What did you do with your tractor today?

[chieffan]

Had the Satoh out yesterday. Put the Landscape (rock) rake on and started in cleanup on the yard. Hybred will are old and loose a lot of branches and a few limbs through the winter. Rake works great except for all the real little stuff that will go through the mower. Few had to be picked up by hand but the yard is ready for mowing once again. That little tractor and loader sure comes in handy.

 

[dodge trucker]

I hate when this happens but kinda glad it did. You ever get this sinking feeling? when something "fixes" itself without you doing a thing......
This is on John's Cub 1250/ John owns the property and barns I store my junk in, and I have helped mow/ but have taken over all the mowing, since he got holed up in an old folks home/// I think he has more stents now than original veins/arteries.......

We keep it mowed, both to keep the varmints away and also people who pass by, know that someone is around, hopefully they keep their nose out where it don't belong as well..... this will be my 3rd whole season of handling it without any help from him. he has about 3-1/2-4 acres to mow out there. Maybe 5.

He has 3 Cub Cadets. 1-1250 and 2-1200s. My wife likes running the 1250. We use his machines and mine too, to keep the place mowed.
I haven't had a chance to take each machine and go thru them each one by one with a "fine tooth comb" to get rid of their quirks. Between him and I there are no less than 8 GTs out there in the barn. Sometimes we get thru the mow with the 2 machines we 1st jump onto, other times we have to run 4-5 to get thru 1 mow, then the "current issue" gets fixed, when they all need "gone thru" thoroughly 1 at a time and ALL the bugs fixed on each one....
About 4 mowings before the end of the season, John's 1250 abruptly died on my wife. It was smoking hot (not overheating) just hot from having run for about an hour straight. When it died, I checked fuel and oil levels, checked for spark (as I remember it had none-- I've slept since then)
So I gave her the one I was on, and went and got the next machine. We pushed the dead 1250 into the corn crib and forgot about it. I did pull the battery out when I last mowed, in the fall.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago. I winched it up onto my trailer along with one of my Ariens GT19s that also needed attention. Brought them home. Last week was "shot" with Donna having had to be in hospital "prison" all week..... and its been raining every chance I might have otherwise had, to get after them. I fixed what I had to on the Ariens, and finally today I got after the 1250.... now get this.... I put a fresh battery in, checked the oil, gave it a splash of gas and it STARTED RIGHT UP!!!!! Its been sitting since about September! I KNOW I checked it for fuel 1st thing when it quit! I even sprayed some Gumout in the carb, before we pushed it aside and dead as a doornail. Cranked but no fire.
I hate when a problem "fixes" itself and I don't know what changed............
plan is to bring them home 2 at a time and get them into shape, rather than patch them as they go down "in the field".
I put a new clutch in the one 1200 but didnt realize the shaft must be tweaked (bent slightly) as it shakes like mad. Engine is tight (mount wise) , I did the motor mount mod and everything.... I can see the shaft oscillating as it runs. we didnt get to mow with that one last season. I took it back early to get it outta my way. so I gotta finish that one up.
I want to swap this other motor onto my 129, and hope it don't smoke as bad as the original one does/ found a 127 in the local junkyard with a gray factory replacement K301 for scrap price then brought it home and got it running.....
I have either a M14 Magnum here or the original, freshly rebuilt K321 that it was born with sitting here, that can go onto the New Holland in place of the leaky M12..... so I can fix the leaks.... along with some new bearings in the deck..... and on it goes.

Then to bring home the LT166 Deere and get it up for sale. same with the Husq 21K46 that is now a 17B(riggs)46...... hopefully in the 1st half of the mowing season so those go away easily, with a few $$ in my pocket,,, (those 2, aren't part of the 8 GTs I mentioned earlier)

 

[Sawdust]

Sounds like me I only have one neighbor near me down the road and she is so impressed at how many tractors I have to mow with. She don’t know using these old gems sometimes it takes a few to get the job done. Yeah when something fixes itself you have that feeling lurking in your mind it’s going to do it again when you least expect it. Sounds like you got things under control.

 

[dodge trucker]

I hope.

 

[BMaverick]

Seat time today was in beautiful 78F weather disc harrowing the 2ND time all the gardens. It was questionable as the day prior it rained heavily for over 9 hours.

I have to work the compost in well enough between the rains.






Last frost date is Mothers Day in my zone. So a few more runs and things will look great to transplant.

Snow peas are already in. They don't care about mild frost. Come June they would overtake the entire 2 trellis hoops.

Knowing the cost of food and the supply, it's best to hedge against the alarming price increases and the out-of-stock issues.

A co-worker 'had' 70 pepper plants all doing well. Overnight, the TCO failed on his seed starter heat mats. In the morning, the temp in the system was 110F and the peat-moss literally turned to goo. The starters were long gone. He's re-working everything again this weekend. He lost 2 weeks.

 

[MacWorld]

I've been doing very extensive maintenance on one of our cars since the beginning of the winter and I discovered it had all it's catalytic converters removed. I don't like cars without catalytic converters both for the bad smell and the pollution so I decided to get those from the other identical car I have as a "parts car". Since the engine bay is very, very tightly packed (twin turbo v6) I preferred re-installing the drive train with the catalytic converters bolted to the engine. This meant I had to get the car out of the garage in order to be able to get the parts-car on my lift to remove the parts.

1655 to the rescue once again! It's very limit on it's capacities, in fact without the counterweight (which is half full of concrete slabs tightly packed) the rear wheels didn't touch the ground. It ended working very well and at the end of the day the car was back up in the air!

 

[chieffan]

Fired up the IH 1650 tractor with snow thrower. Got the thrower blocked and placed where I wanted it and dropped it off. Plan is to get the lawn roller to the shop, weld a seam crack shut and refill with water. Then roll the lawn after the rain last evening. Got .45" so should roll down good.

 

[MFDAC]

I've been doing very extensive maintenance on one of our cars since the beginning of the winter and I discovered it had all it's catalytic converters removed. I don't like cars without catalytic converters both for the bad smell and the pollution so I decided to get those from the other identical car I have as a "parts car". Since the engine bay is very, very tightly packed (twin turbo v6) I preferred re-installing the drive train with the catalytic converters bolted to the engine. This meant I had to get the car out of the garage in order to be able to get the parts-car on my lift to remove the parts.

1655 to the rescue once again! It's very limit on it's capacities, in fact without the counterweight (which is half full of concrete slabs tightly packed) the rear wheels didn't touch the ground. It ended working very well and at the end of the day the car was back up in the air!

View attachment 51492View attachment 51493

That tractor is a beast, MAC! Don't think my MF1450 will ever be that good of a yard mule!

DAC

 

[CRF6179]

Mowed the yard for the second time. I mowed the Friday before Easter because we had guest/ Egg hunt for Easter. Both time I've just knocked the tops off the faster growing grass and made it look a little more even for a few days. I mow with a Country Clipper zero turn with a joystick control.
I like it much better than the twin stick models.

 

[MFDAC]

Mowed the yard for the second time. I mowed the Friday before Easter because we had guest/ Egg hunt for Easter. Both time I've just knocked the tops off the faster growing grass and made it look a little more even for a few days. I mow with a Country Clipper zero turn with a joystick control.
I like it much better than the twin stick models.

My brother-in-law hated the two lever ztr he bought for his toy shop, Rick. He finally bought a different one with a steering wheel. That was all so he can drink beer while mowing---LOL!

No mowing here---but going to have to within a couple weeks I think.

DAC

 

[IHCubCadet147]

Didn’t do any work, but I had most of my tractors out over the weekend for some fresh air while I cleaned the garage.

 

[MFDAC]

Nice herd, Cub! How heavy are the wheel weights on that diesel? They don't look like something you just hold against the wheel and start the bolts with the other hand!

DAC

 

[IHCubCadet147]

Nice herd, Cub! How heavy are the wheel weights on that diesel? They don't look like something you just hold against the wheel and start the bolts with the other hand!

DAC

I have not weighed them but they are heavy. I would guess around 100 pounds each. I got the same ones with my 125 on the inside of the wheels. I had to put a tube in one of the tires on that. Not fun trying to hold the wheel up and get the bolts started. Big difference from the factory IH ones that are 26 pounds each.

 

[chieffan]

Got the 1862 Cub out yesterday. Fired up good with last years gas. Oil was full so mowed about an hour and brought it in for service when I got a low fuel light. Fresh oil and filter, greased up everything. Checked the blades as I had been grinding up a bunch of small pencil size tree brnches. They looked good and have never been sharpened. Got another new set of blades when I bought the unit. Love that power steering and so did my left had that is still in healing mode, but getting better. I knew last night it had been used a bit hard.Trim mower and the 1018 Cub get serviced today - if we don't go to the Amish Greenhouse.

 

[chieffan]

Weather from West of us was talking of rain being here around 10am today. Got the IH Cub 1650 out and hooked up to the new lawn roller I picked up yesterday. Filled the 18" X 48" roller with water and started rolling the lawn. Had bout 20 min left when it started to sprinkle and kept getting heavier. Finished up, unhooked and put the tractor back in the garage and the sprinkles turned to light rain. Rolller work good and flattened the mole runs in good shape. Grass was wet the whole time and with 11" rear tires, 75 lb weights and chains on both had no traction issues.

 

[TAHOE]

Unloaded tractors on Sunday after plow day, immediate threw the hitch back on the Sears 16/6 to move my water trailer and commenced to mowing our field. Some of it was almost as tall as the hood already. I had to mow about half of it in 3 low which is like creeping for me. Took forever it seemed. Did part of it Sunday evening, finished the rest of Monday since I was off work.

 

[Sawdust]

I cut the yard grass with the Simplicity 3415H and noticed a little front tire rub on the deck. I may have to swap these 18” for some 16” which is ok I can put these on another tractor. I took the MTD 990 out and did some chicken coop delivery with some fresh Alphalpha hay, feed, oyster shells, and wood chip bedding.

 

[chieffan]

We got our garden plants from the Amish green house last Friday. Didn't seem to be any sign of shortage of garden or flower plants. We got 4 tomato plants that are about a foot tall. They are going in larger pot this afternoon. 1" of rain last night so no garden work for a few days, then more rain in the forecast.

 

[Sawdust]

I couldn’t cut the grass until about 1:00 today because of yesterday’s all day rain along with this mornings heavy dew. I raised the hood on my Cub Cadet LT 1050 to gas it up then realized the tank was in the back but I’m glad I did. The whole top of the flywheel was full of mouse nesting. I had to take the shroud off and the plastic screen that snaps on top of the flywheel to clean it all out. I guess I’ll have to keep dryer sheets or moth balls on this one in between cuts. I got done right at 3:30 just in time for the race. Tomorrow I’ll do the weed eating.

 

[IHCubCadet147]

I spread some gravel on our road yesterday with my diesel. Last weekend I scraped up all the good stuff that was plowed off over the winter and put it into piles. Then it rained most of the week, so yesterday was the first time I could work on it again. It was a little too wet, but I was able to get it done. After that, I put the rake on my 125 and went over it. I have 2 more spots on the road to do the same thing, then our driveway.