As you can see I started a new project this weekend. The official owner (my Son Jacob Herrin) has been helping me. This is going to be an ARMA Super Sportsman mower. It will not be US legal. TWo reasons... it will use 6 inch wheels on all 4 corners and they would not approve of the tranny location. They want it under the fender. Now this mower will have a special built 700 for this chassis (not telling what I do on this one) and will also double as my outlaw twin for the Nov. races using Kart tires when Ryan Kerr of Ryker Racing comes down. It will have 4 wheel brakes, and have a BIG Indian on this one. This chassis will also be the class legal chassis I use for the speed record run. It should be very rigid and weigh no more than 250 lbs when done maybe even less. As you can see in the first picture The front axle beam is mounted with 13* caster angle and several other things are done as seen in pictures to come.
here you see the tranny plate mounted. Yes I could have put it under the fenders but would have had to move them forward and raise them the latter would have defeated the purpose of using this chassis. IT being LOW. Also anyone familiar with this chassis the rear section is much higher than the front where engine is. SO I had to lower transmission for belt alignment which also will help keep center of gravity lower. I then used the metal I cut out to box in the area to look better and keep dirt out as much as possible.
In this picture you see I have the rear cassette mounts weld in place. The axle is in the original location just moved up into the frame. Also the lower part of the rear frame dropped down this has been removed (cut square with rest of frame) so mower can be dropped and have that 4" minimum all the way around.
This picture shows the bottom view of the tranny plate mounted and the strentghening I have done in the rear chassis box area. All tubing is 3/4 thin wall. When I say thin wall I mean it. With a flux core welder you best be careful it will blow right thru it if ya not careful or inexperianed. The idea is to stiffen chassis yet keep it light as possible. The squre tubing even though thin wall is strong enough to do what I want.
Moving forward you can see how the tubing follows the lines of the chassis. I notched the tubing bending and welding it together and to the frame to keep it all one solid piece front to back
A better look at the rear box and axle area and how I boxed it in
From the rear looking down at the tranny plate
You can see here how the fender will fit with tranny in place. Fender has been notched to clear back of tranny and chainto pass thru. A gaurd will be made to cover all exposed chain.
This last picture shows tranny in place in relation to fender and dash in its location. Still plenty of walk thru room in this chassis. Also I wanted to keep the same belt length I use on all the box frame chassis and this also dictated tranny location. More to come later.