Crazy Front Suspension Ideas

I've got some crazy ideas and I wanted to see if anyone has ever tried them and if they worked. I don't want to reinvent the wheel on a crappy design.

Design #1:
Pretty much your standard lift with a center pivot. Taje a piece of black pipe to use as a bearing between the front axle holes. Stock bolt could be used. Weld a length of square tubing to the pipe and weld that to the axle with some gussets. The twist comes that I was thinking of getting some practice hockey pucks and trimming them down and gluing them to the top of the axle. They would be trimmed down in such a way that they would fit into the axle pocket when one side was moved up. Using hockey pucks is common for bump stop extensions on Jeeps. Then I thought get an extra set of seat springs and mount them to the axle so that you have the bump stop, but the give and wouldn't hit as hard. Also the axle couldn't hit the bottom of the tractor.

Design #2:
Modified idea of the center pivot point. Use the shortest spring from a leaf spring pack to do like the Model A's and hot rods have with a transverse mounted leaf spring. The axle would still pivot, but the spring would prevent the axle from hitting the chassis of the tractor.

My buddy has leaf springs off an old sled skis and it flexes nice and he has. NO pivot point in it the springs don't max out, and my monster mower on here has a basically 3link set up with coil over shocks

redzz02 wrote:

My buddy has leaf springs off an old sled skis and it flexes nice and he has. NO pivot point in it the springs don't max out, and my monster mower on here has a basically 3link set up with coil over shocks

I'd love to see pics of the sled skis setup & more on your coil over setup.

Both are uP camp sorry man I might be going up this weekend coming up and I'll take some pics

Check out Fearlessfront's thread - he built a craftsman crawler using the modified front axle pivot, and ordinary rear hatch door gas struts.

The problem without some sort of dampener , would be the front axle would react too fast- snap back and forth - with a dampener, it smoothly flows over terrain.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Check out Fearlessfront's thread - he built a craftsman crawler using the modified front axle pivot, and ordinary rear hatch door gas struts.

The problem without some sort of dampener , would be the front axle would react too fast- snap back and forth - with a dampener, it smoothly flows over terrain.

I've watched his suspension video's several times each. My suspension idea would incorporate a set of hatch struts like he did. I'm just thinking of improving the design. Just like a car has a strut/shock and a spring.

dagr8tim wrote:

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Check out Fearlessfront's thread - he built a craftsman crawler using the modified front axle pivot, and ordinary rear hatch door gas struts.

The problem without some sort of dampener , would be the front axle would react too fast- snap back and forth - with a dampener, it smoothly flows over terrain.

I've watched his suspension video's several times each. My suspension idea would incorporate a set of hatch struts like he did. I'm just thinking of improving the design. Just like a car has a strut/shock and a spring.

Northern has small coil overs in the mini bike parts, around $30 pair.

Or if you can get a couple cheep/free mountain bikes with coil over shocks - that would work also.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Or if you can get a couple cheep/free mountain bikes with coil over shocks - that would work also.

I have been looking at the thread using Coil springs from mountain bikes. Most of the set ups dont run with existing gear as they have already been modified . I am guessing this means if I was going to fit springs I would need a different muffler as this location where the spring would go is taken up by this. The distance throw on these mountain bike springs is typically 14.5mm in its full extent. Does anyone know what the displacement of the beam is up and down on a MTD?

Off hand, no- but you can easily measure yours. Do keep in mind that the total travel of the axle beam as measured at the spindles is unimportant. Where you need to measure, is where the spring would go, just outboard of the frame. Actual wheel travel will be greater than the travel measured at this point. Leverage.

If you have to modify your exhaust, so be it. The vast majority of our mods in this hobby, are not bolt-ons by nature. We have to exercise our creativity to varying extents in order to make these things happen. It's very much like a puzzle. One piece very much affects the the next, and sometimes several. The trick is to make them all work together.

There's not much you can do to your tractor that does not have at least a minute effect on some other component or system.

FOSWMT wrote:

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Or if you can get a couple cheep/free mountain bikes with coil over shocks - that would work also.

I have been looking at the thread using Coil springs from mountain bikes. Most of the set ups dont run with existing gear as they have already been modified . I am guessing this means if I was going to fit springs I would need a different muffler as this location where the spring would go is taken up by this. The distance throw on these mountain bike springs is typically 14.5mm in its full extent. Does anyone know what the displacement of the beam is up and down on a MTD?

MTD's are one of the more flexible tractors out there when the pivot is functional. If by mountain bike springs you mean this:

then the travel would actually be too short, unless you mounted very close to the centerline. That obviously would minimize their effect.

on the other hand something like these adjustable motorcycle shocks (you can find them on any road bike usually) you can mount them farther out on the tubes making them far more effective.

Mountin bike springs are hard. I know you wouldent think so but they are. I put two on my murray bothe where same shocks where 750 pounds each thats 1500 pounds even placed them on an angle to get a lever action no good stiff as board. So far as now im running front shocks off of small china atv. Works pritty good.

I was thinking if you had two tractors with the same front axle setup, you could cut both of them in half on on side of the center pivot. The cuts would be on opposite sides of the pivot obviously. Then weld it up so that you have two seprate axles with their own joint. You would probably need some radius rods from the axles back to the frame to keep the axles from folding back. Then all you need is whatever type of spring arangement you want to hold the weight of the tractor and you have independent front suspension.

mr.modified wrote:

I was thinking if you had two tractors with the same front axle setup, you could cut both of them in half on on side of the center pivot. The cuts would be on opposite sides of the pivot obviously. Then weld it up so that you have two seprate axles with their own joint. You would probably need some radius rods from the axles back to the frame to keep the axles from folding back. Then all you need is whatever type of spring arangement you want to hold the weight of the tractor and you have independent front suspension.

Sounds an interesting idea . I presume you are talking about creating some independent suspension from this idea. You would need a longer mounting bolt and have to figure out how to alter the steering mechanism as it will also need to float and not be fixed as it is as standard. You also would benefit from some stops so that your suspension can only go down so far so that it is stable a wish bone may also be needed or tie. I would like to see how this idea pans out.

I dont understand how you can tecnickly call a lawntracter with the pivit still in place with struts or springs on it suspintion. Looks to me like all this does is stop the mower from rolling in a turn kinda like a sway bar. The idea of two seperit axels is a suspintion indepindent. Removing the pivit would require much more work. And be a true suspintion.

Corn I agree I bought some cheap ATV bits to look at and they are not as strong as the stock gear . I have upgrade presently to Countax X so have hubs on my axel which is all with bearings. I still have ATV front but am going to think about it as a winter project maybe.

I temporary mounted my X axles and the distance looks not bad. I think the axles bent from the Countax help