Poor Man’s ATV

Poor Man’s ATV ATV S When John Krueger ran across a cheap zero-turn mower he decided to turn it into what he calls a poor man’s wheelchair However once he had it set up he found lots of uses for it besides running around his farmstead “I buy a lot of basket case equipment ” says Krueger “The owner thought the motor was shot He said he was getting hot sparks shooting out of the flywheel cover I figured I could pull the motor off and replace it with a small motor I had salvaged ” Krueger is no stranger to working on mowers Nearly 26 years ago he turned a self-propelled floor sweeper into a 72-in wide riding mower Vol 21 No 3 When he tore into this one he got a pleasant surprise “I pulled the cover off and found the Bendix starter was stuck in the engaged position ” says Krueger “When the motor idled the engaged starter was throwing out sparks I replaced the Bendix and it was fine ” He already had a working zero-turn he used for mowing His homemade riding mower also worked fine He didn’t need a third mower so he removed the mower deck and made some modifications for a run-about His first step was to make it safer “I’m 83 so I wanted a safe way to mount and dismount ” says Krueger “I installed a handrail on the front of the frame and hung headlights on it ” His next step was installing a bumper hitch with a ball for towing small equipment He bolted a length of angle iron to the zero-turn frame behind the motor It had several holes already drilled in it that he could use for mounting a ball or pinning a clevis hitch Krueger then decided to adapt it to carry an 8-gal sprayer with a 12-volt pump To provide mounts for the sprayer he first butt welded two lengths of 3/4-in pipe to short lengths of angle iron He bolted the angle irons with the pipes upright to the zero-turn frame and the ends of the bumper hitch His next step was to make a platform for the sprayer that could ride on the uprights He used angle iron for the platform frame and bent a length of pipe to make a surround for the sprayer tank He welded the pipe ends to the platform frame and covered the frame with pieces of plywood Krueger cut a length of angle iron to match the distance between the upright pipes on the zero-turn bumper hitch and welded 6-in bolts to both ends He then welded the angle iron to the pipe surround “To mount the sprayer to the zero-turn I lift the platform up and slide the bolts into the pipes ” says Krueger “So far I’ve only used the sprayer with a spray wand but it’s handy for spot spraying around the buildings ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup John Krueger 1112 County St 2984 Blanchard Okla 73010 ph 405-392-4796

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