Craftsman Lt4000 mild off-roader

Spicer gearboxes are pretty good. Spicer transaxles are ok, but you gotta be kinda gentle with em, from what I've seen.

The steering radius on Mutt didnt change much with the diff lock, but she's a heavy tractor. Don't know what itd be like on a lighter one.

It seemed to be ok when I locked the LT130 which is pretty similar to a craftsman. just a little bit of burnt rubber when I turn but oh well. And spiced is made by Dana so it cant be that bad.

Neah, the trannys are fine. I beat on mine and have no issues.

Planning on locking it on friday.

What kinda lock are you doing?

the same one as on my LT130. Just weld it. I want do do a real solid axle at some point but that will probably be on the LT130.

Yeah, welding should be fine as long as you don't put crazy tires on or something.

Ahaha they're not very aggressive but they are fairly big

Should be fine. How big?

Well....the bigger the tire, the more leverage. Leverage = potential breakage. A doc lock is the way to go for large tires IMHO

yeah next time i'm in a town with a princess auto I will try to get the supplies. It might be a while...

Never seen that done with a spicer before, should be interesting!

Yeah, it might not be totally worth it but if I need to at some point, I could probably swap in into a peerless.

IDK, the gear with the differential in it is smaller in a Spicer than it is in a Peerless.

Oh really? Good to know, I think it will be pretty hard to find a peerless around here. Mostly just craftsmans and not very many old mowers.

Craftsman used peerless mostly. Usually a 900 in an LT, or an 820 or 633 in the GTs. Of course there will be hydros, but as far as gear drives go they’re mostly peerless. There might be a spicer or two, but most mowers made by AYP were built to a price point. Poulon, weedeater, meijer, etc is all luck of the draw. Could have literally anything

Neah, weedeaters are pretty good tractors.

They are, because they’re the same design as a craftsman. But with more corners cut. Bushings, transaxle, etc

My WeedEater has a MST 205 in it. Good engine, good deck, no complaints here.

I don’t remember what mine had in it. Mom made me ditch it before I really got into modding mowers. It was before I knew anything about the off-road community, but every time I think of it I get all PO’d because it would’ve been a great tractor to build

The 633's aren't made by Peerless.They never have been, but it's a popular misconception. Also the Craftsman GT's don't have a 633A38 transaxle in them but a slighty lighter duty AYP version. Mine is a 122419X.

Oh yeah I remember the whole 633 2300 discussion. Other than cast iron what’s the difference? The 2300 doesn’t have hi-lo right? I basically see the 633 synonymous with peerless but technically speaking you are correct.

Lighter duty? How so? I figured they would all be the same

A cast iron would be ideal. However, the three craftsman's that I've got have spicers. I guess the 1000 doesn't really count though because it did have a hydro in it before someone did a spicer swap. Does spicer also make hydros? Many tractors are very similar or have similar points to them, for example my LT130 is very similar to my LT4000.

2300 does not have hi lo. But it's definitely heavier both structurally and weight.

Naw the 633s are a completely different shape and mounting setup than the 2300dms. The gears and shafts are of different design I believe and the 633s have hi/low range, which the Peerless 1200 and 2300s do not. The ones made by AYP are slightly less heavy duty than the ones made my Roper I think but they are still plenty beefy. They also have the splined axles, which is cool.

The AYP and sears/roper 633 isn’t made by the same company for both brands? But I meant what’s less heavy duty exactly? What did they cheap out on?