MTD - "Budgie"

About how many pounds are you adding for traction?

80-100ish, those chunks of stainless are ~40lbs each. Needless to say, turning isn't a big thing. But traction is lol.

Got bored and decided to take this rig out for a run today. Started right up, she's as reliable as she is underpowered. Bent the steering arm again, I forgot i need to fix that. Besides beefing up the steering arms, I don't really have anything planned for this thing. Why fix what's not broken?

@RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Why fix what's not broken?

Because that’s what you do best

On occasion

Braced up the spindle arms, was tired of them bending

Yeah every time one of the steering arms bends it throws the alignment way out of whack. I like to see reinforcement mods like this one.

Kinda thinking about using this rig as a portable battery charger. There's room for a Delco 10si in the belt system, and i can even fit two batteries under the hood if i want to. I think I'll wire it so the return feed from the alternator is on battery charger leads and the field is charged with the old headlight setting on the keyswitch(one of those weird Murray 3 position switches). I might wire the one headlight i got left too lol.



Would be nicer to find a starter/gen but this is about the easiest pulling engine I've ever encountered, so the starter part isn't necessary.

Wish i could do this on mutt

Added a plate to support the peninsula i created when i cut to fit the belt.


Put a piece of ½" thread rod though a hole in the frame that butts up against the alternator as an adjustment.

Sweet charging system upgrade! I like how you connected the terminals together on the alternator and you're just running a ground and +12V wire to it. That's simple.