Thanks everyone for your advice and the complement Ronnie, I just got back from taking a trip up north to the only dealer in California that sells rim guard and got my tires filled, that sure made a big difference. I was talking to the salesman about the exhaust and he said you can't belive the difference in the amount of exhaust from one tractor to another of different manufactures and models, some smoke like crazy and others don't, it's very random and makes no sense, and assured me that my tractor was ok.