Anthony's Tractor, or the Murray Mudtallica

Here's the rig, currently dubbed the Murray Mudtallica, although the build name could change as inspiration finds me later. Picked it up for $100 on the good ole craigslist, was a little more than an hour drive one way to get er. I may have overpaid, as a lot of other guys in the ATLT game probably pick up something like this dirt cheap. As of right now, the engine is just shot out, doubt its salvageable, looks like it had a bad oil leak that was never taken care of, front part of the frame is covered in oil. Front tires are really bald, especially for only being a lawn mower, and one is completely flat, off the rim. Transaxle shifts hard just sitting in the yard, gets stuck up in one gear or sometimes refuses to shift, transaxle may be on its way out too, we'll find out for sure once she runs. Guy I bought it from said the deck was no good either. Wasn't a big deal, took that off anyways. I'll be keeping the deck in the yard for now, possibly take pulleys off of it in the future, it's also got some good metal on it to keep.


As far as plans go, there aren't any set in stone. New ideas for the build will come through inspiration. I don't see it being anything too crazy, just an all terrain lawn tractor. Me and a couple of friends will be working on this, always good to have an extra set of hands, and someone to bounce ideas off of. Some things that are for sure in the plans:
-Find a new motor to swap in (new to me)
-Beat on the transaxle, possibly replace if she's done.
-Weld/lock up the transaxle, whether it be the old one or a new one.
-Back tires, something aggressive but affordable. Had my eye on some swamp witch's until I found they are made in taiwan, I try to vote with my wallet when I can so i'll be buying an american tire, possibly an interco if budget allows.
-Front tires, I might just put the back tires on the front, or if I find a smokin hot deal on some, the front could get some real love.
-Exhaust, thinking of a stack of some type, but its gotta be different than the usual. No solid ideas on that yet.
-Hood? Not sure what I wanna do up front, but I know the stock hood on this Murray just isn't aggressive enough at all, it's rounded and awkward looking honestly. Possibly fabricate a custom hood that is square, make it look like an actual tractor. Or, could go hood-less, but build like a rack of some sort basically. I'm envisioning like the side of a shopping cart, welded on to the frame around the motor, almost like a cage but with a purpose. It would obviously have to be jigged to fit the possible stack. I like the idea because it could be a cage for the engine, it can carry things if I want to carry an extra gas can with me, whatever it may be, and can also carry a person like a seat in a pinch. Another reason to put it up front is for weight, these torquey mowers will wheeley easy, for me thats not really what i'm looking for.
-Winch, depending on budget
-LED light bar, since the hood may be coming off, it wouldn't be a bad idea to remount some lights somewhere on the front just to have if I need em, reuse the factory headlight harness to run on the ignition switch and wire that to a cheap light bar.
-Paint. Black bedliner, mower will be beat on.
-Pulley Swap in the future
-Seat suspension?
-Would like to add a different ignition with an actual key, or some other antitheft options so it's not so easy to take. Somehow make it harder to roll away too, even with a complicated starting system, that doesn't stop some stovepipe from comin along and putting it in neutral, pushing it away.

That's all i've got for now, ideas will come as time goes on. Anything I do with this mower will be posted on here, I'll try and reuse anything I have around the house before buying but sometimes its gotta be done.

Values are regional. What's a good deal in one area, is a bad deal in another. Dont feel bad, I get robbed, too. Happy building and good luck!

Seems like the stock front tires wear out on grass on these. Really cheap rubber I guess. $100 isn't too bad, it's in one piece. I mow grass with the same one, the hoods/grill is kind of neat on them.

sounds like a solid plan. To make the front end more aggressive, you could always build a brush guard/bumper as a cheap solution. as far as bedlining your tractor.. GO FOR IT. I did it to my craftsman, and let me tell you, its nice to stand on the fenders, put tools on the sheetmetal, and not worry about scratching th paint Try to get your motor running, even if it leaks oil. It will keep your inspiration up. My Kohler burns oil like a mother..... but it still pulls good enough for what I do

(what the bed liner looks like on my tractor)

UPDATES:
I was able to pickup a mower exactly like mine with the same motor to swap. Swapped that but it's been sitting a while, I posted up a cold start on youtube. (I'll try to post it on here hopefully it works) Runs good so far, has a tick though. The loud rattle at the end is the muffler, but other than that it ticks, gets louder and faster under heavier throttle. It is still completely stock, took it through some light mud puddles.
As you can hopefully see, it does pretty good for being stock. I'm looking at a mower a buddy of mine has, wanting to buy it. If i remember right its got a 24 horse V twin briggs, anybody heard of or have any experiences with these? Any and all comments appreciated. Another update, I picked up some ag tires for the back, haven't gotten em on there yet but pictures up soon.