Lawn mower racing is steadily gaining popularity in the sphere or motor racing, due to it’s advantage of affordability and fun. Building a racing lawn mower will require only a few basic steps, caution and some elbow grease. After converting your lawn mower, you’ll be ready to use it for fun, or race alongside other lawn mower racers.
Materials
- Lawn mower
- New muffler
- New larger tires
- Smaller pulleys
- Brake parts
Tools
- Wrenches
- Drill
- Sandblaster
- T drives
- Jigsaw
- Welder
- Angle grinder
Instructions
- Remove all the parts of a second hand lawn mower except the chassis. Using a sandblaster dust and de-rust the chassis surface.
- Using metal for the back axle components, weld and strengthen the chassis with new parts.
- Assemble the back axle with precision; if this component is too advanced for you, enlist the help of a professional with auto mechanical or engineering experience.
- Make cut outs with a jigsaw, hole saw or drill for the engine plate once you’ve completely installed the back axle.
- Prepare the steering wheel, engine, spare tire, and wheels. Spare parts are easily sourced through classified ads in newspapers and magazines or online.
- Connect the steering set to the chassis. After that install the wheels, tires, and back axle to the chassis. Fitting the parts may be challenging, so enlist the help of someone else, preferably someone with experience in fitting the parts.
- Install the brake calliper, ensuring to customise the pedals with enough space for the installation of the brake and accelerator.
- Fit and install the engine, clutch, pulleys and belts then weld the steering wheel frame.
- Source a seat that will fit the dimensions of your lawn mower racer, and install it to your liking.
- Test drive the lawn mower racer once you’ve completely assembled all its parts. Pay attention to operational problems in the steering wheel or brakes. Attend to problems and test drive each time to ensure they are not recurring. Take the lawn mower racer to a variety of terrain for the best evaluation.
Tips and warnings
- Wear protective goggles when welding. Otherwise, you may severely damage your eyes while welding the parts together on your lawn mower racer.
- When driving the lawn mower racer, ensure to protect yourself adequately by wearing a helmet and other protective gears while racing.
- It is not a good idea to take a bone stock mower and turn it into a lawn mower racer. You can and will incur severe injuries if this is done.
- Your mower must have an approved jet ski or snowmobile style safety switch. This will cause the mower to automatically shut down if the driver falls off. Without the switch, the mower will keep on going, and the driver will inevitable be injured or worse.
