Sackett2
Platinum Member
Well, 1/2 of our time here seems to be telling each other of our mishaps and adventures. Today's story is of my first use if my new Value leader 6' finish mower.
I got it off ebay from Betstco at a steal, 475. Its been setting on my trailer for well over a month and today the sun was out and its time to try it. So I unloaded it and put it in position. The first thing I noticed was the 3 point arms didn't go low enough. So I had to lift the mower onto the pat's easy change. Got the 3 point attached and put on the pto shaft. was having some difficulty getting the pto to line up so had to get a pinchbar to turn the mower over a bit.
OK now the mower is hooked up and setting on its wheels on asphalt. It sets low and I was thinking this may be a close cut. Had to drive the tractor to my brother-in-laws place and try a test mow.
Got there and idled down and turned on the pto- thunk and the engine died. hmmm, that's not right. restarted and idled up a bit and tried again; the tractor didn't die, but the pinch bar sailing off into the grass caught my attention. I forgot to remove it when lining up the pto shaft. a small dent in the deck and a broken shear bolt.
Found a temporary smaller bolt, as the area I had to mow was small. installed it and tried to mow. the mower was scalping the lawn and no matter what I did I couldn't get a consistent cut. I hacked and tracked the lawn up and got 'er done and took the mower home to see if the wheels could be raised at all. On the way home I set it on the gravel driveway and the deck was hitting.....
Raised it up and examined the wheel/strut assembly's. Found 3 spacers and figured out you can move them from the top to the bottom and get more lift. that done i was a bit happier, but kept staring at them. the spring was put on the top, and was providing a spring option in the wrong direction. so took them apart again and relocated the spring to the bottom and provided the mower with 2-3 inches of lift, and wheels that can now move with the terrain.
So wait for the next growing and see what it does this time.
I got it off ebay from Betstco at a steal, 475. Its been setting on my trailer for well over a month and today the sun was out and its time to try it. So I unloaded it and put it in position. The first thing I noticed was the 3 point arms didn't go low enough. So I had to lift the mower onto the pat's easy change. Got the 3 point attached and put on the pto shaft. was having some difficulty getting the pto to line up so had to get a pinchbar to turn the mower over a bit.
OK now the mower is hooked up and setting on its wheels on asphalt. It sets low and I was thinking this may be a close cut. Had to drive the tractor to my brother-in-laws place and try a test mow.
Got there and idled down and turned on the pto- thunk and the engine died. hmmm, that's not right. restarted and idled up a bit and tried again; the tractor didn't die, but the pinch bar sailing off into the grass caught my attention. I forgot to remove it when lining up the pto shaft. a small dent in the deck and a broken shear bolt.
Found a temporary smaller bolt, as the area I had to mow was small. installed it and tried to mow. the mower was scalping the lawn and no matter what I did I couldn't get a consistent cut. I hacked and tracked the lawn up and got 'er done and took the mower home to see if the wheels could be raised at all. On the way home I set it on the gravel driveway and the deck was hitting.....
Raised it up and examined the wheel/strut assembly's. Found 3 spacers and figured out you can move them from the top to the bottom and get more lift. that done i was a bit happier, but kept staring at them. the spring was put on the top, and was providing a spring option in the wrong direction. so took them apart again and relocated the spring to the bottom and provided the mower with 2-3 inches of lift, and wheels that can now move with the terrain.
So wait for the next growing and see what it does this time.
