LawnBoy UTLTV aka MULE

Angchor wrote:

I'm talking about hitting a croquet ball with rackets, or shortened hockey sticks, while riding.

Not hitting a ball with the machine.

It would be like polo but with tractors instead of horses. Or maybe more technically correct, tractor hockey. (With a ball instead of a puck.)

No, I got what you're saying. I'm talking about hitting the ball with the machine like they were doing in the video, just using a ball instead. But it couldn't be a soft ball like a yoga ball or it would go under the bumper and flip the machine.   

have you done anything new to this doc

hi doc great built i like the idea with the compressor im sure it would be very handy on my tractor, but i was just wondering what is the size of the bore for the input pulley of the transaxle ? (the peerless 920)

Thank you. Transaxle pulley bore is 5/8", keyed.

Thanks doc cant wait to see what you gonna do with mule !

Hey Doc, Are you running two or four shift fingers? My 920 is skipping a lot in 1st and 5th. I haven't gotten into it yet, but assuming that the fingers are rounded off and maybe the inside keyways in the gears are damaged... I bought a set of two fingers to replace. Just wondering. Hope all's well!   

4 shift keys. But I may conduct an experiment sometime in the future. Despite the logical conclusion (4 keys being better than 2) I have heard reports of 2 keys outperforming and lasting longer than 4. Dunno. Food for thought. In a perfect world, 4 keys is better. Maybe in reality, twice the engagement means twice the DIFFICULTY in engagement (no synchro), so... ?

Yeah, I "heard" 2 is better than 4. But with a locked diff, I'm wondering about 4 now. Lots of torque being transmitted!   

So far, no failures (knock on wood).

I haven't done anything by ways of mods lately, just using it for it's intended purposes (go figure). But I still have some tweaking to do. I can't get into 6th gear, so I need to make a linkage adjustment, and I have bugger all for brakes, either. Again, linkage. I'm strongly leaning towards doing away with the brake/clutch combined thing, and putting the brakes on a separate pedal. I like what the Mowrons have done with this, likely doing similar.

Doc Sprocket wrote:

So far, no failures (knock on wood).

I haven't done anything by ways of mods lately, just using it for it's intended purposes (go figure). But I still have some tweaking to do. I can't get into 6th gear, so I need to make a linkage adjustment, and I have bugger all for brakes, either. Again, linkage. I'm strongly leaning towards doing away with the brake/clutch combined thing, and putting the brakes on a separate pedal. I like what the Mowrons have done with this, likely doing similar.

I really really like the concept of having the brakes on a separate pedal.

If you are like me and loathe to put a bunch of money into a whole new brake setup... And you understand that the factory brakes actually work pretty good, if you aren't racing... Then it makes sense to put them on a separate pedal, which means you have positive braking that has nothing to do with anything else.

You push the brake pedal, the brakes are activated. Period. And like I said, if you separate them out, and check out how well they work as a separate function, you may be surprised.

I am glad I have taken the ariens all the way down to the frame. Also glad that I found out that I can swap the clutch pedal from the right, back over to the left, where I like it. And it looks like putting in linkage to do a completely separate pedal for the brake is probably feasible to do before I actually start getting things back onto the frame.

Now you have me inspired again. I am off to research what the mowrons have done!

Yep- mostly. For stock or near stock speeds, the factory brakes aren't bad. Anything faster, is another story.

After the last transaxle met God, I took the opportunity to install a mechanical go kart caliper and a 6" rotor. Initial test runs had showed the ability to lock those Carlisles up at full bore. Bueno.

Since re-arranging and reinforcing the rearend, I've had some issues with the linkages. This is what is prompting me to rework them.

And rework them, I did...

Having had enough of the whole brake/clutch thing, I scalped a brake pedal from a parts ATV, and scabbed it on. Ran a link rod back to the caliper, and boom- brake pedal.



I'd like to thank Stretch and TRB for the pedal placement. I never would have thought to put it behind the throttle, but it works!

I also got rid of the lawn tractor battery. I roasted another one, winching. ENOUGH! Time for a 1000CA car battery!

There she is, bolted all snugly in the trunk.

And here's more detail on the whole thing, and a cool wheelie, too!

Good idea doc but won't that ignite your starter? Or just make for better cold starts? :p

Moose wrote:

Good idea doc but won't that ignite your starter? Or just make for better cold starts? :p

Dood... What?

That's like 1000 amps vs 300 it would normally use?

You gotta remember a basic thing here- a battery does not "deliver" current- it makes it available. An electrical device will draw what it needs. I could hook up 12 of these batteries in parallel- for a total of 12 THOUSAND avaliable crank amps- and NOT burn up the starter.

Ohhhh ok well I learned something today :p though it would be interesting to have 12k amps sitting around 20000# winch anyone?

Moose wrote:

Ohhhh ok well I learned something today :p though it would be interesting to have 12k amps sitting around 20000# winch anyone?

Ut oh! Now I see a build in the future for Moose, or Doc...

WINCH TRAILER!!!! A utility trailer with 12 batteries in it. Some way to anchor it wherever it is. And a 20 thousand pound winch!

Maybe anchor points on the trailer for a strap to go around a tree. And/or just some really big poles that can be driven into the ground. And a jack, to get them back out of the ground. (Or set up some kind of high pulley system, so you can use the winch to pull the poles back out of the ground.)

Doc, a better battery for applications where a winch will also be used is the yellow top Optima battery.

A regular "car" battery will also eventually give up the ghost. A lot sooner than a deep cycle would. And especially the yellow top. Which was made to be used where you'll be starting an engine with it, running lights, etc... But also going to be using it for heavy winching...

I dont know much about batteries but instead of using a 6 volt battery or a 12 volt which would fry your wiring why not use a 8 volt marine battery what would happen if you did that?

Angchor wrote:

Doc, a better battery for applications where a winch will also be used is the yellow top Optima battery.

A regular "car" battery will also eventually give up the ghost. A lot sooner than a deep cycle would. And especially the yellow top. Which was made to be used where you'll be starting an engine with it, running lights, etc... But also going to be using it for heavy winching...

Oh... I'm well aware of that- but thanks! I used an automotive starting battery here, for no reason other than "I had one". I dropped a mint to buy the Optima I have in MULEII, and just am not in a position to do it again any time soon. (Actually, I got a blue top marine/deep cycle RV model Optima)

Craftsman1998 wrote:

I dont know much about batteries but instead of using a 6 volt battery or a 12 volt which would fry your wiring why not use a 8 volt marine battery what would happen if you did that?

8 volt???

All the batteries we are talking about here, are 12v. Our cars are all 12v, and so are our tractors.

oh lol i thought tractors were 6 volt so i could run a 12 volt car battery in my tractor didn't know that. And i've never had to buy a tractor battery because my batteries tend to last awhile so never even looked at a tractor battery to see if it was 6 or 12 volt

Any day you learn something, is a good day!

Couple updates... I've done an engine swap, and I'm completely rewiring the machine. New exhaust coming, and changing fuel tanks, too. I'll add pics when I can, but in the meantime, some video:

Angchor wrote:

Doc, a better battery for applications where a winch will also be used is the yellow top Optima battery.

A regular "car" battery will also eventually give up the ghost. A lot sooner than a deep cycle would. And especially the yellow top. Which was made to be used where you'll be starting an engine with it, running lights, etc... But also going to be using it for heavy winching...

my father has an 05' Dodge Powerwagon. came stock with a Warn 12,000 winch, and we added a Western snowplow. Up until last winter, it had the STOCK battery.

tell me more how winches and other toys destroy regular batterys

willis923 wrote:

Angchor wrote:

Doc, a better battery for applications where a winch will also be used is the yellow top Optima battery.

A regular "car" battery will also eventually give up the ghost. A lot sooner than a deep cycle would. And especially the yellow top. Which was made to be used where you'll be starting an engine with it, running lights, etc... But also going to be using it for heavy winching...

my father has an 05' Dodge Powerwagon. came stock with a Warn 12,000 winch, and we added a Western snowplow. Up until last winter, it had the STOCK battery.

tell me more how winches and other toys destroy regular batterys

I'm trying to understand why this is even an issue? This is not something that I made up. The differences between deep cycle batteries and car batteries is a fact. if there were no difference, there would be no reason to manufacture them differently.

I am going to skip the Optima website for this purpose, because it might be seen as 'biased'. But I'll give you some links that talk about the differences.

Here, Warn company explains why they recommend the yellow top, over other batteries, for their winches and other toys...
http://www.warn.com/blog/2012/05/10/the_different_optima_batteries_explained.shtml

Here is a link where the differences in batteries is explained pretty good. Note that the guy has come back and stopped recommending Optima batteries since they moved their operations to mexico and the quality has suffered. But that the differences in batteries... and that it is better to use the right battery for the job... remains a fact. (He just recommends different brands, now.)
http://www.stu-offroad.com/electrical/elec1/battery.htm

Here is a recommendation based on experience, for the excide version of the optima batteries.
http://www.rockcrawler.com/techreports/exide_orbital/

And they also explain that it wasn't even a deep cycle.

But the type of battery still made a difference, there. They were making the point that the battery was better than your run of the mill 40 dollar car battery.

The point? That there are different kinds of batteries. Some will last longer than others, in certain applications. It's as simple a fact, as that sintered bronze will last longer as a bushing on a spindle, than plastic will.

By the way, if the truck came stock with a winch. I would assume they also sent it out with a better battery than you would find in say, a chevette.