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Garden Tractor "Reversed" To Make Zero Turn Riding Mower
"I had thought about turning a riding mower around for years. When I read a story in FARM SHOW about how an Illinois man reversed his Deere garden tractor (Vol. 21, No. 5), I was inspired to get started on my project," says Ernest Bueckert, Austion, Manitoba. He turned an old Case 444 hydrostatic drive garden tractor i
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Garden Tractor "Reversed" To Make Zero Turn Riding Mower FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 25-4-7 "I had thought about turning a riding mower around for years. When I read a story in FARM SHOW about how an Illinois man reversed his Deere garden tractor (Vol. 21, No. 5), I was inspired to get started on my project," says Ernest Bueckert, Austion, Manitoba. He turned an old Case 444 hydrostatic drive garden tractor into a zero-turn mower by reversing it and mounting a big 54-in. deck on front.
Bueckert paid $100 for the tractor which did not have an engine. He equipped it with a Briggs & Stratton 18 hp gas engine. He used sheet metal to build the 54-in. deck which is equipped with a right angle gearbox. The deck's three blades are belt-driven off a shaft that in turn is belt-driven off the engine crankshaft.
The front side of the deck is supported by a pair of 10-in.. high castor wheels off a Deere combine pickup.
The mower's power steering was provided by a hydraulic pump and steering column off a Deere 6600 combine. The pump has a built-in flow divider, allowing one hydraulic circuit to operate the tractor's hydrostatic drive and the other circuit to operate the power steering system. Bueckert bought a new seat for the tractor and mounted a home-built fuel tank under it.
"It works as good as any commercial zero turn mower, and I saved a lot of money because I built it for less than $2,000," says Bueckert. "It'll go up to 7 mph but I generally mow at 2 to 3mph. The deck is raised or lowered manually, but with some modification could be hydraulically operated. I had been using a belly-mounted mower on a Case 446 garden tractor. I like the front-mount deck much better because it turns sharper so I don't have to do any hand trimming.
"Lawn clippings are discharged out the back of the deck instead of the side, which I think is a great improvement. The blades last much longer without needing to be sharpened and they cut easier, too, because they don't have to move material to the side."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ernest Bueckert, Box 226, Austion, Manitoba, Canada R0H 0C0 (ph 204 637-2096).
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