Keizer the Little Cub Cadet 122 is growing up

@Mister_Studabaker Have you thought about a boosted modification like turbo charging it? I know your always up for new test and mods.

I just read through this and I'm at a loss for words. I thought I had some heavy duty modifications but Keizer makes Brutus look like a chew toy. Very impressive and extremely well built machine there.

@Jeremiah R. Cooper  Thinking about a super charger or laughing gas but those are a ways off.

@BlakeGroce Thank you for the bump.

Keizer is undergoing a few tweaks this month.  The last ride in Ohio Keizer was shown the door on several occasions.  It appears that 380lbs over the skinny front tires may be a problem.  Completed a careful study of ground disturbance i.e. front tire pressure on the ground being felt vs other tractors on the ride and came away with "Oh so that is why Keizer is getting stuck all the time".  Making one change only just to know if this is really the culprit.  Taller and wider front tires.




This is the front view with the larger front tire installed to show the difference between the two.




Side view.  Please note there are stock oem spindles that will lower the front approximately 1-5/8" give or take a few. This should put the front end height back on plane.




These are the guys. The one on the left is what is installed currently.  Bonus the one on the right moves the wheel in about a 1/2" and lowers to boot.



The next mod is a bit complicated.  With Cub Cadets being the pulling masters a whole slew of gears became available.  Albeit they favor pulling not off roading and this is where its becomes complicated.  Keizer needs a taller 2nd gear (trail gear and or mud run gear).  Was trying like hell to obtain the proper gear set up but the pullers use a super close ratio gearing set up like one to two gear separation.  This is no good.  The other day it hit me after the hammer smacked my thumb of all things.  You can change first gear to the gear of choice dang near in the middle of 2nd and 3rd.  The creeper is still in the mix and becomes even more usable with this change bonus.  

Details will be posted once they are known.

Regards,
Mister_Studabaker

Man, you make mud mowers a science!  Great work.

@MightyRaze Thank you, I blame the engineering background, its a real pain in the arse, always forcing me to change out whats not working with what may. Like if the front tire scenario fails to achieve results a rear tire strategy will come in to play, as in the form of new rubber Intimidators 28x10x14's

Regards,
Mister_Studabaker

@Mister_Studabaker those 3/4 inch spindles?

@Jeremiah R. Cooper one inch factory oem spindles. Two kinds are available. Shorty's and the longer one.

Doing a few things to Keizer




Love the wording on this.


42" wide Monster of Mayhem, well in the front at least.  The back is next.

Got a big hit here.  Moving the exhaust is on order.



Would ya know it, found these from a SGT Cub Cadet and they are perfect.  Ya gotta love it when stuff just falls into place.  It makes you feel like a very lucky dude.

Vampire II's sized at 27.11.12 weighing in.

Turf Savers sized at 26.12.12 weighing in.


Its looking better all the time.


Oh sh*t, with all the excitement of tire stuff totally forgot to put the cap on tight and spilled half the contents.  Was wondering why I was so happy hahah...


Wow! Finally, last tire is on.

They look pretty nice on there. Looks like the exhaust shouldn't be too much of a problem to re-configure a bit. It's nice that you had spindles available to drop the height back down close to normal.

That should help out in the mud I would think, especially with some speed. I may have missed it somewhere but do the new fronts effect width at all?

Are the rear rims the same width just with a different offset or are they wider with a bigger offset?

@mr.modified 42" front and 42" rear

@Jeremiah R. Cooper  Same width at 8.5" with a a different offset add 2".  So rim to face is .8" vs 2.8" for the ones taken off.  Can you say super mag.

@Mister_Studabaker 42" is a nice stance. Wards rear end is 41" I believe.

All 42 inches of rear view.

Ok that's not too bad really. I'm gonna be right at 42" wide with my new build.

Seems so much wider!

Just re-measured, cause ya know you cant trust a dude working off a high from bead sealer haha, but alas 42" is what was measured today.

Regards,
Mister Studabaker

@Mister_Studabaker now you got me curious about the Wards and the Jacobsen.

Look at what just showed up today.  OMG! these are even better in person.







Fist full of mud






Super soft Shore A 75 vs the Vamp II's at Shore A 90.  Sticky tire.




Was going to send these back because there 14's.  Scratch that love a first sight.  Rims ordered.  Basset D rings.  

Best Regards,
Mister Studabaker

OMG, I thought it looked huge with the Vampires II's.

Probably the meanest looking tires I've ever seen. They oughta look good on there.

Pretty soon you'll be looking for more horsepower to drive all this stuff! Obviously testing will tell, but do you think steering will be more of an issue with the more aggressive tires? Even if it did, might be a worth while trade off depending on the terrain.

Slept with the new rubber and awoke with a name for them.

"The Thompson Twins"

There ho's, they go anywhere and love rolling Keizer and SGT Pepper.

Will see if they can live up to the billing. February 29 ride, the twins may make it down if the rims show up in time.

Best Regards,
Mister Studabaker

@Mister_Studabaker that's one of those speechless moments when you open the door lol

Yep told the Mrs's all about it and what I was doing.  Shes used to it as long as the toys are along side the bed shes ok.  Love that woman.  

Today Keizer is going under the wrench.  Replacing the broken creeper unit that was pretty worn out from the start with a like new Cast iron version and doing a gear change in the trans. Thanks to the pulling community they have made it quite easy to buy gears to do just that.  1st gear is going to be taller as it will be gear ratio wise in between 2nd and 3rd on the old setup.  So 1st becomes 2nd and second becomes 1st.  The creeper finally becomes usable other than as a loading gear onto the truck.  

Yesterday found several culprits as to why cubs like to pop out of 2nd gear.
  1.  The top shaft bearing cup and its bearing clamp works for a lesser cub.  Way to much clearance for my taste.  
  2.  The splines on the gears itself wear a lot.  Bought two sets of gears plus the one that came out of SGT Pepper and found the wear pattern on the gear splines. The splines are designed to keep the gear centered on the shaft under pressure.  When the splines on the gear itself wear the ability to self align begins to falter and then wobbles on the the top shaft spline and works its way off the gear and pop goes the weasel.  

The resolution:
   1.  Replace the ball with a plunger and a stiffer spring for the shift detent to hold the gear in place.
   2.  Tighten up the manufacturing tolerance to be more of a press fit for the top shaft bearing cup and let the clamp system actually clamp the bearing in place instead of holding.  Use of bearing retaining compound here fixes the loose fit of the bearing and a shave of .005 on the cup to be even with the bearing for an actual clamp.
   3.  Use the least worn gear cluster and "SEND IT"

Anticipating lots of wet clay for the upcoming ride this Feb 29 and should be a good test for the above changes.  Wet clay is extremely difficult to traverse as it loads up tires and weighs the machine down. This weight induces tons of pressure in the gear train.  

Previous attempts of wet clay traversing in Keizer proved fruitless.  No gear would hold.  Mind you the trans is pretty worn out in its current state.

Best Regards,
Mister Studabaker

Keizer's new shoes are all installed.

Holy crap batman! Look at them tires!

@Mister_Studabaker they actually cleared the footboards/fenders. Side view of it was looking like a farm tractor. Do you have a link on hand for the 14" rims?