This is a project that I built last year before I became a member of this forum.
I'm going to post it here over the next few days for you guys.
.............................................................................................................................
This is my very first Bolens Ridemaster that I picked up a couple of years ago.
We had just loaded it up and were headed home ( proud new owners of a Ridemaster )
Once I got it home and unloaded, here is what I had.
The guy I bought it from said it was a 1947.
It turned out to be a 1953 ( as near as I can figure from what's there ).
We start with an inventory:
Missing the engine and the special drive pulley for the engine.
The driven pulley on the drive axle is wrong.
The front half of the engine guard frame is torched off ( he welded a caster wheel on so it could be moved around ).
A section of the engine mounting plate is torched off also.
The gas tank is missing.
The engine stop switch is missing.
The rear wheels are wrong.
The seat is wrong.
The steering wheel is shot.
The good news is, the frame is in good condition and the rear axles hubs are complete and the bearings are good.
The drive axle seams to be in good condition also.
As naive as I was back then, I thought I could just search the internet and ebay and go to tractor swapmeets to pick up the parts that I'll need to restore this.
Over a year later, and I haven't found any of the parts that I need ( I did pick up two more "complete" tractors though ).
Last fall I talked it over with my wife and decided it was time to make a decision on the 53.
Either I scrap it out or just let it sit in the barn ( for who knows how long ) or I go ahead and make something usable out of it.
I decided to make something out of it for my Sweetie so she has her own tractor at the tractor shows and we can use it to ride around and look at all the other tractors.
I started working on this early last fall and then broke off from it to restore the 1948 Ridemaster.
After the 48 was finished I went right on to the "R/T" tractor build.
Now that I'm once again waiting on parts for the "R/T" tractor, I've started back in on the 53 Ridemaster for a while.
This post will be from the work that was completed on it last fall. .............
I'm going to build a "cart" with two seats so we can both ride on it.
The "seats" are donated from old plastic kitchen chairs.
Luckily they are already yellow so I won't have to paint them.
By cutting the legs off, I was left with a nice steel base that the chair bolts to.
Here is one of the bases being welded to the rear cross frame on the Ridemaster.
Both seat bases are welded in place.
I want to put a little "pickup bed" on the back of this Ridemaster so I cut the axle mount and tongue off a garden tractor utility trailer.
I cut 12 inches off the back end of the "bed".
Turned the bed over and welded supports rails along both sides and up the center.
The square "C" brackets on the ends of the supports will be used to mount the front of the bed to the tool bar on the tractor.
The brackets on the sides of the bed will mount to the rear axles bars.
The bed is being fitted to the tractor. You can see how the "c" brackets fit on to the tool bar.
With the bed all bolted in place, I started mounting rear fenders off an old Sears tractor to the sides of the bed.
Rear view with the rear fenders mounted and the tail gate in place.
Using a section of diamond plate steel, I made a foot board between the front of the bed and the tool bar.
Here's how it looked so far with the seats in place.
The drive system on an the original Ridemasters looks like this.
The engine it mounted on a plate that can pivot up and down.
This engine movement is controlled by a cable from a lever under the steering wheel.
Moving the lever forward lets the engine drop down and tightens the belts so the tractor moves forward.
Pulling the lever all the way back, raises the engine until the tapered area on the outsides of the engine pulley rides up into the tapered flanges on the inside of the axle pulley.
The friction of these two pulleys rubbing together causes the tractor to go in reverse ( it also makes a nasty sound ).
With the lever held half way in-between, the tractor is in neutral.
I do not have either of the two special pulleys ( if I did, I would have tried to restore the tractor ).
I suppose I could make up something that would work the same way but I want this to be a little bit more user friendly.
So I'm going to use this Bolens hydrostatic unit for the forward and reverse transmission.
The first thing to do was to turn down the gear on the back of the hydro and weld a sprocket on it.
Then I made up a sprocket to fit in place of the pulley on the axle unit.
I'm going to post it here over the next few days for you guys.
.............................................................................................................................
This is my very first Bolens Ridemaster that I picked up a couple of years ago.
We had just loaded it up and were headed home ( proud new owners of a Ridemaster )
Once I got it home and unloaded, here is what I had.
The guy I bought it from said it was a 1947.
It turned out to be a 1953 ( as near as I can figure from what's there ).
We start with an inventory:
Missing the engine and the special drive pulley for the engine.
The driven pulley on the drive axle is wrong.
The front half of the engine guard frame is torched off ( he welded a caster wheel on so it could be moved around ).
A section of the engine mounting plate is torched off also.
The gas tank is missing.
The engine stop switch is missing.
The rear wheels are wrong.
The seat is wrong.
The steering wheel is shot.
The good news is, the frame is in good condition and the rear axles hubs are complete and the bearings are good.
The drive axle seams to be in good condition also.
As naive as I was back then, I thought I could just search the internet and ebay and go to tractor swapmeets to pick up the parts that I'll need to restore this.
Over a year later, and I haven't found any of the parts that I need ( I did pick up two more "complete" tractors though ).
Last fall I talked it over with my wife and decided it was time to make a decision on the 53.
Either I scrap it out or just let it sit in the barn ( for who knows how long ) or I go ahead and make something usable out of it.
I decided to make something out of it for my Sweetie so she has her own tractor at the tractor shows and we can use it to ride around and look at all the other tractors.
I started working on this early last fall and then broke off from it to restore the 1948 Ridemaster.
After the 48 was finished I went right on to the "R/T" tractor build.
Now that I'm once again waiting on parts for the "R/T" tractor, I've started back in on the 53 Ridemaster for a while.
This post will be from the work that was completed on it last fall. .............
I'm going to build a "cart" with two seats so we can both ride on it.
The "seats" are donated from old plastic kitchen chairs.
Luckily they are already yellow so I won't have to paint them.
By cutting the legs off, I was left with a nice steel base that the chair bolts to.
Here is one of the bases being welded to the rear cross frame on the Ridemaster.
Both seat bases are welded in place.
I want to put a little "pickup bed" on the back of this Ridemaster so I cut the axle mount and tongue off a garden tractor utility trailer.
I cut 12 inches off the back end of the "bed".
Turned the bed over and welded supports rails along both sides and up the center.
The square "C" brackets on the ends of the supports will be used to mount the front of the bed to the tool bar on the tractor.
The brackets on the sides of the bed will mount to the rear axles bars.
The bed is being fitted to the tractor. You can see how the "c" brackets fit on to the tool bar.
With the bed all bolted in place, I started mounting rear fenders off an old Sears tractor to the sides of the bed.
Rear view with the rear fenders mounted and the tail gate in place.
Using a section of diamond plate steel, I made a foot board between the front of the bed and the tool bar.
Here's how it looked so far with the seats in place.
The drive system on an the original Ridemasters looks like this.
The engine it mounted on a plate that can pivot up and down.
This engine movement is controlled by a cable from a lever under the steering wheel.
Moving the lever forward lets the engine drop down and tightens the belts so the tractor moves forward.
Pulling the lever all the way back, raises the engine until the tapered area on the outsides of the engine pulley rides up into the tapered flanges on the inside of the axle pulley.
The friction of these two pulleys rubbing together causes the tractor to go in reverse ( it also makes a nasty sound ).
With the lever held half way in-between, the tractor is in neutral.
I do not have either of the two special pulleys ( if I did, I would have tried to restore the tractor ).
I suppose I could make up something that would work the same way but I want this to be a little bit more user friendly.
So I'm going to use this Bolens hydrostatic unit for the forward and reverse transmission.
The first thing to do was to turn down the gear on the back of the hydro and weld a sprocket on it.
Then I made up a sprocket to fit in place of the pulley on the axle unit.