Riding Mower Rebuilt To Haul Wheelchair

Riding Mower Rebuilt To Haul Wheelchair FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 29-5-44 A few issues ago we had a story about Don Bragdon, London, Arkansas and how he used a modified rototiller to pull his wheelchair around his farm (Vol. 29, No. 2) But he still had trouble on rocky or muddy ground. So when a friend gave him an old riding mower with a good engine and hydrostatic transaxle, he spent three months turning it into what he calls his "Don Dear." Bragdon wanted rear wheel steering so he ran a chain from the bottom of the steering column to the rear wheels. He says it steers like a forklift. He also made two stick shifts from rebar. One serves as the brake while the other controls the hydrostat drive. The Don Dear has an electric start and goes about 10 mph. The key to making the bed work is that it's also a sliding ramp built on a track. Using the long lever on the left side, he pulls the bed down to the ground. Then, he activates an electric winch to pull himself and the wheelchair onto the ramp. Another electric winch pulls the bed to the front of the track. He spent about $250 on it because friends and neighbors gave him most of the parts. "In the future, I may build another one like this with the exception that it will be a lot bigger and have a front-end loader," Bragdon says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Don Bragdon, 426 Round Mountain Lane, London, Arkansas 72847 (ph 479 293-4256; dona@arkansas.net).

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