What is the best transaxle for a mudder?

I have a John Deere LT150 automatic. I want to change to a manual shifter.

Well, I hear a lot that a horizontal shaft is the best way to go, but that JD needs a vertical. I also hear a lot about Peerless 820's being the best, but I like MST-200 series. So really any Peerless/Tecumseh would be good for yours. Good luck on your JD build there and welcome to the Forum!

Well the question is a bit broad.. sorta depends on what's easily available to you, what your fabrication abilities are like, what kinda riding you wanna do, etc.

From what I can tell a lot of people seem to be fond of the Peerless MST and 900 series transaxles, which are very common. They're rather light duty transaxles but should hold up good in some applications. Also I'm not very familiar with the frame of your tractor, but some of the geared lawn tractor transaxles might bolt up to it without any major modification.

My favorite LT transaxle to run is the old school Peerless 600  3-speed, but they require some fab work to stuff into a more modern tractor frame.

Allis pretty much covered it.

These will be your easiest bet...
3/4 axle MST's are good.  I have ran one of those.
1" axle 820's are great and much sought after.  Weakest link, literally is the reverse chain I think.

If you can fab mounts and such....
Peerless 600 and 2300's are great trans too!
Maybe even an old sears 633A.

if you're referring to the tractor in your profile pic watch chud327 on youtube, he literally did that very thing with an almost identical tractor even used factory parts to run the shift linkage from the old deck height selector, personally i'd go with a mst200 series, plentiful and cheap, the spicer transaxles are ok but not as good as the peerless, either will work well for light to moderate trail work, of course this is just my opinion, but i've been running a mst205 in my murray for 3yrs and had zero issues with it, i run it in mud , water and just general trail usage

I’ve watched his channel but I didn’t know what transaxle it was. Thanks for all of the inputs. It helps a lot.

@Jd150atl the one he used was a spicer i can't say they are bad, my brothers been beating the crap out of the one in his craftsman for several yrs now, used for everything from general transportation around town to trails and mud, it's literally got several hundred miles of street use, but it finally gave out a few weeks ago or the seals did and it puked gear grease out every one of them

MST-200 series hands down. Most readily available transaxle out there and has the best case reinforcement of the 3/4 axles.

I'm going to suggest a slightly different route - the peerless 801. Same basic design as the 820, usually half the price, 3/4" axles. Bearings for the axles, a stout bull gear, and can take a ton of abuse. Can run oil or grease fill too. Though I do agree, with some fabrication a 600 series is great.

Best transaxle? I'm going Peerless 2300. Best transaxle for your tractor? That's completely a different can of worms. I'm going with Allis, Peerless 600.

Weeeellll if we're gonna get into garden tractor transaxles the 2300 is actually pretty low down on the list frankly. But of course that's not what we're talking about so I won't get into that.

Wheel horse vs 2300 vs 633 vs your allis

....GO!

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Wheel horse vs 2300 vs 633 vs your allis

....GO!

Well CQ 2300s have cast iron cases but mostly bushings while a 633a has needle bearings and that lovely dual range that 2300s lack. But a 633 also has an aluminum case which could be called a down side. A dual range wheelhorse trans seams to have to best of both worlds but I'm still a 633a guy. I don't know what's in the allis.

Oh man, you guys are trying to get me started. Haha.

Simplicity/Allis, Bolens, Case/Ingersoll, Cub Cadet, Amigo, and Wheel horse are very good examples of transaxles that are superior to a 2300. With super beefy gears and massive casting, they are very very rugged units.

Here's the two-speed rear end from my Case 444:



Heavy stuff!! That's not to say a Peerless 2300 is a bad transaxle, cuz it most certainly is not. It's just not the best garden tractor transaxle is all.


Anyways we should probably get the thread back on track fellas, as we've gone off a little bit.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Oh man, you guys are trying to get me started. Haha.

Simplicity/Allis, Bolens, Case/Ingersoll, Cub Cadet, Amigo, and Wheel horse are very good examples of transaxles that are superior to a 2300. With super beefy gears and massive casting, they are very very rugged units.

Here's the two-speed rear end from my Case 444:



Heavy stuff!! That's not to say a Peerless 2300 is a bad transaxle, cuz it most certainly is not. It's just not the best garden tractor transaxle is all.


Anyways we should probably get the thread back on track fellas, as we've gone off a little bit.

Is that a regulation coke can?

Hahahahaha!!! !

"Computer tech Granny at your service..."

Sorry about me helping the thread get of course, just thought Computer Tech Granny was pretty funny!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Anyways we should probably get the thread back on track fellas, as we've gone off a little bit.

Honestly, I don't think the topic has gone off course. Question was what's the best mudding transaxle. Everyone should be able to give their 2 cents worth.

Wow there Alliskid didn't know we were counting shaft driven trans. That changes everything. Lol

Well the wheel Horse and Allis transaxles I was talking about aren't shaft driven, but yeah that other ones are. That one in the picture I posted from my Case is hydraulically driven so it's kinda of an oddball, haha.

When it comes to peerless, the 820 is top of the heap. Nothing else has the torque rating it has:



Nearly double the ratings of the next "toughest" peerless and one of a very few "ground engaging" rated peerless Horizontal input pulley assemblies. The only other peerless transaxle rated as "ground engaging" is the 2300. Everything else rated so is hydrostatic.  

Reverse chain is the 820's Achilles heel and the fact that it's getting hard to get parts for it now.

The 820 kind of straddles the gap between "Lawn" tractor and "Garden" tractor. Garden tractor axles are in a whole different class than the 820.  

No idea if your tractor can use an 820 with that input arrangement though....

Eh, I've got to say though that I've seen several blown 820s.

Double W Cross Ranch wrote:

Eh, I've got to say though that I've seen several blown 820s.

Used within spec... they are pretty rugged. Used outside spec and abused and bounced.... they will give.

Are any of our transaxles really used within spec though?

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

Are any of our transaxles really used within spec though?

No not really but that being said you still have to consider the intended purpose. For example 633a, 2300s, wheelhorse, etc are designed for the same size tires as an 820 but horizontal imput trans have thougher gearsets and 3 gear reverse instead of chain so they can take larger tires with little complaints but 820s can not handle as large tires do to the weeker gearsets and key shifting. If you run 22in or smaller tires on an 820 it will serve you very well and be virtually industructable. Which is why they are perfect for builds like CQs, the Mowrons, and Doc Sprockets Fugazi. I say if you want to build a serious mudder (25in+aggressive atv tires) then use a real GT with a horizontal imput trans. That being said if you have a tractor that needs a vertical trans 820 is always the best option. I guess to put is straight when building a mudder kne should pick between bullet proof trans or the ability to shift on the go. We can't have it all! Just my two cents.

How can you go faster with the automatic trans? The pulley has already been swapped for a smaller one.