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Cut in half... I'd imagine it kinda ruined the day for everyone that witnessed it.

Seems like a box blade mounted on the three point ought to be plenty strong enough, maybe not as strong as the draw bar, but if it's getting down to peak limits of tensile strength, the stump's too big anyway. AND, it seems a whole lot safer to do a big pull with the box in place to stop the...

Is there any way to do create a poll on this forum thread? At some point maybe we'll get an actual answer from the OP. If we do, it'd be interesting to see whether a majority opinion was correct. I'll cast my vote for wrong size bearing shells installed, allowing excessive oil to be slung...

Got it, I missed that. So add this possibility to the list of "confirmed as *not* the reason for the smoke in this instance". Now just need to 'exclude' 50 more.

90 Comments and counting... Looks like we're creating a nice compendium of all the reasons why an engine will smoke and have low oil pressure. Did anyone mention on the oil pressure front mention worn out lifter bores yet? On the smoke side, what about a sticking enrichment solenoid on the...

Could be upside down oil control rings, yes. Or, it could be the excessive clearance on the rods and/or mains is leaking and slinging so much oil no scraper ring could control it, upside down or not. And/or the bores are oval... Add these to the list of a dozen other possibilities that...

Clearly you provide a decent amount of information to the shop, and they probably know you well enough to figure out what you'll expect--and pay for. The OP admits he knows very little about engine building. I doubt he owns a set of micrometers and snap gauges or a bore scope, and the journal...

Former federal rules prevented a manufacturer from selling next model year vehicles with a production date prior to 9/1 of the current calendar year. This was fairly recently changed by EPA legislation that now allows a manufacturer to do so as early as January 2nd, basically a full year...

For starters, let me say you are "the engine guy" in this scenario. Former shop owner here, now a licensed general contractor. A lot of my work nowadays involves bailing out homeowners who thought they could be their own GC, or previously hired someone who was hopelessly unqualified to accept...

Seems like tractors attract entertaining people.) And hey, another resident of the PNW! Ohio transplant here. What part of the Midwest did you move here from?

Strange, looks like cool day in mid-March to me, high 40's to low 50's. lol To each his own. Safety equipment is a PITA generally, until you actually need it.

Well, if you haven't heard it, then clearly it doesn't happen. ...or you don't hang around the shop talking to old gear heads much. But, I agree that in common parlance, supercharger means PTO driven, and turbocharger exhaust driven, etc. My comment was made in jest, and I also doubt there's...

My first foray into the world of supercharging was back in the late '90s when I got my hands on a new-in-the-box Paxton V-belt driven compressor that a customer had purchased years back for his Volvo P1800 and never installed. We fitted it to a 1964 TR4 with a specially made, extra thick copper...

First time I'd ever heard of a supercharger was when reading the box for a Revell P-38 Lightning my dad built for me when I was about age 5. It was called a turbo-supercharger. Obviously it just means a forced induction device that uses a turbine to drive a compressor, instead of a PTO running...

Granted, if the sort of comparison you're after is of the 'my tractor will pull more than your tractor' variety, then the all the factors you mention, and many more, will have an impact on who wins. I guess my understanding of the OP's comment seemed to presume something more akin to a...

Ultimately all those factors boil down to co-efficient of friction between the tire and the earth (here soil conditions, tire construction, etc.), and the weight presented to the ground by the tire's surface, however it gets there (ladder bars on a drag car, or wheel weights on a tractor). Of...

Think about neither for a moment. Rather, consider pulling on a scale attached to the draw bar which records peak pulling power. Yes, gearing and wheel diameter can be used to multiply the engine torque delivered to the rear wheels, but at a lower speed. Nonetheless, the measure of rear wheel...

I disagree. Once you recognize that "horsepower" *is* the measure potential pulling power, the only remaining variable is the ability to put that power to the ground, i.e., traction. And traction is simply the co-efficient of friction (soil condition and tire construction) x mass (weight...

Merely 'mentioning' weight as one of the factors in a broad discussion that also mentions every other variable is hardly the same as recognizing that it is *the* determinant, at least when comparing equal rear wheel HP under standardized soil conditions. The post I referenced was the first to...

"Supercharger" is a generic term that includes both belt driven Roots-type and exhaust driven turbochargers.

Good to see he's got a shatterproof visor to protect that helmet, if the supercharger grenades.

^^This^^ Glad someone finally recognized that weight is a, if not the, key factor.

Front facing brackets that distribute the forces aren't necessarily a solution, they can just create more welds and service/inspection points that can possibly fail. The Kubota in the picture has only a couple highly stressed points of potential failure in the loader bracket. Obviously that's...

I had an old B5100 I'd picked up from a guy that had led a similar life. It sounded like it was ready to throw a rod at any moment (normal for the B5100), but still started right up and made good power. It also produced almost as much blow-by out of the breather as it did exhaust out of the...

The fee for services of this type on a new tractor are high because buyers usually just agree to them without questions asked. Since the money is coming paid by a financing agreement, not hard cash out of their wallet, most just want to get it done before someone changes their mind and are...

You are correct, my error. Even after 40+ years of mechanic'in I still jumble this one occasionally.

The problem with not changing the oil in a tractor that's only run 25 hours a year, is that the oil is contaminated by water from condensation inside the engine block--assuming the tractor isn't kept in heated, humidity controlled storage anyway. That water gets mixed into the oil upon start-up...

I always suction it out when the oil is hot, takes a lot longer otherwise. The original owner did drain plug changes at 50 hours, and the tractor was around 2000 hours when I purchased it. I've done a couple since. On that frequency of changes, I think it's highly unlikely there's any sludge...

I do 50 hour oil (100 oil filter) changes on my 1993 B2150, just like the guy I bought it from. Takes me less than 15 minutes and $20-25 (Valvoline Premium Blue on sale) to suction the old oil out through the dipstick tube, and dump new in. Might need it, might not, but I'm guessing the guy...

Massey doesn't make 'em like they used to (I mean back when they were still headquartered in England). Anyway, it's clear that the welds had inclusions that rusted after the paint failed at the top of the bracket, the region most exposed to sun, water and abrasion from falling dirt and rock...

As a rule of thumb, numerically higher lower gears will provide better fuel economy, but the selection of the "ideal" ratio depends on the torque curve of the engine, transmission final drive ratio (overdrive or not), anticipated load, and road speed while towing, among other things. In other...

Another plus: there are so many Ford trucks in the boneyard with trashed automatic transmissions that finding a used differential should be easy.

They use a methanol and water solution, aka, antifreeze. Pure methanol is poisonous, yes. But it's nowhere near as poisonous as you evidently believe. Your windshield washer fluid is a water/alcohol solution, and methanol is the alcohol.

Calcium is also great for rotting holes in your rims, as me how I know.

You're correct, even though a methanol/water antifreeze solution is often referred to as "methanol", the actual methanol component of the solution is wood alcohol. The OP probably just misspelled the word as "methanal", which is formaldehyde.

In agreement about the special "cushion-y" hitches. If you need one of those your thrust washers and pinion bearings are already on their way out.

For future reference, Rancho Cordova, CA is home of the nations largest concentration of vehicle dismantlers. There are several in that region that specialize in Mopar parts, and will freight them out to anywhere in the country same or next day. A rear diff for a popular rig like the Dodge...

Not a fan of reman parts in general, especially major powertrain components like transmissions and running gear. The warranty usually has so many disclaimers that it's worthless when you need it, the core didn't get rebuilt because it was well treated, and there's no way to know if the parts...

I believe you mean methanol, which is just water with alcohol added as antifreeze. "Methanal" is more commonly known as formaldehyde, or embalming fluid.

Fumoto valves are nice, but you can skip them and go directly to a better option. Buy a shop air powered oil pump to suck the oil up out of the pan through the dip stick tube directly into a holding vessel that you can transport and dump at the nearest NAPA. Mine was purchased at Harbor...

I'm a contractor and here in Portland, we can get a lot of stuff same day. For example, a $20 set of 6 solid carbide burrs for my die grinder, or a $10 set of cobalt drill bits, both in my hands within 2 hours. Over and over this has saved me half a day of driving in traffic across town to...

"We need to find a way to increase service revenue for our dealers, anyone have any ideas?" "How about we add a dozen different *safety* devices that all disable the ignition and/or fuel supply and connect them via a maze of unintuitive wiring, so that only the dealerships know how to diagnose...

Relying on bootstrapped gadgets to make-up for a lack of judgment and experience is a good way to get killed, IMHO. Is there really EVER going to be an instance where you're going to continue when the gut says it's not safe, but the meter says it's okay? Hopefully not. I'd vote it's a waste...

Make sure the oil is warmed nearly to operating temp.

First, buy a shop air powered oil extractor, the type that sucks out the oil through a tube extended down the dipstick tube. No more drain pans to clean. No more copper washers to buy. Next, make sure the machine is full before you start, and measure what you remove. This should make it...

A 12 pack? I thought the requisite gratuity was a 6 pack? You must live in an upscale neighborhood.

Absolutely, people should drive whatever they want. And as long as everyone else still has a right to their own opinion, some of those drivers are bound to be the butt of jokes about the vehicle choices they make. There's seemingly no end to the chatter about Tesla drivers, for example...

It's because the average American has become pretty large and luxury laden (or at least laden with the expections of luxury in nearly every corner of their lives). So, you need a 7 liter diesel powered land yacht, when a 1000 pound family of four wants every power adjustable seat to have...

Yeah, and someone once said that someday just plain old steam would be able to power freight trains and ocean liners. LOL What an idiot that guys was, huh.

If the "government" wanted to control the population by shutting off their access to energy, they could just as easily stop refining oil or propane. Are you capable of manufacturing your own when your full tank runs out? Now, if you're charging your batteries with solar... Have you heard the...

A front loader or backhoe weighs just as much, and it can be easily swapped on and off the tractor. Swapping batteries doesn't seem to me like it would require too much "advanced" engineering.

I'm curious how long ago that section of the owners manual was written? Modern oils leave a film that lubricates well even on a "dry" start after the engine's been sitting for months. I suspect that this overly generalized recommendation is mostly to cover the worst case scenario, i.e., engine...

Yes, it's easy enough to change the reading. But the reading on the hour meter doesn't tell you how the tractor was maintained, or how hard it was worked, only that the key was in the "on" position for so many hours. Personally, I'd rather buy a tractor with 3000 hours that had the oil changed...

So you're saying that with your manual transmission tractor, you'd actually have to manually change the gears (downshift in this case) when the traction or load conditions changed?

I think what the OP wants to know is whether he needs a bigger tractor with more than 25 horsepower. Bigger is not always better, there are trade-offs. The problem, I believe, is not lack of horsepower, but lack of drive efficiency to use that horsepower. In a geared tractor, 25 hp is more...

"...not super efficient" I think "super inefficient" is much closer to the truth, but perhaps you are were just being diplomatic.

Thanks for the thread and discussion. I'm now, more than ever, very grateful to own a geared tractor. Apart from mowing lawns, I cannot imagine why anyone would want an HST. The power transfer inefficiency (work done to heat liquid) is massive, and there's a constant threat of one day being...