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Post by Ozarks Tom on Mar 3, 2021 23:09:23 GMT
Our neighbors about a quarter mile away have a mowing fetish. Not only have they had a sprinkler system installed on about an acre and a half, but keep their grass mowed so low, maybe 2", that it looks like a putting green. And, we live in the very aptly name "Stone" County.
We'll be sitting out on the deck on nice evenings and hear their poor mowers, yes they run two at a time, hitting rock after rock. I wouldn't walk or drive past their place when they're mowing for fear of projectiles. Over time they've hit so many rocks repeatedly to reduce their size and now we only hear the noise maybe less than half as much as before.
Our usual comment is "well, I hear the Tuckers are mowing their rocks again."
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Post by Jolly on Mar 4, 2021 0:07:44 GMT
I buy the cheapest spindle bearings I can find because it is not the poor quality that is causing them to break, it's my wife's poor mowing habits. I swear she tries to use the mower to grind down stumps and to level the hummocks in the yard and on our forest walking trail. Does she get off the mower to move a branch (or tree limb) that has fallen? No! Just drive over it and chop it up. I don't care how good the quality of a bearing is, she's gonna find a way to break it. I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline. Well...If you don't mind turning a wrench and want something that has a bit of collector quality... www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/200009121/1974-international-cub-154-lo-boy?ST=minnesota&CTRY=usa
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Post by Cabin Fever on Mar 4, 2021 0:32:53 GMT
I buy the cheapest spindle bearings I can find because it is not the poor quality that is causing them to break, it's my wife's poor mowing habits. I swear she tries to use the mower to grind down stumps and to level the hummocks in the yard and on our forest walking trail. Does she get off the mower to move a branch (or tree limb) that has fallen? No! Just drive over it and chop it up. I don't care how good the quality of a bearing is, she's gonna find a way to break it. I can hardly blame her though, she was used to driving a batwing mower behind a tractor in Texas. She tells me that sometimes she'd wrap up a dozen yards of barbed wire by getting too close to the fenceline. Well...If you don't mind turning a wrench and want something that has a bit of collector quality... www.tractorhouse.com/listings/farm-equipment/for-sale/200009121/1974-international-cub-154-lo-boy?ST=minnesota&CTRY=usaThat's an awesome collector's item, but I already have one that keeps me busy. And, I have an International, too ....
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Post by joebill on Mar 4, 2021 3:25:53 GMT
Janet explained her love of mowing with a rider mower to me when we lived up north and had both grass and a mower. She said the kids were under strict orders NOT to aproach the mower when it was running for safety reasons, so she could crank up the mower and start mowing and NEVER be interrupted by a kid, no matter the imagined emergency.....PLUS she said any woman with a husband and a houseful of kids would know that she can do housework all day long and still not be able to tell where she started and stopped, BUT when cutting grass....."you can easily see where you have been, at least" I never hated any job as bad as I did mowing as a youngster, because I had extreme hay fever that could keep me sneezing 3 or 4 times a minute all day and half the night after mowing the lawns (ours and Grandad's) for one dollar per lawn, but that was one of the ways parents taught their kids ( or tried to) that they should do well in school, strive for a higher education, learn to tie a necktie well, do all of the stuff that would let them work behind a desk with their brain instead of beneath a car or truck with their back. Miserable failure with me. I just learned to avoid both desks AND grass and work with my back and one or two small corners of my brain. In his waning years, Dad made a visit to my shop and watched me offhand grind a bunch of specialty tools and cutters and got a glimpse of the invoice...told me I was "lucky to be able to do stuff like that"....and after a brief pause, grinned and admitted that "I guess luck has damn little to do with it"....a good moment for me .... .....Joe
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Post by wildhorseluvr on Mar 4, 2021 5:08:15 GMT
joebill, definitely agree with being able to see what you’ve accomplished when mowing. When I was a kid my parents considered all the cool stuff like working on cars, mowing lawns, etc, as *unladylike*. Ha! Whoever said I had to grow up to be a “lady” in the traditional sense of the word? (I look like one and do know how to act like one, but...) Never got to learn any of the fun things I really wanted to learn. Had to go to my neighbors and beg to mow their lawns. Got my butt beat innumerable times for doing things I wasn’t supposed to. So yeah, mowing lawns is still fun!
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Post by fixitguy on Mar 5, 2021 15:02:37 GMT
I get asked all the time, what is the best lawn mower, weed whip or ATV. It all depends on your individual needs. A person living in town on 1/2 acre can buy a box store model and it will last years, making that $1500-2000 investment pretty reasonable. Now that same mower would last a short time on a 5 acre homestead with many oak trees. The costs of repairs and maintenance would over come the initial purchase price pretty quick. Then you need to decide what your going to do with it. Are you going to plow snow, snow blow, bag leaves, rototill or pull a small trailer. Are you a buy it once and be done? Or the just spend a little and make it work for a few years type.
Now my FIL bought a JD 140 new in 1968 for a whopping $800. He kept a log of expenses, he figured he had spend about $4000 on the mower in 41 years. That is a pretty good investment. We still use the mower occasionally today. A few years back I picked up a JD 345 for $350 nonrunning. I did the common camshaft repair, Replaced the hood and some other minor repairs and picked up a power flow bagger for it. I have about $2000 in expenses not counting my time repairing the engine.
The JD140 took about 4 hours to mow 5 acres. In the fall we pulled a yard sweeper to pick up leaves. In a yard the has tons of mature oak trees, plan on spending the day on the mower. The JD345 can mow the yard in about 1 1/4 hours. Bagging leaves in the fall, takes about 3 hours. If we run both machines, we can knock it out in 45 minutes. So My $2000 investment was well worth it. I can mow the MIL's yard, and still have most of the day to cruise in my old car.
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Post by Jolly on Mar 5, 2021 23:15:01 GMT
Just popped up on faceypage, that a guy about 20 miles from me has a Kubota ZD-28 with 1100 hours for sale, asking $4500.
A bit more than my budget, but that's not a ton of hours for a diesel.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Mar 6, 2021 0:28:44 GMT
Jolly, Really not a bad price for what it is, a 72" deck with a diesel engine. Here's my question, are your gates wide enough?
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Post by Jolly on Mar 6, 2021 12:13:51 GMT
My gates are built wide enough for a pickup, so I think so. Moot point, though...Mower has already sold (that didn't take long).
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Post by willowgirl on Mar 11, 2021 12:53:10 GMT
This is a smart man! Fellas, take note. I'll happily mow all day long if Numb gasses up the mower and starts it for me. He never complains about doing this. He is smart, too.
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Post by Jolly on Mar 11, 2021 13:25:47 GMT
I get asked all the time, what is the best lawn mower, weed whip or ATV. It all depends on your individual needs. A person living in town on 1/2 acre can buy a box store model and it will last years, making that $1500-2000 investment pretty reasonable. Now that same mower would last a short time on a 5 acre homestead with many oak trees. The costs of repairs and maintenance would over come the initial purchase price pretty quick. Then you need to decide what your going to do with it. Are you going to plow snow, snow blow, bag leaves, rototill or pull a small trailer. Are you a buy it once and be done? Or the just spend a little and make it work for a few years type. Now my FIL bought a JD 140 new in 1968 for a whopping $800. He kept a log of expenses, he figured he had spend about $4000 on the mower in 41 years. That is a pretty good investment. We still use the mower occasionally today. A few years back I picked up a JD 345 for $350 nonrunning. I did the common camshaft repair, Replaced the hood and some other minor repairs and picked up a power flow bagger for it. I have about $2000 in expenses not counting my time repairing the engine. The JD140 took about 4 hours to mow 5 acres. In the fall we pulled a yard sweeper to pick up leaves. In a yard the has tons of mature oak trees, plan on spending the day on the mower. The JD345 can mow the yard in about 1 1/4 hours. Bagging leaves in the fall, takes about 3 hours. If we run both machines, we can knock it out in 45 minutes. So My $2000 investment was well worth it. I can mow the MIL's yard, and still have most of the day to cruise in my old car. Mom and Dad's place was four acres, with at least half of it in yard and the yard had a good many longleaf pine on it. Stuff like our Sawmilljim friend would salivate over...Straight as an arrow, cut three twenty foot logs out if with nary a limb. But pines make straw that must be raked and they make lots of obstacles to mow around. My daddy wore out many little 36" or 42" riders on that place. I wish he would have bit the bullet and bought a little B series Kubita with a belly mower. i think he would have saved money in the long run...
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Mar 11, 2021 22:07:09 GMT
When we first moved here our back yard, about three acres, was empty as my head, not a tree out there. Knowing at some time in the future people would start building out here, and wanting some privacy we planted 140 trees from the top of the now pasture to within about 40 yards from the house. Pines at the top, oak/maple/gum towards the house.
Before we planted them I mowed with an old IH Cub with a belly mower. That old machine did a fine job. Heck, I mowed in second gear. But, within a month of planting all those trees I realized either I needed a zero-turn, or a much bigger arm and shoulder to turn that mid-size tractor among all those trees without destroying all the work of planting them. I'd get off the Cub and head straight for the liniment bottle.
Yep, zero-turn mowers are the answer to lots and lots of obstacles.
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Post by joebill on Mar 23, 2021 8:39:27 GMT
I used to service about half the landscape machines in Tucson that were used by the pros, and the one riding mower that bridged the gap between consumer and industrial machines very well was the Snapper.
Nothing about the price or the components should have made them usable on an industrial scale, but lots of lawn maintenance guys put 40 or 50 hours a week on them, summer after summer, no problem.
Lots of great features, including the ability to stand one up on it's rear end, back a pickup right up next to it and load it into the pickup single handedly....one man.
I dunno if the newer ones are as good, but if I had grass, I would be happy with one that was 20 or 40 years old if new parts are still out there.....
There y'go! .....Joe
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Post by Jolly on Mar 23, 2021 10:01:25 GMT
The old Snapper was easy to work on. FIL had a little side business for awhile, finding old Snappers, refurbing them and selling them. He even had a "graveyard" where he junked some for parts.
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