Volume #BFS, Issue #23, Page #24
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He Doubled His Mower Swath
“The garden tractor had been backed into and was all bent up when I got it,” recalls Bond. “I upgraded the mower deck and the engine. Considering the acreage I had to mow, I thought it’d be nice to get an additional 40 in. of deck.”
He’d seen people pull a walk-behind to the side of their riding mower but thought it would be too easy to hang it up on a tree or bush. An avid golfer, he had seen batwing-type mowers at golf courses.
“The batwing mowers were my inspiration,” says Bond. “I picked up two Briggs & Stratton walk-behinds at a pawn shop for $20 each. They each fired up on the first pull and have almost every time since.”
Bond built a frame around the tractor out of 2-in. by 2-in. steel tubing. He had previously added a foam bumper to the front of the garden tractor. It had mounted to 1 1/2-in. square tubing welded to each side of the tractor frame. He removed the bumper and slid the frame into the receiver hitches and pinned it in place.
Each walk-behind mower deck got its own frame bolted to it. These frames hinge on the main frame, providing articulation up and down. The main frame also has brace rods on either side of the tractor. They bolt into existing bolt holes with wing bolts for easy removal.
“I kept separate controls for each walk behind,” says Bond. “I mounted the throttles to the rods on their side and ran the starting rope to the same spot. If I want to remove one or both, it’s easy to do.”
Bond’s last step was to paint them to match his decked-out tractor.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Chadd Bond, 6602 Gaffney Dr., Jones Creek, Texas 77541 (ph 970-683-8772; bondcustomshtx@gmail.com).
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