Clever DIYer Turns Lawn Tractors Into Forklifts, Bulldozers, & More

Frank Smith is a very clever DIYer who operates the "Wood and Metal Shop Time" YouTube channel. He has created some amazing builds out of International Harvester's Cub Cadet lawn tractors.

He started out innocently enough: After creating a road grader for his local gravel road, based on a 1972 Cub Cadet, he posted a video to YouTube in 2020 and sent the link to a few friends. After a few months, Frank was notified by YouTube that his video had received one million views. In addition, he was also told he had 5,000 subscribers to his channel, which blew him away. Since then, Frank bought a new camera as well as a drone to show his new viewers all of his ongoing exploits in his shop, where he has continued to build out his inventory of Cub Cadet-based construction equipment.

Frank prefers the Cub Cadet tractors that were produced between 1972 and 1978, just a few years before International Harvester stopped making tractors for good. This is because they offer easy access due to their quickly removable panels. In addition to the road grader, Frank has since created a bulldozer, a forklift, and an articulated, four-wheel drive tractor with a hydraulic dump bed. A few months ago, Frank made a YouTube video for the channel, in which he brought out his entire fleet of Cub Cadet-based equipment. In the video, he explains the features of each piece of equipment. 

Frank's road grader project required him to synchronize two hydrostatic transmissions and to control the vehicle's blade from the driver's seat. The grader also uses a power steering system from a later-model Cub Cadet.

After the road grader project, Frank was looking for more of a challenge. Frank's mini-dozer project, shown above, came from his purchase of a plasma table, which can cut plate steel in any shape he needs. With the plasma table, Frank could cut all of the pieces needed for the tracks, which were separately welded to a chain. Frank installed two transmissions, each of which drives the tracks on one side. When one track goes forward and one goes in reverse, the dozer will spin in place. 

Frank says that the forklift is his favorite, though, because he uses it the most, usually for bringing sheet metal from the delivery truck into his shop. It is capable of lifting 1,200 pounds of material and raising it as high as seven feet. The reason that Frank uses Cub Cadet tractors as the basis for his builds is because of his experience with a used one that he bought in 1979 and has been cutting his lawn ever since.

Frank is obviously a very ambitious DIYer, much like the guy who built a brand-new 1967 Mustang a DIYer built from scratch. But if these projects sound too complex for your current set of skills, don't worry — we have 5 easy DIY auto projects any beginner can tackle.