Simplicity System 5010 Off Road Adventure Thread

Those tires...man... You gotta get a knife and cut the heck out of them! They load up so bad with mud and snow that they turn into slicks. Good thing you've got chains, but... If you cut the tires you'd be 10 times better off even without the chains!

That machine is still one of my favorites!   

Im thinkin that im just going to strap my hood down similar to how you do. I just have a bungee cord on mine

I'll have to do a little work on it when I get a chance, too many other projects going on. The main thing to fix is the egged out holes in the rear wheels/axles. I need to get some pics of it half underwater somewhere...

Looks like I may have to work on those rims/tires a little sooner than I thought.

mr.modified wrote:

Looks like I may have to work on those rims/tires a little sooner than I thought.

 
that sucks man...

I was riding along and got off for a minute to take a picture. Then I get back on and try to drive up a slight incline and nothing. I looked down and saw the trans pulley spinning, so I thought maybe one of those wheel pins fell out again. Then I look over the side and see the rim spinning in the tire. Oh well. It may have been really low on air for awhile, they're so hard I might not have noticed. Probably so dry rotted that it won't hold air anymore.

***This thread might be better in the pics and videos section since that's pretty much what's here. You guys can move it there if it gets bothering anyone too much. I guess maybe that section got made after I started this, or maybe not, I don't remember (pay attention I mean). Either way...
Wouldn't want things getting disorganized or anything.

Took off the flat and finally got it to hold some air. The valve stem was leaking (mostly). It was full of water so I drained that out.


This shows how much of the axle sticks into the wheel. Not sure what the simplicity boys were thinking back then, but I'm guessing it was something like "good enough". Actually, they have taken far more abuse than they ever would have when just mowing grass without breaking. I was going to lengthen at least this side today, but I didn't have the right size pipe. I just got the tire back on and slaped it back together for now.


Figured I should change the transmission oil since I think this is what was in there when I got it. Mostly I was worried about shavings in the oil since the belt drags and you usually grind the heck out of the gears if you don't slow the motor down first. Turns out I didn't see all that much in the oil.


Fixed the problem of wheel bolts coming loose and falling out. That should hold it. You can see how egged out the rim is. The axles aren't too bad. They are probably much heavier steel.


I also got tired of the steering being loose so I burned this together too.

Nice, i love the old tractors. My brother has one of those setting around some where. I think i need to make a trip to his place and talk him out of it.

goesman wrote:

Nice, i love the old tractors.  My brother has one of those setting around some where.  I think i need to make a trip to his place and talk him out of it.

I wouldn't mind having another one of these myself. They're a neat size to work with.

Those axles are strong. I wouldn't bother lengthening them, it will make them weaker actually. Everything else looks great! Is that a custom rear bash bar you have there? Mine didn't have that I don't think. I also swapped to a 5" rear pulley and it was really hard to get into gear. I now realize that I didn't have the belt guides in the right places so the belt always dragged. Keep working on it, one of the best tractors ever IMHO.   

The only reason I was going to lengthen them was so the rims dont egg out as bad. You can move the rim up and down a little when it's off the ground. It doesn't seem like it's gotten much worse so it can wait. Would be neat to just make up a solid 1" axle though. Then it would be locked and you could make it whatever length you want. I should change over to some keyed rims. I don't use it all that much anyway. As far as the belt dragging, I have two guides on both sides of the engine pulley. I think if I welded a band around the front to connect them, it would solve most of the problem. I think the belt drags on the pulley and then tightens itself up by running the slack toward the front of the tractor if that makes any sense. As it is now, I just have to throttle down to get it in gear once it's hot.

I think you might need belt guides on the rear also. and maybe a plate underneath so when the clutch is actuated, the belt can lay on something and won't just hang down and still make contact with the rear pulley. If you can imagine what I'm talking about.
It's a weird setup since the belt twists from vert to horiz... I don't think the stocker released all the way either, but it was so slow that it didn't matter. I only realized the problem after I pulleyed-up.
But I do remember grinding the heck out of the gears when going from neutral into anything. Had to shift it fast!

I do have a couple guides back there. It used to fall off a lot if you really banged over stuff. Then I added the guides, which keeps the belt on, but makes it drag more than it used to.
Artsy shot.

Battery down a bit...


Rocks...


Tried to drive up on a rock for a nifty "up in the air" shot, but sometimes when the frame flexes, the belt won't disengage even with the clutch pushed in. It kept wanting to pull, so I just shut it off and it held it self there since it was in gear.




A bit of a tight fit


The muffler crusher

Bottom shot just for the heck of it.


Transaxle skid plate which turned out to be a little thin for what I was doing, hence the unbent u-bolt welded on for a little extra strength. You can see a couple of the belt guides on the trans pulley.


This is how I braced up the front spindles and steering cross rod (Drag link maybe?). I more or less did it for the heck of it. I've noticed that steering rod starting to rub the frame a little, I think the arms on the spindle are bending a bit. I can always brace them up if I have to.

Found a matching set of 10" tires that should fit the simplicity, in the woods while doing some off road riding. Figured I'd clean things up a bit and remove them. One tire looks good, the other one has the bead messed up a bit, but It still should be ok if I use tubes. The one with the messed up bead has a plug in it. They have at least 3/4 worth of tread left, I can't see why they got rid of them. Maybe the plug leaked (good size hole for a plug) and they messed up the bead trying to get it off the rim. Why junk both tires then? Maybe they couldn't get that tread and were touchy about having them match. Who knows. I found three 12" atv tires out there too, one worn down, but two were useable for lawn mower purposes although they had slightly different tread.


Can't beat the price for name brand tires. This is the one with the bead messed up a little. I think I'll remove the plug, put a patch over the hole and use tubes. I think they should just fit under the fenders, but I can always bolt the seat/fenders on with a spacer to raise it if nessesary. Original tires are 20x8x10 and these tires are 24x11x10 if I remember correctly (yeah right).

Finally you can ditch the chains after this, should save your back on flat ground now.

Yeah, hard packed driveway with the chains isn't good on your lower back.

If the bead is really messed up, you can try my repair method. T-Dub's Tire Bead Repair

Definitely run tubes in those. That way you can run ultra low pressure and not worry about the bead popping off and creating a flat.

Nice score too!   

Nice rubber! Those are 10" rims? I haven't heard of a mower with those stock till now

Yeah, they're 10 inch. Is that what most ATV tires are? I've never looked at too many of them before. I'll try to get some tubes this week and we'll see what they look like on there.

mr.modified wrote:

Yeah, they're 10 inch. Is that what most ATV tires are? I've never looked at too many of them before. I'll try to get some tubes this week and we'll see what they look like on there.

I was talking about the mowers rims, all I have seen were 8" and 12" no 10" before

Not spinning that fast really, but the picture came out neat anyway.




Simplicity's automatic jack feature makes tire changing easy.

Some tree's are just too big to get over. At least with turf treads.


Or are they?




Made it...


Actually, I was going to just get it on length wise, but I couldn't get it turned on there without it tipping off. That was a lot of lifting to get those pics...

Some slow motion stuff with puddles and junk. Check out the cool lizard thing in the water at the end.

Took the back wheels off and removed the turf treads. Welded up the egged out bolt holes. Replaced the lower crank seal. Hopefully, I'll soon have the atv tires mounted.