O/T I have a question ???

John B. · Jun 15, 2012

I have a 6ft Woods brand belly mower.
Do you think an 18hp twin cylinder Briggs & Stratton Engine would be enough to power this mower? Thinking of making it a pull type finish mower.

Uncle Ernie · Jun 15, 2012

Yes definitly. A Farmall cub can run one with 14HP and power the tractor too.

Oldiron29 · Jun 16, 2012

I don't think you will be happy. Cub runs 48"mower, Super A runs 60" mower H runs 72" mower
You can cut thin low grass with any mower. Get some heavy grass that has not been mowed in a week or so and you will cook the belt for slipping. oldiron29

Big M · Jun 16, 2012

Before you get too far into the idea, check the rotation of your motor verses the PTO. PTO's are the reverse the direction of a motor.

bob15 · Jun 16, 2012

One major glaring difference, the Cub produces the HP at 1600 erpm (with the engine on a load) and the Briggs gets the HP rating at 3600 erpm (no engine load). The Briggs is a torque-less engine producing at best 26ft/lbs. The Cub will be 40-45 ft/lbs torque.

To the OP, maybe get 2 Briggs engines and set them up to both run the mower. One engine isn't going to cut it and will struggle if the grass is tall in an area. Or, buy a bigger tractor.....

Anonymous-0 · Jun 16, 2012

I don't think the 18hp briggs would do it. But the 35 hp Briggs industrial would handle it nicely.

ericlb · Jun 16, 2012

not a good idea, as bob said while the briggs claims 18 hp, the torque, the amount of twisting force the engine can produce, is not nearly enough to keep the mower spinning once its under a load, the cub has a big, heavy flywheel on the back of the engine which the briggs does not, also the rpm on the briggs is way wrong, if the mower was made for something like a cub it is designed to turn around at engine rpm on that tractor, in the area of 14 to 1600 rpm, a cub's pto is direct engine rpm, and it also spins in the opisite direction of the bigger tractors pto's, if its designed to be powered by a larger tractor its made to have around 540 rpms going into it then the mower steps up the rpm to its blades by a pulley system, gearbox ect, if you manage to get the briggs hooked up to power it, it will probably not even have enough to spin the blades at low idle, if you throttle it up into its power band it will power it on say bare ground or concrete, but you'll be hitting around 3600 rpm on the input pulley of the mower, nearly 4 times what it was designed for, the blades will be turning so fast the mower may self destruct,

John B. · Jun 16, 2012

A twist in the belt will reverse the intended rotation.

evilboweviel · Jun 16, 2012

need to work out rotation and gearing/rpm issues
worth a try if you have everything and like to build
NOT worth buying parts and paying someone to build
definitly would be a finish mower only and you better not try to cut too fast or too much at a time, if the grass is tall then the mower would have to be raised up and pulled slowly multiple times until down to where it needs to be
could be a fun project to build and see how it works out
good luck
Ron

BushogPapa · Jun 16, 2012

Maybe a VW air-cooled engine would be a decent choice...but you will need a gear-box to gear it down...
I would say that it takes up to 35 (Tractor HP) to really put a 72" Woods finish mower thru it's paces...
Light "Yard mowing" should still be around 15 HP Minimum..
Ron..

gene bender · Jun 16, 2012

Yes that will work fine as a 18hp tractor will mow yard so your engine will run it fine.

gene bender · Jun 16, 2012

The pulley on the tractor is large to get the mower blades to turn fast enough so a small pulley on the Brigs will run around the same rpms and rotation isnt a problem just wind the belt around the center pulley to get correct rotation of the blades.

Rex in Australia · Jun 16, 2012

Built a tow behind mower years ago to tow behind a quad bike. Was made from a 5ft cutting deck and powered it with a 12.5hp Briggs. Never suffered from loss of power and mowed some heavy grass in the tropical zone here in Aussie.
Cheers,
Rex

O/T I have a question ???

John B.

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Uncle Ernie

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Oldiron29

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Big M

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bob15

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Anonymous-0

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ericlb

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John B.

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evilboweviel

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BushogPapa

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gene bender

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gene bender

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Rex in Australia

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