Its a lawn mower...

[B.M.800]

... yes... a "lawn mower".

Well I am trying anyways.. I have a couple briggs opposed engines, a 3 speed foote gearbox, and a peerless 700 to work with.
I would like some sort of front suspension. Shouldnt be too difficult in the future to add a rear swingarm.

Engine sat too far forward with the plastic tank, thought it would be better tucked back in further.

I found these aluminum beer bottles along the road, Im thinking they would make for some nifty air intakes for a dual carb setup. Thats a 16.5hp engine. Can I get away with using some gx200/clone carbs?

The blue bottle one is too thin for this, Ill be keeping an eye out for another red one.

 

[B.M.800]

Unfortunatly, using this hood would require a bit too much surgery to fit over the oppy.
So the thought of running it with no hood, and strapping one of these big round gas tanks in front of the engine... Seems like a waste of a neat hood. I have bits from another lawnmower that I could probably make work.

Or, do I use a single cyl engine?

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

I vote hood - surgery - big engine.

 

[KartFab]

We want more horespoweerrrr

 

[chancer]

Hood surgery. and those are cool tanks, hard to find even on Ebay.

 

[Hellion]

Where's the mower deck?

 

[bob58o]

Where's the mower deck?

Looking good!

 

[landuse]

Nice going so far

 

[pRoFiT]

I wonder if you built a go kart and made it look like a lawn mower if cops would stop you when driving around the neighborhood? All you do to hide is pull up on someones lawn and pretend to mow?

Anyways, a lawn mower? okay. Will it be fast? or just powerful?

 

[B.M.800]

Ill try to use the hood. I dont have a mig welder, that might be interesting with the thin metal.

Hood surgery. and those are cool tanks, hard to find even on Ebay.

I saved them from scrap yard. Always visit the tin and engine piles to see what kind of goodies I can find.

Where's the mower deck?

Mower deck? We dont need no stinking mower deck!
...but if it makes you happy, I can drag around a push mower behind it?

I wonder if you built a go kart and made it look like a lawn mower if cops would stop you when driving around the neighborhood? All you do to hide is pull up on someones lawn and pretend to mow?

Anyways, a lawn mower? okay. Will it be fast? or just powerful?

Fortunately, I dont live in a neighborhood. Neener neener.

Fast? Ehh... Im hoping 30-35mph. Depends on how it handle hills, maybe regear later to go faster if it doesnt have trouble on the hills.

 

[ultralight01]

Sweet. Mowers have solid frames and you can make a cool kart out of it. Modifying the engines and making it look less like a mower is what I would do.

 

[Kartorbust]

Garden tractors were/are solid body on frame, lawn tractors were always unibody. Never seen an opposed twin before. I'd say make your own hood if you can, or mod the one you have now.

Exhaust enters the turbo, witchcraft happens and you go faster.

 

[chancer]

Luckily he made his own frame!
Did either of you see the first pic in the first .

 

[pRoFiT]

searching for stuff on craigslist and saw this today
http://modesto.craigslist.org/mcy/5676617126.html

racing lawnmower! i guess other people are crazy too

 

[B.M.800]

So I made some tabs to mount the dash... Lots of effort there.

Im thinking about suspension. Whatever I do, will probably be set out infront of the grill. Hoping for a maybe hotrod-esqe look here.

I have some leaf spring, and some coil springs. Coil springs I figure would just go in some tall spindle brackets with some bushings and whatnot... maybe not too hot rodd-esque but I think it could look good?

The leaf springs... The one with the eyes on the ends I had saved for a lawnmower front suspension jacked up gasser-esque looking. But its way too stiff It doesnt hardly flex even with my 200+ lead butt jumpng on it. The other 2 pieces together I think are just right.

Trick is how to attach the spindles to them. Im am under the impression I cant just weld a bracket onto the spring? I can understand it wouldnt work to weld a spring together, but can I get away with just welding some brackets on?

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Use square u-bolts to attach an axle to the springs? Not sure if I understand what you are asking.

 

[B.M.800]

Something to this effect...

{EDIT} So umm... this picture is right side up on my computer...

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

Generally, this will work (see below). Spring steel can be harmed by the heat of welding I believe, others may have more experience with this.

 

[B.M.800]

Im not sure how that would work with what Id like to do... I dont have a way to attach the spring at the moment. Even if what I want to use had the eyes on the end, Im not sure my wheel would stay at the right angle?
I was thinking of having a control arm of sorts running back along side the frame, but I cant envision how this all would work without having it in my hands. I aint the brightest bulb here.

My google foo tells me that some preheat might help the weld to bond to the spring more better. The area around the weld just wouldnt be "spring" anymore.

 

[B.M.800]

♪♫♪ ♫♪ Movin very slowly! Very slowly! Movin very very slowly! ♪♫♪♪♪ ♫ ♪

So I need some wheels. Drive wheels... Rather than shell out the $$ for some I used these crappy wheels with a 5/8 bore. Never gona use em for anything else sooo...

I used a bushing to keep the hole saw closer to center. Looking back, I should have used a smaller hole saw... Im going to need to lathe out the hole some more, then Ill weld in a plate with my bolt pattern.