[Wolfy]

As my senior design team and myself did for our final project in Mechanical Engineering school. The company that sponsored us were more then happy to supply us with some of the parts. They gave us an engine and fabricated parts for us as we engineered them. They also gave us the goal that the mower was to be 26" push mower.

That was it, we did the rest. they were so stoked to see an actual working mower, instead of just drawings.

We had a semester to do this work! So naturally there are shortfalls, the deck needed adjustments as the blade sat too high in the assembly. We would need to have made wheels for the rears as you can see in some of the pics.

But the transmission was imported from France and it is a CVT type trans!
The bbc is belt driven due to blade tip speed we had to slow down for regulations. let me tell you this sucker is heavy!

It was a lot of fun to build for sure!! Any questions let me know. its been about 4 yrs since I have done this. Just found the pics!!!

 

[Wolfy]

Some more

 

[Wolfy]

oh yeah they are still coming...

The height adjustment was just awesome. look at the rear adjusters and you will see what I mean. you are able to grip the adjuster and push a button down and the top and then adjust it. We put a lot of thought into that part and made it work.
anyways enjoy:fing32:

 

[2 cycle freak]

ill take one to go,it must have a kawi,SP,gator.is there a discharge version aval?(JK) lmao that looks much more better built than todays commercail mowers!

 

[Glad2bHere]

How cool is that? I see you actually cut grass with it, how did it do? Was it hard to control or turn with the 2wd? Color me very very impressed. What did you name it? :thThumbsU

 

[Wolfy]

Thanks guys. it was so much fun. I have been mowing lawns my whole life so it was natural to want to choose this project. The mower ran great, cut was good, except not very short due to the height of the blade under the deck It is only rear wheel drive, not 4wd, the extra belt is the drive belt to the bbc. It was hard to turn do to the weight of this beast!!! It was supper heavy, if i remember correctly i think it topped the scales around 225lbs??? as we didn't use light metals. We will all have to think of a good name for that monster, as we never did name it...

Sorry no different discharges on this model, you will have to pay extra for that
and wait many many years im sure:thanku:

 

[Brad]

Nice job! Thanks for posting the pictures. Some good ideas there.

 

[imaLawnBoyFreak]

That is Sweet, Very well built Would Stand up to commercial work. Those wheels look like Eastman or 26 inch Exmark wheels. Very nice job!

Do you still have it?

 

[Wolfy]

That is Sweet, Very well built Would Stand up to commercial work. Those wheels look like Eastman or 26 inch Exmark wheels. Very nice job!

Do you still have it?

Exmark 26 " wheels are what we used for the prototype. Now the company is main competitor of exmark. And the exmark 26" push mower was our design target The company has the mower. As far as i know the next year students took our designed mower and refined it. Not sure where it is now or what is going on with it.

Thanks for the compliments:fing32:

 

[Indy452]

Very impressive...

Thats a Kansan for ya!

 

[lawnboy dan]

i bet its better than the exmark merto 26 which has a bad rep in the comm field. i would use swivle front wheels to aid turming like the snapper 26 has . as one who is skilled in frankenmowers -my hat is off to you for an amazing job

 

[motopsycho]

Exmarkenstein ;-)

 

[2cycled fruitcake]

:thThumbsU
out freaking standing,
very nice!!!!!!!!!

 

[Just Plain Al]

You know you put some heavy duty parts on there that may take 15+ yrs to fail. That spindle looks like it could be used in a rock crusher, if you ever feel like converting it. I can see why those wheels are so strong, too!

Curious- Compared even to the old Comet systems for Briggs', that has to be the smallest CVT I've seen. Does the driven pulley have a tight spring on it, or do you have it locked in so it doesn't open? If not, what kind of top speed are we talking about here? Heh!!

Great job, and thanks for the pics!

 

[pigsitter]

Great work! that is one cool mower!:fing32:

 

[fletchman919]

That's impressive! Good work!

 

[Kbeitz]

I made one years ago... I made it 4 wheel drive and put a hydro on it...
I sold it and I have no idea where it is today...

 

[Wolfy]

Thanks for all the compliments guys!!!:thanku:

The CVT was an import from France! They were the only company that I could find to give us a quick turnaround and give us a shaft that was long enough. The CVT uses a spring and pulley system. So when you engage the handle. It will compress the pulley to whatever position you told it to. There is another adjustment on the handle to select a speed. We just used another throttle cable for cheep for the time being.

The spindle was a modified one from a Hustler Heavy duty 40+" mower! Hence the project was for We toured their facilities and let me tell you what they make some good heavy duty mowers there. My father in law has one and he just loves it.

Top speed was fast. Part of Hustlers company image. It was 6mph calculated from engine speed, pulley size, wheel size, and gear ratios!

I would have loved to see what the next year guys came up with for improvements, cuz as you can see our model was really rough

Us guys who built it had a blast!!! It was 5 guys a small fab/welding shop, and some tools. it was fun!

PS all of us guys where from Kansas

 

[Just Plain Al]

Very impressed with the CVT drive. With the right ratios, you can mow at a dead crawl, and speed up as needed- all with relatively no belt slip.

6 mph is 'drag the old man' speed. Still impressed!!

 

[Austen]

That's really really cool! Thanks for sharing the photos. I like those big rubber tires.