Back on the powered lawn roller idea - part 2

[jdcrawler]

Being currently held up on the model-T project for awhile, Ive decided to do some more work on building the powered law roller.
Here is the link to the previous posts.

Back on the powered lawn roller idea.


I had been looking for a Bolens Ridemaster frame and hadn't found one yet so I stopped working on this project about a year and a half ago.
I want to thank Bryan Spray of Hobbs, Michigan ( close to Tipton ) and Jerome Wilber of Elsie, Michigan for helping me get the Ridemaster frame that I needed.

I was able to trade some parts with Bryan for the frame which I picked up when I went to the tractor show at Tipton. Jerome and his dad were there and he helped me get the parts together and load them onto my truck.

Here is the main Ridemaster frame.




The toolbar, rear axle arms and lift mechanism.





The agreement with Bryan was for a complete frame less the wheels, drive transmission and engine. However I was not able to get the large steering pulley that mounts over the front wheels that the steering chain wraps around.
So I'm still looking for one of those. If any of you have a spare that you want to sell .. please contact me. I can pay you thru Papal.





This is the drive assembly that I had built up in the first posts.

 

[jdcrawler]

With having 970 pounds of water in the drum, I want a good set of brakes on this roller.

This power unit has a rear axle off a mid 1960's Chushman Truckster. Pulling the brake drums off the axle and you can see that the brake shoes and all of the hardware is missing.
I found two companies that still sell complete brake kits for these. There priced at right around $700 per kit so that would cost $1,400 for both sides. Obviously that is way out of my price range but it doesn't really matter anyway as both companies list them as being out of stock.




I have this pair of front brakes off a 1965 Mustang and I'm going to adapt them to fit on this axle.




The grease seal cup and backing plate are removed from both sides.




Here is the seal cup from the axle and the Mustang backing plate. The opening on the inside of the seal cup is about 1/8 bigger then the opening on the backing plate.




I put a block of wood on the lathe and turned it down to fit inside the seal cup.




Then I turned part of the wood block to fit inside the backing plate.




The seal cup fits on the part of the wood sticking up from the backing plate so the seal cup is now centered on the backing plate. The holes in the seal cup can be center punched on the backing plate and drilled out.




The backing plates and seal cups are bolted back onto the axle. I've ordered new brake wheel cylinders so I can't put the brake shoes and hardware on until they arrive.




The center of the hub is just a little bigger than the hole in the brake drum so I only had to turn them down a little to make the drums fit.




The hubs and drums are set back on the axle. Luckily, the the mounting surface of the Truckster hub is just the right distance out from the backing plate so the brake drum fits perfectly.
I haven't figured out how I'm going to make the 16 inch tractor wheels fit yet so I haven't drilled any lug bolt holes in the drums yet.

 

[jdcrawler]

I cant get the photos to load up anymore. It goes all the way thru to 100 percent but no photo shows in the box. Also there isn't anything to click on to load a photo. ?

 

[Lily'sDad]

Did you try turning it off and on? ;<)

 

[jdcrawler]

....... I have the problem figured out. The photo size on the camera was set on extra large. I went into my photo album on the computer and reduced the size of the photos. Now they load up fine. These are the old photos so they are still grainy but the new ones are clear.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

I decided to go ahead and use the 4 lug pattern that is on the Cushman hubs. The wheel studs are pressed into the hubs and the hubs and brake drums are mounted onto the axle.





The wheels I have are regular 16 inch tractor wheels. They have a 6 bolt pattern that is on a 6 inch circle diameter.
The Cushman axle hubs are only 4-1/2 inch outside diameter.




The Cushman rear wheels are formed by two halves that are bolted together by 6 bolts around outside of the center.




The half wheel is mounted up on the lathe and the flange is cut off. I did this with all 4 wheel haves and the 2 brake drums. That gives me 6 flat pieces of metal with the Cushman lug bolt pattern in them to make my wheel adapters out of.




It just so happens that the 6 bolt holes for fastening the wheel haves together are the very same pattern as the lug bolt holes in the tractor wheels.
Using three 3/8 flathead allen bolts, I bolted three of the adapter plates to the inside of the tractor wheels.
This centers the adapter plates in the tractor wheel.




Then I pocket weld thru the other three lug bolt holes. This welds all three adapter plates to the tractor wheel.
I then remove the three allen bolts and weld those holes up.




On the back side, you can see that the welds penetrated thru the last adapter plate.




The wheel is cleaned up and primed and mounted on the axle.
Each of the three adapter plates are the same thickness as the tractor wheel. This makes the adapter plate 2-3ed thicker that the tractor wheel.




Looking at the brake hub on the inside.




Wider view of the power unit so far.

 

[UncleWillie]

Hooray pictures

 

[jdcrawler]

I put a ring of construction adhesive around the outside and the inside hole to seal the gaps between the three adapter plates so water doesn't get between them and rust.




Getting ready to start working on the frame. The power unit is set up on a raised platform to make it easier to work on. The center of the axle is set at the height it will be when the tires are mounted on it.






Sandblasted some of the smaller frame parts.




And primed.

 

[jdcrawler]

The wheel cylinders arrived and I got the brakes back on the axle.
It is going to be nice having good brakes on this monster.




This is the last of the frame parts to be cleaned up and primed.




Now it's time to bring the roller up from behind the garage. Can you see it back there ?




The R/T is brought out for this job and the roller is hitched to it.




I use to mow all this back to where the really tall weeds are. That is the edge of a ravine that runs down thru the woods.
This is where I parked the roller after I finished using it in the spring. It was right at the edge of the mowed area and easy to get to.
This year, I decided to stop mowing back here because the ground is so rough that I would often have a backache when I finished mowing.
All these weeds are just this summer's growth and I see now that I should have parked the roller a little closer to the garage on the still mowed area.




Here is a photo of the roller that was taken last spring in this same spot.




The towbar tongue is removed from the roller and it is set up on the platform so I can start building up the frame between it and the power unit.

 

[jdcrawler]

The main frame for the roller is mounted in place on the roller.




The roller is attached to the frame with a bearing on each side.




The original Ridemaster rear axle bars are bent at 90 degrees and the top part of the bars is not long enough to reach out to the sides of the roller frame.
So I have had to re-shape the bend in the arms to about 80 degrees and then bend the lower part of the bars back so they will fit into the mounting brackets on the roller frame.




The rear axle arms are mounted up in their pockets on the Ridemaster frame and the other ends are attached to the roller frame.




........... OOPS ! Something is wrong. ..............

I got the Ridemaster toolbar mounted. The roller frame is suppose to fasten right up tight to the toolbar.
Obviously this isn't going to work.
There is about 8 inches space between the roller frame and the toolbar. Also, the seat mount is about 15 inches off the roller.




Looking back at a photo of the first attempt to make the roller powered, you can see that the front of the roller frame is fastened to the toolbar with U-bolts. The lower arms of the rear axle bars are shorter which brings the roller forward and also brings the seat mount down closer to the roller.




Because the Ridemaster rear axle arms were not long enough, I had made up another set of rear arms instead of modifying the original arms.
This way I would to be able to put the Ridemaster back to original anytime I wanted too.

These are the arms that I had made up. They have longer upper bars and much shorter side bars than the original bars.




After the first attempt didn't work out because the Ridemaster motor didn't have enough power, I had removed the roller and put the towbar tongue back on it so it could still be towed behind the R/T tractor.

Thinking that I would not need the my home made rear axle bars again, I used parts of them for other projects.
The bend on one of them was used for the mounting bracket for the step on the Centar tractor.




The bend from the other arm was used to reinforce the front axle on the home made tractor from the 1930's.

 

[jdcrawler]

Took the rear axle arms back off and brought the roller forward so it could be attached to the toolbar like it was before.




Doing this lowers the Ridemaster frame and I'm using blocks of wood as a clearance gauge off the roller tank.




With the roller frame set where I want it, I drilled a hole in each end of the toolbar and on into the roller frame.
Then I separated the two and tapped a 3/8-16 thread into the hole on the back side of each end of the toolbar.




These threaded holes in the toolbar are for a locator pin to go into.
The locator pin is made by cutting 3/4's of the thread off 3/8 grade-8 bolts to form a smooth pin.




These locator bolts are threaded into the inside of the toolbar so the pin sticks out the back.
You can see how the pin lines up with the hole in the roller frame.




The roller frame is fastened tight to the toolbar with 7/16 U-bolts.




I'm going to be ready to start working on the steering soon but I haven't been able to get this steering pulley that fits on top of the center shaft.
The Ridemaster pulley has a square groove that the steering chain fits into.




I went searching on ebay last night and I found this cast iron V-belt pulley that I can make my own steering pulley out of. It closely resembles the Ridemaster pulley.
The original Ridemaster pulley is 11-1/2 inch outside diameter and this pulley is 13 inch outside diameter so that gives me a little better steering leverage.




This pulley has a 3/8 inch wide V-groove that I will machine out to a square groove to fit the steering chain.

 

[jdcrawler]

This is the handle that was used to raise and lower the toolbar. It also held the toolbar in a fixed position at any point within the range of movement of the toolbar.
The toolbar is now set in a fixed position and will no longer be able to move up or down so I will use this lift arm as the control lever for the parking brake.




Originally, a piece of strap steel fit onto the pin on the back of the lift arm and went down to attach to the pin on the side of lower link for the tool bar. This is how the lift handle controlled the movement of the toolbar.




I am sure that by tightening all the bolts on the toolbar brackets that the toolbar will not move. Still, to be absolutely positive that it won't move, I have made up this bracket to mount onto it.




The lower part of the bracket fits onto the pin on the side of the toolbar bracket.




The upper hole in the bracket fits over the bolt on the top toolbar bracket. This locks all of the toolbar brackets in place.




This Ridemaster frame will never be used on a Ridemaster tractor again so I have no problem with making the rear axle bars fit onto the roller frame. The bars are cut in two and the pieces are repositioned to line up with each other. Once both sides are set, then they will be welded together.




The rear support arms are welded in place. Then they were removed so the welds could be grounded down and they could be primed. Once the primer was dry, they were mounted back on the roller frame.
This is the right side.




And the left side.
I also have set the 1-3/4 inch diameter steering shaft down thru the steering head on the frame and it is lined up with the center of the drive axle and the engine.

 

[jdcrawler]

The front wheels on the Ridemaster tractors are close enough together that they act as a single front wheel and are mounted solid to the frame with with only the rotating around movement for turning.
The wheels on my power unit are about 3 foot apart so along with making them rotate around for turning, I also need to make them so they can pivot up or down like the front axle on regular garden tractors.

The two rear support braces were removed from the back of the engine and I'm marking out the front mounting plate for the center pivot pin out of 1/2 inch thick steel plate.




This mounting plate is finished and primed and bolted in place and the support braces are re-installed.




The front of pivot pin fits snugly into the center hole in the mounting plate.
This pivot pin is a 1-1/4 inch diameter polished steel rod from a hydraulic cylinder.




Working on making up the rear mounting plates.




This pivot mount is supported by a steel tube that goes down and bolts to the front of the axle housing. This will keep the top of the mounting plate from moving forward or backward.




I had to get a little creative with a piece of angle iron to form the vertical support for the other side of the upper mounting plate.






This support bracket is mounted in place.






All of the force to move this roller around is going to be applied directly to this pivot pin so another angle iron horizontal support brace is fastened in place. This will keep the top of the mounting plate on this side from moving forward or backward.

I'm intending to make a sheet metal hood to fit over this area to make it look a little cleaner when it's finished.

 

[jdcrawler]

This is the bottom part of a hydraulic cylinder housing that I had cut the top off to make a shorter hydraulic cylinder. The shaft that I'm using for the pivot pin came from this cylinder.
I'm cutting it to the correct length to fit in between the two mounting plates for the pivot pin.





This bottom section is a solid piece and there is about an inch of it still inside the cylinder.




These are all of the parts for the pivot mount.
The cylinder housing was too long to fit in my lathe to bore a hole in the bottom so I cut a 3 inch section off the end.
This piece was put on the lathe and the solid end was bored out for a brass bushing.
Then another brass bushing was machined for the other end of the cylinder housing.




A steel sleeve is machined to fit inside the cylinder housing to line the two parts up straight for welding them back together.




A piece of 1/4 inch thick aluminum tube is machined out to fit inside the cylinder housing.
The brass bushings are just a light slip fit inside the cylinder housing and this piece of aluminum will keep them from sliding farther up inside the cylinder. This piece of aluminum tube also fills in some of the open space so I don't have to use as much grease.
The cylinder housing has a threaded hole in it for a grease fitting and the aluminum tube has 4 holes drilled thru it in the same location as the grease fitting. These holes will make it easier for the grease to flow around inside the cylinder housing.




The pieces are assembled and the end is welded back on the cylinder housing.




The welds are ground down and the pivot unit is fit in place.
The steering pin is set in place and lined up on center.

 

[jdcrawler]

I am going to be putting a thrust bearing in between the bottom of the steering head on the frame and this pivot assembly. I want some sort of sleeve to fit around the bottom of the steering head and extend down over the thrust bearing to keep dirt and water out of it.
After doing some checking, I found that the cap off an aerosol can is just the right size. So I cut a strip off the cap.




This strip is fit up over the bottom of the steering head.




The outer housing for the pivot assembly is clamped on the mill and a counterbore is milled out for the flat end of the steering shaft to fit into.




The pivot assembly is put back in place.




The steering shaft is slid down thru the steering head and set into the counterbore. This steering shaft will eventually be welded in place to the pivot housing but not just yet.
With just the steering shaft in place, there is nothing resting up against the thrust bearing. So if I took the blocks out from under the frame, the steering head would slide all the way down to rest on the pivot housing.





I need to make a collar that will fit around the steering shaft for the thrust bearing to rest on. I don't have a single piece of steel tube that is thick enough to support the thrust bearing but I do have two pieces of pipe that will fit together to get the right thickness.
Two holes were drilled into the outer piece of pipe so I could pocket the two pieces together.
Then I put in on the lathe so I could face off the end and bore out the center to fit over the steering shaft.




Here is the collar with the steering shaft sitting inside it. One thrust washer and the bearing are sitting on the collar.




The other end of the collar is machined out to fit over the pivot housing. .... Note .. the yellow plastic sleeve is not on the steering head anymore.





I decided that I wanted something a little more durable than the plastic sleeve to keep the dirt out of the thrust bearing. I have sanded the primer off around the bottom of the steering head and drilled some little countersunk holes in it.




I have a piece of exhaust pipe that the inside is about .050 larger than the outside diameter of the steering head. I drilled some small holes in it and slid it up on the steering head, usine a piece of blue tape to hold it in position. I've used JB-weld to glue the steel sleeve in place. The JB-weld will fill into the counter sunk holes in the steering head and also into the holes in the sleeve to lock the sleeve in place.

 

[jdcrawler]

The steering shaft is welded to the pivot housing.




Then the collar is set over the shaft and it is welded on also.
I painted the areas that are going to be covered up and put the assembly back in place.




The blocks are removed from under the frame and it is part of the power unit now.





I also got the front wheels painted today.

 

[jdcrawler]

That 13 inch cast iron pulley that I bought to make a steering pulley for this isn't going to work.
So I still need a Ridemaster steering pulley.
If anyone has one for sale, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.
Thanks .. Ray

 

[4getgto]

That 13 inch cast iron pulley that I bought to make a steering pulley for this isn't going to work.
So I still need a Ridemaster steering pulley.
If anyone has one for sale, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.
Thanks .. Ray

The ole saying.....as rare as hens teeth ?

 

[jdcrawler]

The cooler for the hydrostat mounts on a single 3/4 inch square tube at the bottom of the cooler.
This is what I have made up so it can be mounted on the axle housing.




This is how it fits the mounting brackets on the cooler.




The cooler is mounted on the power unit.




Clearance for the fan.




I set the wheel on to check the clearance also.




This plate was originally on the bottom of the cooler to keep grass clippings from getting up into the cooling fins.
I've mounted it on top to keep fingers out of the fan. A support strap is mounted to the top of the cooler on both sides.




The hydraulic lines attach to this side.




In this photo of the assembly before I took it apart, you can see that the hydraulic filter was mounted horizontally behind the cooler.
This makes a mess when you change the filter because the fluid drains out of the filter as soon as it is loosened.




I have relocated the filter and mounted it vertical.

 

[jdcrawler]

The new steering wheel and the seat were mounted today.




I'm using a seat with a much higher back than what was originally on the Ridemaster tractors.




This is what the steering wheel looked like when I got the frame.




The steering wheel rides on a 3/4 inch diameter shaft the fits down into a hole in the top of the frame and it is held in place with a 1/2 inch bolt threaded into the bottom of it.
That top hole in the frame was worn egg shaped. I drilled the hole out to 1 inch and made a brass spacer that is hammer fit down into the hole.
The sprocket now rides against a brass surface instead of the steel to steel with the original spacer that just sat on top of the frame.

 

[CRF6179]

I really like those high back pan seats.