Home-Built "Zero Turn" Riding Mower

Home-Built "Zero Turn" Riding Mower FARM HOME Lawn Mowers (31h,38) 21-5-44 A lot of people with conventional Deere riding mowers wish they had a front-mount deck for better maneuverability. B.L. Uhnken, Jacksonville, Ill., turned his Deere riding mower into a zero turn mower by reversing it and mounting a big 60-in. deck on front. He had to reverse the steering, controls, and operator's seat. Uhnken bought the mower without an engine for $300. He bought a new Kawasaki 2-cyl. 20 hp gas engine for $1,100 and mounted it on the back part of the frame. He paid $700 for the 60-in. deck and mounted a right angle gearbox on top of it. The deck's three blades are belt-driven off a pto shaft that in turn is belt-driven off the engine crank-shaft. A pair of rubber rollers off an old corn detasseling machine mount on the back side of the deck to prevent scalping. He bought new front wheels for the rig and converted the original ones into caster wheels that sup-port the front part of the deck. He made his own power steering system by mounting tie rods on the mower's original rear axle and connecting them to a hydraulic cylinder that mounts on the same axle. The cylinder is operated by a power steering pump and motor off an old car that's connected to a motor on the steering column. "It works as good as any commercial zero turn mower, and I saved a lot of money be-cause I built it for less than $2,000," says Uhnken. "It'll go up to 7 mph but I generally go 3 to 4 mph when mowing. The deck is raised or lowered by a cable connected to a hydraulic cylinder. I move one lever to go forward and another one to raise the deck. I also mounted a counterweight on back of the rig to make it easier to raise the deck and to steer." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, B.L. Uhnken, 25 Westfair, Jacksonville, Ill. 62650 (ph 217 245-4359).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.