250 mile trip on Lawn Mowers!?!?!

Thanks guys on the input, the build of the mower I'm doing is my Street rig Murray/Yard King.

Yeah guy thanks for the info the tractor i'm going to be using for the trip is my Craftsman lt 4000

This sounds like a great adventure, and I highly encourage you to do it (with excessive planning and preparation of course.)

Do lots of stuff like this when you're young, so you have something to fondly remember when you're old.

Lots of great suggestions in this thread, like a purpose made mower for the task. I'm trying to finish my first and you all have me thinking about a second already... :S

250 miles is a big county! Are all of the counties like that in Wyoming? Or in that that part of the country?

Keep us posted on you planning for this, as some of us might be silly enough to join you.

ThatOneTeen wrote:

richie thomas wrote:

mr.modified wrote:

I'm thinking build up mowers specifically for the trip. Extra headlights, spare tire bolted on the hood, auxiliary fuel tank/custom ultra large capacity tank. Gearing and brakes of course. Need to bring tools, extra oil, GPS bolted on the dash. Wear one of those back pack things that have water in them. Of course a nifty paint job. Yep, would be neat. I don't see why regular turf tread tires wouldn't make it that far on pavement as long as they're not that modern cheap chinese rubber. And as long as the steering is aligned about right. Almost forgot, you could bring a spare ignition coil...

good pointt on the coil lol, and i think turfs would work, i just like having the bigger tires like ive run here recently, which is between 25 and 30" tall, they seem to ride smoother to me, also, i think a better seat would be a nice upgrade for this, im looking into a bucket seat out of a yota for the buggy,

A spare ignition coil would be a must have but it would also be smart to outfit your mower with a pullstart so if all else fails you can start it.

Richie, I really would like to see some pictures of your buggy, I was looking into building a mower that could be used outside in the rain because who wants to ride a bike when its raining?

its in the contest build threads, im still workin on it, but funds are low lol

richie thomas wrote:

ThatOneTeen wrote:

richie thomas wrote:

mr.modified wrote:

I'm thinking build up mowers specifically for the trip. Extra headlights, spare tire bolted on the hood, auxiliary fuel tank/custom ultra large capacity tank. Gearing and brakes of course. Need to bring tools, extra oil, GPS bolted on the dash. Wear one of those back pack things that have water in them. Of course a nifty paint job. Yep, would be neat. I don't see why regular turf tread tires wouldn't make it that far on pavement as long as they're not that modern cheap chinese rubber. And as long as the steering is aligned about right. Almost forgot, you could bring a spare ignition coil...

good pointt on the coil lol, and i think turfs would work, i just like having the bigger tires like ive run here recently, which is between 25 and 30" tall, they seem to ride smoother to me, also, i think a better seat would be a nice upgrade for this, im looking into a bucket seat out of a yota for the buggy,

A spare ignition coil would be a must have but it would also be smart to outfit your mower with a pullstart so if all else fails you can start it.

Richie, I really would like to see some pictures of your buggy, I was looking into building a mower that could be used outside in the rain because who wants to ride a bike when its raining?

its in the contest build threads, im still workin on it, but funds are low lol

Welcome to my life

Thanks guys for all of the opinions being thrown out. I talked to the principle of the school I go to and he said he could help support the trip with the school, but only if its not a school project and if the trip is gonna be for WWP.org or another site like that.

Your Principal will help you out? that's Fantastic!

Im a little curious about why he wouldn't want you associated with the school in that way, but that's not important if you get that level of backing.

good job on that!

Multi million dollar sponsorship for the next trip after this one. The next one's gotta be like 500-1000 miles. Briggs and stratton will provide stickers and some nifty threads to wear I'm guessing, maybe a support vehicle... But seriously, the idea sounds pretty cool. Gonna lower these machines down a bit for better handling at slightly higher speeds?

if they will sponsor it, id build one and do the trip, would be awesome

Seems like were honestly into the idea, hell id do it, im all for it

RCTankboy wrote:

Your Principal will help you out? that's Fantastic!

Im a little curious about why he wouldn't want you associated with the school in that way, but that's not important if you get that level of backing.

good job on that!

The reasoning is because the districs safety policy with me being in school. when I do it. but if I could do it, it would be a senior project.

mr.modified wrote:

Multi million dollar sponsorship for the next trip after this one. The next one's gotta be like 500-1000 miles. Briggs and stratton will provide stickers and some nifty threads to wear I'm guessing, maybe a support vehicle... But seriously, the idea sounds pretty cool. Gonna lower these machines down a bit for better handling at slightly higher speeds?

You know that we might be able to be sponcerd by helmet companies or gear comanies because wee need something to wear that is safe and reliable. I have a few companies in mind for the gear needed. The next one might be close to state wide or two whiole states. but that is to yet be determined. I have a vid on Youtube that I am gonna make public that talks about it some. and that will be available tonight.

I've done 6-10mile trips around my area just for the fun of it. Usually just run along at 25-30 mph. They top out at 45.

I'd be worried about burning up gearbox if you have it pulley swapped, and are driving a long ways. Lots of RPM's at sustained high speed.

LAWN MOWER MUDDER wrote:

Stretch44875 wrote:

I've done 6-10mile trips around my area just for the fun of it.  Usually just run along at 25-30 mph.  They top out at 45.

I'd be worried about burning up gearbox if you have it pulley swapped, and are driving a long ways.  Lots of RPM's at sustained high speed.

Ditto. So big tires and internal gear swap. I personally would leave the diff open because even though you aren't turning really sharp you will be wearing your tires down alot.  Bring about 5 different changes of tires with .

I was looking around for a gear set that will fit that isn't $180.

Stretch, I was planning on oil filling the case but the bottom half of the trans has several cracks in it.

the diff I was gonna leave open for that reason, I was going to buy some 12" car tires that will fit so I don't have to worry about them, the fronts I need to worry about because I need to find DOT approved 16-18" tires. For cheap.

True, I guess I need to look a little more in depth on hte tire choises.

Junkstar shared this with me via E-Mail.
The longest journey on a lawnmower is 23,487.5 km (14,594.5 miles) in 260 consecutive days by Gary Hatter (USA). Hatter started his drive in Portland, Maine, on 31 May 2000 and passed through all 48 contiguous US states as well as Canada and Mexico before arriving in Daytona Beach, Florida, on 14 February 2001.
He rode a $11,500 (£8,000 at 2001 rates) stock Kubota BX2200-60 mower at a top speed of 14.5 km/h (9 mph), wearing out four sets of front and three sets of rear tyres whilst clocking up 14 miles per gallon on average. The retired ex-truck driver completed the journey to raise money for surgery to treat a serious back injury that has put him out of work since 1979. His diesel-powered mower had power steering and four-wheel drive, and was fitted with all the necessary lights and attachments to make it roadworthy. He encountered no mechanical problems on the journey except for routine maintenance and services.

That's interesting. I can't help but think he'd have spared at least one set of front tires if it was 2wd. I also think that having a very new, very expensive, high-quality machine had something to do with something, too. 250 miles is one thing. 14 THOUSAND miles is another. No crappy aluminum, bearing-bore transaxle is gonna survive that...

I took me a few to see what you were talking about, LOL.
I think that the 820 could handle that if you did a few things to it before the trip.
but you are correct, the transmissions will not handle the ammount of time ran.

LAWN MOWER MUDDER wrote:

I'd be interested to see someone rig up full pressure lubrication on a Peerless trans-axle.  I'd be curious to see if it would work.  

That may help with running for long periods of time.

you know that may help with lubrication but the gears moving at *** speeds will allready spray the oil around.

I think at that point I'd run atf then just get a small radiator like the cpu cooler ones and a small fan then hook up a diesel transfer pump wouldn't suck much battery and would do a decent job

that might work, I was thinking of getting a electric Fuel pump style pump to do that somehow. to a ATF cooler up under the hood so the wind blows on it.

Never trust the wind to do your work :p slap a fan on it. You'd be surprised how warm it gets under the hood

What y'all seem to be pointing to, is a cooling system, not pressure lubrication. Now- That's not to say that cooling is a bad thing. It's not- and it may be rather beneficial. But- a pressure lube system forces oil directly into bearings and journals- and that's the point of it.

THIS would be rather difficult to engineer on a common (let's say Peerless 930) transaxle. Not impossible, but difficult. Now- my biggest concern with such transaxles, is the fact that they tend not to contain aby bearings at all, save from the input shaft. Quite often, the axles simply trun in a raw aluminum bore (Hence the reason that I installed bearings from an 800 in my 930), and the rest as you know, are bronze oilite bushings.

Now, this would be cool, I hope it's clear:

-Drill an oil gallery straight down (90° to the shaft orientation) into each bushing journal, and chamfer the hole
-at 90° to those holes, drill in from the side (parallel to shaft orientation) so you end up with a 90° passage L
-Drill and tap for a tube fitting on the inlet side if the L <---
-Attach all the inlets together in parallel, manifolding the tubes
Drill and tap 2 holes in the case. One gets a pickup tube, draing oil from down low in the case. Add a pickup screen or filter. That line goes out of the case to a filter, then a pump. Then routes back to the case to the other hole.
-Second hole in case gets attached to the tubing manifold.
-Lastly, you'd have to drill and chamfer a hole in each bushing to correspond with the oil gallery holes.

Clear? Good. Do it. LOL