Hi All,
Long time lurker, first time poster.
I bought an 2005 LX-280 1.5 years ago from a commercial dealer who took it as a trade-in. The first picture is outside at the dealer. It had 243 hours and was pretty clean overall although the hood had a crack near the front lower left which I fixed with Loctite plastic bonder. It came with the mower deck, a 42" single stage blower that was pretty ratty, chains, and 4 suitcase weights. I paid $1,200 and spent considerable time sanding and repainting the blower. I bought it strictly for the snow blower as I have upwards of 2/10 of a mile worth of flat paved driveway. Over the summer, I did ALL of the maintenance, oil, grease, filters, fluids, etc.
So it sat for all of last season as we had no measurable snow and may an inch or 2 of slush which it refused to blow. I modified the blower by adding flexible rubber belting to the impellers to close the 1/4" gap between the impellers and the chute housing and that fixed the slush problem. I also swapped out the incandescent headlight bulbs for LED's, and added a 36 watt LED combo flood/spot to the front of the blower housing.
Yesterday we had 18+" of snow starting out as powder which became wet, heavy, and sticky after dark. The machine is a beast and I love it. I went out at around 10" of powder and it blasted through it with a 15' to 20' through. The second pass was 8+" of very wet snow and 2' tall piles of plow sh*t out by the street. Never an issue or a groan and it powered through it all using a very low speed forward motion.
So the question I have is as follows; when I engage the PTO I sometimes smell the belt which in my mind means there is some slip. Is this a normal occurrence or ??? I do keep spare belts for the blower and drive just in case but I'm wondering if this smell is normal or is there possibly an issue I need to address.
Also, how often does the electric PTO fail, just wondering if I should keep a spare along with the rest of the spares? Thoughts on any of this are appreciated.
Lyle

Long time lurker, first time poster.
I bought an 2005 LX-280 1.5 years ago from a commercial dealer who took it as a trade-in. The first picture is outside at the dealer. It had 243 hours and was pretty clean overall although the hood had a crack near the front lower left which I fixed with Loctite plastic bonder. It came with the mower deck, a 42" single stage blower that was pretty ratty, chains, and 4 suitcase weights. I paid $1,200 and spent considerable time sanding and repainting the blower. I bought it strictly for the snow blower as I have upwards of 2/10 of a mile worth of flat paved driveway. Over the summer, I did ALL of the maintenance, oil, grease, filters, fluids, etc.
So it sat for all of last season as we had no measurable snow and may an inch or 2 of slush which it refused to blow. I modified the blower by adding flexible rubber belting to the impellers to close the 1/4" gap between the impellers and the chute housing and that fixed the slush problem. I also swapped out the incandescent headlight bulbs for LED's, and added a 36 watt LED combo flood/spot to the front of the blower housing.
Yesterday we had 18+" of snow starting out as powder which became wet, heavy, and sticky after dark. The machine is a beast and I love it. I went out at around 10" of powder and it blasted through it with a 15' to 20' through. The second pass was 8+" of very wet snow and 2' tall piles of plow sh*t out by the street. Never an issue or a groan and it powered through it all using a very low speed forward motion.
So the question I have is as follows; when I engage the PTO I sometimes smell the belt which in my mind means there is some slip. Is this a normal occurrence or ??? I do keep spare belts for the blower and drive just in case but I'm wondering if this smell is normal or is there possibly an issue I need to address.
Also, how often does the electric PTO fail, just wondering if I should keep a spare along with the rest of the spares? Thoughts on any of this are appreciated.
Lyle


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