RED STAG 69 Raider 12 The Best Rusty Copy

Tractor is coming along great!

That screw you drilled the cap off is the air/fuel mixture, it's good for correcting a motor that surges at idle and cleaning up throttle response. The idle jet is housed in this little black thing you can pry up and out (circled).
 

No, that’s a adjustment on the idle circuit only. The main jet is in the center of the carb and is non adjustable

Agreed, air/fuel mixture screws are only effective on the low speed circuit hence why I said what I said (good for correcting surging and cleaning up throttle response)

I know some of you have been wondering what I was going to do for the exhaust. Also I’m really excited to take this on a ride tomorrow, although I’m still waiting on my aftermarket air cleaner so I probably won’t run the hood so I can run the stock air box.

I took the Raider 12 out today for its first actual trail ride.  Did pretty well other than I need to re-jet it ,fine tune the clutch, and the belt jumped off the lower idler once just like it did on Ol' Red.  Anyway I rode with my new tractor friend John who brought his B-80.

It's looking and sounding great!

@Brianator thanks, well I decided to take out the governor and low oil sensor.

Probably smart especially if you put a mikuni in it. How big was the low-oil sensor? I've seen images of some that were pretty small and some almost the size of a juice box.

@MightyRaze I would say it was a little bigger than a golf ball, it wasn’t huge

I kinda wish i was more into wheel horses just never fell in love with em. Im more of a craftsman guy considering i have 5 that work and my murray is still not going lol

I welded on front and rear tow hooks to make recovery easier. I also added a simple keeper on the lower idler pulley to keep the belt on there.

Why would you take out the low oil sensor?

TechnoChicken wrote:

Why would you take out the low oil sensor?

Not very productive in a mud mower application.  Lots of up and down hills if you have seen some of the trails he can ride.  If on one of those hills or high acceleration, you could pull the oil from the sensor, and it would cut the motor off.  Sometimes this would be a safety issue.   If I would keep it, instead of grounding out the magneto, I would have it turn on a light only.

Ok, that makes sense, I would add a light instead of deleting it though...

Another good reason, you can add more oil to the block safely!

I drilled holes in my pulleys to help shed water and keep the belts cool.  I also built this lower belt guide to help with shifting on the fly.  If you look closely in one of the pictures with the clutch pushed in you can see how the belt rests on the guide which helps the belt make a slack loop around the trans pulley.

Very nice... functional AND fashionable! Has to be worth 1 hp in looks alone! Lol

Well I can finally drive my Rusty copy with the hood on thanks to my new air cleaner.  Worth mentioning not a single notch was made in the hood.  Deleting the governor and reassembling the engine was a success. I like the way the clutch performs now with the new rear guide on. If I push in the clutch most of the way the belt stops moving but if I push it in all the way it applies the brake. I opened up the main jet on the carburetor slightly with a number 56 drill.  However now I regret opening up the idle jet a little bit because I should have left that stock.  I can’t really tune the idle right now but throttle response is awesome.  The case cover gasket for a GX 340 or 390 fits this particular Duromax 440 perfectly.

I made some basic tree kickers to try out on an upcoming ride in February.  I’m interested to see how they will help me turn around a tree.  One small drawback is that I had to re-work my gas pedal location but I stiffened up the belt guard that it’s mounted to while I was at it.

I got my front axle stabilization done today and drilled the main jet out again to .052 and the engine really liked it.  I also tried a green gates belt from Napa and the clutch did not like it. I pretty much lost the clutch.  I switched back to a tractor supply belt and the clutch was a lot more usable so I’m going to stick with those .

Nice bracket on the axle snubber there. Lookin good!

Good Idea! Should keep that axle stable!

My local wheel horse buddy that I bought my C-100 from gave me this nice hiback seat for free!  It bolted right up!

Wicked! Them seat aren't cheap these days!

Latest update:  I had my bumpers, battery box and trans brace powder coated.  I painted my engine tins and routed my air intake up inside the hood.

I like the paint job, but I think it would make the tractor really cool if you painted the engine black to match the wheels