What have you done with/to your GC Series 2300, 2400, 1700 Tractor TODAY

[Dmacleo]

placed the 54 inch blizzard blower, the 7ft grader blade, and the 5ft box scraper in an area I can hook onto each as needed for the upcoming winter season. edge protectors are on bucket, home made dongle on ext cord running to tractor now. tractor has battery maintainer plugged in all the time and at any time will take me 5 seconds to also power up block heater. seldom use heater, if below 10 deg F I MAY plug it in while getting dressed up but since 2020 I use it maybe twice a year and its mostly for convenience.
anyways ready for the below 0 Maine weather now that starts end of December. finally. usually ready in November but this year kicked my butt.

edit: added pics
Ready 1


Ready 2
does NOT show the 1 to 2 pigtail for cord plugged into battery maintainer.

 

[MF RED in MT]

Weird start to winter this year, Tuesday night added about 4" new snow to the 4-6" already snowfall.

First time plowing this year since it's warming a bit and I don't want that snot snowfall in the driveway.

33 degrees right now, should be about 12 degrees normally.

Here's a picture Wednesday morning letting the dog out for a little potty break.

KC

 

[dicktill]

Weird start to winter this year, Tuesday night added about 4" new snow to the 4-6" already snowfall.

First time plowing this year since it's warming a bit and I don't want that snot snowfall in the driveway.

33 degrees right now, should be about 12 degrees normally.

Here's a picture Wednesday morning letting the dog out for a little potty break.

KC

View attachment 2082848

That's a lot of birdhouses. What kind of birds do you get there?

 

[Dmacleo]

Weird start to winter this year, Tuesday night added about 4" new snow to the 4-6" already snowfall.

First time plowing this year since it's warming a bit and I don't want that snot snowfall in the driveway.

33 degrees right now, should be about 12 degrees normally.

Here's a picture Wednesday morning letting the dog out for a little potty break.

KC

View attachment 2082848

got a bunch of 1-3 storms (3 in next 8 days so far....) enroute, so as it goes plan on each being 1". 7ft grader blade and bucket will handle every 2 days. 900$ tires on 2013 escape few months ago and 1450$ tires (both with vet discount) on 2019 silverado this month....never worry about getting out.
but the massey, to tie into this thread, is ready to go

edit: good thing just remounted grader blade, the 1-3 supposed to be starting Saturday morning now starting tonight. got plans on morning, told wife would brush her Escape off before I left

edit 1650 corrected spelling errors

 

[MF RED in MT]

That's a lot of birdhouses. What kind of birds do you get there?

Birdhouses, yes that's only about 1/3 of them but they are the wifes.

Birds:
Mainly Chickadee, Nuthatch, Crow, Raven's all year round;
Summer:
Hummingbirds, Grossbeaks, Phileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker;
Winter:
Grey Jay, Stellar Jay

I do remember a few years back seeing an Owl take a Northern Flying Squirrel out of the tree just off of the deck one night.

KC

 

[Dmacleo]

Birdhouses, yes that's only about 1/3 of them but they are the wifes.

Birds:
Mainly Chickadee, Nuthatch, Crow, Raven's all year round;
Summer:
Hummingbirds, Grossbeaks, Phileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker;
Winter:
Grey Jay, Stellar Jay

I do remember a few years back seeing an Owl take a Northern Flying Squirrel out of the tree just off of the deck one night.

KC

but they are the wifes..

so...which ones are YOURS???

 

[MF RED in MT]

so...which ones are YOURS???

All the bird houses are the wife's, but full disclosure here, I built the majority of em following instructions very closely.

Also in the summer we get Robins that make about 3 nest under the covered front deck on top of the logs that extend out from the wall.

I am pretty sure the female Robin has a lot of influence on the nest building.

She has 2 different groups of eggs some summers, and I am instructed to not use the front door entrance so the birds are not disturbed.

KC

 

[Dmacleo]

-3 F (edit: well TECHNICALLY -2.7F) this morning, GC2400 huffed and chugged, ran glow plugs 3 or 4 times for approx (after the initial 5 second wait time) 45 seconds but still no start, just huff and chug,wanted to run just not quite there.
have elbow issues one arm and wrist issues other arm that make holding against the spring on switch to activate plugs very painful.
said screw it plugged block heater in while clearing snow off 2 vehicles.
20 min later temp gauge midway into first band and 15 seconds later tractor idling smoothly.
yeah I could have messed with glow plugs and throttle settings for a few more minutes but...why bother...I spent 150$ on a block heater why not use it.

 

[Racer4]

-3 F (edit: well TECHNICALLY -2.7F) this morning, GC2400 huffed and chugged, ran glow plugs 3 or 4 times for approx (after the initial 5 second wait time) 45 seconds but still no start, just huff and chug,wanted to run just not quite there.
have elbow issues one arm and wrist issues other arm that make holding against the spring on switch to activate plugs very painful.
said screw it plugged block heater in while clearing snow off 2 vehicles.
20 min later temp gauge midway into first band and 15 seconds later tractor idling smoothly.
yeah I could have messed with glow plugs and throttle settings for a few more minutes but...why bother...I spent 150$ on a block heater why not use it.

Yes, the heaters make it so much easier on cold starts.

 

[Cycledude]

-3 F (edit: well TECHNICALLY -2.7F) this morning, GC2400 huffed and chugged, ran glow plugs 3 or 4 times for approx (after the initial 5 second wait time) 45 seconds but still no start, just huff and chug,wanted to run just not quite there.
have elbow issues one arm and wrist issues other arm that make holding against the spring on switch to activate plugs very painful.
said screw it plugged block heater in while clearing snow off 2 vehicles.
20 min later temp gauge midway into first band and 15 seconds later tractor idling smoothly.
yeah I could have messed with glow plugs and throttle settings for a few more minutes but...why bother...I spent 150$ on a block heater why not use it.

Rather surprised that you didn’t plug it in for about an hour before attempting to start it.
My LS is stored in unheated building but if the temperature is much below freezing I’m happy to plug it in for awhile before attempting to start it, when it’s below zero I plug it in hours ahead of time

 

[Racer4]

Rather surprised that you didn’t plug it in for about an hour before attempting to start it.
My LS is stored in unheated building but if the temperature is much below freezing I’m happy to plug it in for awhile before attempting to start it, when it’s below zero I plug it in hours ahead of time

Most I ever ran mine was 40 minutes. It was -6F. When I went to start it, the temperature was at normal running temp. It fired right up with a 15 second hold on the glow plugs.

 

[irvingj]

I don't even bother to try to start my 2310 without the block heater when it's below freezing.... I figure it just makes it easier on everything involved in starting.

When it's like -20F or so, I'll plug in the block heater and then throw an old blanket over the front end, draping it down to the floor behind the instrument panel. That has proved quite effective in really cold weather - starts like it's summer.

Getting some light-ish snow today (& last night)... guess the blower will get a workout later....

 

[Dmacleo]

over last few days got approx 10" fluffy stuff so figured was good day to clean it.
the bucket with edge protectors combined with rear blower ....man....that is fast. prob save myself 20% of work over just blower and manually working bucket to avoid digging as in the past few years.
I put bucket in float, take a 100ft run,while backing up run blower. repeat.

 

[Dmacleo]

Rather surprised that you didn’t plug it in for about an hour before attempting to start it.
My LS is stored in unheated building but if the temperature is much below freezing I’m happy to plug it in for awhile before attempting to start it, when it’s below zero I plug it in hours ahead of time

honestly I normally would plug in, this was just sort of a test. and as stated did not spend too much time on it. battery was fine, course did spin a little slower than when in warm temps, but no real dragging. I COULD have gotten it started w/o heater (I now know this from this test) but why bother.

 

[kenmbz]

I did take the 1720 out and back drag the driveway the other day so the snow would melt off faster.
Got the tractor warmed up and she ran fine.

 

[Dmacleo]

really need to fix oring on fuel pump attached to heating oil tank. historically been powering tractor off that. 1 simple oring. have the oring. 40 min fix. at 8am this morning was 0F.
I am getting lazy in my old age.
offroad diesel running approx 3.04/gal here. got hundreds of gallons in a tank here that heats my house. just 1 oring.
getting lazy.
ANYWAYS to tie this into a what have you done post....just went filled 2 cans (11 gallons I always overfill) with offroad diesel AND filled truck (14 gallons) up.

 

[irvingj]

And I'm still dealing with ice on my paved driveway from the last few rain-snow-ice events... (But I was able to get my TDI out for a quick 150-mile trip 2 days ago!)

Now waiting for the NEXT warm-up with rain...sheesh...

 

[Dmacleo]

And I'm still dealing with ice on my paved driveway from the last few rain-snow-ice events... (But I was able to get my TDI out for a quick 150-mile trip 2 days ago!)

Now waiting for the NEXT warm-up with rain...sheesh...

tomorrow, high 30's and ice/rain mix. next week low 40's every day. maybe I will fix that oring this week

 

[irvingj]

So over here, it got warm enough (35+!) to melt off 95% of my ice patches. Now to wait for the rain after everything freezes up again overnight.... At least it's not below zero again...for now....

 

[Dmacleo]

added a stabilizer kit to rear to replace turnbuckles, same as @hube2 uses.