Poulan garden tractor on/off road build

Good afternoon Fellas ,

I have a poulan garden tractor  that I am planning to use for a major project.  So for this build my plans are this

Pulley swap to be able to obtain highway speeds (55-60)
Add some sort of front fenders
Hydrolic or mechanical brakes go kart style
Separate parking brake lever like a hand brake or something like that
Lights including brake and turn indicator
Some sort of music apparatus
Foot throttle/ low idle
Trailer harness of some sort to run lights on yard cart
Either ag or atv tires
Upgrade bushings to bearings and replace grease with diff oil in the transmission (peerless 820)

I don't have fab abilities so any ideas or suggestions to make this happen and how to make it easier I appreciate it

Look at that it's a mid 80's Roper like my Trailblazer!

It's not in my nature to discourage people from accomplishing their goals but 55-60mph is a unreasonable and dangerous speed to hit on a lawn/garden tractor! 25-30 is doable but even that is going to require alot of work and fabrication to be safe, stock steering is sketchy even at 10-15 and that's after a decent amount of work no less!

Keep in mind most of the builds you'll see whether it's here or elsewhere basically all have one-off modifications specific to each machine because they're all different as are the builders and the materials they're using so there aren't really cut and dry answers... but alot of people will put their thoughts in to help. I think you're best bet is to tackle one thing at a time, asking questions and posting photos so we can see what you're working with.

With that being said... you'll need to learn fabrication skills along the way like everyone else has, we all started somewhere! What kind of tools do you have and know how to use? A drill, grinder and welder are the big tickets items you'll most likely need.

Because you want to go fast I'll suggest you start with steering, brakes and minimizing the amount of slop you most likely have in your front axle (if it's anything like mine) and installing actual bearings in the front wheels if they have bushings.

Do you really want to go 55-60 on ag/ATV tires?  Also, once you hit 30, things get a lot different on a lawn tractor.  The worst being death wobble.  You will need to get rid of all slop in steering and something not so twitchy.

Here's a video for some ideas.  :-)

I agree the speed trying to be reached is pretty sketchy but I'm one who would try it so what can I say. But I do agree you are NEVER going to get away with stock steering or anywhere near stock at that speed. You will definitely have to learn fab skills to achieve those speeds semi safely. Steering and handling are your main issues. You're gonna need to get those darn near perfect and Craftsman steering is probably one of the worst of them all. After that you need to focus on brakes and let me tell ya at that speed you want nothing less than a good set of HYDRAULIC brakes. All of us on here have had a hard time getting our mechanical brakes to work right. Hydraulic just has more to offer anyway.

Once you get those top priority mods done, I don't know if you can get 55-60 on just a pully swap even with big tires. At that speed you need to lower the tractor for a better center of gravity (I have one of them 80s Roper style tractors and I know they don't have the best center of gravity). So if you lower it then you have to run smaller tires which reduces speed. Idk what trans you have but some sort of internal gear reduction may be required so you don't completely overdrive the trans and can run somewhat less aggressive pullies.

I don't have much else to say lol.

@Murraymountain it doesn't have the traditional gear to gear steering that is common on the smaller tractors, i do want to do hydrolic brakes on all 4 wheels and i planned to do custom steering system links wheels are bearing wheels , i want to put bigger wheels like about the size of rear tires on a smaller mower, so they are bigger for ground clearance maybe 55 is a stretch but i want as close to it as possible because i am not just going off roading and on road it will be how i advertise my business when i drive through town

@Brianator i totally understand that i want to do hydrolic brakes on all 4 wheels and stiffer steering and i want to be safe but keep with in town traffic as much as possible

Fair enough. I've personally installed front drum brakes from a offshore ATV on the front of one of my tractors without TOO much difficulty and I have to say that they actually work pretty well. I've read bits of another member who has installed ATV hydraulic disc's on one of his, after work I'll spend a little time and see if I can find posts he's done on his (if he did post it) and will add links to mine and his if I can find his info.

To get alot of the parts you'll need I'll recommend you find yourself a ATV like I did (200cc) for the brake components and a wiring harness, you'll also want to find a motorcycle for parts so you can get the wiring and controls for you turn signals and more brake components.

That's all I have for now, back to work for me!

@Brianator thanks that's actually along the lines I was thinking
Small atv brakes and something like motorcycle signal and brake lights

Thanks for the tips

Good timing I was just about to post some stuff!  Lol. Keep in mind some older motorcycles actually have a 6 volt system so to keep it simple definitely find a 12 volt to rob parts from!

Here's a link to the post I found that inspired me to do the front drum brake conversion.
https://www.atltf.com/t4042-front-drum-brake-conversion-for-your-atlt


Here are links to my thread where I did it, I did it in parts so it's cut up in 3 parts, part 1 is in the first link and parts 2 and 3 are in the second link.
https://www.atltf.com/t6719p107-the-warhorse

https://www.atltf.com/t6719p140-the-warhorse

No doubt there's alot of fab work needed, maybe not quite as much as I've done but I really did that to myself! Lol. The tractor I put them on had 5/8" spindles which created another hurdle you probably won't have to deal with because I'd bet you have 3/4" spindles which will make it easier. The cable adjusters I used to fine tune the balance between the left and right were actually part(s) of the original cables themselves and luckily were steel so I could weld them.

I had bought a 200cc offshore quad as a rolling chassis for $100, it was only missing the engine, plastics and fuel tank. It also came with a hydraulic rear brake so it really was a score overall and I'm still picking away at it using parts off it here and there for stuff.

I hope this is helpful and gives you some food for thought to chew on! BTW I was wrong about someone doing hydraulic front disc brakes, sorry if I got your hopes up on that!

@Brianator you good man, i dont mind doing drums if they can stop an avt at 75 or mph itll be fine for my build which was ironically what i was thinking about doing, the drums have they're own bearing correct?

Thanks!  Yes the drums have bearings but will be metric so you'll have to find metric OD bearings that fit proper with an ID to match your front spindles (3/4"?).

You'll probably want to bias more weight up front or they're likely to skid though, moving your engine ahead and adding a car battery up front should help with that. Add a rear hydraulic disc on a live axle on the rear well balanced with the front and it should work, I'd hope anyways!

@Brianator i was thinking of using a keyed rotor and hydrolic caliper on the stock axle shafts, because i will be driving on the road also i need the diff open, i also plan to add a winch up front once i delete the muffler and run dual pipes i can mount a winch where the stock muffler sits currently or close to it i dont know how big the spindle is it looks to be the same as a smaller tractor the 820 has 3/4 shafts i believe , i could do a test fit to see if the front wheels have the same id as rear but you may be right. sadly i havent got the money to do the big suff yet, but i plan to probable brake the trans open and convert to oil from grease, and i have to find bearings, also considered adding a temp sensor to the trans to monitor the oil temps