Mule

[f350ca]

Was watching Full Metal Jacket a while back and spotted this cool support vehicle. Searched the net and found out its called a Mule.

Think this would be incredibly handy around the yard for moving me and my stuff. These had 4 wd which would be cool but not necessary for what I want it for. Been mulling it over trying to come up with a drive system, have an old Suzuki trike i thought about repurposing but it doesn't have a rear diff so it would tear up the yard, thought about a golf cart drive but don't think it would have the oomph to haul a heavy load. Then Saturday was over at my buds and he says, have I got a cool thing for you. He found an old Cub Cadet tractor with no engine for free, he wanted the deck for his machine but I can have the hydrostatic drive. The rear end in this thing looks heavy duty, Im sure it will handle the torque but its only about 30 inches wide, standard garden tractor. I want the mule about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long so I'd need to widen the rear end. Found a manual on the net, it shows a needle bearing on the outside of the housing to the axle so Im not sure if that would tough it if I make spacers to widen the stance then put a payload on it.

 Any thoughts?

I could build chain drives down to stub axles to isolate the load but that would be a fair bit of work and one more thing to break.

Picked up an engine on sale today for it, (jumping the gun again). 14 horse, way more than I need but it has electric start, which my lazy self needs.



Hope to get the tractor home tomorrow, photo's to follow.

[Highpower]

Greg, you might try these guys for some answers.  http://mechanicalmulesofamerica.com/MuleParts.html

Cool little vehicles. I would love to have one myself, just because....   

[stevec]

Greg, did you get the engine from Princess Auto? It looks very similar to the 9 hp. engine I bought for my logsplitter,
I love the electric start!

[f350ca]

Thanks for the link Willie
This one was on sale at the TSC store close by Steve, Im sure its the same engine with a different name on it.

[f350ca]

Johnny ended up delivering the tractor this aft. She's a beast as far as new law tractors go. The grill and front of the hood are cast iron.



Turns out the wheel width is 36 inches, I want 42 so don't think 3 inch spacers should be a big overload.



Want to test the hydrostatic drive so started mounting the new engine. Had to chop away some of the frame to get the engine in and remove the hood and grill.



Need to make up a drive shaft now. One small glitch, the old engine ran the transaxle off the fan end so I'll be spinning it backwards on the pto end. That won't be a problem but they had it set up to go slower in reverse, hoping its only a linkage thing. 

[stevec]

Greg, I'm not sure I understand the " reverse" thing but I'm sure you do. I'll be watching with interest.

[f350ca]

The original engine that was in it had the driveshaft to the hydrostatic drive connected to the fan end, and the mower running off the output shaft which faced forward in the tractor. When I drive the transaxle off the shaft of the new engine I'll be spinning it in the opposite direction. The variable piston pump shouldn't care but i'll need to set it in reverse to get it to go forward now. The only thing that may be an issue is the charge pump that feeds the main pump motor assembly, just thought of that. Will have to do some head scratching on this one. Thanks for ruining my evening Steve.

[Highpower]

Turn the engine around and rig up a jack shaft to run underneath?  

[f350ca]

(11-04-2014, 09:38 PM)Highpower Wrote: Turn the engine around and rig up a jack shaft to run underneath?  

That would be the easiest, but I'd like to keep the engine low to fit under the deck and belts would be one more thing to go wrong. Thanks for the idea.

[Highpower]

I hear you Greg. How about using a planetary gear set out of an automatic transmission as a coupler? Fix the ring gear to the frame and get reverse rotation via the sun gear and planet gear carrier. The planetary out of something like an old Toyota A140 trans would be the perfect size. You would just need to fabricate some way of coupling it between the motor and drive shaft.

Just spit-balling ideas......   


Looks like a fun project though! I'll be watching with interest.