Drive your tractor to work?

[ridgerunner]

Found this in Popular Mechanics, thought ya might be intrigued. My works is on the north side of town, about 6 miles from my house. Looks like I'll only have to leave an hour early to make it. (running wide open and third gear)I'll also take off the plow for less wind drag and improve fuel economy. On second thought I think I'll just take my truck.

[Karl_Brandt]

For me to drive to work in my truck takes 16 min. To drive one of my tractors to work would take forever. Karl

[bigcountry]

I am actually thinking about fixing a hot rod rider up to drive to class on. Sure beats waiting for the Wolfline to come around!!

[ZippoVarga]

Hehe.........believe i mentioned it one time before. But I have a pulley set up that'll get my broadmoor up to nearly 30mph. Work in nearly the time it takes to warm up the old truck. Sounds doable to me!!! Thinking that the Serf would have less drag and having the three speed BGB I can prolly get another couple MPH out of it as long as the belts dont flip off and slap my leg in the process!! I've seen a number of races where the Yeoman and Serf are used and they ALWAYS kick.....working on a useable non censored term here....arse. Not to mention that the Serf and Broadmoor get WAY better acres per gallon than the other large displacement engines. Hmm.........scratching bald head. I'm IN!!!

[ZippoVarga]

forgot to mention, the Serf will bring the wheels off the ground with the stocker pulley.....thinking wheelie bars if i switch to the under-drive. Just to protect the rib cage in case it tried to go head over heels. I think i'm gonna like checking this thread often till it dies!! :-)

[ridgerunner]

Ya know it might not be such a bad idea after all. On the way home I seen fuel was up to $2.39 for reg. They must get pretty good mileage, better than the old Ford gets I bet. With what I'd save in fuel alone I would be able to just buy attachments and not have make my own.

[Mowingman]

holy crap- 30MPH on a LAWN TRACTOR?????????????!!!! maybe I should make a pulley setup for mine. with that, I could get to class in something of 20 minutes

[KVANDY12]

I can just see it now, honking horn, raised fists, the finger,a gun shot or two, and all the accidents report. And obituary collumes. So and so killed riding his lawn tractor to work.

[Mowingman]

hey zippo, how would that pulley set up work- larger on the BGB output shaft, and would it bring an apocalypse to the shuttle transmission?[:0] yeah ken, thats the way it would probably be

[Chris727]

I drove my B110 to school as a senior class prank. Only about a 1/8th mile though, took my tractor in the bed of my truck and parked the truck, drove the tractor the rest of the way. Yes it is dangerous, be careful.

[D-17_Dave]

I work in my shop at home, does that count?

[Mowingman]

oh well, if i take a tractor to schoool, itll be the IH 826

[KVANDY12]

Dave, depends on how much traffic you have from the house to the shop. Be nice ride I'll bet. Ken

[Nick]

Dave, How about once around the yard?

[LBS]

I take my Farmall M to work all the time, It goes pretty fast. --I usualy even bring one of my implements along!

[dhardin]

The mowing job I got for the County is only about 10 blocks away. I can drive to the Parks and Courthouse in about 9 min on my AC416. It takes about that long to load up the trailer and unload it up town and find a place to park the truck and trailer. I was looking for a biger trailer but now I'm thinking it over. Maybe I'll get me a bigger BRB pulliey/longer belt, fabracate a biger belt gard and mow in a lower gear. Let me see $30 or $40 for a faster pulley set up, or $1200 for a bigger trailer?

[john-holcomb]

When I was a kid mowing lawns I had to travel up to 10 miles from home for my farthest lawn so I geared up my B-12. My dad clocked me at 24 MPH I sure got alot of looks when I would pass a car in town with the tractor and trailer with a push mower in back. I now have a broadmor with a suped up 12 HP that does at least 20MPH it sure is a scary ride out on the lane with the pivoting frame going this way and that and the tractor going like a B.O.H. I don't let anyone else ride it since I'm sure its a death trap.

[ZippoVarga]

Mowingman, Smaller Pulley at the BGB, no change to the out put pulley on the motor. Watch out for belt lash. Gotta have a pretty strait set of pulleys and a good quality belt with the proper guards and belt stops in place. I learned from experience that when one of these belts jumps the pulley you stop in a BIG hurry if it snags anything. Fortunately for me it happened to me on the grass so i just slid to a stop. But i'm thinking asphalt would have come up close and personal if it had happened on the road. AFTER I worked all the bugs out and made sure the belt would stay put I took it out in the neighborhood and had a buddy of mine on his motorcycle follow behind to clock my speed. Right around 27-28 mph. These BGB's are pretty tough but i'm not so sure I would go for long distances at full throttle. That would generate a lot of heat after a while I would think. Maybe some of our guru's have a take on the wear and tear that may occure at the BGB's running many times their intended speeds.

[Mowingman]

Sean, i'm not going for TOP SPEED, just faster than 14MPH is fine. what diameter is the pulley on your Serf?? i just need something to get from point A to point B faster than walking

[ZippoVarga]

Nick, The setup is on my Broadmoor 303 2 speed BGB unit and the pulley is exactly half the diameter of the stock pulley. I've only toyed with the idea for the serf because of it's three speed BGB I should be able to get another 1-2 mph out of the little thing. But not with out putting some more stable rubber to the pavement. There is a way to calculate your added rpm's to the pulley. i.e. 3 inch pulley to a 9 inch pulley would equate to a 3 to one ratio and so on. So, if your drive pulley on the motor is say 5 inches and your pulley on the BGB is 10 inches you are running a 2 to 1 ratio to the BGB. You can play with the math and break it down into fractional increments but the botton line is, the closer to a 1 to 1 ratio the faster your tractor will go. I do not suggest a larger motor pulley than the BGB pulley because then you would be over driving the BGB unit and to me that would just spell trouble. I'd stop at about a 1.25 to 1 ratio just to be on the safe side. That's about what i'm running now. But I didnt do the math when I was playin around with it. Let me know how it goes!! And you may want to put a stronger idler spring on since you'll be increasing the speed of the BGB quite a bit. It'll help you to keep from throwing your belt. Again, my Serf pullies are all the stock diameters currently.

[dhardin]

Specs on the AC416 say top speed of 5.45 mph. I think I'm doing at least that now, I pass people walking by just a little bit. But I'm not looking for HIGH speed, may be 10 or 12 mph tops. I think the law is any thing over 20 or 22 mph needs a plate plus a lot of other stuff that is not realistince for tractors. To meet the law requrements i have the flashers and the approved tryangle reflectors for farm equipment to drive on streets.

[Mowingman]

i appear to be lost on measuring engine pullies. on mine it goes flywheel, engine shroud, STARTING PULLEY, then a shaft which runs from the pulley to the BGB. do I measure the distance between the bolt holes on the end of the shaft?? i've taken a 3 1/2 inch pulley from the mower deck, going to see what it does in place of a 5" pulley as far as belt lenght

[gregc]

Nick, I think you're being confused by the terminology used by Sean. When he is using the term BGB he actually is referring to the transmission. The Broadmoor and Serf tractors don't have a BGB as we know it. If you use the smaller pulley on your BGB you will go slower.

[ZippoVarga]

Greg.....smaller diameter to the drive shaft at the trany translates to a higher rpm...faster. The Smaller the pulley the faster it will turn in relation to the motor pulley. Look at any 10 speed bike.....crank the pedals one time around and count the number of times the rear tire spins on the largest gear set on the back wheel. Then repeat on the smallest gear set on the back wheel. Same principal applies to any pulley reduction set up. Hope this clears that part up. Now, may I ask the difference in my gear box to a Bevel gear box on the larger tractors? This is the first time I knew that there was a difference so i'd kinda like to expand my knowledge here if i can. And if using a smaller pulley on a BGB will make it go slower i'd also like to gain an understanding of just how that works as well. Thanks!!

[UCD]

A BGB is a right angle gear box that changes the direction of power from the drive shaft off from the motor to a pulley and belt that drives the transmission. The small frame virtical shaft engine tractors do not have a BGB. The large frame horizontal shaft engine tractors have a BGB. Putting a smaller pulley on the BGB will slow the tractor down and give it more power To speed the tractor up a larger pulley on the BGB or a smaller pulley on the transmission is needed. A smaller pulley on the BGB and a larger one on the transmission will slow it down and give it more power.