Mule

[f350ca]

Was watching Full Metal Jacket a while back and spotted this cool support vehicle. Searched the net and found out its called a Mule.

Think this would be incredibly handy around the yard for moving me and my stuff. These had 4 wd which would be cool but not necessary for what I want it for. Been mulling it over trying to come up with a drive system, have an old Suzuki trike i thought about repurposing but it doesn't have a rear diff so it would tear up the yard, thought about a golf cart drive but don't think it would have the oomph to haul a heavy load. Then Saturday was over at my buds and he says, have I got a cool thing for you. He found an old Cub Cadet tractor with no engine for free, he wanted the deck for his machine but I can have the hydrostatic drive. The rear end in this thing looks heavy duty, Im sure it will handle the torque but its only about 30 inches wide, standard garden tractor. I want the mule about 4 feet wide and 8 feet long so I'd need to widen the rear end. Found a manual on the net, it shows a needle bearing on the outside of the housing to the axle so Im not sure if that would tough it if I make spacers to widen the stance then put a payload on it.

 Any thoughts?

I could build chain drives down to stub axles to isolate the load but that would be a fair bit of work and one more thing to break.

Picked up an engine on sale today for it, (jumping the gun again). 14 horse, way more than I need but it has electric start, which my lazy self needs.



Hope to get the tractor home tomorrow, photo's to follow.