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Well, I had a LONG satisfying day today! Got up around 9, made a great Ham egg and cheese English muffin sandwich with Cracker Barrel coffee (I love that my wife works there 
). Then I went outside and took the new 48" mower deck off Jolene, and disected it to find out where the noisy parts were. Turns out one of the idler pulleys on the PTO is really noisy and the center madrel bearing was really dry, and the idler that tensions the mandrel belt was really worn out so it needed a new mandrel belt too! There was quite a bit of dirt under the cover so I blew all that out and quickly wirebrushed and painted under the cover to keep it decent for now. Took a quick ride to Tractor Supply, new belt, new idler, and back home to reassemble it. Got it all back together, about 8 squirts of grease in each mandrel, and back on Jolene. It was still a little noisy, but bearable, and wow 6" wider deck doesn't seem like you can mow faster but what a difference!! And even without gator blades, I think this deckmay mow better than my 42" with gators!
As I mowed, I piled all my leaves in small piles by mowing in circles. After I got done mowing, I tilled the garden with my now fixed up tiller (another thread coming for that), then cut it bigger with my 8" moldboard, threw all my leaves in the garden, cleaned my chimney while it was light out, burned all my cardboard, then tilled all the leaves in in the dark, loaded up my woodbox with wood, picked up the last bit of leaves and dropped those in the garden, and put all the tractors to bed, and came in for a chili dog dinner. All that by 6PM
Pics and video Coming soon.
oh and my back hurts
). Then I went outside and took the new 48" mower deck off Jolene, and disected it to find out where the noisy parts were. Turns out one of the idler pulleys on the PTO is really noisy and the center madrel bearing was really dry, and the idler that tensions the mandrel belt was really worn out so it needed a new mandrel belt too! There was quite a bit of dirt under the cover so I blew all that out and quickly wirebrushed and painted under the cover to keep it decent for now. Took a quick ride to Tractor Supply, new belt, new idler, and back home to reassemble it. Got it all back together, about 8 squirts of grease in each mandrel, and back on Jolene. It was still a little noisy, but bearable, and wow 6" wider deck doesn't seem like you can mow faster but what a difference!! And even without gator blades, I think this deckmay mow better than my 42" with gators! As I mowed, I piled all my leaves in small piles by mowing in circles. After I got done mowing, I tilled the garden with my now fixed up tiller (another thread coming for that), then cut it bigger with my 8" moldboard, threw all my leaves in the garden, cleaned my chimney while it was light out, burned all my cardboard, then tilled all the leaves in in the dark, loaded up my woodbox with wood, picked up the last bit of leaves and dropped those in the garden, and put all the tractors to bed, and came in for a chili dog dinner. All that by 6PM
Pics and video Coming soon.
oh and my back hurts
