap for what they are, current brand new ones are probably about $8,000-$15000. I was going to buy one, but, decided against it just because I need to have hydraulics and it is easier off a horz. engine. You can buy clones off Alibaba, but, I would not want to count on the engines getting through customs after I paid for it.

JB_4x4 wrote:

Well, those are cheap for what they are, current brand new ones are probably about $8,000-$15000.  I was going to buy one, but, decided against it just because I need to have hydraulics and it is easier off a horz. engine.  You can buy clones off Alibaba, but, I would not want to count on the engines getting through customs after I paid for it.

Yeah no kidding 15k is way too high when you could again just grab up an old kubota or something like that.

Ive had it in my brain a while I'll spill the beans. Shaft driven ATV open/lockable diff as the transfer case with basic ujoint/cv drive shafts. Vertical shaft motor or horizontal however you mount the diff and then just use two mtd FNR transaxles because they are easy to modify and just make those mount like a mud truck axle they are geared the same in forward and reverse and you would have to cut the axles and modify them to be keyed and you can pretty much just copy the steerable transaxle but made with better stuff it would take a crap ton of fab and quite a bit of money to do it right or you can just use random junk laying around i already have most of those parts just not a atv diff

> Shaft driven ATV open/lockable diff

I had considered those and after pricing out replacement parts for a Yamaha Wolverine (500?), because a non-running one was for sale locally for $700, I decided against it. Everything in the front of them is way expensive at least as far as OEM goes.  

At this point I am about done trying to find a cheap diesel vertical, I am going horizontal diesels and I am probably just going to go with some kind of modified Peerless in front.  More along a line of "what if lawn tractor" then a totally custom build.