Featured Needed tractor, so I built one. How about you?

[Tourmax]

As some may have read, as a result of my career, I'm pretty busted up. Doing yard work is difficult for me at best, landscaping is an exercise in pain. With the new house, it was a matter of pay a stupid amount of money to have someone landscape, or do it myself.

Well, I'm not exactly flush, so it had to be do it myself. Wheelbarrow: nope. Can't use that. Shovel: nope, limited use at best. And so it goes with landscaping. I needed a machine to do those jobs for me.

I check the prices on CUT and SCUT tractors. Well, after I finally stop clutching my chest lying on the ground at the dealers lot, new is not going to happen.
Used is just as much a shock, considering how much you have to pay for something older than me and in worse shape.

Ok, this is not that great a situ.

Then I run across "garden" tractors. Smaller than a SCUT, but a little bigger than a ride on lawn tractor/mower. Digging around, I find an old Murray GT on one of the local "for sale" boards:

200 bucks. Briggs18 hp opposed twin. It didn't run, but it turned by hand and stopped hard up against it's compression. The transmission shifted and ran through it's gears. No battery and it was missing the starter solenoid. No cutting deck, but that's not really what this tractor was being bought for. It had the Peerless 820 transmission, which is rated for ground engaging implements (meaning:it's pretty tough).

I get it home, chucked a solenoid and a battery in it. After a little fiddling, it fires up and settles into a decent, smoke free idle. I drive it around the yard and it all seems to work, even with it having been severely neglected.

Well, time to start building it up. First, it needs a stronger frame instead of the OEM stamped form. Some 1/4" flat stock plated to the stamped piece fixes that up nicely:

Now it was at least usable. I needed to level out the new soil, so I used it to drag a pallet over the yard until level:

Worked fine!
Well, I still needed something to move soil/rocks around the yard. I suppose a small trailer would do most of that, but it would still require me using a shovel (and/or my back) to fill it. No, I needed to make a loader for it.

I already had mounted a small winch on the front. I needed to make a way to lift and dump a bucket. The winch would lift it no problem.
I grab an old ATV plow blade for cheap:

Worth buying it, as the steel alone would have cost almost 4 times what I paid for just the blade. Then, start building a bucket:

A little more work and the dumpfeature is done:

I use it like that for a while and it works OK. But it reveals the stamped steel front axle is just roached. So, time for an "upgrade":

Cast iron JD 345 front axle. Rough as rocks.
out with the old:

in with the new:

I'd already "stretched" the frame, so i moved the front axle further forward:

The extra wheelbase helps with the added weight of the front bucket.
Parts of our yard are off level and the last thing I want it the tractor to roll over on me with a full bucket. So:

Haven't tested it, hopefully I never have to! LOL!
Some wiring work was needed:

I needed more dash real estate, so:

I wanted control sticks, so I went with some that are electric:

Works great!
Time for some lights:

Getting some use out of it:

 

[Tourmax]

Unfortunately, it turns up a weakness: Brakes. The tiny little disc and pads on the transmission that lawn tractors use was not up to the task and burned completely out in one day of hard use. So I dig out some parts:

A little bit of this:

And a little bit of that:

and:

master cylinder:

All left over motorcycle bits from various builds over the years.
I went with split brakes, so I can stop a spinning wheel on one side (without having to lock up the differential) and use differential steering if I have to.

At some point, I got tired of my foot sliding off the round bar stock that was the clutch "pedal":

My boots don't slide off the pedal anymore!



I decided the shifter down on the floor between my legs was problematic. Mainly, it hurts to bend my back to reach the shifter. So I needed to move it:

Much better! The shifter is right at my fingertips now.
Chucked a fire extinguisher on it:

Now, with the new brakes, shifter and clutch mechanisms, I no longer had a parking brake. Back to the parts bins:

Fox Mustang park brake lever. A little fab and:

Now I needed reverse lights. Hard to see in the dark when backing up:

This year, with winter approaching, I decided I didn't want to sit in the elements while plowing the driveway. So a cab was in order. I check some prices.
Yipes!
Nothing for a Murray and what is out there used, is super stupid expensive. I look at the soft side cabs. Nope, 400-800 bucks and they're all not much more than a plastic bag hung over some bent conduit. Yep, back to making my own.

But materials are expensive. If I buy all new stuff, I'm going to be easily up to (or over) a grand. Fall cleanup turns up someone throwing out a weight bench and that provides plenty of steel for a frame. Plexiglass is waaaay more expensive than I remember, so I needed something else. I actually wanted glass for the front window so I can scrape it or direct heat right at it if needed. I drop into a local guys place who sells used doors and windows. 25 bucks later I;m headed home with two aluminum screen doors. Back to some fabrication and:

The screen doors provide the front and rear windows, as well as the door frames, hinges and latches:

Unfortunately, I have to pop for some plexiglass for the door windows and assorted smaller areas. 400 bucks:

A little more fab to fill in the remaining openings:

had to move some lights:

 

[Tourmax]

add roof and a splash of paint:

Looking pretty good now. Because of my messed up back, I added a back up camera:

Now I don't have to try and twist around to see behind, if my back is hurting that day.
I needed a fan for the windshield, so:

Just enough to keep air flowing on the glass and stave off fogging The flex mount lets me swivel it to point at the side windows if needed. It also has a heat function, but not a lot of use for that. 12V heaters burn up a metric "S-ton" of current and don't make much heat.

For heat, I go for a different solution. Being air cooled (no coolant to run to a heater core), I have to find a way to heat with air. I didn't want to make a heater muff over the muffler (due to CO concerns), so I decide to take engine heat off the head.

I make a new shroud for the LH head (excuse the crap welds, hard not to blow through such thin material with the MIG), take an electric motor with a fan, split a section of exhaust pipe in half, mount the motor in the pipe with a spider assembley, clamp it back together, and run an old shop vac hose from the fan housing to a port in the cabin:

Haven't tried to get heat from it yet. But with the motor running, I get plenty of air-flow from the port. I'm only looking to raise the cab temp a few degrees above ambient (just to take the bite off the cold) so it should work out fine.

I'd estimate I've got somewhere around a grand in the whole tractor. Not too bad considering it does everything I need it to.

So, how about you?

Need a tractor? got a tractor? build a tractor?

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Simply incredible.

 

[AxeZ06]

That's incredible.....battle ready!

 

[turbozig]

@Tourmax, pretty impressive backyard build. Are you related to Macgyver? Bravo!

 

[Tourmax]

@Tourmax, pretty impressive backyard build. Are you related to Macgyver? Bravo!

Nope, I build stuff that actually works in the REAL world.

I wouldn’t even let “MacGyver” hold my mig torch for me...LOL!

 

[OL Yeller]

Tourmax, That's some great fabrication skills you have, I have a Craftsman tractor, how about I send it across the gulf and you put a cab on it for me? Maybe a job for you next summer, I have the 40" cut blower attachment installed for the winter now...LOL

 

[Tourmax]

Tourmax, That's some great fabrication skills you have, I have a Craftsman tractor, how about I send it across the gulf and you put a cab on it for me? Maybe a job for you next summer, I have the 40" cut blower attachment installed for the winter now...LOL

I've got a blower for mine too, but it's never worked very well. I need to rework the drive (belts slip too much) for it before using it again:

I "reworked" it, just a little bit:

 

[nascar03]

TM....
YOU sir, are an animal! Great fab skills.
no Nitrious! Beer rack? Eight-track?
That is an exceptional ‘Modified MURRAY’.
thanx for posting.
graham

 

[Keith Tedford]

My project wasn't anything that complicated. Years ago, I had picked up about a 1970 Allis Chalmers B-110 lawn tractor. In those days the differential housing and front axle were all cast iron pieces and the machine weighed a ton considering it wasn't all that big. I got the factory single furrow plow and cultivator with it. A friend gave me a blade and I fabricated pieces to mount it on the rear three point style hitch. I was given a front snow blower off of some sort of lawn tractor and fabricated the mounts for the front of the tractor. With the weight of the tractor, I added a set of tire chains and it would go anywhere. Our lane is about 200 feet long with a turn around area in front of the garage that will hold a half dozen cars. It cut all our grass and blew snow for quite a few years. Still have it, but retired it, replacing it with a couple other lawn tractors over the years, but neither did/do the job any better than it did. Pretty minor mods compared to yours. My wife and I did built a barn for her horses. The only outside help was from a couple of friends to help put up the trusses for the gambrel roof. Same for our 28 x 37 foot garage. Necessity is the mother of all invention so they saying goes. We subcontracted the foundation, brick work and the framing in of our house and then went at the rest back in 1975. These pictures are from a few years ago but not much has changed other than upgraded doors and windows and the trees are a lot bigger now. At 73 now, I look back and wonder how we did it all and still had time for me to go fifty miles away to work every day and raise three kids. Do it while you are young and healthy. Over the years I restored a 1972 Lemans Sport and a 1969 el Camino doing pretty much everything including engine builds, just leaving the final body prep and paint to the professionals. THAT takes practice and skill and paint is too expensive to waste. With all the old cars gone in 2012, we picked up out 13,300 mile 2005 six speed Corvette so we could be 20 years old all over again. The hard work paid off.

 

[Rruuff Day]

Wow Tourmax.... I'm pretty speechless.... You have skill man... Are you familiar with the Johnny Cash song 'One piece at a time'... It could be be your theme song... Definitely admire your ability and determination.....

 

[Keith Tedford]

Wow Tourmax.... I'm pretty speechless.... You have skill man... Are you familiar with the Johnny Cash song 'One piece at a time'... It could be be your theme song... Definitely admire your ability and determination.....

When we first got our Corvette, people started treating me like I was some sort of white shirt snob that knew nothing about cars. True, quite a few Corvette owners don't know anything about the mechanics of cars, but they still enjoy them. I don't know anything about TVs but still enjoy watching them once in a while. I was just pointing out that lots of Corvette owners have a few other talents. I was a tool and die maker for 41 years and that was a big help in being able to build my own cars and the engines and the like. Hey, having worked at GM I could have been that Johnny Cash guy in the song. SHHHHHHH. Tourmax has some handy skills there too. Lots of others in the Corvette crowd are the same.

 

[YFCvii]

 

[LE BARON]

add roof and a splash of paint:

Looking pretty good now. Because of my messed up back, I added a back up camera:

Now I don't have to try and twist around to see behind, if my back is hurting that day.
I needed a fan for the windshield, so:

Just enough to keep air flowing on the glass and stave off fogging The flex mount lets me swivel it to point at the side windows if needed. It also has a heat function, but not a lot of use for that. 12V heaters burn up a metric "S-ton" of current and don't make much heat.

For heat, I go for a different solution. Being air cooled (no coolant to run to a heater core), I have to find a way to heat with air. I didn't want to make a heater muff over the muffler (due to CO concerns), so I decide to take engine heat off the head.

I make a new shroud for the LH head (excuse the crap welds, hard not to blow through such thin material with the MIG), take an electric motor with a fan, split a section of exhaust pipe in half, mount the motor in the pipe with a spider assembley, clamp it back together, and run an old shop vac hose from the fan housing to a port in the cabin:

Haven't tried to get heat from it yet. But with the motor running, I get plenty of air-flow from the port. I'm only looking to raise the cab temp a few degrees above ambient (just to take the bite off the cold) so it should work out fine.

I'd estimate I've got somewhere around a grand in the whole tractor. Not too bad considering it does everything I need it to.

So, how about you?

Need a tractor? got a tractor? build a tractor?

looks like you just bought it for the engine and hood Tourmax. LOL

 

[Riley P]

Hats off to all your work! I was on a quarter scale tractor pulling team with Taylorsk8 and could see some similarities in train of thought. Pretty awesome tractor that you have! It was a fun read.

 

[oil-rag]

Fantastic job, very impressed with your ability to fabricate

 

[Aeroguy]

add roof and a splash of paint:

Looking pretty good now. Because of my messed up back, I added a back up camera:

Now I don't have to try and twist around to see behind, if my back is hurting that day.
I needed a fan for the windshield, so:

Just enough to keep air flowing on the glass and stave off fogging The flex mount lets me swivel it to point at the side windows if needed. It also has a heat function, but not a lot of use for that. 12V heaters burn up a metric "S-ton" of current and don't make much heat.

For heat, I go for a different solution. Being air cooled (no coolant to run to a heater core), I have to find a way to heat with air. I didn't want to make a heater muff over the muffler (due to CO concerns), so I decide to take engine heat off the head.

I make a new shroud for the LH head (excuse the crap welds, hard not to blow through such thin material with the MIG), take an electric motor with a fan, split a section of exhaust pipe in half, mount the motor in the pipe with a spider assembley, clamp it back together, and run an old shop vac hose from the fan housing to a port in the cabin:

Haven't tried to get heat from it yet. But with the motor running, I get plenty of air-flow from the port. I'm only looking to raise the cab temp a few degrees above ambient (just to take the bite off the cold) so it should work out fine.

I'd estimate I've got somewhere around a grand in the whole tractor. Not too bad considering it does everything I need it to.

So, how about you?

Need a tractor? got a tractor? build a tractor?

Amazing, reminds me of my dad's creations, he was always fine tuning.

 

[Aeroguy]

Reminds me of my dad's creations, he was always fine tuning.

 

[LE BARON]

Fantastic Tourmax