Chain in place of belt.

I was thinking about this the other day. Has anyone ever swapped the belts and pulleys for chain and sprockets? You could use a clutch right on the motor like they do in gokarts. Seems like it would eliminate any slipping. I have no intention or need to do this, but it did spark my mind.

Lawntractor racers do that - only real issue is chain 'slap' and or binding- would need regular oiling to keep it free.

Id find a heavy duty go kart clutch - actually id planned on using a 5HP honda horizontal motor, a go kart clutch, fair amount of chain to a straight rear axle on my 80's MTD wizard for a sorta 'mini tractor kart' - that setup would be a platform for a large horizontal twin cylender motor as a future mod( along with lowering, smaller wheels, ect).

Ill have to dig that out n add it to my list.

couple ppl have some chain drives on here

All the chain drives I've seen were horizontal shaft motors. I was thinking along the lines of the more common vertical shaft motor in most riding mowers. I've never messed with anything chain drive so I didn't know about the slap.

Heres a racing tractor with a chain drive ( chain isnt present yet) :


Its got the clutch- it runs to a RAGB - you could make a stacked pulley with an old mower mandlrel to get it to the trans.

That's a cool looking mower. I see what you're talking about now, they run much shorter sections of chain.

Ive been thinking about trying that for a while but issues would be braking and shifting for me

Thevinnieman92 wrote:

Ive been thinking about trying that for a while but issues would be braking and shifting for me

Yeah i think thats why no one does it, belt is much cheaper and you would need to buy a good heavy duty clutch for chain drive.

Braking and shifting wouldnt be an issue- brakes would have its own pedal - the clutch does the shifting- there is no trans.

They make some heavy duty clutches - if you could get a rebuildable type- its pretty easy to take it apart , rebuild it and stick it back in once inna while.

Best bet would be to get a large horizontal shaft motor, mount a snowmobile clutch , driven shiv and trans( snowmobile) to a tractor ( with brakes) - have it all in one heavy duty package.

I would, but my old sled is back north .

This place i used to buy used tractor parts from would race his tractors every weekend - he said he mounted a regular go kart clutch to the engine, welded a larger sprocket on it and went racing, says ( at the time ) had never had an issue with it- you have to clean them once inna while as well- they do require some maintenence.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Braking and shifting wouldnt be an issue- brakes would have its own pedal - the clutch does the shifting- there is no trans.

They make some heavy duty clutches - if you could get a rebuildable type- its pretty easy to take it apart , rebuild it and stick it back in once inna while.

Best bet would be to get a large horizontal shaft motor, mount a snowmobile clutch , driven shiv and trans( snowmobile) to a tractor ( with brakes) - have it all in one heavy duty package.

I would, but my old sled is back north .

This place i used to buy used tractor parts from would race his tractors every weekend - he said he mounted a regular go kart clutch to the engine, welded a larger sprocket on it and went racing, says ( at the time ) had never had an issue with it- you have to clean them once inna while as well- they do require some maintenence.

Yeah but for off roading wouldn't they ware out quick?

It shouldnt really wouldnt be any different then a go kart - most those go offroad anyway. If a go kart clutch holds up to racing- it should hold up going offroad . Id look for a good heavy duty one , cheep ones wouldnt probably last too long. Im going to use on my wizard project ( whenever i get around to building that)- ill see how long the clutch lasts on it ( hauling my butt around).

My murray is chained drived with a peerless tranny it has a belt from the motor to the tranny then a chain from tranny to the solid axle.

I put a Hilliard Exrteme Duty chain drive clutch on mine.

WIth a chain I don't have to worry about slippage so long as I maintain it. The Hilliard cluthes have adjustable engagement speeds.

The big thing I would worry about is the shock loads being put on your transaxle by the chain over the belt. The belt is much more forgiving when it comes to shock loads. A rubber damper of some sort would remove the problem.

dangeroustoys56 wrote:

Lawntractor racers do that - only real issue is chain 'slap' and or binding- would need regular oiling to keep it free.

The race mowers I saw at the Axbridge race meeting, none of the tractors or the ride on mowers had chain drive, they all used toothed belts and pulleys to stop belt slip. Seems the best way to me.



The belt spins the clutch from a Honda CB250, the clutch is attached to a t-drive straight to the solid rear axle (fixed gear ratio, changing ratios mean changing pulleys).