My Big Lawn Mower!

[Shawn T. W.]

Two weeks ago I picked up a 20 year old pre-emission tractor to use to mow my fields. I still need to save more pennies to buy a 8’ finish mower to pull behind it … It's a 2005 Kubota L5030 HSTC.

I think paint should be shiny, and I used to simonize/clean cars when I was a teenager … so, I wanted to see if I could save this 20 year old faded ugly paint! Yup, there is hope for this old tractor, I waxed half of the fuel flap!

Since I was almost out of wax I ordered more, plus some rubbing compound … I had forgotten that I had previously bought another bottle of cleaner wax, but put it in the old box of the good wax because it had a nice storage spot for the applicators pad …

I had swung by my house this past Sunday and opened my box from Coleman Equipment: Kubota Authorized Dealer - Construction Equipment & Parts Sale and Rentals which had an Owners Manual and a Work Shop Manual.

I'm a long distance truck driver so I brought the OM with me to read. In it I read there is a “glove box” on the seat back … today I opened it up and found the original OM, a bit curled from being in there for 20 years, but it had yellow safety pages, instead of the white ones like my new copy!

I got home again this morning for the day … I wanted to widen the rear wheel track width … I figured part of the process was switching sides, since I had already washed and scrubbed it last Sunday, I wanted to clean up the wheels before the outside became the inside…

Quite a difference a bit of elbow grease makes!

I did have a little trouble getting a few of the nuts off, my 250 ft lb impact wrench wouldn't budge a few of them … Monster Maul to the Rescue!

But it appears that the rings are centered in the wheel, so I didn't switch sides, or clean the insides!… so now they are as wide as they go … I gained 4.75”

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I then put it in the barn out of the sun, as we are in a heat wave now … I decided to see how these products compare … I noticed some white paint drops, which I was able to get off, then started my experiment …

A = Just washed and paint drops removed
B = Rubbing Compound
C = Cleaner Wax only
D = Rubbing Compound + Good Wax

The gray cleaned up real nice too!

I then did the Rubbing Compound on all of it, and used the good wax on all of it too …it's far from perfect, but probably the first time it has ever been waxed!

When I 1st got it 2 weeks ago, I took it out for a little test drive out back in the bumpy part of my field that my SCUT makes for a rough ride, mowing at 3.5 mph at most … at 5.5 mph with this it was about the same, so it rides better … I then checked the tire air pressure, one rear was 10, other was 18, front was 35 and 32, I reduced the fronts to 30 and took it for another ride. Today I reduced the one rear tire to 10 psi, and the fronts to 20 PSI …

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Then I borrowed the quick hitch from my SCUT. I have a new one sitting at the dealer, but they were closed when I drove by this morning before 05:00! I had to shorten the bushing for CAT 2 to CAT 1 about a ¼” to get it in-between the quick hitch.

The top link the dealer gave me was for a JD 4400, as mine didn't have one, the JD was re-sold with a hydraulic top link … it was just barely long enough!

I got the 5’ brush hog hooked up, the PTO drive shaft is also just barely long enough!

I went out to try it out! I was able to mostly mow at 5.5 - 6 mph, my neighbor was out haying, he saw me and sent me a text . . . It said “ That A/C is cheating!’ look what he is driving!!!

Overall much faster,and much more comfortable than my SCUT! I got 7 acres cut in just over 3 hours … a few working pictures ...

I'm gonna have some tree trimming to do in the future too!

I took it out for a picture by my Missouri flag. I normally fly a USA flag, but our Statehood date is coming up on August 10th, so I'm flying that now … Missouri became the first state West of The Mississippi River on August 10, 1821.

The front field by the road is much smoother than our back, I mow that with my 10 mph Z-turn, I can drive the Kubota 7+ mph out there eas
ily.

By 5 O'clock the sun was getting warm on my arms, I'm gonna need to get some tint ...

 

[number two]

Nice work and write-up!
You are the new WaxMan!
Good Luck!

 

[JWR]

Nice work. Good looking result.

I don't understand what it was you did with the rear wheels to get 4.75" more width...I re-read it twice...

Comment: unless you plan to mow it often I think you will get a better cutting job with a Bush Hog & sharp blades than you will with a finish mower. By the way how much area were you planning to mow with a finish mower? Beautiful fields -- you intend to mow a lot of that "like a lawn!?"

 

[tacticalturnip]

Oh wow, that orange really cleaned up!

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Nice work. Good looking result.

I don't understand what it was you did with the rear wheels to get 4.75" more width...I re-read it twice...

Comment: unless you plan to mow it often I think you will get a better cutting job with a Bush Hog & sharp blades than you will with a finish mower. By the way how much area were you planning to mow with a finish mower? Beautiful fields -- you intend to mow a lot of that "like a lawn!?"

If you look closely at how the wheel is built, it has a "ring" or pipe welded on to the center section in places that bolts go through that then bolt it to the center disk which is bolted to the hub/axle ...

The way it was, center disk on outside, and nuts:

What I did was take the wheel assembly off and moved the center disk to the inside, so now you can see the "rings", and the carriage bolt heads:

I see the manual says I only gain 4.1" though, my "rough measurements" were 4.75" ... My L5030 has the 14.9- 26 R1 tires, so I only have two options , I didn't realize that other size tire and wheels had other options . . . There is noticeable less side to side jostling with it wider, and it rides better with the lower tire air pressure.

Before:

After :

I plan to mow every three weeks or so, I last mowed 15 days before I did yesterday, I'm not impressed with how the brush hog leaves the grass clippings, a finish mower disperses them much better ... I have sharpened the blades on my brush hog.

I have about 14 acres to mow with this tractor, another 1.5 around the house with my Z-turn.

I got this as mostly a upgrade from my tiny SCUT tires beating me up, bigger tires come with bigger engine, which means bigger mower, all adds up to less time ... Was noticably faster yesterday, just due to the increased ground speed, 3.5 vs 5.5 mph.

 

[dnw64]

I did have a little trouble getting a few of the nuts off, my 250 ft lb wouldn't budge a few of them … Monster Maul to the Rescue!

View attachment 3817932

The Monster Maul! That thing is almost as old as you are! And the best splitter I ever used this side of a hydraulic one...

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Haven't used it in over 10 years ... But it still follows me around ...

 

[dnw64]

Haven't used it in over 10 years ... But it still follows me around ...

Yeah, I guess you never had much need of splitting wood in AZ... and a pellet stove makes a whole lot more sense for your current situation.