Archive through April 15, 2010

[kweaver]

Eric - I hear ya man. I use to drag home anything with wheels and a deck no matter how bad it was. While I was turnin' wrenches and scrounging parts the 'ol lady was using a push mower on our 1 acre yard.
After a couple years of that she went to Sears and bought a mower for me.
Now several years later I've bought 1 new Cub 2166 and 3 IH and another MTD SGT.

31 years of marriage later ... ya just gotta hang in there !

I wont repeat what she says everytime I tell her I spot an old <FONT COLOR="ff0000">I</FONT><FONT COLOR="000000">H</FONT> Cub.
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Frank - Put your loader pic back up , I like loaders

 

[tstewart]

DIY question for you all...

Due to lots of recent purchases

I dont have a whole lot of money for projects right not but need to come up with something to get water to my newly planted trees and soon to be garden. Looking for advice/opinions on something I can throw together relatively cheap.
My idea... I have a white 55g poly water barrel. I have one of those steel mesh deck lawn carts that harbor freight sells LAWN CART I could convert the handle to a pin hitch and mount the barrel on it. Then I could use a 12v pump and make a boom of sorts out of some pvc.

Some questions... the cart is rated 1000# but its kinda skinny (2' I think) and top heavy just lugging around misc things, is trying to mount a 55 barrel (laying horizontally) going to be too much for it to handle around curves and such? And any recommendation for pumps? Looking for sub-$100 pumps.
Would this be strong enough? PUMP 1

Or am I going to need something more like this: PUMP 2

Oh and for the boom 12' would get about half way across the garden think I could just use some pvc with holes drilled in it? I was thinking for watering other things like trees, bushes, etc. just a gravity drain out one short piece of pipe might be enough.

 

[kweaver]

Tristan - You'll have less than 500 pounds of water in the barrel. If you just want to water the garden why not just get a soaker hose ? If you want to "water" and not need a real strong jet (although you can get some pressure) I'd think about a boat bilge pump from wally world.
I have a 560gpm in my boat. Or you could get a Live Well pump and plumb it into the barrel. The Bilge pump will have to go inside the barrel. I use to haul water to my 2 acre garden and just let the water siphon out a hose into the rows during droughts ... one day it came a cloud burst 1/2 mile from us but we didn't get a drop.
The sloshing of the water might get you in trouble with the high trailer.

If you want a long term investment I'd buy a Little Giant but not that one.

 

[kweaver]

More like this one

I don't know now ... I was looking at the duty cycle on several LG pumps and the duty cycle is 15 minutes ON and 45 minutes OFF
Such as this one

 

[wmiller]

Eric, Be sure to "mike" the crankshaft to ck for out of round on the rod throw. How bad is the cylinder bore worn at the bottom of the stroke? One of mine took .020 and the other took .030 to clean up. Kohlers tend to wear worse at the bottom of the stroke. Try to save the gasket and paper shims on the crankshaft bearing plate to try to determine how many paper shims were in it. When I reassembled both of mine I put back the same number of paper shims as it had before and the end play came out correct. The ball bearing main brgs were good in both of mine,but inspect carefully. Keep track which valve lifter was on which cam lobe. Check the valve lifter adjusting screws for wear where they contact the valves,reface if necessary,so you can get a good valve set. The plastic gear on the governor tends to get brittle with age,considering replacing. Most people don't paint the cylinder fins or cyl head. When you go to get parts you will need the "spec" number off of the engine tag and the machine shop will probably want it too. Get/download the Kohler engine manual if you haven't already.

 

[tstewart]

KENtucky... yeah I dont need a strong jet as in a sprayer, just for watering purposes. I could do soaker hose but that seems like a lot of work. For one thing thats a lot of hose! I'm not sure how I'd feed them all to get enough pressure. The main garden is roughly 25x65 feet and were putting in another one on the other side of the property. My dad has smaller raised beds maybe 12 foot long and has soaker hose hooked up to the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. So each of his raised beds (I think 6 of these) have there own bucket he just fills up. But on my one garden I'm talking more like 30 rows seems like alot of hassle, especially since it will only need watering a few times - only when there is a drought, and when first planted probably.

I looked at those pumps you suggested. Besides the intermittant rating, there were very few 12V ones to be found, but there were a few.

I was toying with the idea of rigging up a front pto-powered pump and a boom on the front somehow rigged to the lift arm. Would be neat, but I'm just thinking out loud.

FWIW I am planning on using soaker hose in another of our gardens I'm making... putting in berries and perrenial veggies (blueberry, raspberry, asparugus, rhubarb, etc) that will be right down the slope from the barn with the rain barrel. I'll have 2 330 gallon containers for rain water, 1 on each back corner of the barn. One will be permanently plumbed into this perrenial garden so all I have to do is open the ball valve to water it. The other rainbarrel will be elevated enough I can just pull the DIY sprayer wagon up behind the cub and turn the valve and drain from the 330g into the 55g and then take the 55 around the yard and to the garden/flower beds, etc. Well this is the plan atleast, its all just on paper right now, but I do have the 2 330's, 1 55, and the little trailer. Installing gutters on the barn shortly.

 

[dpowell]

Finally got the 1650 to turn over, from the post a couple days ago. I rechecked all the connections,rechecked the grounds as well and added a new ground from the neg. ground on the frame in the battery compartment to the engine, checked the pto switch and the ignition switch, by passed the brake safety switch, and at first nothing happened, but about the time I was ready to quite for a while, for some reason there was current to the ignition switch and it started! Any ideas as what to do if this happens again? I have recently replaced the starter, ignition switch,and solenoid switch, and battery. Maybe replace the safety switch, and pto switch?? Thanks for all your suggestions and ideas.

 

[jott]

whos brewin' the coffee?

 

[dtanner]

 

[dtanner]

morning guys. I have a 450 snow blower here that I would like to do a refurb on and need advice on it.I would like to put real bearing in the outside of the auger shafts and do other things to make this 450 a good snow mover. I`am open to ideas on the refurb. Thanks Don

 

[jbaker]

yesterday I replaced the tired and noisy 12hp with a 10 hp in my 128, the motor turned over nicely but did not start, im sure I have a electric issue and will tackle it another day.
So in the meen time I broke out the 149 with the tiller and started preping the garden. I love the hydraulic lift.

 

[jott]

 

[jott]

rather quiet for a friday..we gotta liven it up a little

 

[jott]

Uh oh i did it again

 

[kmcconaughey]

 

[elthomas]

Josh it sounds as if you are bored today.

 

[aaytay]

 

[T-Mo]

Someone put a big ugly plastic thing on my screen....oh, wait, that's a MTD Cub.

 

[elthomas]

Could i use a front axle from a cub 1282, on my 128, the front axle on my 128 is a homemade axle(po made it)?

 

[jott]

Eric, ya you could say that.

Terry, Same thing. haha