Craftsman GT3000 "MUTT" Part I

I will second CraftsmanQuad19's remark.

I agree, the Yard-Man hood looks pretty cool!

When I posted those pics in Sprockets Garage on fb no one seemed to like it...at all. I don't really like the yard man hood, there's no place to mount lights inside of the hood. I'm leaning toward the snapper hood myself, it's actually bolted together(no plastic tinnerman nuts or cheap screws), is like 1/16 thick, and has lots of room for lights and a winch. Maybe I'll find a better hood from my local mower dude. We'll see

I think the Yard man hood looks best. Seems to fit the lines of the old hood.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

When I posted those pics in Sprockets Garage on fb no one seemed to like it...at all. I don't really like the yard man hood, there's no place to mount lights inside of the hood. I'm leaning toward the snapper hood myself, it's actually bolted together(no plastic tinnerman nuts or cheap screws), is like 1/16 thick, and has lots of room for lights and a winch. Maybe I'll find a better hood from my local mower dude. We'll see

It comes down to what you like! But it is cool too get opinions.

Welp, I decided on the Snapper hood. I just like the look of em. Plus the LEDs fit right in to the original sockets, and i couldn't pass up that easy mod!

LEDs in stock incandescent sockets



Snapper hood mounted. It fits the dash i made better than the stock one!



Moving some stuff dad brought home from work around so I can mow. Power steering!



I redid the pivot on the clutch, used a shoulder bolt, pinion/differential gear from one of my Snapper LT16s, and a bunch of washers. It's a lot better than the 3/8" bolt I used before that kept coming loose.





The bushings in the front wheels are really bad . I'm trading my snow hogs for a set of 8" front rims to replace the crappy hubs and wheels I have(this was before I switched the hood)



I made this one for you AllisKid

Hahaha! I wouldn't be surprised if that's a real picture.
The hood looks pretty good, ya gonna paint it?

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Hahaha! I wouldn't be surprised if that's a real picture.
The hood looks pretty good, ya gonna paint it?

Haters say it's photoshopped

I probably will. I'll do the whole tractor when I do it though, I haven't decided what color yet. I do like that Snapper Red. i think it'll look good with a black frame

Hahaha. Yeah the red would look good with a black chassis.

Looks a bit nose high to me...I would've mounted the pivot closer to the frame, but thats just me. Those LED's fit in there nice

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Looks a bit nose high to me...I would've mounted the pivot closer to the frame, but thats just me. Those LED's fit in there nice

I might change it some, all I'd have to do is drill some new holes and do a little bit of clearancing with the angle grinder. Might lift the back of the hood up also. The hood is only resting on the dash now, it would be easy to add a piece of something in there to raise the hood a bit. Could just be a piece or two of random plate bolted onto the back of the dash...we'll see.

Now that it's on I like the look of it. Once it's the same color it will blend in much better.

Red with the black would look nice!

Picked up my new rims today, hopefully I'll be able to notice my caster angles again Got em from the same guy I got the back rims from



4 tires dismounted with only hand tools in 30min. I think that's a new record! The crusty rims are the new ones. Gonna clean em up tomorrow and paint em white to add to the mismatch colors   Please excuse the messy shop, I haven't cleaned it in a while and the tires those rims were in had some nasty water in there



I had this pleasant surprise removing the valve core from one of the tubes. Had to use a screw to remove the other half like a pro



I hope these new rims are offset enough that the tires don't hit the spindle/knuckle...that would be unfortunate for me and my hair

Got my new rims mounted and painted, I think they go nice with the red hood.



Noticed a crack in the right muffler...can't have that now can we? Mad scientist time!!!



The moment we've all been wating for! Finally got my welder back so I can do my exhaust!



Now I know it isn't what I said it was gonna be, but it's all i had welding wire and patience for. I could easily run it out under the running board further if I want. It's pretty loud, kinda sounds like a Harley. haven't taken it for a test run yet, just run it in the shop. It's MEAN!!!

Front rims look nice. But we need a better view of that new exhaust setup brotha!

How bou dah? I took it for a short run today, it's a bit louder than I like but overall I'm satisfied with it!

Looks pretty good! You could run the pipes into a 2" or so diameter pipe to act as a resonator. That might quiet it down some and give it a real deep tone.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Looks pretty good! You could run the pipes into a 2" or so diameter pipe to act as a resonator. That might quiet it down some and give it a real deep tone.

I could. I may have gone a little further with the exhaust but I ran out of wire. Still have material left.

Managed to get some video of me running around on it! She sounds pretty mean I think!

Looks and sounds good!

mightyraze wrote:

Looks and sounds good!

Thanks!

Did some stuff last night. Gave her a rinse...my dirty boots tracked some mud on it but it's better than it was.


Added some of this sheet metal sharp edge protector stuff. Came from my dad's work. Should eliminate some of the wear on the dash and inside of hood.


Debating installing this battery cutoff switch. Would be nice to be able to cut off the battery in an emergency. Also should I install it on the ground or positive side?  


One thing I'm really getting annoyed by is the #1 cylinder (upper one, the one on the right if you're looking from the flywheel side and the carb is up) spark plug boot always lets water get in around the plug so it misses on that side until it dries out. if I can't find another decent boot I think I'll just slather that whole sh*t and shabang with rtv, maybe then it'll stay dry!  

I would hook the shut-off into the negative side. It'd be pretty handy to have that, if you needed to weld on the tractor you could just turn the switch off instead of having to unhook the ground cable.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

I would hook the shut-off into the negative side. It'd be pretty handy to have that, if you needed to weld on the tractor you could just turn the switch off instead of having to unhook the ground cable.

That's kinda what I was thinking. Wouldn't have to worry too much about the cables grounding out if they wear through somewhere either.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that yesterday I took her for a top speed run down the road with dad's gps....


It wasn't that scary at that speed too, suprisingly! She sure sounded badass going down the road. Did I mention I love this thing?

27mph? Noice! It's hard for us to tell you love it since you roll it every week hahaha.

Sweet! 27! Really digging the snapper hood!

mightyraze wrote:

Sweet!  27!  Really digging the snapper hood!

I think the Snapper hood is great! I've already abused it some and it's holding up great! I saw one thread on the forum here-I think the guys name was Derbyman103- he used a Snapper hood on his craftsman and rolled it over at speed and the hood took it just fine. We'll just have to see how mine fares lol

On a completely unrelated thought, I may be starting another project that involves a Snapper in the next few weeks...