G'day nath,
Compact was something I worked very hard on. It was initially designed to be 28" wide ( to suit a 28" deck). The frame widens by 50 mm at the back to accomodate the drives. I also offset the drives to keep it narrow and for other clearance issues.
I did consider levers in the beginning but opted for pedals for a few reasons:
Easier to design and build.
The weight of levers would have to be carefully balanced so they didn't overcome the springs in the clutch packs. The springs in the clutches could be strengthened but I figured that the pedals were an easier option.
I'm used to driving machines with pedals so didn't figure I'd find it too foreign.
I've since acquired a 32" deck which if great! The situation is that this place has a lot of wide open grass to cut but also a lot of tightly spaced trees that I need to get around so to be honest 32" is probably ideal.
I popped the deck on this afternoon and that's helped heaps. Having some weight up the front has settled it down quite a bit. Basically it's quite driveable now. I'll muck about with fine tuning a bit and do some more testing but basically I think it's ok. Also, to be honest, I'm probably just getting used to it too.
Cheers,
