My first post

@tater195 wrote:

If you only want a single speed, skip the jackshaft in the middle and go straight to the FNR with the belt

Will eat belts, like a 3" height difference.

thank you all im glad i asked before i just did it. i like the trans it has because it seams hefty and the i like the 4 bolt hub that slides onto the axles and the splined pulley it seams tough. i have a 3 1/2 on the front and a 6 in on the back. i would like to change the front again but im afraid the pulley is rust welded on. i would like to put a 3 in on the back and a 5 on the front but i dont know if i would lose to much power. i have thick black swamp mud an would like to trail ride it fast but i dont want to be stranded because of a little hill

Unless that one has something different than what is pictured, it will be fine. It isnt more than 2 belt widths off (1.5" max) over 3 feet. Deck belts can be 3x that much off on the lowest setting in 1/3 the distance and they still work.

If it has the 4 bolt hubs, it came with 12" rear wheels. I m not sure if they beefed them up or just added the hubs. I think those are the 4x4 bolt pattern, so there is a wide range of wheel sizes that will bolt up to that.

These are 22x10x8 on cart wheels and get around real good. With the taller sidewall you can run a little less pressure for a smoother ride and better grip on the trail

could i gear the tractor faster than a normal pully swap (normal being 5 in drive 4 in trans) by using the jackshaft so the order would be a 5 in drive,a 4 in on the jackshaft which in theroy should turn another 5 in on the jackshaft faster than the 5 in drive then back to a 4 in which again in theory should be turning faster than the 4 in on the jackshaft. therefore doubling the speed of the (normal) pulley swap (my tractor has trail wolves cant remember the size at the moment but they where the taller front tires off an atv i mounded them to the stock 12 in rims they where a little to skinny but thats nothing seating them with gasoline couldent fix.)

If you go with the jackshaft, you are stuck with 1 high gear, it wont be worth a crap on the trails.

I think the rear pulley has a splined hub. If you want to change sizes you have to cut the hub out and weld it on a smaller one.

@tater195 wrote:

If you go with the jackshaft, you are stuck with 1 high gear, it wont be worth a crap on the trails.

i do have the hi lo trans

yep, I forgot about that. Seems like the fast side of low is just a little faster that the low side of high, so that might work. I would still go with the variable pulley. You can add a belly pan to the LT to keep the mud and crud off the middle pulley pretty easy.

ok so this is for the larger GT. The green ranch king?

@CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

ok so this is for the larger GT. The green ranch king?

the black one i first posted

Gotcha. Forgot about that one lol. I have an mtd, @TheGreenHornet had one and recently got rid of another, and you have 4 or 5 lol

Kinda hard to keep em straight

i know lol the black mtd (Mudster) is mine and the little green thing is mine the rest are my dads my brothers and a friends lol

quick questian if i found a way to mount a snomobile clutch, rear pully , and gearbox to a vertical shaft 24hp engine how would that turn out? may be a my next build (silver craftsman)

Well, I don't think you can find a snowmobile CVT belt longer than about 36 inches, which isn't near long enough for a mower, so you would need a jackshaft. But I would be worried about jamming it all up with mud. Not to mention your ground clearance. It's totally possible, but not really worth the effort IMO. Anyone else?

@CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Well, I don't think you can find a snowmobile CVT belt longer than about 36 inches, which isn't near long enough for a mower, so you would need a jackshaft. But I would be worried about jamming it all up with mud. Not to mention your ground clearance. It's totally possible, but not really worth the effort IMO. Anyone else?

What about a serpintine belt for a car? could that replace the snomobile belt but still fit the length of the pulley? and could a removable belly pan or skid plate fix the mud issue? not quite sure if the hight could be changed too much by lifting the mower frame. (for anyone else that missed it this is a verticle shaft 24hp)

Nope. A serpentine belt is way too thin. Another thing I just remembered is that cvt won't engage until close to 4000 rpms. That's where it just starts to grab on my sled anyway. A cvt belt is about an inch and a half wide around the outside circumference, and an inch on the inner circumference. And an inch or so thick all the way around. Really heavy duty and pretty expensive. Anywhere from 50 to 90 depending on brand.

@CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Nope. A serpentine belt is way too thin. Another thing I just remembered is that cvt won't engage until close to 4000 rpms. That's where it just starts to grab on my sled anyway. A cvt belt is about an inch and a half wide around the outside circumference, and an inch on the inner circumference. And an inch or so thick all the way around. Really heavy duty and pretty expensive. Anywhere from 50 to 90 depending on brand.

ya my dad works at an atv/bike/sled shop and we just replaced the belt on his 1983 yamaha enticer 340 ($65) he was not home yet so i asked you guys first lol i got the same answer from him to too much work.

Changing the belts getting ready for spring or winter if it's not too cold
All that's left of the old belt lol

Made a simple foot throttle on my black mtd.may change a few parts but it works for now

Interesting, I've never seen the hand throttle used for a foot throttle before. Nice work!

@AllisKidD21 wrote:

Interesting, I've never seen the hand throttle used for a foot throttle before. Nice work!

thank you it was one of those I wonder moments and it worked it's a little weak and tends to bund if pushed to hard but it was my first attempt at any foot throttles

A friend of ours building a super streached mud mower in hopes of lighting the front so it floats over the mud it was the green mtd I showed before

Looks cool! Almost like a drag racing mower

New bumper and headlights

Went for a ride
Got another craftsman