offroad lawn mowermower

Well i have this 1974 murray. It runs but it needs quite a few parts, but there hard to find so i was thinking about getting another lawn mower for off roading. I want it to be old maybe old enough to have an actual frame. Parts also need to be pretty abundant and it needs to be fairly cheap.

The older tractors are mostly made by AYP - parts are nearly interchangable with older dynamark and craftsman pieces.

Old bolens/ford/MTD tractors ( before 80's early 80's) run a tube chassis - late model 90's murrays have a full c channel frame - if you had access to metal, theres no reason why a custom frame couldnt be made to fit a pan chassis.

You might have to search for a cheeper tractor - alot of people today buy em up, fix em and sell them for a profit because of the crappy economy - i used to get free tractors all the time from craigslist.

A few other good sources are reletives, neighbors, co workers - never know when theres an old tractor around or when someones wanting to buy new - scope some garage sales , flea markets - someone could have one as well.

To me the tractor can be complete, rusty and non running - if its under $50 ill buy it - ive bot cheeper tractors that ran with some work - ones that dont run i either keep to rebuild or mod or simply use as a parts donor for others.

A few times ive bot tractors, and the guy says " hey i have a couple other junkers you can take as well, plus a couple old motors " - i salvage what i can of good parts and scrap the rest if its in bad shape.

Haha well untill i can find another mower this poor thing is my subject. I ook a good look and figured ill build thi one ill just add some braces for the stamped metal. but im thinking about getting a bigger motor any suggestions ? it has a 11hp briggs & stratton in it that i need to rebuild. im also going to weld the spider gears in it like on fearlessfonts video.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

The older tractors are mostly made by AYP - parts are nearly interchangable with older dynamark and craftsman pieces.

Old bolens/ford/MTD tractors ( before 80's early 80's) run a tube chassis - late model 90's murrays have a full c channel frame - if you had access to metal, theres no reason why a custom frame couldnt be made to fit a pan chassis.

You might have to search for a cheeper tractor - alot of people today buy em up, fix em and sell them for a profit because of the crappy economy - i used to get free tractors all the time from craigslist.

A few other good sources are reletives, neighbors, co workers - never know when theres an old tractor around or when someones wanting to buy new - scope some garage sales , flea markets - someone could have one as well.

To me the tractor can be complete, rusty and non running - if its under $50 ill buy it - ive bot cheeper tractors that ran with some work - ones that dont run i either keep to rebuild or mod or simply use as a parts donor for others.

A few times ive bot tractors, and the guy says " hey i have a couple other junkers you can take as well, plus a couple old motors " - i salvage what i can of good parts and scrap the rest if its in bad shape.

Going from deep florida to the great white North It works pretty much the same way up here up till a few years back. What used to go for free now runs a g note.

To make it worse, Snow is coming so every tractor with a blower is 1000, if it has mower, blade etc., double the price.

Every thing with a Hydro is being grabbed up uberquick. If it has a vague chance of actually starting and running, they want way to much money


I've picked up running John Deeres for a case of beer on thanksgiving morning, cuz it was taking up space.
Now it getting abit harder.

Skully : personally i find OHV motors lacking in any real performance/power being stock - if a bunch of money was thrown into one, then youd see a whole lot of power - newer motors are detuned and filled with alot of plastic parts along with bieng built to run 'cleaner' - why alot of tractor run v twins and still cant seem to get out of their own way.

Older flatheads can be adjusted carb wise and have virtually no plastic inside ( cept for the governer) - just seem to run stronger in my opinion.

For a bunch of power pretty much stock and running the governer - big flathead twin is the way to go .


Chopperhead: Yep- you pretty much have to be paitient and look all the time to score good deals - my dad picked up a '75 C160 wheelhorse free from a freind of his recently - to mow thier 2 acres - it needed a deck so he saw a '88 252H wheelhorse complete for $50 and picked that up also - hoping he can retrofit the deck on to the 75.

Considering most decks for wheelhorses run in the $300 alone range - both were a great deal.

One of my last great deals was actually a couple days before Christmas a few years ago - MTD with rebuilt deck, non running ( it ran, but needed an oil seal)- spare parts motor and a parts '85 craftsman for $25 - only thing recent was a couple tractors and a bunch of atv wheels for $100 .