Durability of riding lawnmower transaxles using a 13 hp engine?

kyerik

I am building cart with a 13 hp vertical shaft engine and want lots of gear ratios and reverse. I have a peerless riding mower transaxle that I am thinking of using. I will be direct driving the transaxle (with a golf cart CVT drive), then using a set of sprockets on each of the transaxle axles to over drive a pair of 1" axles to increase rpm by 4X. The weight of the cart will be on the 1" axles and by separating them, I will still have a functioning differential.

Has anyone used a lawnmower transaxle as a transmission (not to bear weight) ? How many hp were you running and how well did it hold up?

BGW

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Shepard

As long as you don't try to shift on the fly, peerless transaxles are pretty rugged. They run them in racing mowers. There weak link is the shifting key. People try to shift them like car and it makes a mess of the insides. Make sure its full of grease if its a used gearbox. What are you planning for brakes?

kyerik

Thanks Shepard- I am splicing on an ATV front end (Yamaha Timberwolf) and the brakes on it work well. I am using an old electric EZGO marathon frame and just today cut the front off the ATV and am figuring out how to weld them together.

This peerless was off an older Murray mower. I am going to open it up this week and check out the insides to see if it has any chains and if so how big they are and what shape they are in. I read that if the internal transmission chain breaks, it will wad up and likely break the case open.

Shepard

Yes that's correct on the chain. It is part of reverse and is removed in transmissions set for racing. Here's a link that may help.

https://www.google.com/search?q=peer...fsjRnxk8T6O5M:

Cavemandrew

It has a chain for reverse. Me and my brother have modified mowers for off road. Mine has 22" knobby atv tires and 21hp v twin and runs 25mph. Iv blown 3 trans in half but I haven't broken a chain but my brother has. He went to Tractor supply and got some chain to replace it. We also put gear oil in them and seal them up. If you don't do WOT clutch dumps in 4th or 5th gear you should be fine.haha

kyerik

Caveman- hopefully the golf cart clutches will be easier on the transaxle than your setup.

To get up to 25mph, do you overdrive the transmission with a tiny pulley on it and a big pulley on the engine- and then mount your big tires on the stock axle? Or ?

What brands/models of transaxles failed and do you know what happened? (broken shafts? broken teeth? worn out bushings/bearings?)