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Garden Tractor Works Great As Lawn Edger
"I got tired of edging my old blacktop driveway by hand, so I replaced the back left wheel on my Sears Craftsman garden tractor with a 16-in. dia. disc. It's a simple solution, but it works great," says Dan Stuckmann, Manitowoc, Wis.
The Sears garden tractor drives the rear wheels using a keyed shaft, in which t
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Garden Tractor Works Great As Lawn Edger TRACTORS Miscellaneous 30-5-34 "I got tired of edging my old blacktop driveway by hand, so I replaced the back left wheel on my Sears Craftsman garden tractor with a 16-in. dia. disc. It's a simple solution, but it works great," says Dan Stuckmann, Manitowoc, Wis.
The Sears garden tractor drives the rear wheels using a keyed shaft, in which the rear wheel is held in place with a C-clip. Stuckmann bought the disc and a keyed hub at a local farm supply store and welded the hub to the disc. To replace the tractor wheel with the disc, he just jacks up the tractor, removes the C-clip and wheel, and replaces it with the disc. The wheel's hub was much wider than the disc hub, so he also slid some light tubing over the axle for use as an additional spacer.
"It takes less than two minutes to change over and sure saves on my body. I really like it," says Stuckmann. "I drive the tractor in low gear with the engine running at just above idle. The tractor rides on the disc and also drives it, because the disc is keyed just like the wheel it replaced. On my tractor the disc is about 1 1/2 inches lower than the wheel, which helps it slice the sod. After I'm done edging, I use a flat spade to scrape the cut-away sod off the driveway." Stuckmann says that when the ground is very dry, either additional weight or a second pass is required to cut the sod. "This all depends on a person's own weight. I used the edger after a good rain, and it cut fine in one pass with a 25-lb. weight clipped to the tractor's hitch," says Stuckmann.
"If I had a large garden I'd like to try using discs in place both rear wheels, along with a simple depth gauge that I'd attach to the disc for use in making rows. The gauge would maintain a constant depth in the soft soil and would also help drive me forward."
He says he'd consider making such units for anyone who's interested.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dan Stuckmann, 2304 Silver Creek Rd., Manitowoc, Wis. 54220 (ph 920 684-4162; dans@lakefield.net).
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