Over the years, I have owned 5 of these garden tractors.
I have sold all of the others and this is the last one that I have.
The guy that I had bought this from, around 10 years ago, was still using it to work his garden every spring.
I have left this tractor un-restored and it still looks just like it did when I first got it.
It has a couple of added accessories that you don't find on these Ridemaster tractors.
The first is the steering wheel spinner. It is a rather unique design that I have never seen before.
The second accessory, and my favorite, is the carefully handcrafted, farmer installed tool can ingeniously mounted under the seat.
To go along with these two accessories, I want to mount a headlight on the tractor.
Back in the 1940's and 50's, Bendix made a light kit that you could put on your walk behind garden tractor. They also made a kit to fit onto the Bolens Ridemaster tractors.
I have never actually seen one of these light kits but I was able to get a copy of the mounting instructions for putting one on a your garden tractor.
The kit comes with a small generator to mount on the side of the engine and it has a rubber wheel on the front of it that rides against the outside of the engine flywheel.
On the walk behind tractors, you had to cut a hole in the flywheel shroud so the rubber drive wheel on the generator could run against the flywheel.
However, the engine on the Ridemaster tractor has a special flywheel that extends back past the shroud so you do not have to cut a hole in the shroud.
I believe the engines used on the Ridemasters are the only Wisconsin engines that have this special extended flywheel.
I had made up a reproduction light kit before and mounted it on the second Ridemaster that I had.
That tractor is somewhere out in Kansas now.
I don't know what the small generator came off from that I used on that tractor. I decided that I wanted to put a light kit on this last Ridemaster that I have so I went looking for a small generator and found one off an old Whizzer motorbike.
As you can see, it has the patina that will go well with the condition of the tractor.
On the original Bendix light kits, the mounting bracket for the generator was bolted to the outside of the flywheel shroud.
I don't want to drill holes in the side of the shroud so I'm going to make a bracket that is held in place with the two engine mounting bolts.
First I formed a bracket the curves out around the oil fill.
Then I made an angle bracket that the generator bolts to and this is tack welded to the first bracket.
This is the finished generator mounting bracket. I sprayed a little green paint on it and then wiped it with a rag before the paint dried. This left a little color and some of the bare metal edges showing. The bare edges will form rust on them fairly quickly and it will blend in more with the patina of the rest of the tractor.
I have sold all of the others and this is the last one that I have.
The guy that I had bought this from, around 10 years ago, was still using it to work his garden every spring.
I have left this tractor un-restored and it still looks just like it did when I first got it.
It has a couple of added accessories that you don't find on these Ridemaster tractors.
The first is the steering wheel spinner. It is a rather unique design that I have never seen before.
The second accessory, and my favorite, is the carefully handcrafted, farmer installed tool can ingeniously mounted under the seat.
To go along with these two accessories, I want to mount a headlight on the tractor.
Back in the 1940's and 50's, Bendix made a light kit that you could put on your walk behind garden tractor. They also made a kit to fit onto the Bolens Ridemaster tractors.
I have never actually seen one of these light kits but I was able to get a copy of the mounting instructions for putting one on a your garden tractor.
The kit comes with a small generator to mount on the side of the engine and it has a rubber wheel on the front of it that rides against the outside of the engine flywheel.
On the walk behind tractors, you had to cut a hole in the flywheel shroud so the rubber drive wheel on the generator could run against the flywheel.
However, the engine on the Ridemaster tractor has a special flywheel that extends back past the shroud so you do not have to cut a hole in the shroud.
I believe the engines used on the Ridemasters are the only Wisconsin engines that have this special extended flywheel.
I had made up a reproduction light kit before and mounted it on the second Ridemaster that I had.
That tractor is somewhere out in Kansas now.
I don't know what the small generator came off from that I used on that tractor. I decided that I wanted to put a light kit on this last Ridemaster that I have so I went looking for a small generator and found one off an old Whizzer motorbike.
As you can see, it has the patina that will go well with the condition of the tractor.
On the original Bendix light kits, the mounting bracket for the generator was bolted to the outside of the flywheel shroud.
I don't want to drill holes in the side of the shroud so I'm going to make a bracket that is held in place with the two engine mounting bolts.
First I formed a bracket the curves out around the oil fill.
Then I made an angle bracket that the generator bolts to and this is tack welded to the first bracket.
This is the finished generator mounting bracket. I sprayed a little green paint on it and then wiped it with a rag before the paint dried. This left a little color and some of the bare metal edges showing. The bare edges will form rust on them fairly quickly and it will blend in more with the patina of the rest of the tractor.
