Roper Offroader

I thought that it's about time for a proper introduction and build thread for this rig seeing as how I've had it out for a shakedown run, started to tinker with it and plan on doing a full build on it little by little. I have too much else to do this year to dedicate too much time to working on it but there's definitely things to sort out and improvements that need to be made for reliabilities sake. I don't have a name for it yet (more on that later) but here it is!


Based on the model and serial number I thought it might be a 1979 (same year as me!) and the engine date code seems to back that up (built late 1978). So it looks like I have myself a 1979 Roper T4328BT with a 633a hi/lo trans and a 14hp Tecumseh OH140 that's seems to run pretty strong but needs some fine tuning.


My friend Jace bought it last year, greased it up, slapped some tires on it, flipped the engine pulley for a little extra speed and we took it offroading so it's basically just a stock tractor with tires. It has Craftsman snowblower tires on the front (for now) and check out the pizza cutters on the rear! They do surprisingly well even in the mud, maybe because they dig? (Don't mind the rear light plate hanging, I had to remove it to get to the seat spring bolts.) 

He's moving and can't take them all with him so he gave me a smoking good deal on it which I think was a smart move on his part because he knows darn well it will still be here ready for him to ride when he visits and it will be better than ever! Lol.

Back to the name game.... I haven't been able to come up with anything I really like yet so I think what I'll do is... if I'm still stuck and it starts driving me bonkers I'll start getting ideas from everyone, pick a few names I like then we'll put it to a vote!

Well that's all for the intro, I'll post the first update in a little bit.

Ripper the Roper.  LOL,
One you may get, you're old enough.  Mr. Roper.

That OH140 weighs a TON.  The OH160 my 75 sears had about broke my back taking it out.

Considering I have more Ropers now (3) than most people have tractors they better call me mister... just as long as they don't call me sir! Lol.

Oh, like the 1977 Briggs and Stratton 16hp that currently resides in the Mud Duck? All 143lbs of it!? My back is getting sore just thinking about it!


Back on topic... the steering needed some serious attention, with the front wheels off the ground it was as stiff as you'd expect steering to be with the wheels on the ground and the tractor not moving! Once I was under it and had a look the first thing I did was remove the tie rods.

One with worn out rod ends and a... perfectly sized sway bar end link!? I have to say that's a pretty clever repair but luckily my scrap heap is deep enough that they're not going back on! Lol. I robbed the tie rods from a parts ATV and made them work, I had to shorten them a little but they're a great fit. I didn't even have to drill out any of the original holes!


Then I kept looking around for whatever was stiff, there's grease fittings all over this thing and all those points felt free, I finally tracked it down to where the steering universal joint goes through the chassis and was able to get some (motorcycle) chain lube to work it's magic. Now it's feeling pretty nice I have say!

While I was still under the tractor I measured the drag link, although it looks and feels pretty decent I dove back into the scrap heap and pulled out this!

Luckily for me that's a LH and RH making a matching set and is actually all I had! These things must be basically brand new because there's no corrosion yet they're so stiff I could barely move them without leverage, for something that needs to swivel that's not good so I took turns lubing and spinning them to wear them in a little...

... then connected them at the appropriate length with some 1/4" walled tubing I had to hammer on the ends before welding it...

... and a little paint to finish it up!


Tomorrow I'll install that, finish up with the ATV rack I started messing with this past weekend, remount the seat and start mapping out how I'll use the attachment pedal on the right side as a gas pedal.

Feels good to get some tractor work done, I've been so busy with other stuff lately it's been hard to find the time!

Nice job!  Those look great!

You’re getting to have as many tractors as @MightyRaze or @AllisKidD21 there bud! Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks @MightyRaze! That meme, it's from Threes Company isn't it?! What's that actors name again!?

I know @Rustbucket Garage it's disgusting isn't it! Lol. The mud mower I bought (aka the "loner") will be dismantled and everything other than engine, wheels/tires and chassis will be sold and or disposed of. Now that I have the Roper 16T I'm thinking about letting the Bolens G10 go to thin the herd a little, I'm up to 10 tractors now! (most run and drive)


Well didn't I have an interesting tractor session today... started off easy and finished off easy but the inbetween was full on snowball effect! I want to spend the least amount time possible to bring it up to par and have it ready for riding, it's turning into more work than anticipated! Whoever had this before my friend Jace and I were fluent in the language of hackery that's for sure! Lol


Right after I started I remembered there was no reason for me to be working in a cramped area rolling around on mats to stay dry when I now have a work platform in the tractor shed so I set it up and got to work!


I started with getting a throttle pedal set up. To do that I removed the PTO parts, pedal and switch, found a decent spring in my stash, drilled one hole then put it together...that took all of an hour and it feels great, the spring has plenty of pull without over extending it and the pedal already has built in stops! If can't find a filler panel for it I'll whip one up quick.

As I was mapping out a route for the throttle cable I noticed the engine tin/heat sheild was basically just sitting there, no screws or bolts or anything on the front side so I removed it and noticed this.

After cleaning and welding it quick I gave it a shot of paint...

...then flipped it over and saw it was even worse on the other side! It got the same treatment.

As I'm poking around I noticed another loose tin and spotted this rivet not doing its job, it's definitely not factory!  At this point I'm struggling to see because it's dark and raining so off comes the hood and grille! Then I smashed that rivet out of there with a screwdriver, straightened the bracket behind it and put a rivet in that will actually hold! Lol.

With that done I noticed the grille support bar on one side was drooping way more than the other one (can be seen in above pic) and yup, here's why! I'm starting to get a little annoyed at this point and figure a big washer on each side to reinforce it for now is good enough!

I installed the new drag link to kind of wind down and have a break, I think it looks great and should take plenty of abuse as should the tie rods.

Now things get VERY interesting... as you can see there's basically no room to install the 2 rear tin bolts (pic taken after assembly) let alone see what I'm doing but I could kind of see the holes in the other tin and get the bolt(s) lined up but couldn't get either to thread in, that darn thing is loose! After about 10 minutes and many colorful words I removed the tin around the spark plug and fished the other one out, well there's the problem! 2 little tack welds and I was done with it! Lol.

I'd like to take this moment to say that I don't easily nor often lose my patience in general or even with this kind of stuff but if I do feel myself getting frustrated I usually would just pack it in. It's a hobby and if I'm not enjoying it then what's the point right!? I wanted to push ahead and I was rewarded with the tins lining up easily with the bolt holes!

Back to the front (any Metallica fans out there? Lol) of the engine and the original reason I removed the tins, there was nothing at all securing it so I predrilled a couple of holes in the outer tin so I could bang 2 self tappers through the inner tin to hold it all together, that worked great and all the tins are now secure!

My brain was pretty fried at this point so as I start scoping out the throttle cable again I'm seeing how I'll have to make a bellcrank or maybe use a spring on the throttle cable because the throw of the pedal exceeds the throw of anything I can attach it to... I just had a "nope" moment and decided I'll get back into that with a clear head another time.

What I did do is install the seat and the ATV rack which were ready to go. The seat had loose bolts and because it came off of a totally different tractor it had been jury rigged with j-clips slipped in through huge holes drilled in the seat frame. I was able to save 2 which I put at the front of the seat and I banged in 4 fine threaded self tapping screws, it's pretty darn secure now and there's plenty of seat padding so I shouldn't get jabbed! Lol.

That's where I left off for the day, overall I guess I got alot done and I'm happy about that but there's still lots to do like either fix the leaking fitting on the fuel pump or replace it with a B&S style pump, figure out why I can't tune out the choking/surging that happens at low rpms and idle and get the headlights working. That's all I can think of right now but I may come across other things as I'm working away!

Sorry for the novel folks, I hope it was entertaining at least!

Now that is an update!  

Brianator wrote:

It's a hobby and if I'm not enjoying it then what's the point right!?

Really digging the look of the roper there more and more each update.

Ah, the 3's Company thing.  Character "Mr. Roper" played by Norman Fell.

Lol. Thanks and me too, I'll get more and better pics once it's back on the ground and the sun actually shows itself! So many overcast days and rain the last 3 weeks it's terrible!

You definitely got that one by me, I remember the show but not the characters!

I made a little progress today, not as much as I had hoped for but that's okay!

First I got into the carburetor, when I took the bowl off the inlet needle fell out with no sign of a spring clip but the needle itself looks to have a groove for one. I couldn't find a match anywhere in my stash so I ended up modifying a B&S one!

Was that the cause of the choking or as I like to say "hitching" (when it basically quits but the next revolution make it catch again), probably not but I feel better about it. Apparently some Tecumseh carbs don't even come with one!

I noticed the throttle return spring felt weak and that was because it was up against the idle screw, when I flipped it over the hump it felt great but I could tell that it wasn't going to stay there for long so I used my Dremel with a micro drill bit to drill a hole, put it through and bend the end over a touch. It ain't going anywhere now!

Could that cause it to hitch? Quite possibly, every time it acted up it coughed out a puff of smoke like it over fueled. There's still one more part of the fuel system to deal with though... the fuel pump!

I didn't feel like messing around with the original one (carburetor mounted) when I have brand new B&S style ones "in stock" and I like them. They're cheap, they work well and they're easy to swap when they fail so I installed one and all new fuel line! I not only got the fuel line through the fan shroud (the original location) but I added grommets to prevent the line from chaffing and also snuck a fuel petcock in there too! I added a second petcock to the pulse line so I can dial in the minimum pressure required to feed the engine.

You'd think this would be a great time to fire it up and see if it's running better eh? Well forget that I got started on throttle linkage and cable junk instead! Lol. I ran into some complications which I sorted out and have it partially set up but I think that's worth it whole own post once it's done so you'll have to stay tuned for more!

I think I finally succeed in getting this to a point where I can basically just ride and maintain it for awhile so I can focus on other projects and things around the house and yard that need to be done!

First up is the foot throttle, this is literally the first one I've ever fabbed up and I think I crushed it!  I had a vision to keep the dash controls working and make the foot control act as an override, not to toot my horn too much but it's slick as $hit I think you're going to like this...

I started at the carb and worked my way back, the carb is the only spot to hook the cable up due to routing but I hit a snag right away... the lever is hardened steel so there was no drilling a hole in it. I also didn't want to open the hole up and have a ton of play in the governor rod so I started looking around and testing small speed nuts/j clips but they just weren't working. I ended up making a cable clamp/swivel clip with some All Round that's held on by the governor rod and it works great! I may replace it with a longer one so there's a tail I can attach together to prevent it from spreading open which it's trying to do.

Here's the parts I used to get er done. From left to right:

A mini bike/ATV brake caliper bracket (trimmed of course)...

...a cable swivel for the pedal...


... and a cable bracket from a small engine carburetor. I didn't get a close up of it but here's pics to showcase it all.  

I definitely ran into some complications like the slack from the cable going into the engine tin and messing with the carburetor while using the dash control but not the foot throttle, once I bent the bracket the slack went away from the tin over and over again for the whole 10 minutes I tested it.

Because of the slack in the cable there was alot of travel in the pedal before it engaged and when it did it was like a on/off switch, I guess it wouldn't have been a big deal and still worked but the brain started churning... I added a small, light spring between the cable and the air filter plate connected by a pair of mini split rings and fine tuned the cable to make it progressive! I can't believe how well it worked out, there's only a small bit of play in the pedal before it softly engages the carburetor!

As can be seen in the above pic I installed a new air filter and a cover both of which are actually for a Kohler K series, this engine didn't come with or call for a filter cover (just another plate) but considering the nature of what this beast will be used for I thought it would be a good idea!

Still more to do though like installing a toolbox. These pics kind of show how I mounted it with 3"×3" L brackets and also how I mounted the ATV rack. Gotta get a little Canadiana in there by making hockey sticks out of mower deck lift bars! Lol.


Also can't forget about the headlights!

But why stop there? Does anyone else think that the way the lenses are shrouded at the top make it look a little mean? I remember the first time I saw it with it's crooked lenses making it look angry and I liked it so I used electrical tape to have some fun!

Here it's looking a mildly annoyed. Not bad but not enough attitude.

It's looking pretty ticked off now! I'm liking it but what comes next is...

...just too much rage. I think I need to dial it back a notch! Lol.

After many layers of semi gloss black they're ready! I have to say that the amount of moods you can protray is kind of ridiculous actually but it's alot of fun when you have a friend like @CodeRed who's as weird as you to join in on it! Every angle you can set them is recognizable in some way, even strait up... what do you see here?!

I think I got just the right angulation on them! Lol. Looks like I layed down enough layers of paint to block the light too which is super!

Believe it or not I had everything "in stock" except for 2 of 4 L brackets and the right spark plug... my days of feeling guilty for impulse buying little things here and there are behind me now! The engine still isn't running perfect but I made great progress on it as well, I'd say it's gone from 70 to 90 percent of it's potential and I may be able to squeeze a few more percent out of it yet!

If I'd known all what and where I was going with this thing I would've entered it in the Build Off! Hindsight is 20/20 right!?

Your Roper is looking pretty sweet @brianator. Any issues with the throttle sticking? Nice attitude there with it.

Thanks @MightyRaze I'm diggin' it too!

I had a couple of issues with the cable slack making the throttle stick/get hung up but they're sorted out. The one I mentioned and other happened after I installed the spring,  it was dead level with the cable but somehow made the swivel jam with the governor rod and hold the throttle open when I had the dash control set and used the pedal. Once I located the spring a touch higher all was well!

I'm hoping to get it out for a romp this weekend, if so we'll see how all the upgrades hold up!

My friend Jace and I (@atractorkid7 on YouTube) went for a really quick rip a couple hours ago to check out a short trail up the road that I've never been on. It goes way down into a swamp and back up again but we couldn't get through without a winch and unfortunately his battery was dead...

Not sure why I thought it was a good idea to shoot a short video with my phone while going through rough stuff but I did! I had to get my foot out to stop the Roper from going over at 1:12 and luckily I caught the moment he dropped in a hole!

I got this out for a proper ride today through some hairy stuff in the forest and it did great! It tackled logs (even piled/stacked/uneven), hills (even sand hills) and all sorts of obstacles like a champ! I put the Trailblazers front wheels and tires on and that made a difference in ride quality and ability.


Glad for that ATV rack too, it saved the fender pan already!

The throttle pedal was working pretty well yesterday but today before we rode I put a new pair of springs on and it's great now! It doesn't mess with the idle and starts working as soon as I move the pedal, nice and progressively all the way through it's travel! Once I have it all perfectly dialed in I'll shoot a video of it in action, the engine needs to be running so the governor is working to showcase it properly.

There's still a little fine tuning to do with the engine itself but it's running great and that "hitching" at idle is gone, I also need to fine tune the dash and foot controls in conjunction with the governor hi/lo settings to find the perfect balance for everything but that shouldn't be too difficult it just takes time!

**Edit**  I forgot to mention that top speed is currently 10mph but I will be searching for more in the future and that the steering is now excellent! Its very light and smooth, the new links feel great and the only play left is in the lash of the steering gears which isn't very much.