How to make a mini tractor from a Neva walk-behind tractor with your own hands 

Manual labor in the garden is tiring, so the owners are trying to mechanize it whenever possible. First, a person buys a walk-behind tractor or a cultivator. But over time, such equipment becomes not enough to complete the tasks, and the owner begins to re-equip it. For example, now we will look at how we assemble a mini-tractor from the Neva walk-behind tractor with our own hands and find out what is needed for this.

What is needed to convert the Neva MB-23S motoblock into a mini-tractor

Before we learn how to make a mini-tractor from a Neva walk-behind tractor, let’s figure out what will come of it and what parts are needed. To begin with, as a result of the conversion, you will have four-wheeled vehicles. In addition to performing all garden processing operations, you can transport goods on a home-made mini-tractor, maintain a home farm, and take care of the garden. To expand the functionality of the unit, you will have to purchase attachments. For example, if you fix a blade in front of the frame, then in winter you can remove accumulations of snow from the territory adjacent to the house with a mini-tractor.

Special kits are sold for quick assembly of the tractor. The kit contains all the necessary parts. If you really want to save money, you can find old parts from a passenger car. It will take longer to fiddle with them, making adjustments, but such a mini-tractor will pay off faster due to low costs.

Model “Neva” MB-23S was not accidentally chosen as an example. The motoblock is equipped with a four-stroke diesel engine with a capacity of 9 liters. With. Thanks to the large traction force of the engine, it will be possible to assemble a high-performance mini-tractor. The unit has enough power to work with many types of attachments.

So, for reincarnation, a working walk-behind tractor, a steering column, bearings, a wheelset and, of course, metal are required. The frame is usually welded from a channel, profile or pipe. To strengthen important nodes, you will need a corner and sheet steel with a minimum thickness of 5 mm.

The maneuverability, stability and performance of a home-made unit depends on the correct manufacture of the undercarriage. When assembling a mini-tractor from a Neva walk-behind tractor, it is advisable to pick up wheels with a radius of 14 to 18 inches. With small wheels, the equipment will tip over in difficult areas, and large ones will complicate the control of the machine.

Let’s start modernizing the walk-behind tractor

So, we figured out what we need to work. Now it’s time to consider in detail how to make a mini-tractor from the Neva walk-behind tractor with your own hands.

During work, a diagram should always be at hand, on which all nodes and dimensions of the workpieces are indicated. If you have already decided, then proceed:

• Guided by the drawing, the blanks for the frame are cut with a grinder. The main load will fall on the structure, so it needs to be made strong. Frame elements are connected by welding. For reliability, complex joints are reinforced with bolted connections. A jumper welded in the center will not interfere. It will increase the frame’s resistance to deformation when transporting heavy loads off-road. During the manufacture of the frame, do not forget to immediately weld the attachments for attachments. This will be more difficult to do later due to limited access.
• The frame for a mini-tractor can be solid and broken. If the choice fell on the second option, then you need a hinge. This part connects two half-frames. But then the steering column is also installed at the break of two parts of the frames.
• The assembly order of the undercarriage depends on the location of the motor. If it stands in front of the frame, then the track width remains native, as it was on the walk-behind tractor. The rear wheel pair is fixed to the frame on the axle. It is made from a piece of thick steel bar or pipe. To mount the wheels themselves on the axle, you will need hubs and bearings.
•  If the motor is mounted on the back of the frame, then the native wheels from the walk-behind tractor are mounted on a wider axle. Otherwise, a narrow track will affect the poor balance of the mini-tractor.
• The steering of a home-made unit can be assembled from native handles from a walk-behind tractor. But such a design will create discomfort when you need to take the tractor back. The best option is to install a traditional steering column.
• With a one-piece frame design, the rods from the column are connected to the front axle. It is she who will turn with the wheels. On a broken frame, the column turns the entire front part with the axle and wheels. In this case, two additional gears must be used: one part is permanently fixed to the element of the front part of the frame, and the other is attached to the steering column.
• The driver’s seat is welded on racks to the frame. Here you can think of floating mounts that allow you to adjust the workplace. If you plan to work on a mini-tractor at night, you need to install two headlights, and to move along the highway you will need to add marker lights. Only for lighting work, a battery is installed separately, since the walk-behind tractor does not have an output for connecting headlights.

At the end of the assembly, the mini-tractor must be run in without load. In case of errors in the calculations, defective nodes are corrected, otherwise this technique will not work for a long time.

The video provides an overview of the mini-tractor from the Neva walk-behind tractor:

And now we offer to look at the photo drawings that will help in the alteration of the walk-behind tractor. The diagrams show the design with a solid and broken frame.