Bolens g11xl trail rig

I finally got enough stuff together and the appropriate shop space so I've decided to start on building my Bolens project that I've been sitting on since last September, which is really going to be an amalgamation of three donor vehicles that I've scrounged up. Which so far are;
a 2003? Kazuma lacoste 110 atv with a gy6 style 150cc engine stuffed in it, ran fine but the gearbox had blown apart
a yardman riding lawn mower with an intek 20hp v-twin, this was actually a perfectly good mower when I got it, aside from a seized starter
and finally a 1970s bolens g11xl that had been sitting outside without a head on the block for the better part of a decade

The plan right now is to take the front end assembly from the quad, (suspension, steering, brakes) and the vtwin from the yard man, and some other odds and ends and make something at least mildly capable on the offroad trails in the foothills where I live

So far I've broken down everything far enough that I can start figuring out how things are gonna fit starting with the engine I have it dry fitted here and everything clears nicely and it's well covered by the hood/grille I'm planning to start fabricating the engine brackets in the morning

i like what you got going on ! I've been thinking about doing a ATV style front suspension on my trail mower Beast! either rob one from a donor or maybe fab my own. keep the pics coming.

Thanks, I appreciate your interest
I Got the engine mount finished today


After mounting the engine I started working on how to mount the suspension. I'm thinking of running the shock just forward of the engine so I can run a cross support between the engine and the grille. I spaced the grille forward by using some all-thread nuts on the plate that bolts to the front of the frame just to make sure I had plenty of clearance

After that and mounting my engine I threw the hood back on and started mocking up where the suspension is going to sit

The camber is gonna be way out but i think it should level out once it gets a load on it.

I really like this initial mockup. Yeah it's going to be tricky to get the ride height and chamber correct, but take your take and enjoy the challenge.

lookin good, nice progress. i would say there will for sure be some trial and error to get it all lined out ! patience is a virtue my friend ! Happy building.

Hey great build man! I was just checking out the ATLTF map are you located in Oregon?

Man that is cool.

Yes I'm in oregon, i live just outside of silverton

I was up until about 10:15 last night putting together the subframe for the front suspension I got it roughed out and now she's sitting on her own four wheels again



The weight of the rig leveled out the suspension so the camber is pretty close to where it should be. I'm going to need to cut holes in the frame for the tie rods to pass through and work my way back to the steering shaft from there, but before that I need to get an engine pulley and figure out the belt path so I can make sure that the steering will be out of its way

That subframe reminds me of the k member on a car. That's a good idea for adapting the IFS onto a tractor.

Very Nice & Skillful Build!! Really liking it!

To fix the camber issue you could move your shock towers if the weight isn't enough to make it sit right.

Looks good!

nice work ! looks like you movin right along !

Alright so after having to rearrange the shop and generally just dealing with life I've gotten back to working on my tractor
When I sat down to figure out how to route the drive train I ran into the issue that intek vtwins are vertical shaft and peerless 2300s use a horizontal shaft input, realistically I had two options, run a belt to a right angle gearbox, then a chain to a jackshaft, and then another chain to the transaxle, or I could relocate the oil sump and reorient the carburetor so the engine could operate as a side shaft. I decided to try the latter. It actually went pretty well I used copper tubing for the oil pickup some scrap for the intake and got it all slapped together and it even ran, but it ran poorly there was no oil pressure and it leaked heavily from the base gasket at that point I was about a week into the engine and after fiddling with it awhile I decided to shelf the thing and figure it out later and I'd get a different engine for the time being after looking around on craigslist I ended up snagging a running Wisconsin bkn 7 horse for $75

You cant see it in the picture but it came equipped with a Rockford pto clutch which would have been cool to use except that I cant find anyone who makes replacement clutch plates for it. It's not as powerful as the vtwin would have been but I think with a bit of work it should do the job just fine

For the clutch plate, give a call to an automotive clutch shop and ask. Someone in the field of rebuilding what you got can either rebuild it themselves or they know someone who can. Usually just a matter of cleaning off the old material and either glue on or rivet on new material. It's usually the material that people has trouble getting ahold of because of what it is made of.