What a great Father and son project! Brings back memories of building one myself! Our 11 year old wanted a cart that would carry two, so we fabricobbled an channel steel perimeter frame. We used what was around! Ended up using a Vega rear axle, and an older VW front. Added hydraulic brakes for good measure. Covered the underside with sheet metal, and powered it with a 340cc Snowmobile engine and clutch, along with the gear case. Good thing we lived out in the country with lots of places to run. It was a whole lot of fun! Much later in life, I used the hydrostatic transaxle from a derelict mower. This was fine, but those things are apparently designed to only turn so fast, even if the input speed is really increased. The solution there was to use a chain and sprocket arrangement, using an idler and chain drives to the new axle. A couple of pillow blocks from TSX and some 3/4" shaft brought it all together.
Sounds almost as sketchy as the shoppingcart gokart me and my dad made last year. We fabrifuckedup a homemade frame, put a shoppingcart on top of that and put a 2-stroke engine that was so small it literally did 2 mph. Then we swapped on a 240cc Honda GX motor this winter. It was really fun drifting it in the snow because we accidentally added a shit ton of angle to it. I have a yt video of it if you want to check it out. I'm plannignon getting a lawntractor like in the video, slamming it and adding angle to it so me and my friends can drive around together!
I think it’s great that you take the time and money to spend doing projects like this with your son. It is something that you both will remember the rest of your life. I wish I had more of these times with my Dad. Keep up the good work. Enjoy your son they grow up to fast.
I grew up like this lawn mower to go cart conversion. As yound kids we put a electric motor and drove it around plugged in. Had a rupp mini bike go karts tri sport dirt bikes mopeds. I have a supercharged mustang and turbo sti over 30 years later. It also gave me a whole carreer working on semis semi trailers and the ability to rebuild engines. It's nice to see you training the next generation.
Reminds me of how I grow up with my dad making all kinds of crazy stuff for us. Love the background shots of the yard also. I grew up in a junk yard also. Keep your kid interested in what you do and it will keep him out of trouble. Love the video.
Just getting into small engine builds. I haven't welded really, since high school. I'll be 50 this year. I'm super happy to be able to enjoy quality time with my granddaughter and her brother or sister whom will be joining us soon. You have some of the best detailed videos I've found so far. THANKS FOR SHARING! PLEASE KEEP THE VIDEOS COMING. 👍
I really enjoyed your content. Also, I love that you’re training the next generation of men. We need more hands on kids that can tackle fabrication. Well done sir.
You are a good man to know. I have many questions. I am new to this. I have a Craftsman 19 hp. Twin cyl. Stuck rear. And a Husqvarna missing engine parts. I installed the Craftsman engine on the Husqvarna. Yeah I should have just swapped rear axle x. But hey. I also swapped the wiring. The sear safety wies don't reach. But I'll continue the two.
Really like this design man. I've had an old craftsman riding mower been wanting to make a rat rod cart for awhile. Struggling with ideas on how to do it but something like this is sweet. Didn't know if it was possible to turn the trans upwards like that. Super cool
Sweet ride, I made one similar to yours 2 years ago. Used a 6.5 hp vertical honda engine. Got it out of a pressure washer that the pump cracked on. Put that in a troy built little pony that the engine broke. Did a pully swap 4 inch front &5 inch on the transaxle. Used the stock variable pully with a shorter belt. gps on my phone said 28 mph & thats plenty fast for a 8year old. lowerad the seat hood steering & lowered the suspension 4 inches. that made it feel even faster plus cornering got tighter with less chance of roll over. Added a sturdy home built roll bar & a 4 point harness for added safey. .
What a cool idea! I have an old Cub without a deck that would be a good doner for a project like this. Great experience for John, He won't forget memories like this. Way to go dad, you hit this one out of the park.
I bought my old Jonsered LR11 in a working condition but a bit sun burnt fo 800 dollar. Rear tires has some cracks. I looked for used rear wheels, the not so good were for 70 dollars a pair. I am still from Hungary :-)))
I'd love to see a 4x4 version, using 2 of those MTD rear ends, and make a spindle set up or cv axle etc. Wish I had more room or I'd be doing more like this type builds. Keep it up and God bless u and fam
I modified an old black and decker wildcat 9"grinder to direct drive the spicer hydrostatic drive on a lawn tractor with no engine with a 2kw petrol generator where the engine used to be, 1st gear pulls 6' wheelies, 5th gear take off will flip it upside down, it will burn rubber in reverse, BUT the only control you have is an On Off switch to stop the grinder. Scary but so much fun!
just picked up 3 mowers with bad motors decided to try putting a harbor freight motor on one and make a go kart so thank you for making this video cant wait to start mine
I like it. Best yet. You are doing a great job including your son . He is learning and enjoying while working with his dad. It will mean more to him, than a go kart built for him.
The ol FNR trans that everyone avoids when building a mower is now the star of the show! Very cool,and plentiful because nobody wants them (until now) 😁
Very nice! I like that you get John so involved and he seems to really enjoy doing some of the work. And of course we all like to drive the machines we make. Good luck and keep making these videos.
Interesting video, I enjoy working on mowers, and tractors. I have an older Murry 12.5 horsepower Briggs, it was wore out, I put on a Kohler Pro 25 horsepower V twin. I didn't change the pulleys so it's still slow, but it cuts tall grass and weeds without any problems.
Wondering if those controllers in parallel would handle the current, of course overrating enough... whatever that'd be. Great build, very inspirational. Neat!
You've probably already done something like this, but just a quick suggestion in case you didn't... To make the ride less prone to giving your coccyx a beating as you ride over bumps, I'd suggest cutting a vertically oriented, about 3" x 5"oval hole in that lower curved section of your seat area and use a hammer you break over the edges. With or without padding it should help a lot, especially once you start riding it for more than a few minutes at a time.
love to see all your ideas on things to build. i built a murray wide body that i have now stripped. i am useing the transaxle as a transfercase to build a 4x4 golf cart.
Think we as dads should make wheelbarrow go karts and have the kids race. Then at night have the adult wheelbarrow go kart race. Would be fun and junk to kart is the best way. So there could be crazy builds to old school.
Every boy should have a dad that can fabricate a cool motor cart from an old MTD. Tubes in the tires so you can run on 5lbs will take up some of the shock and a smaller pulley on the transaxle will make your slow-cart to a go cart!
nice build, my son is 4 now and i have scrapped out a bunch of mowers and kept the good parts. i also have some brand new engines, so i just subscribed !!
its got that VW baja bug vibe to it, its pretty sweet, i wonder how it would do if you fitted a torque converter to it, might give you more range in the RPM, still a pretty sweet little project, also for the carb upgrade, definately a Mccuney or a clone like the one you found, would work wonders for that little engine, also find (or build) yourself a nice header pipe and she'll sing
I tried that (torque converter) probably 20 years ago on a friend's project. It was easy to drive, no Comet clutch type thing to work with, however it would not move very fast, around 10 MPH. The hydrostatic trans apparently was designed to not drive your mower too fast! But wait, there's more...use sprockets to drive from the hydrostatic to the axle. That way, you will greatly increase ground speed.
Direct steering means mad bump steer. Especially if you get the speed picked up. Watch your thumbs when the steering wheel takes off. I put bmx handle bars on my sons. ( 4" cut off both sides) This gave him more control and I was able to use a hand break setup. Short cable down to a offset pivot and longer rod to the rear. Useing the mechanical advantage to apply the breaks. I also used a Smaller pulley on the transaxle to speed it up some. Now have switched to sprocket and chain drive. Belt drive doesn't like boys and mud bogs. Lol
Cool build. I wonder if ditching the clutch and vbelt for a 30 series or 40 series cvt would help the speed any. He looks like he's having a blast on it just the way it is, so good job dad.! Quality father / son time is a win in my book.
Going to the extreme, all you have to do is put a small pulley on the transmission, put smaller tires, you still have forward and reverse can even still use drake's that come equipped with the mower
Yes do the carb upgrade, one other thing that might be nice is a header instead of that restrictive muffler, or also a arc billet aluminum flywheel i know one of the arc flywheels fits but I’m not sure which one, ill do a little digging to find out.
If you make the pully on the transaxle smaller closer to a 1 to 1 it will go a lot faster and because of gearing inside the axle it will still have plenty of torque used to build lawnmower go-cart when I was younger
Iv been searching this topic for years, “riding lawnmower to gocart “. ! You da man 😎👍 I shall be a lot closer to visualizing my goal in 32 min. New subscriber here 🤗. Can’t wait to see what else you creat.
Doing something very similar here bit i will be using some of your quicker ways if ok with you? Have to say loving it and sharing the build with your and our kids, we need more parents to be involved with their kids and enjoy "good ol' fun" ....together ❤ 😊
It needs a stage 1 power kit (particularly the governor removal/mod) and a much smaller pulley on the transmission side. 5000rpm redline and a 3" Engine/4" Transmission pulley combo will mathematically double your speed. 5000rpm and equal-sized pulleys should almost TRIPLE your speed.
I love that you include your kids! Your passion for all things mechanical will certainly pass on to them!
What a great Father and son project! Brings back memories of building one myself! Our 11 year old wanted a cart that would carry two, so we fabricobbled an channel steel perimeter frame. We used what was around! Ended up using a Vega rear axle, and an older VW front. Added hydraulic brakes for good measure. Covered the underside with sheet metal, and powered it with a 340cc Snowmobile engine and clutch, along with the gear case. Good thing we lived out in the country with lots of places to run. It was a whole lot of fun!
Much later in life, I used the hydrostatic transaxle from a derelict mower. This was fine, but those things are apparently designed to only turn so fast, even if the input speed is really increased. The solution there was to use a chain and sprocket arrangement, using an idler and chain drives to the new axle. A couple of pillow blocks from TSX and some 3/4" shaft brought it all together.
Sounds almost as sketchy as the shoppingcart gokart me and my dad made last year. We fabrifuckedup a homemade frame, put a shoppingcart on top of that and put a 2-stroke engine that was so small it literally did 2 mph. Then we swapped on a 240cc Honda GX motor this winter. It was really fun drifting it in the snow because we accidentally added a shit ton of angle to it. I have a yt video of it if you want to check it out. I'm plannignon getting a lawntractor like in the video, slamming it and adding angle to it so me and my friends can drive around together!
I think it’s great that you take the time and money to spend doing projects like this with your son. It is something that you both will remember the rest of your life. I wish I had more of these times with my Dad. Keep up the good work. Enjoy your son they grow up to fast.
Two things everybody wants on their go-kart, Electric Start and Reverse.
My god man ,yes!!
This things neat 😁
my weed eater powered go cart starts by rolling the whole cart foward, instead of a pull string (the string broke)
Put a smaller pulley on the rear end it will be much faster
Both of my gocary /dune buggy have that
Also need some suspension
I grew up like this lawn mower to go cart conversion. As yound kids we put a electric motor and drove it around plugged in. Had a rupp mini bike go karts tri sport dirt bikes mopeds. I have a supercharged mustang and turbo sti over 30 years later. It also gave me a whole carreer working on semis semi trailers and the ability to rebuild engines. It's nice to see you training the next generation.
Reminds me of how I grow up with my dad making all kinds of crazy stuff for us. Love the background shots of the yard also. I grew up in a junk yard also. Keep your kid interested in what you do and it will keep him out of trouble. Love the video.
I like this idea, very ingenious and creative. The ability to use on-hand parts is great. Good to see the father and son working together.
Just getting into small engine builds. I haven't welded really, since high school. I'll be 50 this year. I'm super happy to be able to enjoy quality time with my granddaughter and her brother or sister whom will be joining us soon.
You have some of the best detailed videos I've found so far.
THANKS FOR SHARING!
PLEASE KEEP THE VIDEOS COMING. 👍
Does it still work ?
Takes me back to living on the farm, always had an old rider to mess with. Nice to see this is something that still exists.
Hell yeah thats gonna be fun! Those memories will last forever! My first go-kart was made with dumpster parts and limited funds an I loved it!
Great to see father & son working on a project together 👍🏻
I really enjoyed your content. Also, I love that you’re training the next generation of men. We need more hands on kids that can tackle fabrication. Well done sir.
I think John is very happy with this project. May need some wheelie bars once he's in high gear. Great job!
Agreed I was debating a rear skid basket like they do on sand rails.
You are a good man to know. I have many questions. I am new to this. I have a Craftsman 19 hp. Twin cyl. Stuck rear. And a Husqvarna missing engine parts. I installed the Craftsman engine on the Husqvarna. Yeah I should have just swapped rear axle x. But hey. I also swapped the wiring. The sear safety wies don't reach. But I'll continue the two.
Plus a roll bar couldn't hurt huh.juss sayn
Really like this design man. I've had an old craftsman riding mower been wanting to make a rat rod cart for awhile. Struggling with ideas on how to do it but something like this is sweet. Didn't know if it was possible to turn the trans upwards like that. Super cool
I would have NEVER thought of a build like this, ABSOLUTELY GENIUS!
I like the way you involve your son in your shop...he's a good kid learning work and engineering early.
It's great that you have John so involved and I like your salvage attitude.
Kinda looks like how they build the old school beetle buggy’s. That’s bad ass fellas. This is how memories are made man. Good job.
Thank you! I learned more than a few things. I never would have thought about turning the transmission sideways. It does look like an old dune buggy.
There's nothing in this world like doing fun projects with your son. And as a bonus you learn things . Great video!
Lucky boy. Nothing beats having a vehicle to buzz around in as a kid. Good job by his dad.
Nicely done Gentlemen ! You two are pioneers finding gold all the time . Thank you for Sharing your wealth with us . It is very much appreciated .
Sweet ride, I made one similar to yours 2 years ago. Used a 6.5 hp vertical honda engine. Got it out of a pressure washer that the pump cracked on. Put that in a troy built little pony that the engine broke. Did a pully swap 4 inch front &5 inch on the transaxle. Used the stock variable pully with a shorter belt. gps on my phone said 28 mph & thats plenty fast for a 8year old. lowerad the seat hood steering & lowered the suspension 4 inches. that made it feel even faster plus cornering got tighter with less chance of roll over. Added a sturdy home built roll bar & a 4 point harness for added safey.
.
What a cool idea! I have an old Cub without a deck that would be a good doner for a project like this. Great experience for John, He won't forget memories like this. Way to go dad, you hit this one out of the park.
I just scored a freebie lawn tractor, & was about to buy a go cart. Instead, I might just try your build ideas. 😃🤙😎
I love this. it gives people an idea that helps them turn something old and boring into something new and fun
I bought my old Jonsered LR11 in a working condition but a bit sun burnt fo 800 dollar. Rear tires has some cracks. I looked for used rear wheels, the not so good were for 70 dollars a pair. I am still from Hungary :-)))
I'd love to see a 4x4 version, using 2 of those MTD rear ends, and make a spindle set up or cv axle etc. Wish I had more room or I'd be doing more like this type builds. Keep it up and God bless u and fam
Agreed a build like that has been a goal of mine for years now.
That thing needs about 3"-4" pulley on the trans axel maybe a chain and sprocket, with a small sprocket on the trans,
Low budget, clever design and your kid is really involved. What a great project!
I modified an old black and decker wildcat 9"grinder to direct drive the spicer hydrostatic drive on a lawn tractor with no engine with a 2kw petrol generator where the engine used to be, 1st gear pulls 6' wheelies, 5th gear take off will flip it upside down, it will burn rubber in reverse, BUT the only control you have is an On Off switch to stop the grinder. Scary but so much fun!
Thanks for showing how to re-arrange stock mower components into a fun kart project!
Fun. Great build... Try changing the pulley size, it can get more speed.
Really glad your letting him learn his own way he will never forget that really proud he is so interested in building his own cart to ride on
Way to go father and son working on something together he will always remember that God bless you too.
just picked up 3 mowers with bad motors decided to try putting a harbor freight motor on one and make a go kart so thank you for making this video cant wait to start mine
I like it. Best yet. You are doing a great job including your son . He is learning and enjoying while working with his dad. It will mean more to him, than a go kart built for him.
Great info and good to see a father and son working together
I have my own Lawn Mower Shop, this is a great idea for all of the scrap mowers I have. Inexpensive. Awesome work.
Thanks for the links for the clutch I was not aware that they made a belt style go cart clutch
I really enjoy your vids.im retired and I use your vids to help me with my projects.thank you.
I think this project's pretty awesome I hope the kid likes it and I hope he has a lot of fun with it
The ol FNR trans that everyone avoids when building a mower is now the star of the show!
Very cool,and plentiful because nobody wants them (until now) 😁
Yup That was what I figured. Got offered another 2 machine this week with them for free.
Very nice! I like that you get John so involved and he seems to really enjoy doing some of the work. And of course we all like to drive the machines we make. Good luck and keep making these videos.
Like the flat bed truck in the background. And the mower at the 👍🏼 awesome
Interesting video, I enjoy working on mowers, and tractors. I have an older Murry 12.5 horsepower Briggs, it was wore out, I put on a Kohler Pro 25 horsepower V twin. I didn't change the pulleys so it's still slow, but it cuts tall grass and weeds without any problems.
Wondering if those controllers in parallel would handle the current, of course overrating enough... whatever that'd be. Great build, very inspirational. Neat!
Wow you take those dam things down to nothing. And build up from there I’m totally loving your videos. 👍🏼👍🏼
Kinda looks like an old Honda Odyssey, it's a super cool build. The low end torque seems to be handy on the trail.
Diggin' it !! I'm looking at a local Troy-Bilt and you've inspired me to make it a cart !
That’s amazing time with your son. Well done sir.
your son is so lucky to have you as a father!
Very cool build. First thing id do is open the block and pull all the governor bits out. Then add header and carb.
You've probably already done something like this, but just a quick suggestion in case you didn't... To make the ride less prone to giving your coccyx a beating as you ride over bumps, I'd suggest cutting a vertically oriented, about 3" x 5"oval hole in that lower curved section of your seat area and use a hammer you break over the edges. With or without padding it should help a lot, especially once you start riding it for more than a few minutes at a time.
love to see all your ideas on things to build. i built a murray wide body that i have now stripped. i am useing the transaxle as a transfercase to build a 4x4 golf cart.
Just watched this on FB now I gotta watch it on here. Great video
You too? Lol
Love gave me a lot of new ideas for a homemade four-wheeler for my daughter
Love your "on the fly" design methods. Very entertaining!
It seems more fun off road than the drag strip ! Great job 👏
Think we as dads should make wheelbarrow go karts and have the kids race. Then at night have the adult wheelbarrow go kart race. Would be fun and junk to kart is the best way. So there could be crazy builds to old school.
Every boy should have a dad that can fabricate a cool motor cart from an old MTD. Tubes in the tires so you can run on 5lbs will take up some of the shock and a smaller pulley on the transaxle will make your slow-cart to a go cart!
Good to see the kids involved
Definitely want to try this for my granddaughters. I'm sure they'd rather have a go kart over a tractor. Thanks for the info
nice build, my son is 4 now and i have scrapped out a bunch of mowers and kept the good parts. i also have some brand new engines, so i just subscribed !!
This is awesome. I have a wrecked JD mower that will have a new purpose now!! Cheers, mate!
I love the concept. I want to build some for the neighborhood kids with their help of course.
its got that VW baja bug vibe to it, its pretty sweet, i wonder how it would do if you fitted a torque converter to it, might give you more range in the RPM, still a pretty sweet little project, also for the carb upgrade, definately a Mccuney or a clone like the one you found, would work wonders for that little engine, also find (or build) yourself a nice header pipe and she'll sing
I tried that (torque converter) probably 20 years ago on a friend's project. It was easy to drive, no Comet clutch type thing to work with, however it would not move very fast, around 10 MPH. The hydrostatic trans apparently was designed to not drive your mower too fast! But wait, there's more...use sprockets to drive from the hydrostatic to the axle. That way, you will greatly increase ground speed.
This video is EXACTLY what I was looking for on my upcoming project!
Direct steering means mad bump steer. Especially if you get the speed picked up. Watch your thumbs when the steering wheel takes off. I put bmx handle bars on my sons. ( 4" cut off both sides)
This gave him more control and I was able to use a hand break setup. Short cable down to a offset pivot and longer rod to the rear. Useing the mechanical advantage to apply the breaks. I also used a Smaller pulley on the transaxle to speed it up some. Now have switched to sprocket and chain drive. Belt drive doesn't like boys and mud bogs. Lol
Cool build. I wonder if ditching the clutch and vbelt for a 30 series or 40 series cvt would help the speed any. He looks like he's having a blast on it just the way it is, so good job dad.! Quality father / son time is a win in my book.
Wow what a sweet ride when you touch that gas it wants to go can't wait to see you beef it up even more good riding John
Going to the extreme, all you have to do is put a small pulley on the transmission, put smaller tires, you still have forward and reverse can even still use drake's that come equipped with the mower
This video has given me a lot of interesting ideas with an old mower I have.
Yes do the carb upgrade, one other thing that might be nice is a header instead of that restrictive muffler, or also a arc billet aluminum flywheel i know one of the arc flywheels fits but I’m not sure which one, ill do a little digging to find out.
So cool how you work with your son. I'm doing the same.
Love your channel guys.!
I'm going to make one I got all the parts laying around but I'm thinking I'm going with a chain drive. Love the video
I like how you simplify how you explain everything
Good to see you include your son ,great hobby to learn
If you make the pully on the transaxle smaller closer to a 1 to 1 it will go a lot faster and because of gearing inside the axle it will still have plenty of torque used to build lawnmower go-cart when I was younger
Cool idea! I think you might want to install a torque converter and a roll cage for driver and engine/transmission combo.
Great video. When I first saw the intro I thought it was a Rupp GO JO. Nice build!
I like the fact that your son is helping you
Iv been searching this topic for years, “riding lawnmower to gocart “. ! You da man 😎👍 I shall be a lot closer to visualizing my goal in 32 min. New subscriber here 🤗. Can’t wait to see what else you creat.
We have about 4 key upgrades planned for the next 2 or 3 months. Glad your here to see it :)
Love everything about this video. I have an old green MTD that will one day be a go kart that my 4 kids will fight over
Using a deck spindle for a punch is brilliant. Wish I had thought of that!
Should definitely pulley swap it cool idea
For a cool simple go cart
Great teaching son to be creative and resourceful!
If you have such a tractor in Hungary you can get it easily 400 dollars! If it is working, you can sell it of 6-900 dollars! Nothing is for free here!
Doing something very similar here bit i will be using some of your quicker ways if ok with you?
Have to say loving it and sharing the build with your and our kids, we need more parents to be involved with their kids and enjoy "good ol' fun" ....together ❤ 😊
Have at! I posted it to help others get out and play. I have a giant list of improvements to do in future videos.
it would be a good little tractor for pulling stuff around the property
Been trying to figure out how to do something like this. Time to get working on one for my granddaughters
John is learning at a good pace
Great job, reminds me of a go-cart my dad made me back in the day!
Man you got some awesome builds I in joy watching them and help give ideas for a Feature project I been saving parts for
We used to use a lighter pull spring inside clutch weights .
So cool John.Dad makes great fun things.All the best to you all
It needs a stage 1 power kit (particularly the governor removal/mod) and a much smaller pulley on the transmission side. 5000rpm redline and a 3" Engine/4" Transmission pulley combo will mathematically double your speed. 5000rpm and equal-sized pulleys should almost TRIPLE your speed.
john kicked ass at the end john u rock
Put a smaller pulley on the transaxle it will make it go faster it's a really cool project
Cool way to reconfigure the whole setup