Carl, I view the Honda Harmony 1.5 HP mini-tiller/cultivator with mixed emotions. It starts easily, runs quietly even under full throttle, has no visible exhaust plume, maneuvers easily, cultivates previously tilled dirt pretty well. It certainly beats what it replaces, a hoe, by quite a margin. The only down side I've seen so far is the number of passes it takes to cultivate a fair sized area but a larger unit would be a liability in close quarters. I sure hope I don't do something stupid like buy a third tiller for those awkward in between sized jobs. So far my wife is sort of afraid of the little beastie. Maybe I will be able to coach and cajole her into trying to do some easy straight along in between the rows stuff and leave the between plants in the row job to me.
Yeah, the Sunbeam Tiger was an eminently practical "investment." Yet another realization of buy high - sell low. Bought it new in '66, put on the required 1000 miles and took it in to the dealership to have it retrofitted with all the dealer add on performance options. The goodies all came in boxes marked Sunbeam so it was still considered "stock." Off came the cast iron intake and exhaust manifolds to be replaced with tuned equal length welded steel tubing headers with dumps and a special high rise aluminum intake manifold designed by Vic Edelbrock to allow a Holley competition 4 barrel carb to replace the stock two barrel without having to put a scoop or bubble in the hood. Off with the stock Ford distributor to be replaced with the Ford twin point racing distributor. R&R the hydraulic valve lifters and stock Mustang cam with solid lifters and the HiPo Mustang cam.
Of the 5 available rear ends, I selected the 2.88 to 1 for a top speed of 165 MPH (while indicating 150 on the speedo and making revs for 150). At those speeds, tire expansion bought you an extra 10% over indicated. Conservative shift points were approximately 60, 90, and 120 MPH. The brochure they put out on the car claimed a sustained cruising speed of 125 with top speed of 165. They weren't wrong.
Later when circumstances required me to drive my 1943 Ford Jeep as a home to work to school vehicle I had to put the hydraulic lifters and stock cam back in to tame it down a bit for my wife to use it to commute to and from work in traffic. It still wasn't entirely tame. In addition to all the performance equipment mentioned previously, also when the car was new, I replaced the stock Ford ignition coil with a Judsen Electronic magneto for MORE spark. It ate ballast resistors so frequently that I carried spares in the trunk and a set of aligator clip leads to allow jumping in a new resistor within 30 seconds of failure.
Symptoms of failure were typically: starts right up but dies when you release the ignition key and it returns to the run position from the start position. So you start it again and it dies again and so forth. This is when I open the trunk (boot? It was a British car even if it had a Ford Mustang racing engine) and get a spare resistor to clip on to get me going again till I take the time to use tools for a proper install.
Unfortunately this is when my wife made the tactical error of asking a MAN (they know about cars, right?) if it would be OK to drive home (15 miles) holding the key because it runs ok that way. The bozo says yes, less than a mile later the starter melts, she is stranded, and I am once again overjoyed to take over in the wake of some idiot guys stupid comment that my fairly normal, college educated, but overly trusting wife followed. Ranks right up there with plugging the sink drain by putting Saran Wrap through the disposer. Saran Wrap is just plastic paper and you can put a little paper down the disposer, right?
Now you see the training challenge involving the mini-tiller.
Oh, yeah, MB... Note: At filling stations, 99.9 % or more of the fuel pumps with green plastic on the handle are Diesel. Every so often one is gasoline (we live in a perverse universe). I sold a diesel truck to a friend who was delighted to get it and loved my after market mods, including the large rear diesel fuel tank (45 gal) until he was on vacation and found one of the 0.1% pumps. Then instead of 25 gal of #2 diesel and 10 gal of regular unleaded, he had 45 gal of "TOXIC WASTE" which the full service station with mechanics would not drain. He finished the vacation, pulling a travel trailer, on the stock 19 gal front tank (and making frequent fuel stops). The good ending was: I gave him the 35 gal plastic tank out of my new Dodge 1 ton (I put in a 65 gal tank) to store his WASTE until he could give it away for parts cleaner, fire starter for beach bonfires, stump soaker/killer, etc.
While waiting to get started with the give away program, it was stolen by someone moving from his semi-rural neighborhood with their diesel pickup and a rented diesel Ryder van. Both the personal truck and the rental acted like normal diesels the day before they left but on the day of departure both were running very very ragged. Somehow In my perversity, I just loved that and told him to forget about the tank, it went for a good cause.
Final MB comment: My best buddy's older brother has driven MB diesels for decades and claims to have been waiting all that time for the opportunity to say this one phrase that he thought would be appropriate and funny. One day he stopped in traffic and a guy just bumped him a bit on the fender. The guy runs up all worried and my bud's brother runs the power window down and says to him, "Oh well, that's the way the Mercedes bends."
Patrick
