Pulley Swapping a Hydrostatic, How Fast?

the reason they say you cant pulley swap them is because the pump in the trans will burn up, killing the trans for good. Good test though, I didnt think it would go THAT fast. Pretty cool!

racing lawn mower - the most senseless hobby I can think about wasting the free time but - man I loving your channel for this exact thing 🙂

Pretty good,quick build. I always forget the lever that releases the hydro too 😂. Most hydros whe water is deep enough for the fan to contact water....the fan blades act like a propeller slowing it down and making slipage easier. I trimmed the blades down on my old husqvarna,it helped but still slipped when water got over the fan.

thats really good for a hydro, i put the belt on the deck pulley on mine and did about 8 mph

Hey! I think thats my old mower! 😂. It's about time you did something with it.

That mower would be awesome with a Lift kit Straight pipe And truck tires I might try to pulley swap my hydro just for laughs

I had a customer who replaced a damaged hydro pulley with a smaller one he had laying around. After about a month of cutting his two acre yard, the transmission seized up. Upon disassembly it was found most of the fluid had “boiled” off and what was left smelled like burned gear oil, also signs of extreme heat.

I pulled swapped my 20 hp briggs vtwin wizard its hydrostatic and that thing moves pretty good. Haven't had any issues with the trans yet . It does get pretty warm if your running it hard though so it might end up taking a shit at some point.

I’ve put some amount of thought into pulley swapping a hydro. The limiting factor to speed on a hydro is the maximum flow of oil in the transmission, which may or may not be achieved above the stock pulley setup. If you pulley swap it too high, you are achieving maximum flow at a lower engine rpm- giving full speed at lower engine power, causing it to bog. Give it more throttle in that situation and you don’t gain any speed, and only make more heat because the trans is trying to pump more fluid that it can use. If you can find the max speed that the hydro will do and tune your pulley swap to make that max speed at your engines peak power making RPM (usually the governed 3600), you will be be able to use your transmissions best speed, at your engines best RPM, and hopefully without overheating your transmission. Hot Lap Garage on YouTube has several hydro Wheel Horses, they are stout units and proven to be very capable in rock crawling, even placing well in TTC. I saw his Ghost pull a dead wheel horse up a crazy rock crawl. He’s starting to have problems with them overheating and I believe he’s planning on installing a oil cooler on one. Hydros are something that I think need more research and trial and error!

10 mph is impressive! And it's a good mudder!!

Thanks for another video!

Great job 👍🏻 👏 👍🏻 👏

The key to a fast hydro is using a live axle and sprockets on the axle shafts of the hydro to changing the gearing. The bad part is engine braking/slowing down, not sure how the pump would react to that.

Pulley swapping a hydro overclocks the hydraulic pump in the transaxle. You get more hydraulic pressure at the expense of more heat and fluid cavitation.

my new build is a 1972 Massey Ferguson Hydra speed. It does 13 mph Stock in high gear, I am putting a Kohler Command Pro 37 HP on it and building it as a tractor recovery rig...

KEEP IMPROVING THE UPGRADES.

I have pulley swapped several hydros and never had a problem with them and I have a pulley swapped Mud Mower Hydro that goes 14 mph

I love the channel have learned a lot thank you

Awesome test run. I have been wondering about the hydro pulley swap. Good to know it does work. I wonder if the engine had a little more power if it wouldnt bog so bad but may could get some more top speed with a taller tire too. guess we will see what the longevity will be. thanks for the video!

I especially liked the part where you thought it was an atv:)