"LGC" Little Green Craftsman

Craftsman 917.270513. No deck. Swapped from 14.5hp I/C to 18.5hp Intek. Peerless 206. It runs and drives and that's basically it. I want to make it a weedeater. An "offroad" weedeater. You heard that right. My idea is crazy, but isn't that what this place is all about?

So here goes:

I have a Craftsman push mower deck. No engine on it right now. Wheels are shot. And I don't need it bc I have 3 other push mowers in good shape. So...maybe.....it could be mounted under the LGC, and a spindle welded in. As far as hanging it is concerned, I'm not sure what I'll do. I don't need the height to be adjustable. I'll be using it to cut down weeds. The narrow cut will be to my advantage, as it will make it more maneuverable in the trees. Linkage for the engagement is also an issue, but I have the GT18's old deck, with a full set of good spindles and pulley, so something could be rigged up. Another thing. The shifter. I positively despise the between-the-legs shifter design. I could use Fearless Front's slap shifter design, as I won't be using the attachment lift, or I could try to make a fender shifter, which I would prefer. I haven't been able to find any good diagrams of how that linkage works however. Will be an interesting project if I actually do it. And the transaxle will have to be locked. No one-wheel-peel for me. I'm tired of that. Taller tires too, most likely.

A long time ago i saw a fella mount a pushmower on the sleeve hitch behind his sears suburban. Seemed to work pretty good, and could be lifted clear out of the way, plus it had its own engine so no issue with belts.

You might could find a 33” deck from a snapper rear engine rider, that would be wider but still within the width of the tractor.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

A long time ago i saw a fella mount a pushmower on the sleeve hitch behind his sears suburban. Seemed to work pretty good, and could be lifted clear out of the way, plus it had its own engine so no issue with belts.

You might could find a 33” deck from a snapper rear engine rider, that would be wider but still within the width of the tractor.

Too late! Its a done deal. The fit is perfect, and using the deck hardware from the GT18, it'll be a straight-up bolt in. I'll even be able to keep the attachment lift, and I think it will work. I shouldn't have to do any welding, as far as I can tell right now. The only tricky thing will be the engagement clutch. But I might have that figured out.

Current mock up:

Looks like you have some nice upgraded front spindles and bearings?

On mine I am using bail pins to connect the four points so I do not need tools or easy to lose hair pins to detach it. Though I am probably hanging mine from 1/4" cables so it's flexible hitting stuff.

> You might could find a 33” deck from a snapper rear engine rider

What I plan on using. Though using a sleeve hitch to raise and lower a mower has me thinking. Absolutely would want a seat kill switch on that one.

Think I'm gonna scrap this project. I'll probably end up stripping the body off and turning the thing into a cart for my Onan generator.

Probably has better wheels then you can buy at NT or HF for less then $7 each, so, look at it as a $28 savings. Only caveat is that you can not use the wheels on threaded rod. Clamping the height adjusters to angle with 1/4" bolts works. I have a 1/2 a legal filing cabinet drawer full of wheels and adjusters for small projects.

@Ifitaintbroke I had a newer Craftsman I bought for parts and I moved the front axle a little bit past Center and welded a tongue on it and it was a great trailer

ranch king pro 08 wrote:

@Ifitaintbroke I had a newer Craftsman I bought for parts and I moved the front axle a little bit past Center and welded a tongue on it and it was a great trailer

You post # right now I'd the only chebby engine I'd have interest in.