Wish you would have asked us before you bought bearings. Just remember when its time for new bearings, Buffalo Bearings 1-800-669-8019. Allot of members get bearings from them and they are extremely helpful. Just tell'm you are from 6x6world. If you need replacement flanges, they got those too.. For bolts its hard to beat Tractor Supply when you can buy by the pound.
Congrats on the new machine my friend, I love the way you are going at it ! That is what i would do if my $ and place to work would allow it... On a more personal note, i love seeing pics of guys working with their daughters helping, i have 3 daughters, no sons... & id bet my girls are more helpful during any sort of a build than any one of my mate's boys !
"I've yet to encounter a problem that cannot be solved with the right mixture of whiskey and weaponry"
:ME....
" From my cold dead hands"
:Charlton Heston...
Sean I encourage you to enjoy that helper every chance you get. My youngest "helper" turned 20 today, and he hasn't been interested in helping in a long time. I guess he got interested in girls instead!!
Yeah, I hear ya! I also have a son that's almost a year. He already crawls into the shop trying to "help". Hopefully he'll be a wrencher as well!
Thanks for all the compliments, guys! I was a little concerned that I'd be shunned for preferring form over function on this build and not JUST getting it muddy.
It's Saturday night so it's time for the weekend update.
Yesterday afternoon I left work early and went at the hustler with the grinder and the welder. I was focused on getting rid of the shaky-shaky controls and all the old parts associated with them. I wanted all the new parts to be bigger, stiffer, adjustable, and not look like a farmer built them in the field for his broken tractor... like Hustler made them. My old parts had been rusted, broken, bent, and booger welded back together more than once.
I built the linkage rods out of thick walled 3/4" pipe, welded some grade 8 bolts into the ends of them, spent a few minutes at the bench grinder, and threaded some heims joints on the ends. Done.
I built the control stick axis bars out of the factory bars because the walls were a bit thicker than the pipe I had, but I cut them down a bit and welded nuts onto the ends of them. Where Hustler made the bolts just poke into the bar ends and let the controls flop around with all that gap, I wanted the bolts to actually thread into the bars so that the tolerances were much tighter and then I could adjust in some resistance to how the control bars feel. So, grade 8 bolts in from the end brackets (which I gusseted), through a pair of nylock nuts, then threaded into the nuts on the ends of the pipe, and those are done.
I wanted something a bit different for the control sticks. I didn't like the pinkie throttle that Hustler used, and as a motorcycle guy I felt that a proper handlebar twist throttle was necessary. I chose 1" pipe because, well, bigger bars are better. I like the smooth look of bars and grips being the same size. Aside from wanting them scooted into the center at the bottom (like was advised to do) and then cheating back in front of the driver, I also wanted them to have hard angles, flow together, and sit flat on the top. So then chop saw, bench grinder, angle magnet, level, tack weld, chop saw, bench grinder, masking tape, 2x4, tack weld, etc. etc.
I finished them up today with solid welding and grinding all the way around (after I broke one off the axis bars... derrrr) and I slipped on the throttle and grips just for the mock up. Yes. They are red metal flake. Haaaaha.
I think they look very good and solid. The feel is perfect. No side-to side movement at all, and they push and pull quite smoothly. Done!
She showed up for one minute. Just long enough to try out the handle bars. The seats are just *sitting* there. Why she's barefoot in a basement shop full of metal grit and shavings I have no idea...
I started to make a battery box later in the afternoon, knowing that I should instead be working on a customer's Road King side case lid that came off and slid across the street. I found some brackets in the box of metal scrap parts that would fit around my battery really well, so I cut, welded, bent, welded, and THEN I realized that the box was about a quarter inch too small, and that the battery only fit in if you pushed it. BUT, that meant that it didn't come out either. Soo I cut it open and welded in a flat bar to size it up, but by the time I had finished it, I figured that it did, in fact, look like a farmer built it in the field for his broken tractor. So I put it down and started from scratch, bending some simple bends of flat bar to holster the battery next to the frame between the first and second axles. I wend to weld it together when I got the "Daddy, when are you going to be done, 'cause Mommy and I want to go get something to eat." Soon. So soon. I slammed some clamps on it, weld this, weld that, something isn't working, bad ground, Ahhhh forget it. And then I just stood up and started to sweep up all my metal filings mess. Game over for the weekend. Come to find out, I went out and looked at the Hustler body sitting in the building behind the house (because I saw that somebody left the light on), and THEN (this is a common theme today) I realized that there is a center tunnel in the bottom of the floor, so this battery won't fit in this tray in that spot ANYWAY. Well boo. I should have just worked on guy's case lid.
Last edited by SeanD; 06-11-2016 at 11:15 PM.
some more good looking well thought out work I like it. Yep, those bare feet are going to step on some hot welding slag one day and prove the value of shoes in a shop!
Lookin good. Lookin forward to the end result. When my daughter was that age shoes were optional as well.
What it lacks in ground clearance it makes up for with traction.
Well, it's been a couple of whirlwind weeks. I had a couple Saturdays that just got away from me. Today I was able to spend at least the afternoon in the basement on the Hustler.
I had come to the realization last week that I was going to have to disassemble the frame mock-up as I had it and actually build the thing in the tub. I couldn't locate e seat brackets or build exhaust with just the frame. So, I did that.
The tires are absolutely giant. The fronts scrub juuuuuust a bit when the bottom and top tubs are detached, but when they are bolted together I think the bottom will pull up towards the top half and not sag down as much. If I have to I'm not afraid to massage it with a heat gun and blunt object.
This week I came across some $25 scooter mufflers on ebay, so I bought a pair. My daughter and I were yelling into them and were very surprised at how quiet they are... haaaaha. Since the factory Predator pipe faces backwards, I was going to have to build *something* anyhow. Clearance with the back seats will determine whether I run them together on the crankshaft side or dual exhaust style with one pipe wrapped around the front of the engine. I'm thinking that keeping them both on the left side will be best since the top tub's plastic is already heat warped in that area and I can just cut the bad parts out.
Also this week, I was going through my boxes of old project car parts to give what I had for a truck I sold, and came across these leaf spring bushings. Unless someone has a reason not to, I'm absolutely going to use these as chain rollers. Halve the metal sleeves, some grease, game on.
This is what the package is in case anyone else wants one.
Today I was attacking the seat frames. I got these 4 fishing boat seats on a super sale so I was determined to make them work. A few sticks of square tubing and it was done. Making all the tabs was the most tedious part. The fronts are awesome. The back seats sit up on a hump on the right side, but I don't think it's noticeable enough to worry about it. The front bracket is welded on to the frame similarly to the original, but the back frame is bolted to the seats then bolted into the tub. It clears the moving parts with enough space to put some sort of floor under them as to keep children's feet attached to their legs. All in all, I really like the way it's coming along. I'm hoping to have it running *maybe* by the end of the Monday. I have to run up to Harbor Freight to get a tube bender early. I went there today to use my 25% SUPER SUPER coupon but then on the way to checkout realized it was ONLY for the 4th of JULY, not the whole weekend. Well dang.
PICS>
Plenty of room:
Yeah, that "clearance" is not going to work. Either the exhaust stays on the left side, or the backseat area is kids' legroom size only. As for now the backseat is still moveable.
After I get it running I'm going to have to fab a hood from scratch. I may just use a junked car hood from work and brace it around the edges to fit the Hustler hole. Next week! I have Monday off so I'm focusing on battery placement and wiring and then the exhaust. Fingers crossed!
Last edited by SeanD; 07-02-2016 at 10:14 PM.
beautiful job, looking forward to a video of you and your daughter '' scooting along '' !! johnboy va.
Very nice Hustler! I like the look with the wheels also!!! Can't wait to see some video, or maybe you can bring it to Busco Beach in October?!
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