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My attempt at transforming a zero turn into a legitimate piece of equipment

Gatorgrizz27

Well-known member
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
756
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874
The guy I rent my shop from bought a new mower, so I ended up trading him some work for his old one. Sweet as I’m really tired of push mowing my yard, it eats up half a Saturday. Mower is a Craftsman professional 52” 26 hp, it’s a rebranded Bobcat and a lower end commercial grade unit. 10 gauge welder deck, ZTR3100 transmissions, etc.

I do enough stuff that I would be nice to have some machinery for, but no pressing need or room to store something like a compact tractor or forklift. I decided I’d try to build a small crane for the front of this mower capable of lifting 500 lbs.

After a bit of brainstorming I figured it would be easiest to weld a piece of tubing between the front caster mounts, and Ruff Stuff had some bumper brackets that would drop over the whole thing and give me plenty of weld area. They had 1” holes in them which is massively overkill for the crane bolts, but I discovered a 1” square nut will slide right inside a piece of 2”, 1/4” wall square tube.

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I had a piece of 2” 11 gauge square tube that was 9’ long, so I braced it up on the back like the tractor boom poles I’ve seen, welded a couple more tabs on it from Ruff Stuff, and figured out how to support the whole thing.

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The frame has a piece of angle iron that spans across if under the seat, so I welded another piece of angle on too to reinforce it, drilled a hole, and then bolted/welded a 2000 lb rated eye bolt through it. The most involved part of the whole thing was modifying the floor pan to work with everything.

I also had a Warn 2000 lb winch I’d already mounted to a receiver extension, so I welded a receiver hitch on the front to power the crane and drag stuff or winch the mower out.

Some chain and other hardware got everything up and running. The crane goes on and off with the 2 main bolts and clipping the chain hook to that eye bolt. Everything is rated at a minimum of 2000 lbs. I can adjust the angle/reach of the crane by pinning the chain in different positions.

I had also previously put together a battery power box that has a 50a quick connect which will be the power source for this thing.

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Some of you may remember the thread asking about cutting down the pine tree near the power lines, and if I would

1. Kill myself
2. Be charged a ton of $ if the tree took out the lines

I recently found out the city will sort of help out with tree/powerline stuff, so they cut the tree top off with a bucket truck to below the line height. Big win for free and chance to use this thing immediately.

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I expected the limitation of it to be the mower tipping forward, it weighs right about 1000 lbs with the crane and me on it. I picked up some 3/8” x 6” flat bar and another receiver to build a real hitch and weight rack for the back of it, but haven’t gotten that done yet.

What I didn’t expect is when I lifted the log in the last photo, the casters sunk into the grass and wouldn‘t let it move very well, it basically just wanted to go downhill. I had just replaced the rock hard old turf tires with some mud terrain type golf cart tires, so it just trenched them yard whenever I tried to turn. No bueno.
 
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I had about a dozen sheets of plywood a friend had given me that have been slowly growing mold and being eaten by bugs, so I ended up building a plywood “road“ between the tree pile and dump trailer. Yes I could have moved the trailer a bit closer but I still have to cut down the rest of the tree and wanted room to work.

Great success! And I could actually drive and turn normally as long as I stayed on the plywood.

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Using the crane here to roll this log over and finish the cuts. It forked there so was hard to rotate by hand.

That tail of excess chain also works great to hook one of the points of the log tongs in to keep them from being a wrecking ball while driving back and forth.
 
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I picked up a bunch of 100-200 lb pieces and loaded them into the trailer easily before I decided to see what the thing could do. I took a video of lifting a 24” diameter average by over 3’ long section. According to a chart online it weighs 518 ish lbs.



At the end the back tires started lifting off the ground without me on the mower. I got on it and it lifted it up, but was teetering on the front casters so it didn’t have enough traction to drive. With some ballast on the back it shouldn’t be a problem.

An hours worth of work, winch motor was warm to the touch but fine, battery was not hot. Didn’t have a volt meter here to see what it ran it down to before charging. Finishing the rest today. I’m happy with it.

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It is not a rebranded bobcat it is a rebranded MTD If anything . Nothing on it is overbuilt and if you want it to last I’d find another way to do tree work .
 
Leadfoot21 said:
It is not a rebranded bobcat it is a rebranded MTD If anything . Nothing on it is overbuilt and if you want it to last I’d find another way to do tree work .
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Incorrect. It is a Fastcat Pro with a Briggs engine rather than a Kawasaki. All parts are the same on diagrams, and I’ve used plenty of Bobcat ones on it.
 
I was Incorrect however it is still built to meet a price point at a much cheaper cost than a fast cat so I’d still be careful .
 
I can't think of a worse piece of equipment to try to turn into a crane but its your time, money, and effort. You should have traded for a more suitable thing to build off of
 
ChiScouter said:
I can't think of a worse piece of equipment to try to turn into a crane but its your time, money, and effort. You should have traded for a more suitable thing to build off of
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For a dedicated crane, sure. It’s primary purpose is still a mower, crane comes off with 2 bolts and a snap hook.

I already had the winch, battery, and main tube, I’ve got about $100 and 3 hours in it.

For this tree project alone it’s worth it to not be bear hugging chunks of poison ivy and beetle infested tree trunk.

Not a replacement for a skid steer but there’s a bunch of PITA stuff like hanging this 225 lb gate or moving a pool filter with 300 lbs of sand in it I can see it being super useful for.

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Probably have better results if you hung the crane on the back, and put a counterweight out in the front. Still cool.
 
Thats a cool bit of lateral thinking - although after the first boom photo I was thinking, "Thats not gonna work" - but hey, it does! Awesome.
 
Gatorgrizz27 said:
What I didn’t expect is when I lifted the log in the last photo, the casters sunk into the grass and wouldn‘t let it move very well, it basically just wanted to go downhill. I had just replaced the rock hard old turf tires with some mud terrain type golf cart tires, so it just trenched them yard whenever I tried to turn. No bueno.
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Same problem with the classic "romantic" 2wd farm tractor.

The loader bucket or forks should be on the back so the more you lift, the more traction you have, not the other way around.

I keep getting into this argument at work. 4wd loader scraping an icy ramp...the tire chains should be on the fucking back not the front. If you're lifting heavy then you already have traction on the front even without chains. If you're scraping, well your front end isn't hardly even touching.

Chains go on the rear!
 
Dethmachinefab said:
Probably have better results if you hung the crane on the back, and put a counterweight out in the front. Still cool.
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I considered it but I’ve heard zero turns like to wheelie even without the extra weight on the back and it makes it a huge PITA to see what you’re doing. Might still build a log skidder arm for the rear that’s not very tall.

When I build the rear hitch I’m going to make a basket that sits over the motor to carry stuff around. Thinking when I use the crane I can just throw 2 bags of concrete in it.

This way while it’s still a little bit inefficient you have awesome visibility, much better than a forklift or tractor. You’re looking around a piece of 2” tubing and that’s it.

Ran it for another short stretch today, everything is loaded into the dump trailer besides the trunk that was still standing in the photo. It’s on the ground now and bucked up most of the way through, my 3 year old requested to help me cut up the rest. Probably going to get him on the 20V Dewalt for a bit tomorrow.
 
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I also still have a 2” hitch receiver in front of the winch. I may set it up with a trailer jack to go in there for heavier stuff where you don’t need to drive, like taking an engine block out of a truck bed.
 
I dig it
being too reliant on buying precut overpriced plate steel is the only thing I'll bitch you out for

Dethmachinefab said:
Probably have better results if you hung the crane on the back, and put a counterweight out in the front. Still cool.
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mower deck/footrest is a nice platform for thousands of lbs of counterweight in the form of concrete blocks
 
This is nuts. Lift more shit and post pics. I'm all in for giving existing tools/equipment additional uses.
 
That’s sweet. I’m honestly surprised it doesn’t just flip over.
 
I would've laughed this ridiculous idea out of contention. So, I'm glad you are making it work in spite of logic and all that. :flipoff2:

I do really like some of the features. if you end up a little front heavy, it will launch you nut-first onto a chain. That's cool. And if the log tongs slip off, solid chance of catching the tongs in the teeth.

Something to actually watch out for, though--if it tips forward, you'll be giving it full forward speed on the sticks. if it then rocks back onto the drive wheels, there will be shenanigans. I'm sure that all this is being done at 1/3 of an MPH, though. Right?
 
Muckin_Slusher said:
Same problem with the classic "romantic" 2wd farm tractor.

The loader bucket or forks should be on the back so the more you lift, the more traction you have, not the other way around.

I keep getting into this argument at work. 4wd loader scraping an icy ramp...the tire chains should be on the fucking back not the front. If you're lifting heavy then you already have traction on the front even without chains. If you're scraping, well your front end isn't hardly even touching.

Chains go on the rear!
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Even as a kid, I always thought buckets on the front of a tractor were backwards as shit. I always wanted Dad to get one of those Ford Bi-directional tractors. I'm sure they suck at a lot of stuff, but they're a cool idea.

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Gatorgrizz27 said:
I also still have a 2” hitch receiver in front of the winch. I may set it up with a trailer jack to go in there for heavier stuff where you don’t need to drive, like taking an engine block out of a truck bed.
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Get one with a wheel or better yet build one with a bigger tire that matches the geometry of the other two so it doesn't drag as much when turning. It's probably a good idea to take some of the load off those front tires and spindles that weren't made to handle the weight you're putting on them.
 
AK_F250 said:
Get one with a wheel or better yet build one with a bigger tire that matches the geometry of the other two so it doesn't drag as much when turning. It's probably a good idea to take some of the load off those front tires and spindles that weren't made to handle the weight you're putting on them.
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OHV Wildcat said:
I'm really confused by this. I guess this is to pick up the ass end of the bobcat and make it kinder to grass like a 3-wheeled forklift?
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I bet it smooths out turning motion a whole bunch, helpful when using it like a fork lift. They can rock pretty good turning sometimes.
 
OHV Wildcat said:
I'm really confused by this. I guess this is to pick up the ass end of the bobcat and make it kinder to grass like a 3-wheeled forklift?
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First time I seen one (on the internet) it was said that it's for orchards, which jives with the "not tearing shit up" train of thought.
 
my thought was that that'd let you run a huge amount more counterweight
with just the pallet forks on the front you're driving on the tie-down loop pretty much any time there isn't something on the forks

more counterweight along with tweaking the pressure regulator would let you pick up more than the pitiful amount a skidsteer will
 
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