Both a wanted, and an interesting project.

[dome]

2 hours ago, Talbot said:

Well.  That didn't take long:

One rather rotten Saxo 1.5 Diesel.  A-Frame being assembled onto it:

And ready to go.  Bonnet and wings were loosely re-assembled as it just looks more "right":

En Route, obligatory Pez station shot:

Abandoned at the FoD:

Many thanks to @jcr for this.  I think there was an all-round sigh of relief from various people when this was framed away.

So.  That's a TUD engine, an associated gearbox, and one axle, plus some brakes, steering gear etc.  I will be keeping my eyes open for another scrap saxo/106 now, as I need another front subframe/hubs/brakes/etc. as the mower will be 4-wheel steer.  Oddly, this has electric PAS, which I've not worked with before.  Could be interesting.
Time to get cutting this up.  There's no need for the entire car to remain!

EPAS conversions are common for classic and competition cars so there may be a way to make it work. I fitted one to the Kangoo using a kit like this to fool the existing ECU with regards to the speed sensor which was missing from my setup. It gives me a rheostat which I can use to Vary the assistance. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251838446769?hash=item3aa2bdbcb1:g:HGYAAOSwPzpZda1d

A quick search on ebay doesn't show the Saxo kit as being available but a quick google brought up this link to Pistonheads

Before you click, Pistonheads started life as a TVR forum and there a plenty of non cunty types on there, they just hide themselves away from the main pages...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1260691 

Maybe worth investigating further, it looks like it might  be made to work easier than the normal Clio/Corsa setups that folk normally use. 

[Talbot]

I should have been more specific... it's not Electric assisted steering:  it has an electric hydraulic pump.  The PAS is completely conventional, just driven by an electric motor rather than an engine-mounted pump.   I do wonder if the TUD series engines ever had space for an engine-driven pump, as all previous versions I've seen have all been unassisted steering.  Maybe an Electric pump is the only option for PAS on a TUD-engined Paxo.

[St.Jude]

2 minutes ago, Talbot said:

I should have been more specific... it's not Electric assisted steering:  it has an electric hydraulic pump.  The PAS is completely conventional, just driven by an electric motor rather than an engine-mounted pump.   I do wonder if the TUD series engines ever had space for an engine-driven pump, as all previous versions I've seen have all been unassisted steering.  Maybe an Electric pump is the only option for PAS on a TUD-engined Paxo.

I think you might be right, as a quick Goggle on a subject I know nothing about just talks about electro-hydrualic pumps.

I misread what you said though initially, as I swore blind my Peugeot 306 had hydraulic power steering. It did, driven by a pump from the engine. But that was an XUD engine.

However, thinking about it, there'd be plenty of TUD powered whips with air conditioning, so what's stopping you getting a PAS pump from an XUD engine and putting it on where the air con pump would've fit?

[dome]

Ah, in that case ignore everything I said! 

Would EPAS be a solution though? No hydraulics to worry about, just some wiring.

[Talbot]

Hydraulics are easy though.  Mechanical simplicity is good!  Also, the cutting decks are likely to end up being hydraulic drive, so PAS isn't too much of a concern.  I suspect I'll end up with a fairly hefty bracket attached to the end of the engine with multiple pumps attached to it.

[barefoot]

Will you be able to drive it on two wheels, or cross the channel in it?

[Spurious]

40 minutes ago, barefoot said:

Will you be able to drive it on two wheels, or cross the channel in it?

Put a hover skirt around it and float across the channel 😆 already got the spinny things 

[Talbot]

It'll have 4-wheel steering to allow it to do a U-Turn within it's own cutting width, so you can do up-and-down the field rather than having to do racetrack loops like you do with many older lawn tractors.  I'm also keeping it as 4 steerable wheels rather than castors or anything like that, as I plan for it to have a towbar and it also be a very useful shunting engine up at the field to move dead vehicles about.

... it's going nowhere near water!!

[PhilA]

What's the upper limit for regular "home use" style ride-on mowers there?

150cc single-pot 36" single blade10hp kind of deal?

[Talbot]

Upper limit in what way?  What you can buy?  You can have anything you want.  If you decide you want to use a 50hp funky monkey floating deck cutter for your 3-bed semi, you can.

[reb]

I don't know how powerful the mower they use to cut my grass is but it's hilariously overkill as it's the same one they use for cutting large areas of grass elsewhere on the farm. Probably worth many many pounds though.

[leafsprung]

On 7/29/2021 at 7:02 PM, LightBulbFun said:

"it will lop your bollocks/tits off guaranteed!" 

Let me tell you a little (true) story... 

As some might have picked up on in the Bearded Explorer twat thread, I was, once upon a time, a Rights of Way Officer. Part of the job was running summer cutting contracts. All but one of my contractors were farmers or agricultural contractors who inevitably used compact Kubota tractors (a lovely little vintage Fordson Dexta in one case) running small 1m wide toppers. There was one exception, a tree surgeon who used an 'Etesia Attila' which looks like an off road go kart (note the handy green bull bar. More of that later). This chap, Mike we'll call him, (because that's his name) was, to be honest, a bloody liability. He was forever pissing off farmers and landowners by being an arrogant aggressive twat, which always resulted in me getting the abuse from the offended party, plus from Mike (because it was never his fault, obviously).

Anyway, during June in 2010, I started getting calls from Joe Public grumbling that their paths hadn't been cut. That was normal, so I did the usual 'the contractor is on his way so they should be done in a week or so'. I tried to get hold of Mike to find out exactly where he was but there was no answer and calls went straight to voicemail. The next day I got a call from Mike's brother to say that Mike was in hospital, that he would be picking up the cutting and Mike would be out of action for a while. I asked the obvious 'what happened' question and he gave a vague reply about an accident with his mower, but then realising he'd probably given more away than he should have became a bit aggressive and tried to blame me, the farmer and just about everyone else for the accident. The condition of the path and an overhanging branch 'had caused it' he said. He wouldn't say what had happened but knowing Mike's track record I was already suspicious. 

I obviously had to get to the bottom of the issue so headed out to find the location. There was no way Mike would tell me where it had happened but I knew roughly where he had been working and after a couple of hours I easily found it. 

It was a hot June day and as I walked down this lovely, wide, perfectly flat field edge path I could see a small overhanging branch ahead. Normally overhanging branches are the farmers issue to deal with but we asked the contractors to trim the small stuff as it was easier than chasing the L/O. As I got closer I saw a dark patch on the ground which I assumed to be oil, except that this appeared to be moving. When I got to it I realised that it was actually a swarm of flies. Hundreds of black flies. They were on a heap of shredded, blood soaked denim. The path ahead hadn't been cut either so this was obviously the spot. Looking around it was so obvious what had happened (this was eventually corroborated by Mike when my manager paid a visit to him in hospital and presented the evidence). Rather than get off his lazy arse and trim the branch back as he was required to do, he'd tried to drive round it and dropped a wheel into the adjacent plough furrow. As you can see from the picture, Mike's Atesia had tiny wheels and low ground clearance so had bottomed out. I could clearly see where the wheels had been spinning along the path edge. The aptly named 'deadman' was built into the seat of the Etesia and Mike was obviously fed up with regular occurrences like this so, having bypassed the deadman, his normal technique was, with drive engaged, to push it or pull on the bull bar to haul it free. This time, of course, he cocked it up and fell backwards. Mike's biggest error this day however, was to have failed to disengage the blades! He was quite literally mown down. 

The path was pretty remote apart from a couple of estate cottages a short distance away. I took a chance and knocked on the door of one and asked if the lady knew anything about what had happened. "Oh, him" she said, "Yes, he fainted on the doorstep. The Air Ambulance came for him". 

He spent a couple of weeks in hospital having skin grafts on his legs, arse and shoulders, and was back in 'action' for the autumn cut. During this time he managed to roll the damn thing down a slope, drove through a crop in his Transit to tow it back up  and then after that fell off a river bank with it, which thankfully was the end of it. The last two issues we found out about long after they happened by which time Mike hadn't been invited to tender for the following years contracts. 

How we laughed about him doing a 'half-arsed' job. 

[somewhatfoolish]

On 8/23/2021 at 4:47 PM, Talbot said:

I should have been more specific... it's not Electric assisted steering:  it has an electric hydraulic pump.  The PAS is completely conventional, just driven by an electric motor rather than an engine-mounted pump.   I do wonder if the TUD series engines ever had space for an engine-driven pump, as all previous versions I've seen have all been unassisted steering.  Maybe an Electric pump is the only option for PAS on a TUD-engined Paxo.

If they're anything like the TRW ones Vauxhall put in Vectras etc they're probably a bit weedy for anything mower-related as they're only rated about 1hp continuous, although they will surge a bit higher than that wiring and fuses permitting.

[motorpunk]

@leafsprung😂😂😂😂👍

 

More stories like that please.

[chaseracer]

http://www.12hour.co.uk

So... any more thoughts on a '22 AS entry? 😎

[Six-cylinder]

I tried to buy liability insurance for the FoD from the NFU, the conversation went something like this!

Me - I have a small holding and need insurance can you help me?

NFU - Yes

Me - Does it cover vintage machinery?

NFU – We can do

Me  - can I ask friends to drive equipment for me?

NFU – Yes as long as they are qualified/trained for what they are doing.

Me – they are just friends helping out

NFU – NOT a F****** chance!

So remember at the FoD look after your safety and others. There is no insurance to cover you.

[St.Jude]

18 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

I tried to buy liability insurance for the FoD from the NFU, the conversation went something like this!

Me - I have a small holding and need insurance can you help me?

NFU - Yes

Me - Does it cover vintage machinery?

NFU – We can do

Me  - can I ask friends to drive equipment for me?

NFU – Yes as long as they are qualified/trained for what they are doing.

Me – they are just friends helping out

NFU – NOT a F****** chance!

So remember at the FoD look after your safety and others. There is no insurance to cover you.

Well why don't you pay us all £10 for one hour's work at FoD, and then we'll pay you £10 for I dunno, tea and cake

We're employees then. The NFU will be happy, you'll be happy, and I promise I won't organise a union. 

[Six-cylinder]

4 minutes ago, St.Jude said:

Well why don't you pay us all £10 for one hour's work at FoD, and then we'll pay you £10 for I dunno, tea and cake

We're employees then. The NFU will be happy, you'll be happy, and I promise I won't organise a union. 

I don't fancy negotiating with @chaseracer and @Floatylight company cars for the workers!

[808 Estate]

Hedge trimming redneck style.

 

[Crackers]

Yo... would this be of any use?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/citroen-ax-diesel/1430921478?utm_content=app_android

I'll caveat this by saying I haven't read the ad or looked at the pictures so if it doesn't have PAS or any useful steering/underframe bits then please do ignore the hell out of me.

[wuvvum]

I don't think any AXs had PAS.  They weigh about 500 grams, they don't need it.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Didn't OP find a Paxo 18 months ago? 

[Crackers]

10 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Didn't OP find a Paxo 18 months ago? 

Yeah, but I'm sure I recall needing a second subframe to allow 4 wheel steering.