Home-Buil Front-Mount Mower

Home-Buil Front-Mount Mower FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 27-6-29 By merging a pair of old riding mowers, Conrad Russell, Plympton, Mass., was able to come up with a front-mount mower equipped with a 36-in. deck that he says works "almost as good as anything on the market." The one-of-a-kind rig is made out of a 1967 Mustang riding mower and a 1970's Ford riding mower, both of which were originally equipped with belly-mount decks. The "hybrid" rig that Russell created is painted Deere green and yellow and has a Simplicity garden tractor deck on front. He cut the frames of both mowers in half and bolted them together, with the Mustang on front and the Ford on back. The Ford originally had a 12 hp Briggs & Stratton gas engine and 5-speed transmission mounted on back. Russell relocated the engine and transmission up front in place of the original Mustang engine, which was worn out. Then he installed a new 6 hp Briggs & Stratton electric start gas engine on back in place of the Ford engine. The 12 hp engine is used to belt-drive the deck while the 6 hp engine drives the rear wheels. The deck is activated by a lever that engages an idler pulley. The deck is fitted with a pair of angled metal brackets, which attach to vertical square tubes on front of the tractor. A horizontal rod runs through slots in the brackets and into holes in both of the vertical tubes, making it easy to adjust deck height. A horizontal rod that runs through the bottom end of the brackets allows the deck to be pivoted up vertically out of the way, making it easy to maintain. "It took a lot of head scratching but was a fun challenge to build," says Russell, who finished putting the rig together last spring. "My total cost to build it was about $300. The big advantage is that the deck is up front where it's easier to see what I'm doing. It only takes about a minute to take the deck on or off. "However, I still have to work out a few problems on this machine. For one thing, it runs a little too fast. I plan to put a larger pulley on the transmission in order to slow down the ground speed and increase the power. Another disadvantage is that the turning radius is too wide. I plan to put separate brakes on back and mount swivel wheels on the deck to shorten the turning radius. When the front end of the deck goes up too far, it loosens the belt which disengages the blades. To solve the problem I plan to replace the belt-drive system with a pto drive system. To remove the deck all I do is unbolt it from the vertical tubes." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Conrad Russell, Box 222, Plympton, Mass. 02367.

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