Anonymous Poster
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- Sep 27, 2005
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My first "What a Week" post concerned troubles with our Branson (see This Link). At the same time that was going on, we were trying to buy the PT-425 that Moss Road spent too much of our money on. In the process we had to deal with miscommunications, missing long distance service, missing checks, snipers, closed motels, monumental traffic jams, bad weather, and really embarassing failures to think--and in the end we managed to set it on fire.
When I first contacted Power Trac, I was surprised to learn that the PT-425 was out of stock and the next production run would be a total of 12 units. Not exactly a high volume operation it seemed. Not only that, but only five were left for sale. The others already had deposits on them.
Unwilling to risk not being able to get a unit from the next run, we decided on a sight unseen purchase. We arranged with Scott of Power Trac to take delivery at the factory on Friday the 27th. We would drive up Thursday night, and Power Trac would put us up at the local motel. Scott warned me to be sure to arrive before 10 PM or call if we were going to be late.
Scott faxed us a contract. I signed it and tried to fax it back. That's when I found out that we had no outgoing long distance. We had changed our phone system to ISDN and received new numbers. Somehow our long distance carrier had failed to switch our service even though we had notified them. We never noticed since we use cell phones for long distance almost exclusively. If not for the new fax machine, we would probably still not know.
So mumbling apologies to Scott for saying we would fax it right away, we put the signed contract and a deposit check in the mail on the 18th.
The next Tuesday I called Power Trac to make sure they had our check in hand. Not yet they said. I called again on Wednesday, and again on Thursday morning, but still no check. I was getting increasingly concerned that someone else would get "our" PT-425 as they expected the entire run to be subscribed to right away. Still, Scott continued to talk as if the lack of a deposit had no bearing on our order.
Finally on Thurdsay afternoon, shortly before we were due to leave for Tazewell, I discovered the check had been cashed. I called Scott again. That's when I found out he thought I had been calling about a check for the balance, not the deposit. It was all a mixup, and everything was set. I was relieved to say the least. It only lasted a couple of minutes though.
The Mistress of the Mower arrived from work. As we were about to jump in the truck, she remarked on the 6x10 cargo trailer I had hooked to the rear. "It won't fit," she said.
Of course it would fit. I patiently explained how the PT was only 45 inches wide and 90 inches long, and how it would fit in a 10 foot long trailer without a problem.
"It's too high," she said.
Nonsense. Power Tracs are low things; height couldn't possibly be a problem.
"What about the canopy thing?" she said. ROPS wasn't part of her vocabulary yet.
I told her it wasn't all that high and wouldn't be a problem.
"It looks high," she said.
I was beginning to get a little niggling feeling in the back of my neck. I measured the rear doors' vertical clearance at 65 inches. Let's see, M.R. says he stands schnozz high to his ROPS. If I remember right, he said we was 6'2" or so. Uh oh, Tazewell, we have a problem.
So I called Scott yet again. He was probably cringing every time he found me on the other end of the line. We jointly decide that the ROPS would be removed for the trip back. With that issue resolved, we finally got started for Tazewell--and ran smack into snarled traffic even before we got to Knoxville. After crawling along for several miles, we broke free of that traffic jam only to run into another one as we got to the edge of Knoxville. We managed to detour around that one on the back roads.
As we wended our way around Knoxville's backsides, the Mistress of the Mower tells me of radio reports of a sniper shooting at people on I-40 in the Cocke County area the night before. One driver had been killed and a passenger in another vehicle seriously injured. This was not good. We had to pass right through that area, not only on the way up, but also on the way back, and that was likely to be at night when the shootings had taken place. A lousy weather report that predicted a storm moving through the entire Appalachian chain didn't help either.
We pressed on toward Tazewell with a stop for a tasty dinner in Lebanon, VA. We arrived at the motel in Tazewell at 8:45 PM, well ahead of Scott's 10:00 witching hour.
The motel was closed. 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM said the sign. Well, we had been waiting for the next hammer to drop. After hesitating, and not knowing for sure just who we were going to get, I called the 'In Case of Emergency' number in the window. Actually, I tried to get the Mistress of the Mower to call, but that didn't quite work out. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
The number turned out to be the home of the owners, one of whom came out and gave us a room. We turned in, glad the day was over.
We arrived at the Power Trac facility Friday morning under threatening skies. We were anxious to complete the purchase and load up for the return trip. On the way in, we noticed a new building. We found out that it is indeed a new Power Trac facility. Among other things, it will house the front office, sales staff, and will include a complete showroom.
After introductions, we toured the plant and met our PT-425. I drove it around the floor a little bit, but declined Scott's repeated offers to go out to the test area and play with all the PT toys. It wasn't that I didn't want to, but the idea of loading up in the rain didn't appeal to me one bit--not to mention the Cocke County sniper that for all we knew was still out there. I wanted to be past that area well before dark.
As it turned out, the training that we took from Terry Estep as part of the two percent discount deal didn't take as long as we expected. The Power Trac folks helped us load up. We put the PT-425 in the trailer. The light materials bucket, forks, and custom attachment plate went underneath the lift arms. The ROPS went in on its side, L shaped at the rear of the trailer.
We loaded the 48" mower sideways into the back of my Tacoma. It just fit. We said good bye to the Power Trac folks and departed much earlier than we anticipated. Our new goal became getting past Knoxville before the traffic jams started.
We made it almost all the way through the city before I-40 ground to a halt. Fortunately, we were able to get off of the interstate immediately and use back roads to get around all the snarled traffic. Later we heard an airborne traffic reporter saying that Knoxville traffic that afternoon was the worst he had ever seen, with virtually all routes at a standstill, and that included the back roads we had used an hour earlier.
A little while later, the news reported the Cocke County sniper had been caught about the time we passed back through the area. It was 13 and 15 year old stepbrothers, and they had fired at an estimated 25 vehicles. Under Tennessee law they can't be held beyond the age of 19. I predict that will change. Too tired to do much that evening, we left everything loaded up until the next morning.
Unloading the trailer Saturday morning was pretty uneventful, and we managed to bolt the ROPS on without difficulty. We had expected it to be a problem due to weight, but it is a lot lighter than it looks.
Getting the mower out of the truck proved more troublesome. The truck has a canopy which is essentially a permanent addition. I tried using the forks, but the only pallet we had handy didn't fit them.
Finally, the Mistress of the Mower suggested just pulling it out to the tailgate, turning it from its sideways position, and simply picking it up with the PT-425's Quick Attach. Why didn't I think of that? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
We gassed her up and drove around for awhile, trying to get used to the machine. It is quite different than anything either of us is used to. Once we felt confident enough, we hooked up the mower and practiced on the lawn area. There is no way we are going to mow anywhere near our Xmas trees until we are at least competent with the machine. Grass will grow back, Xmas trees won't.
During one of my turns, a rattling sound was bothering me, so I pulled onto the concrete and started examining the Quick Attach area. When I turned back and looked at the rest of the machine, I was stunned to see smoke rolling out of the engine hood. Our new PT-425 was on fire.
I yanked open the hood and discovered the entire back end of the machine was packed with dry grass. Some of the grass on the muffler was on fire. I brushed it away and hollered for water. Fortunately, there was no damage, and the water was not needed.
The dry grass was mulched clippings left over from the last mowing with our lawn tractor. Apparently the PT's mower had sucked them up out of the front lawn. We spent another couple of hours mowing and did not have the problem again, so we don't think it is going to be a continuing issue.
But we'll watch out, just in case.
SnowRidge
When I first contacted Power Trac, I was surprised to learn that the PT-425 was out of stock and the next production run would be a total of 12 units. Not exactly a high volume operation it seemed. Not only that, but only five were left for sale. The others already had deposits on them.
Unwilling to risk not being able to get a unit from the next run, we decided on a sight unseen purchase. We arranged with Scott of Power Trac to take delivery at the factory on Friday the 27th. We would drive up Thursday night, and Power Trac would put us up at the local motel. Scott warned me to be sure to arrive before 10 PM or call if we were going to be late.
Scott faxed us a contract. I signed it and tried to fax it back. That's when I found out that we had no outgoing long distance. We had changed our phone system to ISDN and received new numbers. Somehow our long distance carrier had failed to switch our service even though we had notified them. We never noticed since we use cell phones for long distance almost exclusively. If not for the new fax machine, we would probably still not know.
So mumbling apologies to Scott for saying we would fax it right away, we put the signed contract and a deposit check in the mail on the 18th.
The next Tuesday I called Power Trac to make sure they had our check in hand. Not yet they said. I called again on Wednesday, and again on Thursday morning, but still no check. I was getting increasingly concerned that someone else would get "our" PT-425 as they expected the entire run to be subscribed to right away. Still, Scott continued to talk as if the lack of a deposit had no bearing on our order.
Finally on Thurdsay afternoon, shortly before we were due to leave for Tazewell, I discovered the check had been cashed. I called Scott again. That's when I found out he thought I had been calling about a check for the balance, not the deposit. It was all a mixup, and everything was set. I was relieved to say the least. It only lasted a couple of minutes though.
The Mistress of the Mower arrived from work. As we were about to jump in the truck, she remarked on the 6x10 cargo trailer I had hooked to the rear. "It won't fit," she said.
Of course it would fit. I patiently explained how the PT was only 45 inches wide and 90 inches long, and how it would fit in a 10 foot long trailer without a problem.
"It's too high," she said.
Nonsense. Power Tracs are low things; height couldn't possibly be a problem.
"What about the canopy thing?" she said. ROPS wasn't part of her vocabulary yet.
I told her it wasn't all that high and wouldn't be a problem.
"It looks high," she said.
I was beginning to get a little niggling feeling in the back of my neck. I measured the rear doors' vertical clearance at 65 inches. Let's see, M.R. says he stands schnozz high to his ROPS. If I remember right, he said we was 6'2" or so. Uh oh, Tazewell, we have a problem.
So I called Scott yet again. He was probably cringing every time he found me on the other end of the line. We jointly decide that the ROPS would be removed for the trip back. With that issue resolved, we finally got started for Tazewell--and ran smack into snarled traffic even before we got to Knoxville. After crawling along for several miles, we broke free of that traffic jam only to run into another one as we got to the edge of Knoxville. We managed to detour around that one on the back roads.
As we wended our way around Knoxville's backsides, the Mistress of the Mower tells me of radio reports of a sniper shooting at people on I-40 in the Cocke County area the night before. One driver had been killed and a passenger in another vehicle seriously injured. This was not good. We had to pass right through that area, not only on the way up, but also on the way back, and that was likely to be at night when the shootings had taken place. A lousy weather report that predicted a storm moving through the entire Appalachian chain didn't help either.
We pressed on toward Tazewell with a stop for a tasty dinner in Lebanon, VA. We arrived at the motel in Tazewell at 8:45 PM, well ahead of Scott's 10:00 witching hour.
The motel was closed. 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM said the sign. Well, we had been waiting for the next hammer to drop. After hesitating, and not knowing for sure just who we were going to get, I called the 'In Case of Emergency' number in the window. Actually, I tried to get the Mistress of the Mower to call, but that didn't quite work out. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
The number turned out to be the home of the owners, one of whom came out and gave us a room. We turned in, glad the day was over.
We arrived at the Power Trac facility Friday morning under threatening skies. We were anxious to complete the purchase and load up for the return trip. On the way in, we noticed a new building. We found out that it is indeed a new Power Trac facility. Among other things, it will house the front office, sales staff, and will include a complete showroom.
After introductions, we toured the plant and met our PT-425. I drove it around the floor a little bit, but declined Scott's repeated offers to go out to the test area and play with all the PT toys. It wasn't that I didn't want to, but the idea of loading up in the rain didn't appeal to me one bit--not to mention the Cocke County sniper that for all we knew was still out there. I wanted to be past that area well before dark.
As it turned out, the training that we took from Terry Estep as part of the two percent discount deal didn't take as long as we expected. The Power Trac folks helped us load up. We put the PT-425 in the trailer. The light materials bucket, forks, and custom attachment plate went underneath the lift arms. The ROPS went in on its side, L shaped at the rear of the trailer.
We loaded the 48" mower sideways into the back of my Tacoma. It just fit. We said good bye to the Power Trac folks and departed much earlier than we anticipated. Our new goal became getting past Knoxville before the traffic jams started.
We made it almost all the way through the city before I-40 ground to a halt. Fortunately, we were able to get off of the interstate immediately and use back roads to get around all the snarled traffic. Later we heard an airborne traffic reporter saying that Knoxville traffic that afternoon was the worst he had ever seen, with virtually all routes at a standstill, and that included the back roads we had used an hour earlier.
A little while later, the news reported the Cocke County sniper had been caught about the time we passed back through the area. It was 13 and 15 year old stepbrothers, and they had fired at an estimated 25 vehicles. Under Tennessee law they can't be held beyond the age of 19. I predict that will change. Too tired to do much that evening, we left everything loaded up until the next morning.
Unloading the trailer Saturday morning was pretty uneventful, and we managed to bolt the ROPS on without difficulty. We had expected it to be a problem due to weight, but it is a lot lighter than it looks.
Getting the mower out of the truck proved more troublesome. The truck has a canopy which is essentially a permanent addition. I tried using the forks, but the only pallet we had handy didn't fit them.
Finally, the Mistress of the Mower suggested just pulling it out to the tailgate, turning it from its sideways position, and simply picking it up with the PT-425's Quick Attach. Why didn't I think of that? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
We gassed her up and drove around for awhile, trying to get used to the machine. It is quite different than anything either of us is used to. Once we felt confident enough, we hooked up the mower and practiced on the lawn area. There is no way we are going to mow anywhere near our Xmas trees until we are at least competent with the machine. Grass will grow back, Xmas trees won't.
During one of my turns, a rattling sound was bothering me, so I pulled onto the concrete and started examining the Quick Attach area. When I turned back and looked at the rest of the machine, I was stunned to see smoke rolling out of the engine hood. Our new PT-425 was on fire.
I yanked open the hood and discovered the entire back end of the machine was packed with dry grass. Some of the grass on the muffler was on fire. I brushed it away and hollered for water. Fortunately, there was no damage, and the water was not needed.
The dry grass was mulched clippings left over from the last mowing with our lawn tractor. Apparently the PT's mower had sucked them up out of the front lawn. We spent another couple of hours mowing and did not have the problem again, so we don't think it is going to be a continuing issue.
But we'll watch out, just in case.
SnowRidge
