Vintage Sears Garden Tractors
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Sears ST10 wieght

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Post  turk April 16th 2015, 11:55 pm

Anybody out there know what the estimated total weight would be for a St10 stock Sears tractor. Also need an estimate of the weight on the front and rear axles. Thinking about fabricating shock mounts for the front pivoting axle and the rear transaxle. Thought about suspending the transaxle on leaf springs and mounting shocks to the rear sideJ panels and then to the axle. Just need some opinions and suggestions for the weight capacity of the leaf springs and the shocks so that they would work together to dampen the ride, don't won't to get too stiff that there is little dampening or to soft that it will wallow over uneven ground. Started on this last year, but got side tracked, so thought I'd pick up on it again. I've already replaced the 10 horse engine with a Honda GX620 and got the engine and drive and deck belts aligned. Had to cut the gas tray out to slide the engine back so it wouldn't extend over the front axle. I'm leaving the honda ignition on the motor, so all that's left is to run throttle and gas cables to the tractors dash panel. Plan on using the custom build tractor to mow with, it's not an "off road" kind of thing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

turk

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Post  ss12 April 30th 2015, 9:44 am

not trying to be rude but shocks and springs on a garden tractor or any tractor for that matter is probaly one of the most rediculious things i have ever heard of and completly against what a tractor is designed to do. if you absoulty need shocks and springs for your tractor, sell it and hire someone to do the work you need done.
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Post  turk May 3rd 2015, 1:35 am

Thanks for your reply, but the quote: " It's not what your see that's important, but how you see it," best sums up the effort to modernize this vintage machine. This " tractor" in it's original form was basically a mower with a small, but incredibly tough, 10HP engine. I've actually used this little jewel for almost 15 years. Now is the time to restore it, but add the ability to mow rough ground ( shock suspension) and high-thick grass with speed ( 20Hp Honda v-twin coupled to an extremely strong and small gear box driven deck). Rest assured, when I'm finished with the modifications and restoration, this little sears will look basically like she did before, but with the speed, power, and comfort to rival some of the best mowers out there. Upon completion, this ST10 will do one thing extremely well; mow grass under any conditions. You might think of this project as a Sears St10 on a heavy dose of steroids. LOL. Appreciate your comments, although I don't necessarily agree with them.

turk

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Post  seattle smitty May 3rd 2015, 12:05 pm

ss12, I'm with turk on this one. Not necessarily that I disagree with your suggestion that this seems like overkill (I would not have used the word "ridiculous," however). But I can't see discouraging turk from pursuing a wild project. First, it's his time. But more to the point, it's one way a mechanically able man can express himself, using his shop skills and imagination to do something interesting. So go for it, turk; sounds like fun!!

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Post  spence May 3rd 2015, 12:28 pm

Thanks for the civil tone here! It does makes moderating this board relatively easy.

Onto the topic: I don't think I would ever try to modify any old iron like you are proposing, mainly because of the work involved, but I'm curious regarding how you would do it nonetheless.

Wouldn't the deck have to be a full floating design, completely independent of the tractor? The tractor frame would be moving up and down due to the suspension travel, but the deck would have to follow the ground somewhat. I can see how you might do that with drag links on the front of the deck and some floating locator tab or something in the rear. Wouldn't there would be an issue with belt tension also?

Is raising the tractor to get enough clearance for the suspension going to make it too top heavy?

Do you intend to increase blade speed to account for the higher ground speed? Are the gearboxes/spindles up to the task?

Please share your ideas so I (we) can get a better grasp on the design. I am not being negative in my response, just trying to envision how you are doing it. Can you upload any pictures?

spence
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Post  ss12 May 3rd 2015, 7:51 pm

I sorry if I offended you Turk. I could have used better words. But going off wat spence was saying about the deck. He has a good point. With the suspension travel the deck would have to be able to move up and down but stay at the right cutting height. You could use pneumatic casters on the deck and hang the deck from chains like zero turn mowers. That would alow the up and down free motion and the casters will keep the deck at the right height with out getting caught on obstacles
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Post  ss12 May 3rd 2015, 7:55 pm

As for springs go to your local tractor supply the sell mini leaf springs for trailers. They would be about as small of a spring as you will find
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Post  seattle smitty May 4th 2015, 12:53 am

Hah, okay Spence and you other guys, now how about some feed back on MY threads. bounce

As to modifications: I have two of these tractors to sell, plus some good attachments. What I  expect to happen is that when a buyer shows up, he will want one tractor and all the attachments, which will leave me with one tractor and no attachments. I could occasionally use this orphan as a tow-motor for a couple of carts, for moving small boat trailers around, whatever. With three gears and the high/low range, even the 10hp flathead Tecumseh will pull anything, given enough traction, and if it doesn't tip over backwards. For traction, the tires could be filled with calcium or water. And you can hang some lead on the front end, I guess. But a modification here, adding length to the tractor frame behind the seat, might work better. This just now occurred to me, and I'll have to look at a tractor to see if it's workable (and worthwhile). Probably never happen, but it's a notion. One of the advantages (maybe) of being a welder is that you tend to look at things and have these notions of how you could alter them, LOL.

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Post  TKW May 4th 2015, 5:06 pm

you can use a bath scale under each tire to answer your weight question . add the two front numbers together = total front weight , same with rear , add front and rear = total weight . with your engine change stock weights are now not relevant > tim

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Post  ss12 May 4th 2015, 6:23 pm

My ss12 weighs 650 pounds empty thays from a tractor pull scale with no weights or attachments. I assume most suburbans are pretty close givin or take a few pounds due to different engines
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Post  turk May 4th 2015, 11:23 pm

Thanks a bunch for the questions, opinions, and ideas you guys gave. SS12, those are some worthwhile ideas to be considered on the deck movement. Spence, appreciate those questions; they will absolutely be a help in deciding what areas I need to pay attention to, besides just the suspension and engine lay-out. But sadly to say I have few answers to many of the questions, I just haven't had the time yet to take a look at the deck and belt issues. I'm lucky to get 2 days a week in my "man cave," with all the honey - do's the misses has me into at the moment. But I will say, for the time being, I hadn't considered raising the height of the ST10 to accommodate the front shocks and the rear leaf spring - shock combination. For right now, I plan on using 300lb rated adjustable mountain bike bicycle coil over shocks on all 4 corners of the tractor. They are supposed to have a max. of 2" shock travel. The springs I'm considering for the rear transaxle will be from the front of an EZ GO golf cart. They are a 2 leaf set up measuring 17" in length. I figured if the 2 leafs was a bit too stiff to allow the shocks to dampen correctly, I could always remove one of the leafs and see what happens. I'll have to weld a section of round tubing to the ends of the springs to mate with the mounting perches that will be welded to each side on the rear of the tractor. I'll probably contact a few golf cart dealers and see if I can get some info on what those springs are actually rated at. As you can probably tell, my main concern at the moment is to get the right combination of suspension components for the weight of the tractor.
Right now, I'm planning to have the rear of the transaxle to be supported by the leaf springs and then having the front of the tranny supported by heavy duty tie rods, allowing some rotating movement, but no up-down or side to side movement. I guess you could say the suspension on the rear is sort of patterned like the set up
in the rear of car with leaf springs and shocks. Hopefully this set up will allow the transaxle to absorb most of the terrain roughness rather than being transmitted to the tractor chassis. By all means, keep the comments coming, either negative or positive, both responses provides me with ideas. Please keep in mind, this is a work in progress. You might say I'm plowing new ground here, but the challenges and responses keeps me excited. I will provide pics as I move along on this project. After forking out big money for a new Honda GX620 engine, I absolutely need to see this through!

turk

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Post  turk May 4th 2015, 11:35 pm

Again, a big round of thanks for the weight info from SS12 & TKW. Didn't have a clue how to measure the individual axle weights on the little ST10. Now I do! Thanks a bundle guys.

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Post  ss12 May 5th 2015, 8:00 am

Just keep us updated with progress and pictures
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Post  TKW May 5th 2015, 8:52 am

12 , 650 pounds ? ? ? sounds way to heavy ! don't you have 100 pounds or better with fluid in rear tires ?

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Post  ss12 May 5th 2015, 9:15 am

I have a set of ag tires I have fluid in I used for the winter but I have my standard turf kissers on kow
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Post  ss12 May 5th 2015, 9:24 am

Have you ever tried to pick up just the rear end in one of these things. Lol. There's a lot of steel and cast iron in thes little beasts. It dosent take much to have a lot of weight
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Post  ss12 May 5th 2015, 9:28 am

Ag tires are hard on the turf so I dunt use them in the grass season. And it don't take much to get a lot of weight the rears on these things are close to 100 pounds alone
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