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Rod here again, still with the 1980 Bolens G174. My first post on this tractor was in 2010. It is now 2025. I didn't mention before that it has optional hydraulic outlets. I took them off for a while and then replaced them when I realized the value of a lift trailer. This winter its three...

If you use a Killawatt and set the tractor's throttle to deliver 60 hz, the specs won't matter. I run a 7.5 Baumalight on an 18 hp diesel turning the pto at 740. It requires 7 hp worth of fuel and wastes little.

Google told me that the fuel starvation was likely because of a lack of air in the tank, so I removed the cap on the tank and that problem resolved itself. It still won't self-start or charge, though. I removed it from the car-charging station in the shop and shall await developments.

The black wire inn the photo is too short to fit anything. What's more, the recess in the alternator above it has no spade connector installed within it.

During the burnt fingers phase earlier in the day I had my wife turn on the starter while I held the yellow wire to the bottom pole. The starter turned smoothly and quietly without the gear engaging. So I moved the wire up but then nothing happened. I had neglected to post a photo of the...

My '95 TAFE 351DI just received a new battery, and that did not solve the non-starting problem, though it comes to life easily if I short across the solenoid with a piece of iron. There is a #10 wire coming out of the harness and sliding onto a wide spade connector on the upper bolt on the...

Last winter I asked about the loose throttle on my Bolens G174 installed on a generator in my garage, tight to the wall. Once I understood the situation I leaned over the mechanism and drizzled a quantity of white Thread-Lok down onto the friction mechanism. The messy repair has worked very...

An Ottawa farmer sold me a used Chinese knockoff as a 4" Wallenstein. It has worked well on my Kubota B7510 for the last five years, though. I keep a spray bottle of valspar/old engine oil hanging from the tractor to keep the chute lubricated when chipping pine branches. They gum things up...

Those early Kubotas are excellent tractors, if my 2005 B7510 HST with MMM and hydraulic outlet is any indicator. Like Mr. Cigar, I have three other loaders on the farm, and so don't miss one on the mower. It's still a versatile tractor with a hydraulic outlet for block splitter or dump...

I have mowed our three acres since 2010 with a B7510. Its rear diff has a tendency to drag on sharp corners, even in 2WD. I break up corners by shifting fore and aft with the HST and then it doesn't cause trouble with the turf. My Bolens G174 does not do that; neither did a BX I had here for...

I should add that it has an auto-level function on the loader.

For almost two years my 1989(?) CaseIH 255 has worked very well around the property, used primarily for snow blowing and pushing in winter and bush hogging around 25 acres of trees in summer. When I bought it the hydraulic pressure was too low, so I adjusted it up in keeping with the...

With your directions I found the throttle control and the nut to tighten it. I couldn't conveniently remove it because it was tight to a wall on that side with the gennie attached and the family car nearby. The trick was to keep the screw from working itself out after I tightened it. In...

Before Canada Post got into package delivery in a big way, the rural mail lady delivered occasional packages to our house if they wouldn't fit into the central mailbox. Things have gone from very good to much less desirable with her retirement. In current Canada Post jargon, "We attempted to...

Two years ago I bought a low-hours Case 24 hp variant of the Mitsubishi line. With cab and loader it is a great comfort to old bones in bad weather and winter snows. It works well on a 5' snowblower fitted with an electric flue control. On rainy days summer days it does the bush hogging...

Thanks for your offer. I do have the factory manuals, but I think the authors assumed that any owner could figure out how to adjust a throttle without their help. They're great little tractors, and long-lasting, eh? Mine came with hydraulic outlets mounted on the right fender. 8 years ago I...

Thanks for getting back to me. Two videos online yesterday seemed to establish the principle of the friction nut. The nut on the Bolens was easy to see from above, except that it had a large cotter pin through the 19 mm bolt. Eventually I got the cotter pin straightened and removed with a...

As I first posted here in 2011, I run a 7.5 KW Baumalight generator attached to my 1980 Bolens G174, running in PTO gear 2, which delivers 740 rpm at 2500 on the engine's non-existent tach. With a Kill-a-Watt meter now plugged into a wall outlet dedicated to the generator's output, I can...

The middle hook gets by far the most use, but I use the end hooks for tongs to load and unload logs. A contrarian opinion: The CaseIH 255 in my thumbnail has no hooks yet on its loader. I really like it that way for piling brush. I spend most of my time getting untangled from vines with...

Sorry for the clumsy video, but this gadget has rotated my chute for the last three years with only an occasional shot of WD-40.

I beg to differ about MMM's. I went from a 3 pt hitch Woods 48" to my current Kubota 60" MMM on a B7510 and it has worked superbly over the last twelve years for a big portion of the tractor's 1500 hours. Our property is steep and rocky. The rear-mounted mower had trouble with the sudden...

I have a 255 and I am currently trying to change the battery. There must be an easy way to remove the hood with a loader frame installed, but I can't find it. The thing worked until it put it into the shop to replace the ground cable from the battery. Now it won't start; in fact when I short...

In my experience T6 is 5W40 and T4 is 0W40. T6 is over $60 CDN for 5 litres here, though T4 is a bit Less. For my two Mitsubishi diesels this time I used up Mobil 1 European Car Blend, an equivalent quality of 0W40, which I had stockpiled for the departed Porsches. The cold-averse Bolens G174...

The bucket of the loader on my TAFE has pre-drilled holes for bolt-on accessories. I added two white oak boards, 1 1/2" by 7" by 44" and presto, I had a redneck pallet fork set. The loader will lift to 11' and with the forks I was able to set the sheeting and shingles onto the roofs of a...

So far the range of comments has been pretty informative, but I'll offer a contrarian approach from Eastern Ontario, if I may. Buy a substantial and cheap older tractor with a loader. It will take care of the heavy stuff. Then select another tractor for all of the jobs that the first tractor...

I have been retired to a farm for nineteen years, and the best decision I have made in that time has been to allow the local retired veterinarian to harvest the fifty acres of field I have not converted to tree production. My three little diesel tractors have plenty to do with a crop of trees...

I would watch the ads for an old diesel subcompact tractor. Sometimes they can be bought cheaply and restored to full functionality. This means at a minimum: low gears, strong drive train, 3 point hitch pulling and lifting ability. The good ones also have potential for a loader, 4WD, low...

I watch The Car Care Nut on You-Tube. He was a Toyota dealership mechanic before going out on his own. His favourite beef is with 10,000 mile oil change intervals. He insists on 5,000 mile oil changes. That's also what my '14 Lexus hybrid requires: 8,000 km. My 2002 Tacoma 2.7 4WD has...

A timber winch driven by the tractor's PTO is a different animal than the topic of the discussion, but a unit matched to your tractor will do an outstanding job at pulling whatever you want to move or tighten. The frame with the coarse mesh and the rear blade are integral to the unit, doubling...

https://rodcroskery.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/half-a-nest/

I did a bunch of 26 windows in an Edwardian brick house and the worst part of the job was stripping the caked white lead paint from the outside of the window casings 25 feet above the ground. I experimented with the windows and foam by pinning them in place with #8 Robertson screws into the...

Something also to think about is that your hydraulic pump, whatever its size, will exact a toll in fuel consumption in direct proportion to how much oil it moves at a given pressure. My HST Kubota B7510 uses more than twice the fuel of my Bolens G174 4WD manual when doing the same job. When...

A scrap metal truck became stuck in a low area of one of my fields and had to be towed out by two, 4WD farm tractors, with accompanying ruts. I was reluctant to fill in the large ruts for fear of tipping my little tractor into the hole. By the time the guy who takes the hay off had finished...

I keep a 1960 Massey Ferguson 35 (Perkins Diesel) purely to run my PTO winch. With 37 hp and an 8000 lb winch, it has useful power in the woodlot, good stability, and I don't worry about damaging it. It runs less than 20 hours per year, sits outside, and starts on cue whenever I need it. It is...

He's lucky he didn't have to roll that log up onto a band mill.

For a load in the backpack sprayer I use 350 ml of Roundup concentrate. 2% is the target mix. It works, but put on your vapour mask and long sleeves and long gloves folded to stop drips. That concentrate burns like battery acid. In Canada you have to be certified as a pesticides applicator...

Over the years I have bought 15 gallon and 25 gallon 12 volt spot sprayers. They both worked well in the bed of my Ranger until its charging system wore out, and then coupled with a 12 V car battery in a 3 pt hitch dump box behind my Bolens G174 for row work in the garden. The 15 gallon...

Lifting rails?

Does pressing the clutch have any effect upon the sound? Does it matter what gear it is in? Is is related to engine revolutions?

Since buying the cab and loader equipped 255 I have put 25 hours on it running a 4' bush hog around rows of growing trees and this week, a nightmarish 3 acre plot of pasture with boulders popping up in random locations. This field has destroyed three rotary mowers over the last 18 years of...

Back about 2006 I bought a Woods 48" 3 pt hitch mower with a 1980 Bolens G174, a diesel 4WD tractor which was a big step up from the Simplicity hydro riding lawn mower which was having trouble with the hills on the property. The vendor wanted to get rid of it and wanted three hundred for the...

When you get it going again, clean the radiator and its screen, but also drop down a gear in the heavy stuff.

i keep an old Massey Ferguson 35 to do nothing but power the second hand skidding winch I bought years ago for $2800. It gets used maybe a dozen times a year, but that 8000 pound winch is the surest method I know to control the fall of a difficult tree. Just put a choker chain (included with...

I have gone through two of them over the years. They are cheap when on sale and surprisingly durable. In my salad years as a country home owner I was determined to gather the leaves from our three-acre lawn, and haul them to a dumping area at one end of the patch. I found the best tow vehicle...

In the same situation I eventually lit upon a five-year-old Kubota B7510 (21 hp diesel) with belly mower. With 210 hours on it and an owner who wanted to buy a heavier tractor with a loader for his property, I bought it for half the retail price at that time in 2010. It has hydraulic drive and...

After four years during a period of cheap gas, a V8 Porsche Cayenne as our daily driver. As both it and I aged, I wanted something a lot more economical for medical appointments and grocery runs. I looked for a Prius, but my wife hated the name. We settled upon a used 2014 Lexus 300h, a hybrid...

Speaking of reviving an old thread, I have just purchased what I think is a 1988 Case IH 255 with cab and a lot of options, including loader and power steering. All work well. On a 4' bush hog in heavy grass, though, it doesn't cut as well as my Bolens G174 does in middle gear on its pto...

For the last four or five years I have watered my little trees and garden with a 25 gallon pesticide sprayer bought from Princess Auto. I substituted a coiled garden hose for the spray wand and attached a regular multi-spray nozzle to it. The rig runs through up to four tanks per day, driven...

Today I looked at a very low-hours MF 1250 at a local dealer. He had taken it and another Massey Ferguson in on a trade. I like the idea of having a cab with heater and defrosters and wipers front and back for snow blowing. There is no A/C but the windows fold out and the doors come off. The...

I put my 2021 Kioti Mechron PS on the hoist as soon as I brought it home. I have counted between 18 and 21 grease fittings on the chassis and power train, depending upon the session. In order to grease the rear suspension I had to get some right angle fittings as there was no way to use a...

This happened on my friend's Kubota BX diesel, but only when his wife was driving it. I figured out that the seat spring was too stiff for her 110 pound weight to keep the engine from cutting out. I took one spring out and it has been fine ever since. My Kubota B7510 recently cut out on a...

A couple of weeks ago I was mowing weeds with a 4' bush hog in a 5 acre field of pine/walnut rows when my trusty Bolens G174 spurted the contents of its radiator all over the front of the tractor. A tow back to the shop established eventually that a rubber washer on the plastic drain plug of...

Why am I back here? I blew a head gasket on my Bolens G174 this morning and I need to find one. For a 1980, 2 cylinder Mitsubishi diesel engine, Amazon does not offer anything useful.

Late answer to your question: in 2020 I bought a Kioti Mechron PS. I did not purchase tracks for it, though they were available. It works quite well for most of the winter, towing a triangle of tires around to maintain trails.

I took your advice and dumped the spare battery and charger in favour of the cord from the power outlet on the Kioti. Daily output of water to the garden has crept up to four, 25 gallon tanks per day as a result. The hours are creeping up on the Mechron, but that is the only issue.

From Amazon I ordered a 15 amp plug with 5' cord which has the correct quick connectors coming off the pump. I'll give it a try when it arrives, but in the meantime I have recharged the shop battery for another summer watering the garden.

For many hours I ran a 12v pump spraying weeds with my Ranger TM until the thing quit charging altogether. Turns out the Robin 18 hp engine had a magneto rather than an alternator, and it couldn't take the sustained use. My 2020 Mechron PS has a proper alternator. Is it safe to use the...

Family members know a lot of grad students from Queen's University in Kingston and tend to recruit them to gather sap. In subsequent years quite a few Parliament Hill personnel made their way to the sugar shack on the farm.

An update five years later: CN shipping worked just fine. It cost $1500. and took three weeks. At the Montreal end they shipped the car to a depot just outside Ottawa, where I picked it up, all clean and shiny. The Cayenne ran us four years and 50,000 km before I grew tired of it and bought...

The one I bought used from a farm contractor in the Ottawa area was advertised on Kijiji as a Wallenstein 4" pto chipper, and he had it set up for the same Kubota model as mine, a B7510. He said it worked well so I made the deal. The chipper did fit my tractor well and I had a great time...

Clearly there's something freezing up in the linkage or cable, because it works smoothly the instant it thaws out in the shop. The way the cable is run there is a low point where a drop of moisture could freeze... While I had it on the hoist I noticed that the rad hoses run along the frame...

I'm having trouble locating a replacement. Thanks, Rod in Forfar, Ontario

At the local TSC store I selected a Turkish-made seat for about $185 CDN plus taxes. With no clear idea of how to mount the seat, I cut a pair of 12" pieces of 2x2 angle iron, but needed to establish some clearance at the rear of the seat, so I ripped the 2x2 on a slight angle with my 14"...

I went into the local Kioti dealer for an air filter for my Bolens G174 and saw this diesel UTV outside. We discussed price and my 2004 Ranger TM as trade in, and that was that. I like the machine, though I am a bit bothered by gear noise on the road at middle speeds. Is it normal to get...

My Bolens/Iseki has gotten along well with its original seat until I started using it with a dump box to carry the 25 gallon garden watering tank and pump (with balancing weights on the front). The pan is crumbling to where it needs replacement. The new seat must pivot forward, of course, but...

My 2004 TM 2WD has over 1000 hours on it and the maintenance book calls for an overhaul at that point. The carb is causing difficulty in that the high speed part no longer works, though it starts and idles normally. It no longer charges the battery so I have gone put-and-take with the trolling...

The auger wasn't engaged when I slipped off an icy road and slid backwards into the ditch, hitting the auger full-on, though not very hard. The spiral parts of the auger weren't damaged, just the centre shaft, which was deflected almost an inch. Before I put the blower away I tried to pry the...

This may be a little off-topic for a tractor site, but I'd like to pick your brains if I might. My son picked up a 2004 SUV for me in Vancouver (no winter driving) and he'll drive it there until they move back to Ottawa at the end of July. Then he'll ship it to me in Portland, ON. I've...

Coming up to 600 hours on my Kubota B7510 which runs a 5' belly mower and a 4' bush hog. When I changed the oil and filters at 300 hours there was no evidence whatever of anything but pristine oil and clean drain plugs. Have all of those old HST Kubotas really had their oil changed every 300...

About 500 of the 700 feet of our driveway needed filling up, so I ordered 28 tonnes of 5/8 gravel in a belly-dump trailer for ease around the overhanging trees. The operator knew his job and left a very clean spread. Then it was up to me to do the final grade and compaction with the toys at...

Ever since I removed the float bowl to clean the filter, the thing has leaked a bit. Then it drained the tank and my neighbour ran it dry, so off it came again. I tightened it carefully with a channel lock wrench. No go. Last night I assembled the thing and tightened it gently against the O...

Ever since I removed the float bowl to clean the filter, the thing has leaked a bit. Then it drained the tank and my neighbour ran it dry, so off it came again. I tightened it carefully with a channel lock wrench. No go. Last night I carefully assembled the thing and tightened it gently...

I removed the glow plugs (only the forward cylinder had oil) and flipped it over. The rag over the holes blew sky-high with the gush of engine oil. Good thing I hadn't put the tractor in the garage or the ceiling would have had to be washed. This way just the tractor and my clothes need...

What's the best way to let the compression out? Time sensitive. I need to get the thing back to work. Basically I was towing an empty wide tandem trailer and one wheel hooked an old stump while the tractor entered a steep side hill. Gear too high. Flipped me off down the sloping mowed...

The old Massey Ferguson 35 gets few hours any more, restricted to loading the odd log and powering the winch on its hitch. Without indoor storage for it, I'v learned to deal with a flooded air filter from time to time. A big knot of duct tape upstream of the air filter has largely kept the...

A pair of oak planks bolted to the bottom of my 5′ loader bucket makes it into a very usable fork lift for small jobs. Today I moved 13 pieces of scaffold to re-pile it by the simple expedient of sticking the forks through the bunch of leaning scaffold and lifting it to a new location. Once...

When I bought my low-hours 2005 Kubota B7510 two years ago it had a piece of tape over one hole in the battery. Eventually I replaced the cap, but in the interim the fan drew a bit of acid as far as the screen. Of course the HST cooling tubes lie between the battery and the mesh. Now they're...

What documents can one expect the owner to produce regarding ownership and loan payment/lien clearance? This is a bit time sensitive. I'm inquiring for a friend. Thanks, Rod

The 2004 TM (730 hours) gets a lot of use in summer around the property. The only annoying trait is that it takes several tries on the ignition key for the starter to engage, after which it starts and runs normally. I have replaced the switch twice and cleaned battery terminals and topped up...

I recently put a couple of tanks through the Kubota B7510 trimming around 15,000 tree seedlings with the 48" Braber rotary cutter. As long as the grass wasn't too long it did a good job. When I tackled a one-acre hay plot, however, it did a lousy job. The tractor's wide turf tires flattened...

I just finished changing the hydraulic oil in the Kubota B7510. It's quite a job. I'm told HST machines live or die on the condition of their oil, so it needs doing every 300 hours. The previous owner told me he had done it just before I bought the tractor at 210 hours, but he apparently went...

When I bought the B7510 (with 5' mmm) last year it was primarily for use as a mower: 2 acres of lawns and 25 acres of trees on a 48" bush hog (shared with a 35 hp tractor on a 60" Rhino). But I chose the tractor because it had a set of remotes installed. The remotes drive my block splitter...

I have the price sheet before me and I need some input before I pull the trigger on a purchase. Candidates are a lightweight 4', a lightweight 5', a hd 5' and a hd 6' which I would use with my 35 hp 2WD loader tractor. The task is to shape sand fill and distribute topsoil on a 250' X 150'...

My TAFE 35 hp 2WD has a good loader with a leveling feature and 5' bucket. It has loaded agricultural rear tires and the Massey Ferguson float system on its 3 pt hitch. My Kubota B7510 HST has no loader, turf tires, 4WD, and up-and-down 3pt hitch control. I use chains to the corners of...

The problem was a set of footings for my friend's new house, surrounded by the edges of the excavation. Vertical rebar for styrofoam/concrete walls prevented the use of a larger tractor. Faced with a 16 yard pile of washed stone and a deadline, we pressed into service my little Bolens G174...

One of the readers of my blog sent this account of a jewel and gun thief fleeing the Mounties in a John Deere 6400. Stolen tractor halted in low-speed chase in rural Alberta - The Globe and Mail

Ever since I test drove a Kawasaki Mule on tracks I have been getting stuck in the still-deep snow on the farm in Leeds County, Ontario. Yesterday I buried my friend's 4WD Polaris Ranger, and then bogged the Massey Ferguson 35 when I went with the winch to get the Ranger. After a nice rest in...

This funny self-penned obituary has gone viral this morning. It's worth a read. Grandfather Pens Hilarious Self-Written Obit Before Passing Away | iVillage.ca

My friend Tom took this photo near Reading, PA today. We're trying to figure out what it is.

Duck Dynasty t-shirts are turning up all over the place as the popular reality show gradually colonizes the North American culture, but I'm just sitting back counting my money as I wait for the collectors to come calling, for I own the exact model of TAFE tractor which Phil Robertson uses on his...

My 2WD tractor could barely move without chains in the 8" of wet snow which fell overnight, so I decided to try the Kubota I had bought privately last June. So far it has outperformed my other tractors on lawn mowing, bush hogging (4') and block splitting, so I decided to try it on the Lucknow...

Portable generators, not connected to a utility system, need not tightly regulate their frequency, because typical loads are insensitive to small frequency deviations. Wikipedia Yesterday I tried connecting my Bolens G174 (15 hp PTO at 740 rpm) to my newly-acquired BAUMALight 7.2 KW PTO...

Walco imports a lightweight 2000 lb capacity dump trailer that's 44" X 84". Its sides and/or tailgate fold down. I bought mine from Lucas Distributing - 613-254-6599, northwest of Ottawa, Ontario. It cost about $1700 new. While it initially seemed fragile to me, it handles work around my...

I just bought a BAUMALight 7.2 kw pto generator for use as backup power for the twin houses on the property. The main generator tractor will be the Kubota B7510 with its 540 rpm pto and tachometer. But the G174's the garage queen, spending its winters largely nestled beside the box stove in my...

My Honda EM5000 wouldn't start the water pump during a recent wind storm, though it was showing 250 volts on the meter. The dealer said the windings are toast and it's not worth fixing. So this raises the question: what should I get as a replacement? Situation: Large, double house in Leeds...

The second day of the project has provided a series of lessons: 1. When you have bolted everything back together and you are all ready to do the triumphant drive around the yard in your recently-repaired tractor, the battery will be dead. 2. If the hydraulic pump makes a horrible noise when...

My trusty old Bolens G174 stripped a few cogs on its output shaft boss the other day, and sat there sounding like an annoyed pencil sharpener instead of pulling my trailer. A session in the garage revealed that it had stripped a spline boss on the shaft which transfers power from the engine and...

They don't break if you don't use 'em. Yesterday the Bolens G174 hauled several loads of hardwood blocks out of rough terrain in the woodlot and dumped them in the yard for splitting. The Kubota B7510 with its remote works very well on the 3 pt. hitch splitter, btw. Today as I pulled away...

Three years ago I had my neighbour remove the remotes mounted on the fender of my Bolens G174 because they were in the way and I had no use for them. This week I tried to put the unit back on and discovered I have lost a critical banjo bolt, the one with a 7/8" wide shoulder which goes through...

A few months ago my Bolens G174 set off its engine temperature warning light. I got all in a flap (even buying a Kubota) but relaxed when the light quit coming on. The engine seemed cool throughout the whole process, but I drained and replaced the coolant, gave it a new fan belt, and blew the...

Funny, it does on my laptop. I'll try again.

I bought this Walco Renegade lightweight dump trailer today, but I'm a bit intimidated by the size and capacity of the hoist cylinder, despite my wife's fondness for this photo. At rest the B7510 HST's dip stick showed a half-inch over full. With the hoist up, the dip stick is dry. Halfway...

When I bought a 48" offshore rotary mower for my Bolens G174 I didn't know any better but to use the same system of chains it used on the 48" Woods 3 pt hitch finish mower. I just added a couple of appropriate chains to the front corners of the bush hog and away I went. When the Kubota B7510...

This one's for the archives because when I went looking, no one had written anything on the subject. Why it is a bad idea to raise a Kubota tractor on a car hoist | Walnut Diary

A conversation with the parts guy at Wegeant's Farm Supply confirmed my suspicion that the tractor's wheels have too much flex for safe support on the hoist. Taking a photo is one thing, but putting torque on a breaker bar is another. He suggested chaining the front to the hoist and lifting it...

After 15 hours of mowing our rather rocky green space, the blades on the mid-mount mower of the Kubota B7510 I recently brought home need service. The centre blade came loose yesterday and I was able to find a 30 mm socket and breaker bar to reach in and tighten it. I also touched up the ends...

Today I prepared the B7510 for mowing around some of the 15,000 little trees on the farm. That involved removing the five-foot mid-mount mower and hooking on the 48" rotary mower. The off-brand mower normally mounts on my Bolens G174 where height control is achieved by means of a pair of...

I have only split a few blocks with the splitter mounted on my B7510, but it seems to perform at least as well as my TAFE with its 4 gal/min pump. Mind you, the Bota's remote's pressure is set at 2600 lb.

The third line which makes a 90 degree turn toward the centre of the tractor is from a T on the outfeed line. The other two come to the block pictured just below the right foot controls. I looked up the Salami VOM6 hydraulic control and downloaded a diagram. The nut I tried to turn in an...

I'm still stumped by the adjustment of the relief valve... About the hour meter. Thanks for the clarifications. I didn't read the instrument carefully enough. I'll look into getting a different seat. This one doesn't suit me. On the other hand this morning I mowed an area which I...

I've spent the better part of the last week getting adjusted to the '05 Kubota B7510 I picked up privately last weekend and towed home. So there are some notes and a few questions. Feel free to comment where you have information to ad. - Towing: A few years ago I built a tandem trailer for...

Just bought a '05 Kubota B7510 HST with 210 hours. It has a remote attached to the ROPS. I changed the fittings to try my 3 pt hitch log splitter, which it ran well. But when I put a gauge on the line it read 2850 pounds and the manual says 1950 pounds. Previous owner used it briefly on a...

New to this forum. Last weekend I bought and hauled home a 2005 B7510 with 210 hours, 5' belly mower, and a remote mounted to the ROPS for use on a post hole digger. The fittings on the remote are a bit smaller than those I use to connect to my 35 hp TAFE. TAFE's have lazy pumps, but I've...

Since I bought the G174 three years ago the cooling system has never uttered a burp. It was as if the thing didn't have one. Then while I was picking up a little cherry tree in the woods with the dump box, the overheat light winked on faintly. I shut off and checked the coolant. All fine...

Yesterday my friend brought his 2003 Ranger 500 to the farm in Eastern Ontario and drove it around the trails in the woods I had established with my Massey Ferguson 35 and winch for hauling out logs. The wide body on full-sized Rangers may be a pain to fit onto a trailer, but the wheels fit...

Here's the Bolens G174 with a jeep's chains and a load of green ironwood. The chains greatly improved winter traction in return for a slightly rougher ride.

In the barn I found a pair of tire chains my dad had for his 1968 Kaiser Military Surplus Jeep. They looked about the right size, so I tried them over the turf tires on the back wheels of the Bolens G174. It took four of those 2 1/2" ID twist-on links and two additional links from an old horse...

The season's first snowstorm hit Eastern Ontario over the last couple of days. In anticipation I had fitted tire chains onto my TAFE 351DI whose loader I use for snow removal until things get really deep. Then I add a snowblower to the back. First trip out the 600' driveway with the TAFE went...

Ironwood (hornbeam) is an inconspicuous weed tree which grows beneath the maples, walnuts, and towering beeches of the forest crown. It fills in sunlit spaces if it can, and if not will stretch up forty feet until it eventually dies from root disease and falls over. Its cadavers litter the...

My friend asked me to look at a 2002 Ranger 500 at the local Polaris dealer. He was attracted by the price, but put off by the torn seat and a dent in the skid plate at the front. Once I learned about the interlock on the brake, it started and ran very well. The choke cable hung out of the...

Short version: Don't order a chain for a Husqvarna saw from Alamia unless you know exactly what you are doing. Longer version: I learned of Chain Saws at Alamia: Outdoor Equipment, Husqvarna Chain Saws, Wood Chippers, Chippers from this forum, and when I decided to buy a new saw, their price...

A good indicator that it's going to be a difficult day is when you wake up to the sound of the County sanding truck stuck in the ditch at the end of the driveway. You know when that little voice in you pleads for a rope half-way down a black diamond ski hill? That's what the 2' descent over...

A couple of days ago I had to light a fire in a box stove in the garage when there wasn't any kindling nearby, so I poured a small amount of used engine oil onto the cherry blocks and started the fire. The fire built slowly, but I thought little more of it. Today I tried a couple of ounces...

I'm looking at a 7 kw pto generator for possible use on my Bolens G174 which produces a nominal 17 hp. No problem so far. But while a small Kubota runs 540 on its shaft, my Iseki/Bolens offers a choice of 472, 752, or 1177 at 2700 rpm. That means the gauges should level out at about 1950 rpm...

My 5 kw Honda generator's in the shop, so I'm thinking about a 7 kw pto generator to attach to my Bolens G174. The engine is strong and might be a good match for the generator. The setup appeals because of the Bolens's low fuel consumption when under load. But according to the manual 1st gear...

My son located a large pile of used, good quality fluorescent lights taken from a drugstore undergoing renovations. Desiring an ample supply of lighting for his new garage, he bought the contents of the large pallet, estimated at between forty and fifty eight-foot lights, each with four thin...

I found this at the local farm implement dealer: a lightly-used version of an idea which had yet to take full form in my mind. I have a timber winch which is very effective, but it loads its victims up with grit unless there's heavy snow cover. It's hard to make firewood out of sandy logs...

I've had a couple of private messages asking for this information, so I decided to post a link where TBN's search engine can find it. Rod How to change the belt on Woods mower #RM48YM-2 Walnut Diary

Guys: We're set to start assembling a 20X30 garage/equipment shed tomorrow on a pad we poured last fall. The catch is that the panels will be studded with 12' 2X6s. I want to apply the 7/16" OSB while the panels are on the floor. The other garage last summer had a 9' ceiling, so I left off...

This morning at 5:30 three robins, two starlings and a blue jay converged around a dry puddle on the driveway and acted as though they couldn't believe their fountain had dried up. It was quite a show as the thirsty birds did their best despairing tricks, peeking among the pebbles for just one...

It's the original seat, in good condition, but it's missing the rear pad which sits underneath to cushion the seat pan from the frame, so it's harsh enough that I add a pair of pillows when working on rough ground. Someone here suggested a new seat, so I tried today at TSC. That was an...

We waited until the snow conditions were right and then cut up and skidded out a substantial black walnut which a wind storm took down in the centre of the woodlot. My recently-retired wife took some photos and circulated them to her friends with a note bragging about her prowess with a logging...

Had a thought today while heading back to the woods with the chainsaw on my 2004 Ranger tm . There's still a lot of snow on the ground, but I can move around with the 2WD utility vehicle because its track is the same as the 35 hp tractor I use on the logging winch. A narrow-format UTV would...

My wife and I live in an old stone house attached to a larger Victorian brick number which dumps its snow onto our roof next to a dormer. It's a trap for snow and an eventual ice dam. Climbing up there is hard on the roof and dangerous, so some years ago I developed a technique for dealing...

My neck was getting so sore from owling around backwards while moving snow that something had to give. I arrived at the junkyard just when the crew was preparing to "kill" a school bus. The owner offered me the mirrors for $50. What I took home consisted of two banks of two mirrors, a flat...

This one's home-made of local oak. My wife and I just popped it into place before supper. I think it should go an inch deeper into the cavity before I foam it in. Walnut Diary

How much PTO generator could I run with a 17 hp diesel tractor? With a 35 hp? We're looking at laying one in for occasional welding rather than paying $600/year for a second electrical service for the garage. Thanks, Rod

Last summer we built a garage. Then I bought a very nice 10 X 7' "Mahogany"(hemlock with luan raised panels) door. Today the time had come to install it. All went well until I wound up the spring. I wonder if I had it in backwards. It took six turns and then it had had enough and hopped up...

My old 1960 MF35 started up well enough in the cold, but it wouldn't rev up. I gave it more throttle but it wouldn't accelerate. Soon I noticed a cloud of dark smoke behind. It didn't improve, so I put it back in the garage. Yesterday I needed the loader, and it was no better, though upon...

The tractor is a 4WD, 17 hp Iseki/Bolens, 1981. The problem seems cold-related, and bearing-related, insofar as it only zings when the clutch is out. Otherwise I'd say it's from the hydraulic pump, as that's where the sounds seems to originate. Seeking water in the fluid I drained the tranny...

Don't download the 7 day trial of Google Earth Pro until you have some heavy lifting to do, because when the seventh day ends and your screen goes blank, you'll feel like Aladdin when they took away his magic carpet. It costs $400. to get it back for a year. So why am I mentioning this on a...

In the CTC parking lot in Smiths Falls today I saw a wheel hop off a horse trailer and follow the truck along over the speed bump before it stopped at the entrance to bay 2. The driver didn't believe me when I told him he'd lost a wheel, but he sent his wife back to check. As he passed I had...

I had to try it. When the mower came off the Bolens I backed it up to the mid-sized Wallenstein skidder (8800 lb) and discovered that if I adjusted the top link correctly, it could pick it up. Off to the woods where three years ago an improvement cut had left a lot of small timber lying...

Last week I bought a used 3pt hitch block splitter, brought it home and hooked it to my TAFE 35DI. It has a pair of remotes described in the manual as a tipping lever. It wouldn't work, so I took it to my neighbour. He tested the line and found pressure, then monkeyed around with it until...

Very nice mid-mount mower and loader installation. Bolens Diesel tractor/loader - Ottawa Farming Equipment For Sale - Kijiji Ottawa Canada. $4.3K CDN

When mowing season ends I plan to use the Bolens G174 to tow a 4X6 utility trailer for woodlot duties. I'm concerned that it's a bit light in the front end for heavy loads, even with three suitcase weights, so I'm reluctant to hitch off the end of the 3 pt hitch. Some compact tractors seem...

These things go in threes. Seems a couple of days ago I shut the Bolens G174 off without turning off the key. Came home today bushed from a 7 hour drive with a new garage door. Went to back it into the garage but the Bolens was in the way. Battery completely flat. Pushed tractor out to...

In frustration I loaded the tractor onto its trailer and hauled it to Feenstra's Farm Equipment, a reputable local dealer (Kioti) with a background in Massey Ferguson service. The boss changed the fuel filter and had the starter rebuilt. Now it's fine.

1981 Bolens G174/Iseki TX 1500F Engine KE75. It's been getting harder and harder to start, the more I use it. So far I've put about fifteen tanks of diesel through it on a finished mower and 48" rotary mower. The trouble seems to have started about the time I began running the engine at...

I don't know how useful this Bolens/Iseki will be in winter, but the turf tires which are on it don't offer a lot of grip. Would there be a gray-market source for inexpensive ag tires (and rims) accessible to me in Ontario? I believe they're 6:12's and 8:16's. What kind of price for a used...

I've put between 30 and 50 hours of mowing on the Bolens G174/Iseki 1500X since I bought it this summer. It started well until I bought the 48" rotary mower, but then it faced 11 acres of mowing around little trees, and I had to keep engine rev's down to avoid exceeding the 540 rev requirement...

That's the third in two weeks, and I only have one left. The mower is a 1987 Woods RM48**-C attached to the back of my 17 hp Bolens diesel. It's mowing the lawns (2 acres) and a 6 acre patch of new tree seedlings which ended up with rows too narrow for my larger tractors. So it's been getting...

When I bought my Bolens G174 the guy told me to run the Woods pto finish mower in pto speed #2, and 4th gear (1st high) at middle rpms. It works quite comfortably at that speed, but the Woods manual calls for me to run the mower at much higher revolutions, recommending 1000 rpm at the pto...

Two weeks ago I bought a Bolens G174 with a Woods 3pt hitch finishing mower attached. Since then I have run through two belts over many acres of mowing. The local sources had no listing for the Woods belt, a 5.8 X 126.7" beaut. The local Woods dealer kept me waiting and waffled, not sure...

Hello. Just looking for a discussion on how to build a canopy for my 1995 TAFE 35DI. Walnut Diary