"Poor Man's" Gator Built From Garden Tractor

"Poor Man's" Gator Built From Garden Tractor TRACTORS Conversions 28-4-43 It may not be a real Gator, but for Tom Busse and his kids, it's close enough. His front wheel drive "ATV" has a bench seat with room for two, a rock box on the back, and it steers from the rear. "We are always picking up rocks and stuff around the farm, and this goes slow like a lawn tractor, so I feel it's safer for the kids," explains Busse. "Now that we have this, it's no trouble getting the kids to help." The "gator" started out as a large frame Ahrens lawn tractor which Busse stripped down to the frame. He replaced the twin cylinder Briggs & Stratton with a quieter Wisconsin Robin, mounting it directly over the transmission and the drive wheels. He kept the 4-speed transmission and Peerless transaxle, spinning it around to face forward. He used a right angle drive to belt-drive the transmission. Busse runs an equipment rental store with his brother and has worked with many different engines. The Wisconsin Robin is a brand he likes for its easy start. "Even the kids can start it," he says. To make the motor even easier to start, he mounted it on a steel plate with notches that hold it in place. When starting, he pushes a lever on the plate that pushes the motor forward so it isn't driving the belt to the transmission. Once it starts, a pull on the lever and the motor's base plate drops back into place, and power is again running to the transmission. He mounted the floorboards and pedals onto an extension of the frame ahead of the drive wheels. The frame extension is made from 2-in. angle iron. Other sheet metal pieces were installed in front of the motor. "One of the hardest things was figuring out where to put the pedals and steering wheel," recalls Busse. Busse used 3/4-in. black pipe to extend the steering rods to the new front end and reconnected them with the steering wheel rod. For his rock box, Busse cut and welded thin sheet steel, adding gusset angles for strength. Originally he had planned to use a box from a John Deere Gator, but found it too large for the frame. Instead he attached it to an old camper axle and uses it as a separate trailer behind his homemade gator. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tom Busse, N1655 Maple Tree Rd., Adell, Wis. 53001 (ph 262 626-1812).

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