Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

I received an old 18 HP lawn tractor free from a friend so I am out to restore the tractor to a working condition that will allow me to use it for mostly hauling a small trailer and equipment around my land since I will be building a house and other things over the coming months. Naturally, I would prefer a nice 35 HP to 50 HP diesel tractor but since I have no funds a 18 HP two cycle gas engine will have to do.

I started on this project this weekend and have since removed fully the mower deck which was pretty badly rusted. The previous owner complained about chewing up belts and it was not difficult to see why with all of the rust on the pulleys. Since I didn't plan to use this part of the tractor it is no longer an issue; however, there is a pulley off the engine that I could theoretically tap for power. I was thinking about hooking up a small alternator for portable A/C power (something I could use the old mower engage lever/pulley to power the alternator as needed). I also thought I could power a small hydraulic pump as well for various hydraulic applications in addition to an air compressor (impact wrenches, nail guns, etc.). These are all things I would envision as modular components I could mount to my tractor before leaving the shed. If the alternator is small enough, this is something I could potentially leave on the tractor for A/C power on demand (Lighting, small tools, wenches, etc.)

Essentially, I am trying to find ways to use the power off of the engine to use like you would a PTO on a tractor but obviously I will have to fabricate my own tools to take advantage of the engine power.

Has anyone done this before? Any thoughts or ideas you would like to add?

My primary focus at this point is getting the engine rewired, valves adjusted, tuned up and rust free. I am thinking about painting it orange after I clean off the rust throughout the engine and chassis.

My wife couldn't stop laughing at me yesterday when I was pulling the kids around in their little Red Rider wagon with the tractor. I had taken all of the external parts of the tractor off so all there was left was a seat, steering wheel and engine. She said it looked like Sanford and Son's! lol.

I will post some pictures of my project soon.

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

im a poor GIM er as well

is this kind of what you are looking for?

http://www.damoc.com/trac/trac1.JPG

http://www.damoc.com/trac/trac2.JPG

http://www.damoc.com/trac/trac3.JPG

http://www.damoc.com/trac/trac4.JPG

this is working very well for me

i took of the mower attachment and it gave me a much better
clearance for going over obsticals

whatch out if you are going up hills i had it flip back on me once
ended up with the plow tine sticking into my spine

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

damoc,

That is GREAT! This is exactly what I am talking about. I love building tools and things I can use out of nothing. My brother has a welder so something tells me I will be spending quite a bit of time over there making use of it.

I have a larger generator for larger power requirements but wanted something smaller to give me that 10 to 20 amps 120V I might need to running smaller tools or lighting on the spot.

I will take some picture of my tractor once I get home so I can catalog my work.

Thank you for the inspiration!

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Right rear fender (old metal kind) I modded an old "honda" size battery with tray. This keeps me fron the annual new battery-as GT size batts aren't friendly.
On the hood I mounted a spray tank from Northern Tool and ran the broadcast boom off the right centerline rear. The wand stays in mounts unless needed.
It's a 3 blade mower-the left blade......oh, the left blade....I notched out the leading edge of the deck so large weeds wouldn't get knocked over before cutting. Works beauty, like a power 10" scythe. Lotsa circle turning, but what the heck. I refuse to mow often. The yard is a little unruly, but I won't blow $ on a well pump to grow grass.

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Dont waste to much time on the project.

Put it on blocks,remove the rear wheel,strap a belt to something.

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

I hear you, but this is much as a learning experience as it is in building something practical for use on my land.

Though I like your idea about using power off of the transmission for an application..... Only problem is, taking those back wheels off can be a bit of a bear.

First thing I am going to do is add a regular ball hitch to the tractor so I can pull a small trailer around not one of those worthless yard trailers.

Also, I was thinking about buying a used hydraulic pump (8 to 12 GPM) that I can power off of the engine, a two way hydraulic switch and two way piston. I only need about a 6'' to 12'' stroke so I can put other implements on the back with a height adjustment (like a grader or small disc).

Of course I am not doing this all at once but will as I come across the parts for the right price (cheap or free ;) )

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Electric will be the most useful PTO.....just drive an automotive alternator.....get a big one....at least 100A......you can then make a small kit for your wagon = have one large deep cycle marine battery (like a 27 series, cost $70 at Sams Club) + you can buy a pretty nice 2000W inverter for about $70 or less.....this will give you 2000W of power for drills, saws, lights, whatever.....the 100A alternator will replace about 1200W so you could run for quite a while depending on the duty cycle of the tool you are using.

Eo, you could just get an AC generator......and belt drive it....skip the need for battery and inverter.

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Don't forget to keep it simple.

Also an engine that big will turn an 8 Kva generator. Do you really want to tie up an engine and tractor for something so small that uses more fuel than it should. Especially an old 2 cycle, weren't they really inefficient??

I'm just playing Devil's advocate here, but I've done this before too. Gotten too ingenious to where it becomes too complicated.

s

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

I was thinking about looking for a 2kw to 3kw A/C generator power head that I could mount permanently in the tractor with the ability to engage/disengage the drive belt (reuse the mower deck belt engage lever). The one nice thing about your battery / alternator / inverter combination is it would allow me to use electric without having the tractor running so I will need to consider that as well. I will need to get creative on where to mount equipment since I don't have a huge amount of room but I have a few ideas.

Thank you for the thoughts.

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Great thoughts about the waste of fuel SB... I think this gives more weight to ruprock's idea about use a battery / alternator combo for power. I will consider both but price will be the driver.

If I had to run any tools for long periods of time I would probably just pull my 6750w Yamaha generator out on the trailer. The primary purpose of having power on the tractor would be for those 15/30 minutes jobs where it would be convenient to just hop on the tractor with some tools and go.

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

See if you can get that old "Briggs and Scrap-iron" to run on a wood gas generator.
That would be a kick to chug around the property, pulling a hay wagon or some such running on crushed up old pallets, ground stumps, and scrap wood.

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Just an update. I have the engine tuned up so it is starting and running strong with no problems at this point. I might fix the muffler system to make it a little quieter but for the most point phase one, minus painting is done. Luckily it seems the engine has been kept in pretty good repair though I might need to do a little work on the drive belt (clean pulleys and adjust belt tension).

I am going to mount a ball hitch initially so I can use it to pull equipment and supplies around my property as the first "practical" use. Next, I will be building a box blade and root rake attachment I can use to level out areas of my property. It will be slow work but a heck of a lot cheaper then renting larger tractors.

I know, I know, pictures are coming soon.

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Greetings Laughter, and welcome to the forum!

There are a lot of great contributors here so I am sure there will be plenty to take in.

Take care,

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

I wanted to resurrect this thread to report on progress...

Here are some pictures that I promised... In these pictures I have just started to take off old paint and rust with a wire wheel brush.

http://www.cxp.com/username/tractor-start-01.jpg
Before you mention it, my safety glasses are on my shirt! I realized I had them off right after my wife took the picture.
http://www.cxp.com/username/tractor-start-03.jpg
Ain't she a beaut!
http://www.cxp.com/username/tractor-start-05.jpg

As I mentioned in my first post I had pretty much written off the mower deck. Well, being that I am kind of cheap, I thought I shouldn't be so quick to give up without trying.

That being said, I completely took apart the mower deck, pulleys, blades, everything.. It took almost a day of working free old rusty bolts to get this done. With the help of a little break free and an impact wrench I got it done.

I let most of the parts soak and solvent then took the pulleys and buffed them with my wire wheel on my bench grinder. Then I locked the pulleys down in my vice and spun them at high rates of speed while lubricating them to help flush them out. To be honest, I think these things work better than they did new. I can now turn the whole mower deck very easily; whereas before, I could even turn it with the engine.

I sharpened the blades and rebalanced them with my bench grinder. (This is a three blade deck).

After all that, I remounted the mower deck and had to adjust the pulleys and tension springs to get the tensioning right. For the most part the belt stays on but does come off occasionally under stress (to be honest, I am still using the original belt so I think it just needs to be replaced). On the end of the day the results were great. The mower deck does a great cutting job even in thick grass.

Next on my list is to continue cleaning the rust off of the body so I can repaint the whole thing Kubota orange :D

Dave

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

Dave, with your avatar I thought you'd know better. "You'll put your eye out!" Wear those safety glasses! :10_1_20:

Re: Restoring old 18 HP Craftsman II Lawn Tractor for other uses..
 

LOL - I know, hard to resist huh? If you remember, poor Ralphy did almost shoot his eye out :D

As you can see, they are hanging on my shirt. I quickly noticed I wasn't wearing them after that picture. Naturally, I knew my fellow GIM brothers and sisters would take note ;)

I hope to come threw this project relatively unscathed!

Dave