Archive through November 18, 2012

[tstewart]

Looks like I got hit by the forum bug for the first time! I'll just repost:

Jeff... unfortunately my 129 has the ol hand lift but the spring makes it a little nicer with my #2 tiller. Got a junk 1450 that whenever I get around to it I'm going to try and swap the hydro/lift over.

Jeremiah... you sir must have a good memory. I don't even remember when I talked about it but I guess I havent been online here for long enough I forgot about it. Yeah this spring I built the new cart/trailer. The 12.5 poly cart while nice for toting light stuff around the house, just wasnt up to the rigors of logging in the woods. The wheels were too small, plastic cracking, capacity too small, and too balanced - while going uphill the weight would shift to the back and unload my drive tires. It really messed with my traction on hills. Until its finally day, when going over a bump uphill caused the thin metal to flex, and it pulled itself through the dump release. With a full load of rounds in it, it dumped, and when it hit the ground with all that weight it blew the back out of it.

After searching for carts, I realized that none fit all my wants, and many that came close were over $400, some $600-800. Thought I could build one for less so I set out to design the perfect one. I wanted big fat tires for mud and snow, axles shifted further back to put some of the weight on the drive tires, ball hitch, and certain sizing - and big enough to cut my trips into the woods down by at least half. I based the design off from my 6x10 road trailer, just changed the proprtions. My biggest problem was my crappy undersized welder, if I did something liek this again I'd get a bigger one. But I made it work, and I think the welds are fine for off road use.

Here are a couple of the finished shots (well its not 100% done yet, but up and running).

I actually have a bunch of pictures in my photobucket but cant display them the way this forum is setup I think. But you can see a quick slideshow of the construction here... http://s903.photobucket.com/albums/ac235/kc2ebm/cub_cadet/trailer/?action=view&current=130d7831.pbw

It works pretty darn good. I hauled a load of green oak (I mean red oak that was freshly cut) and that load was heavy, I was able to make it up the hill that I really struggled with the much smaller poly dump cart, and was even bogging the engine down without breaking traction. The front end was getting a little light though, time to start thinking of some ballast weight.

 

[fcurrier]

Tristan:

Would I be correct in assuming that your trailer tires/rims came off your "junk 1450"?.

 

[nbartee]

There is a local outfit here that will install a front loader on your tractor for $1950. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. What do y'all think?

 

[hydroharry]

Hey guys - my son just picked up this Model 2 Sweeper. Never saw one before except in the parts manual. Are they around out there? I suppose mostly in tree country. This one appears to be in fairly decent condition.

 

[dtanner]

Rick B

The 129 loader does not have the three turn steering box but my diesel does(1512) . I might have to rethink with tractor gets power steering.

I have lots of air in the four ply tractor ag tires on my loader and I can only steer when moving . I think power steering would put a lot of pressure on steering parts.

Charlie

I will look to see if I can find a set of those 4 ply tires over here. I bet they would steer easier.

Tom H

I think I have 30 psi in the four ply ag`s on the front of my loader and still it is hard to steer.I will try out the TRI RIB tires that Charlie Posted if I can find them .

The pump is going back on my loader now I want to do that in a few minutes. I hope to be able to use it some now that the pulley has the hardened centre sleeve . I did have to chuckle when the machine shop guy who installed the sleeve ask if I ever Haul it around in my cargo trailer. I said I do and will bring it in for him to have a look at the 129 with the loader. I told him I do need the ramps changed where they connect to the cargo trailer.Seems he worked for the same company that I did just another branch (shop).

 

[dtanner]

Norm Bartee

That sound real cheap. I know my controller with float was over 350$ and the four cylinder were over 1000$. Then with a gear pump yet and steel plus welding time. I don`t see how they could make one for that price

 

[rbeem]

Don T.
The Tri-Ribs might be the ticket on hard dirt or the drive way because of the smaller patch on the ground. (Total guess)
Anywhere else I think the pizza cutter theory applies.
I'm putting in the EZ steer partially because of the tighter turning, but also because of the splined steering arms and heavier tie-rod and drag link.
They would have a better chance of holding up to power steering.

 

[thoffman]

My favorite welder from South Elgin whipped these up for me yesterday. Life will be eaiser. Thanks Mike!

 

[jchamberlin]

Tristan: Your trailer looks awesome, and especially well-built for the task.

If I were to replicate your work, I would be looking to do two things:

1. Put a wider (longer) piece at the rear so that I could hang tail lights and add gussets or angled support brackets for the open tail (although I see that you designed your tail gate to serve the same purpose),

2. Use expanded metal to replace the plywood because mine would sit outside and rot away quickly in our humid climate.

I don't think your welds look too bad, especially if you got the penetration you needed. It's never about how they look to me, its about how well they work! Keep it up!

By-the-way, it's hard to forget a name like Tristan. One of the greatest love stories ever told concerned "Tristan and Isolde" as I'm sure you're aware.

 

[jchamberlin]

The rest of the story:

Back on October 9, 2012 I posted about how I was finding little "humps" of grass in the lawn after I mowed with my 44A deck with speed-up pulley (See Archive October 8, 2012). My post prompted responses from Dennis Frisk ("have you tried washers on the outer blades?") and Steve Blunier ("Gators are good, and use an anti-scalp roller in the rear --see pic).

Well, when I was out "broadcasting" the lawn fertilizer, I noticed that the "humps" were matched by fairly deep ruts throughout the yard --wherever the tractor had been run on its mowing rounds.

How to account for the ruts?

1. I was forced to mow the grass wet for most of the season, especially during the first half of the summer (I realize this may be news to those in the Midwest suffering through drought in the same period).

2. For most of the season, especially the last half, I've been using my backup mower, the Model 149 equipped with Ag tires at the rear.

3. Worse, when walking in the ruts with my moccasin-style casual shoes, I could feel the imprint of the individual bars.

Conclusion: So, despite the testimonials of those who report being able to use Ag tires on their lawns with no ill effect, do not include me in their number. The tires put down ruts and imprinted the bar tread despite having no additional weight. My soil is sandy with a goodly amount of clay. It normally feels a bit spongy under foot, especially the first few inches --but not when it is pressed flat by an IH tractor!

Hopefully, the lawn will recover by Spring (especially if we get some rain); but from now on, I'm only putting on bar-tread tires when I plan on doing "ground engagement" of some kind.

Jeff Baker: Nice post, and I caught the subtle linkage of "ground engagement" + "hydro."

I'm still tuning the deck setup on both tractors, since I expect to finally be able to "unconfuguliate" the 782 soon by installing a 44C deck.

Harry Bursell: I checked my numbering sequence before posting.

 

[dfrisk]

JEREMIAH - Do you always follow the same pattern when mowing? I alternate every time I mow. I'll mow parallel to the road one time, then 90 degrees to the road the next time, then 45 degrees to the road, then 45 degress the other way the next time. And I switch off from the 982/50C combo to the 72/38" deck combo so there's no repeating of the pattern. It's interesting that I mowed the first time back in April with the 982 and then the last time a week ago used it again, but every other time this summer used the 72/38" deck. Just switching tractors/mowers it was surprising how nice the yard looked when I got done a week ago. Looked like green astro-turf.

Some times it's impossible to wait for the ground & grass to dry out. We had a summer like that back in 1993. SON & I both mowed back then, took about 1-1/2 hrs to mow, and at least a half a dozen times that summer were were rained on before we were done mowing, but we kept mowing till done. One time after a heavy rain it cleared off, grass dried out, and I mowed the next day, but the ground was so wet that about ten feet behind my CC 72 with 6-12 Turf tires my tire tracks were filling with water. Took a couple years for those tracks to disappear.

It's tough to trouble-shoot these problems from 1000 miles away. Steve & I thought you were having mower problems.

I wouldn't give up on the lug tires just yet. Most people mow while traveling forward, which I assume you do also. And since the mowers on CC's are mid-mounted, the mower should be followed by the rear lug tires by say six inches? Could your tracks be from your frt tires? Or possibly from something else you pulled over your lawn? The tracks/ruts have to be there BEFORE the grass was cut. If the mower cuts the grass ahead of the rear lug tires, when the grass straightens back up, but the grass is in a depression where the lug was the grass should be lower there than elsewhere.

 

[jbaker]

Jeremiah,,

,,,hydros

 

[dtanner]

Dennis Frisk

I have to agree on the pattern mowing.Since i bought the Zero turn I mow for a guy that is real fussy. He wants his grass cut 4.5" high and a different cut pattern every time.I have tried his ideas on my lawn and I can see a big difference in how healthy my own lawn was this year. We had weeks of no rain and the grass did not dry out like it did years before . Cutting the grass long made weeds have no place to grow and kept moisture in the soil. He sold me on his ideas. But come fall he ask me to cut the grass short 3" . when I ask why , he said by cutting low in the fall the roots retain more food and were not so affected by the cold.He said I will be mowing again by April.

That is early for my lawn.

 

[rmcshane]

Harry- I've got one tucked back in the shed somewhere. I think your son's is a little nicer than mine.

 

[bjamison]

Jeramiah - I've been mowing with weighted ag tires for years with my other color tractors and haven't really noticed any ill effect with the ag tires. Part of my yard is very wet and in August when everyone else's yard is dry, that portion of my yard is still green. In general what I've noticed with my 109 this Summer is that the rear wheels (standard turf tires - not ag tires) mash the grass down giving me two lines of striping - which goes away pretty fast. I am mowing with the deck all the way up, about 3 inches.

The only marking I get with this 109, 44 inch deck and speed-up pulley is side to side if I'm on a hill or traveling across uneven lumpy grass. IMHO, that is just the nature of a hanging deck set-up like the IHCC has vs my other color tractors with ground supported decks.

Don't want to stray off topic, but I try to avoid mowing wet, damp grass anymore with any of my old iron tractors, including the 109. To be a cheap MTD Cub Cadet, my LTX 1042 does an outstanding job mowing in general (42 inch - two blade deck) and it is domed and contoured tightly around the blades. The result is almost ZERO grass collects under the deck - regardless of how wet the grass might be. I use that tractor on the wet stuff and save my old iron for another day. Hey - I'd like to use, but preserve the 109 for myself and pass it along to my Boys one of these days too. So the MTD-CC is the sacrificial tractor at my house...

 

[jchamberlin]

Dennis: Yes, I mow going forwards.

I mow my grass per the manual instructions.

Instructions from the 1x8-9 Tractor Manual:

Instructions from the QA 38-44-50 C Mower Manual:

Closeup of the later recommended pattern:

If you can't read the text of the illustrations, IH recommended blowing grass back into the yard for the first couple of passes, then reversing direction and blowing grass outward toward the perimeter. This method keeps the clippings from piling up.

The only problem I have is at the "corners;" the 44/50 "C" manual recommends a "curly-cue" maneuver to get a "straight shot" at the edges: the discharge is blown in on itself so the clippings tend to pile up at the corners.

HOWEVER, I have also been studying up on lawn care generally, you and Donald Tanner's customer must be reading the same material I've been reading, because, for the lawn's benefit, the experts recommend varying mowing pattern with each cutting, and they counsel cutting the grass short for the last mow of the season.

As far as my post is concerned, I really conflated at least four issues.

1. The quality of my lawn
My lawn is very susceptible to even the least amount of traffic. When I moved in the house in 1998, the previous owners must never have walked from the front of the house to rear, because in less than a month in the spring I had worn a path through the fence gate that wasn't there before, and has never left since I moved in. The ground stays as hard as a rock, and the water puddles up with anything more than moderate rain. There are several areas of my yard which puddle up, almost all of them in the shade (the gate path is in the sun). So my yard has shade and drainage issues, probably related to each other.

2. The ruts
The ruts are from running the tractor in the same direction over the "good" spots in my back yard, the ones that are NOT rock hard and in the shade, but in the sun, soft and spongy most of the time.

3. Mowing Mounds (apparently) at tire treads
You are correct in your observation that the ruts had to have been there before I mowed, and that any depression should have resulted from the front tires. I think what I'm trying to say now is that wasn't just the front tires pushing the grass down so that the mower deck couldn't "suck it up;" but, in addition, the grass was being pushed down by the front tire into a rut created by the rear tire mowing a wet lawn over time.

4. Bar Tread
The main point I was trying to make in the last post was that until I address the root cause of the ruts, what I know, from feeling it with my feet, is that the bar treads are certainly not helping the situation and may very well have aggravated matters by offering a deeper crevice yet for the grass to escape the blade's cut.

I may not be able to explain it, and I wish I had taken a picture, but what I found in my lawn was fresh blades of grass springing up in my tire treads-- the blades in the center of the ruts were taller than the blades at the edges of the rut.

I've got to puzzle out how mow my yard in different directions, but I'm definitely going back to the turf tires next year. The Ags were only on there for looks, but my yard definitely looks worse for using them (and a single pattern of mowing). It will likely be a few years before I get the basic lawn itself straightened out.

The front yard is a lot better off than the rear. We contracted with a lawn care company for several years, the first few years they had a college student doing it who did a really good job. I dropped the contract when they upped the price. They called me back offering the old price, but they sent someone who only sprayed the front yard. When my sons told me, I canceled the service for the second time. I wouldn't mind hiring a professional again to get the expertise and solid advice for MY yard; but I'm never going to hire the "tanker truck" again.

Edit: Once again, I salute you, Bill; I just wish I could get the same results you do. I think my most basic problem is the lawn itself, I have to adapt my equipment to suit its application.

 

[hydroharry]

Jeremiah, et al - Ag tires are for agri work. Turf tires are for turf work. I said this along time ago but got beat down by all the ag lovers. Now Jeremiah is getting the proof of what ag tires do to turf. I think IH actually calls the turf tires "high flotation" tires in the Operator Manual - they float over turf.

 

[dtanner]

Jeremiah Chamberlin

I all ways start cutting by going two laps around the out side of the lawn blowing clippings towards the inside.then once end to end and then side to side and then at a 45 deg angle. I used the two out side first cuts for turning and when finished I make two more trips around the outside to cover up my turns.I will have a stripe kit installed for next years mowing season. seems he likes the stripes and people do stop and ask why his lawn looks so great. I run four gallons of winter washer fluid in each tire for traction on the hills and find that works for me. without that fluid I could not mow the hills.If you have an area that the soil is hard I would plug areiate that area more often so the moisture will keep the soil softer. all his lawn is ran over with the plug style twice a year with fertilizer fall and spring. His lawn looks like a golf course and mine does look a lot better.

This was cut when we had no rain for weeks.There are some dry spots but with 4.5" cutting high I think does help keep the moisture from the sun drying it out . I did forget to add de-thatch is also done twice .No clippings are ever taken away for the lawn, it is his belief that they add to the soil . when cutting he wants me to end a cut and the start the cut back where I ended the last cut. so I`am re-cutting the clippings. But I think he just likes the pattern from the deck when cut this way.

 

[jchamberlin]

Don, Thanks for the info and the picture. I do aerate, but I found out that my spike aerator may actually be making things worse. The spike aerator is OK for sandy soil, but not for clay. I'm looking for a plug aerator, or someone who has one that I can borrow.

Harry, thanks for the confirmation. I can see where some soils and lawns could take an Ag tire, and they certainly help on the grades, I just know that I can't use them on my yard.

 

[bjamison]

Jeramiah - I'm wondering if you might need (if possible) to rig your deck to ground support vs. hanging from the tractor. Like I mentioned in my post, my other color tractors with ground supported decks really handle lumpy, rolly, hilly, uneven ground better than my Cub Cadets.

Harry B - FWIW, sometimes you need the extra traction of the ag tires just to get around to mow....