1982 Craftsman LT11 Trail/Mud/Woods Tractor

Comin' up. Laptop's charged so.. to the garage!

Im planning on adding some gussets to the stock spindles/spindle bracket. Mine looks to be the same as yours.

So my badly lit laptop footage will be seen live here: https://youtu.be/YYVTXgrzfbM - apparently I've got 87 mins left to upload. f vianet. Their VoIP system sucks. It's like dial-up all over again.

Video's up folks, get a better look at the tractor by clicking the link in the earlier post on this page. Leave any questions below

Still waiting for the weekdays so I can get my parts and get my monster rolling! Lots of places to ride. In the meantime, I've decided to show you all the main spot where I ride.

This is the former lot for a public school that is literally spitting distance from my driveway. It has a large dirt area where the school building was, and a grassy hill with a few rocky areas and a field complete with 1/2" minus gravel track [about 200 x 150']. Beyond the back fence of this field is a small stream and more rocky areas plus bush trails. In short, mower paradise.

The total area, from the sidewalk near my house to the street on the other side is about 2.5 acres. Can't wait to ride there!!!

Views from my driveway:




My brother on his Polaris 570 for scale reasons. The rock cut here is huge.


Slightly left of my brother:


and left from there


Rocky area suitable for crawling, where I was standing:


Looking back at the street from the same spot, showing school building area [dirt]:


Oh, and a little peak at my track demon, the '83 V65... first start of the year

That place looks fun, I wish that we had some rocks down here in Florida. Nice bike also!

Rocks>mud in my mind. Theirs a lot of rocks at my camp, but i have to wait for the campground to close to get to the good rocks.

So I've got the whole thing together, and I've got the two kinds of news, meh and bleh.

Meh news is that I'll get some riding time in before you all get bored of this build and move on to others
Bleh news is I have to re fab my hub/pulley design on the engine end so I don't have belt binding issues.
Once it's driving I'll see about borrowing my brother's goPro to make a POV ride video.
As far as updates, I've changed the engine oil to straight 30 shell stuff, bought a 24$ walmart battery - 180cca, and re attached my wiring. I've also welded the front trans mount in so my tranny won't twist back when I get to riding [peerless 814s are mounted by u-bolts on murray chassis, plus one bracket supporting front left corner]. I still have to make up a gas pedal setup, but can't find any of my old bike parts might weld one up outta metal in school.

Thats a cool build, simple. DON'T GO OVERBOARD. Trust me, you'll end up like me, making the same mower over and over again. But you know, thats how i roll.

redlinemotorsportts wrote:

Rocks>mud in my mind. Theirs a lot of rocks at my camp, but i have to wait for the campground to close to get to the good rocks.

I personally don't agree, rocks are fun in all, but I really love the Florida muck!

Re:MurrayMayhem
Oh for sure, this is a very mild build. It's just gonna be a tough little beater that I can get around on, and possibly tow a small trailer of wood with - That's why I went with an 11hp, not a 26+hp vtwin, 11's get good milage [as far as old mowers go]. I want something I can explore the backwoods at camp with or take a rip to the park or beach. Beats walking and mowers get looks when they're not cutting grass and are going twice their design speed. xD This isn't my first build, just the first publicly shared one!

NEWS This tractor's been sold for the marble-licking price of $40 to a buddy of mine, who at the time had more time on his hands than I. So in summary, the tractor was sold to an owner fullout1stgear, who will make it the romping beast I had planned, I think he's even got a build thread started on it. So I wish him the best of luck with the build, and him and I will start having some real neat collaboration builds on all the junk in your yards.. Planned builds include the '82 LT11, My '06 MTD 15.5/42, his early 80s sears GT monster, my 80s unknown mini sears [8/32?] [speed tractor], and some off-topic stuff like mini pit dirt bikes, diesel bar stool racers, etc