Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
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iFlyNothing
That looks like it'd work.
It'd also burn the house down, but that might be worth it.
That tractor is all forked up!
I was figuring that, before I bought a finish mower, I'd try using the brush hog on the rest of the yard. That'd give me an idea of general usefulness of the tractor as a mowing implement. The yard I haven't mowed about needs a brush hog anyway.
How sharp should brush hog blades be? These are dull as bricks.
Bush hog blades need to be real sharp and kept that way. Amazing how dull blades will slow the rpm! Use more fuel, etc. I have mowed a 3000 ft. Strip, farmall M with a woods. It did a great job. Blades were kept sharp with a hand held rotary grinder type tool. I think owner took the blades off from time to time and dressed them up on a shop wheel grinder.
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I'd like to naturally thicken up the normal grasses a bit and the local conservation society has appropriate mixed prairie grass seed available at a reasonable price. Reasonable being somewhere below "oh ****!" and cheap enough I can make multiple attempts in a year to grow a little more grass.
Obviously I'm going to have to get a little lucky on when to seed and somehow do it right before a late spring snowstorm to have any chance at all of getting any of it to take root with as dry as it is here.
I suppose I could make some silly attempt to water it and do it in tiny s......
I've just been reading along because I'm no tractor expert, but I love my little Ford for our measly 4 acres. I just put around with the brush hog a few times a year to keep the grass from being three feet high so I can find the dogs outside.
But damn, I never thought about pulling the chain harrow behind the mower. That'd work slick as hell. And our place is bumpy and needs it.
Here's one for all you smart tractor loving land barons...
The property is all mixed prairie grass here and very dry. The prairie type mixed grasses are pretty patchy in some areas and in any open dirt I constantly fight with weeds like Russian thistle and other common junk one might see in an area where the grass is weak when the weed seeds blow in and are more than happy to sprout.
I'd like to naturally thicken up the normal grasses a bit and the local conservation society has appropriate mixed prairie grass seed available at a reasonable price. Reasonable being somewhere below "oh ****!" and cheap enough I can make multiple attempts in a year to grow a little more grass.
Obviously I'm going to have to get a little lucky on when to seed and somehow do it right before a late spring snowstorm to have any chance at all of getting any of it to take root with as dry as it is here.
I suppose I could make some silly attempt to water it and do it in tiny sections with a big tank behind the tractor, but I don't see having time for that. Nor would I probably not get laughed at pretty hard by the neighbors.
Also would prefer not to go all scorched earth and rip up what's already there.
What's the best way using a small tractor (or even not with the tractor) to prep the areas of patchy grass and soil and put down that seed and cross fingers for enough water from the sky to get it to germinate and hang on enough to start choking out some weeds naturally and thicken up the grass in general?
Not going for Major League Baseball grass or anything. Just trying to save the acreage from the onslaught of weed seeds from everywhere.
I've seen a lot of chemical weed "solutions" to the weed problems at the local ag/ranch store, but am generally clueless and some of them are nasty enough they appear to require a State issued test to even purchase them, let alone know when and how to utilize them.
I do have a fairly decent sized but not large, tow behind sprayer that's currently configured to tow behind the lawn tractor. It has a power distribution box and switch mounted on it for the pump, and it looks like dad was either already spraying something once in a while with it, or was planning to. I haven't messed with it at all, yet. I suspect he may have been getting a pre-germination type of milder herbicide of unknown type for the weeds and spraying early in the season with it. Never found any notes or used bottles of whatever he was using, though.
Appreciate any thoughts.
And that chain harrow dual-tow thing. Sheesh. Brilliant. (Slaps forehead...) Looks like I have a little project to do sometime in the garage to make up a way to attach the chain harrow to the mower. Cool.
Good brakes work and work well. You should be able to step on the left or right brake and spin the tractor on a dime.Got my PTO driveshaft all set, filled her up with gas, and went to cutting my hayfield... err... lawn with the brush hog. It works well! This is way more fun than a lawn tractor. The 72" makes quick work of things, even though I'm not going at breakneck speed by any means.
I found the brake adjustments. The main thing that seemed to do was make the slop in the pedal decrease, but I still have to stand on it to get anything resembling a slowdown, and it's not much of one. I don't have a feel for how good brakes should be for these, and I know they're manual so I shouldn't expect much.
The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
Good brakes work and work well. You should be able to step on the left or right brake and spin the tractor on a dime.
Ok, I need to fix the brakes then. Thanks.
Another question on the brush hog. The gearbox for it has the PTO come in the front, then goes down to the blade. The nuts are tight on the bolts, but that whole gearbox/head assembly (whatever you want to call it) moves around about 1/2". That doesn't seem right to me, but I don't know what sort of moving around it's supposed to do as a brush hog...
Be sure to keep that PTO shaft well lubricated (both U joints and the telescoping shaft), they don't take kindly to running dry for very long.Got my PTO driveshaft all set, filled her up with gas, and went to cutting my hayfield... err... lawn with the brush hog. It works well! This is way more fun than a lawn tractor. The 72" makes quick work of things, even though I'm not going at breakneck speed by any means.
The brakes on my 8N were like yours until I fixed the oil leaks in the hubs and soaked the pads in solvent to get the oil out of them. I don't know much about your tractor but drum brakes are usually designed to be "self energizing" which simply means they pivot in a way that allows the drag of the shoe on the drum to help push the shoe into the drum. If that's the case with yours, any oil on the pads will eliminate most of that effect making them rather ineffective. Same thing if the pivots heavily worn and to some extent if the pads themselves are too thin or worse yet worn unevenly.I found the brake adjustments. The main thing that seemed to do was make the slop in the pedal decrease, but I still have to stand on it to get anything resembling a slowdown, and it's not much of one. I don't have a feel for how good brakes should be for these, and I know they're manual so I shouldn't expect much.
Northern Tool sells a variety of tractor seats at pretty reasonable prices.The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
What kind of shape is the deck in? Maybe you're seeing the sheet metal flex. Some are more rigid than others, and you'll see flexing, especially in real heavy stuff. Look for cracks.
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.
When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.
When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.
When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
Ok, I need to fix the brakes then. Thanks.
Another question on the brush hog. The gearbox for it has the PTO come in the front, then goes down to the blade. The nuts are tight on the bolts, but that whole gearbox/head assembly (whatever you want to call it) moves around about 1/2". That doesn't seem right to me, but I don't know what sort of moving around it's supposed to do as a brush hog...
Yeah, brakes on those work very well and even though they are mechanical, they use the shoe float to lever the application so they really don't need a whole lot of pressure when they are correct.
He's got mechanical disc brakes in that machine. Even correct, they are good but not great.
An MF 165 uses discs? Huh...
I haven't figured out exact fuel consumption yet, but it is a bit of a gas hog. Seems to do around 3-5 GPH.
Yep, I know they make 3-point snowblower attachments. With the gravel driveway, I'd rather just plow it. And if I can use my attached blade then all the better.
I haven't figured out exact fuel consumption yet, but it is a bit of a gas hog. Seems to do around 3-5 GPH.