At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Fortunately there is a local gas station that sells 100% ethanol free gasoline. I buy all my small engine gas there.
Obed

 

[Diamondpilot]

i didn't think there was any type of gas that still had lead in it. Weird. Is it only used for old aircraft, or what?

No, all piston aircraft use it even the ones manufactured today.

They are trying to phase it out.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

Fortunately there is a local gas station that sells 100% ethanol free gasoline. I buy all my small engine gas there. Obed

I'd buy it for everything I own.

Chris

 

[Obed]

I'd buy it for everything I own.

Chris

Chris, do you fill up you cars with ethanol free gasoline?
Obed

 

[Diamondpilot]

Chris, do you fill up you cars with ethanol free gasoline? Obed

When possible. It's not available in Indiana. By law all fuel sold must contain 10% Ethanol and in the case of diesel it must have 2% bio as a minimum.

Chris

 

[Obed]

Replacing the Drive Belt on the Kubota Mower

In order to fix the issue I had getting my mower to drive up a hill two years ago, I replaced the drive belt, tension pulley spring, and fixed the tension pulley. Unfortunately, the mower is having trouble moving again. So I decided to try replacing the drive belt again.
View attachment 423375 View attachment 423374

I removed the mower deck.


The pulley in the left side of the picture is attached to the gearbox that turns the rear axle. The pulley in the right side of the picture is the tension pulley. You can see the arm to which the pulley is attached that provides tension on the belt using the spring attached to the tension arm.


I removed the rear pulley in order to remove the 2 year old drive belt.


I replaced the 2 year old Kubota belt with a new Kubota belt. After installing the new drive belt, the mower still had problems moving, especially up a slight hill. Upon closer inspection, it appears that the tension spring I replaced 2 years ago didn't appear to be stretching hardly at all. The spring looks to be too long to do its job. The belt feels much too loose.


So my wife found the old spring I replaced 2 years ago.


The shiny one on the left is what I put on the mower 2 years ago. The rusty one on the right is the original spring. The replacement spring is definitely longer than the original. It appears that the Kubota dealer sold us a spring that is too long to put proper tension on the drive belt. My wife is going to go back to the dealer to see if we can get a spring that matches the original. Our mower was manufactured in 1989. I wonder if Kubota no longer makes the original spring. Finding a replacement may become a headache.

 

[breadtrk]

Other than a little surface rust, there is nothing wrong with the old one. Put it back on if you can't get the right replacement. You really, probably, only needed a belt in the first place 2 years ago and went overboard.

 

[Obed]

Other than a little surface rust, there is nothing wrong with the old one. Put it back on if you can't get the right replacement. You really, probably, only needed a belt in the first place 2 years ago and went overboard.

I did reinstall the original spring; the mower worked a little better than when using the newer spring but not well enough. I think the original spring has weakened over the years.
Obed

 

[CurlyDave]

I don't know if these guys will sell you one spring, but they have an amazing variety available in their catalog: Coil Springs Manufacturer - Stock & Custom - MRO & OEM | Century Spring Corp.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I bet you can find a spring that will work at your local hardware store. I've had good luck with springs at Lowes and Home Depot.

Chris

 

[Coyote machine]

Ethanol free gas is not needed in autos/trucks. They run on a closed loop, pressurized fuel system, unlike lawnmowers, chainsaws, weedeaters, outboard marine engines, etc., that use open to atmosphere fuel systems. Any fuel system open to air can/will allow for phase separation of the E-10 gas, and that fuel breakdown/separation cannot be recombined. When the fuel breaks down water is one result and it sinks to the bottom of the tank and water is not, last I checked, good for SI combustion.

Lawnmower spring, replace with local spring from hardware store of choice. Also make sure your pullies spin freely with no noise, no axial wobble, etc.

 

[Obed]

It would not have occurred to me to look for the spring replacement at a hardware store. Thanks for the tip.

Obed

 

[Diamondpilot]

It would not have occurred to me to look for the spring replacement at a hardware store. Thanks for the tip. Obed

Try TSC and Rural King also.

Chris

 

[Obed]

Last weekend I visited some people who had these carpenter bee traps hanging on their porch. They appear to work. The bees crawl in the holes. When they crawl into the plastic jar, they cannot find their way out of the jar. I need to get some of these.

 

[s219]

Last weekend I visited some people who had these carpenter bee traps hanging on their porch. They appear to work. The bees crawl in the holes. When they crawl into the plastic jar, they cannot find their way out of the jar. I need to get some of these.

View attachment 423483 View attachment 423484

I built one last year, and hung it below our front porch. Caught 5-6 carpenter bees in a few weeks. Very easy to make with scrap, and preferable to use a fragrant soft wood like pine. Mine has small holes on all four sides (drilled upward at 45 degree angle) and uses a 12oz plastic water bottle screwed into the bottom. Idea is, the bees crawl into one of the holes when exploring, and then the only daylight they can see from inside is through the clear bottle jar, where they fly to and get trapped. I meant to build a few more this spring, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Those bees would do a number on our house if left unchecked.

 

[Obed]

My New Push Mower
It is a Troybilt TB130 with a 160cc Honda engine. It is not self-propelled. I can push a non-self propelled faster than I can walk behind a more expensive, heavier, and harder to maneuver self-propelled model. So I greatly prefer a push mower over a self-propelled mower, even if both types cost the same.


Assembling the mower was fairly easy.


The MTD YardMachines mower that I returned to the store last week had this exact same "Slope Gauge" picture in it. The consumer grade mowers all seem so similar it is tough to believe that they are actually made by different manufacturers. It makes me suspect that a company in china makes them all and each "manufacturer" specs out the engine model, color, and a few minor cosmetic differences to the "actual" Chinese manufacturer that "actually" builds the machines.


This Troybilt mower with the Honda engine actually has an accessible oil cap and dipstick.


I doubt I will ever use the grass catcher function. I don't understand removing grass clippings from the yard. The clippings provide very useful organic material that keeps the topsoil healthy. In addition, bagging the grass is time-consuming and not any fun.

 

[s219]

I doubt I will ever use the grass catcher function. I don't understand removing grass clippings from the yard. The clippings provide very useful organic material that keeps the topsoil healthy. In addition, bagging the grass is time-consuming and not any fun.

It's good to bag clippings when mowing newly planted grass, or if for some reason you miss a mowing and the grass is extra tall. In both cases, the clippings would be detrimental to the grass. If you want to get picky, it's important to monitor the thatch layer of the lawn, and there may be cases where you want to bag to prevent too thick of a layer at certain times of year.

One benefit of mulching the clippings back onto the lawn is moisture and nitrogen -- you release all the moisture and nitrogen in the cuttings back into the grass, which can be a help. In summer months, it's good to recover that moisture.

 

[Obed]

It's good to bag clippings when mowing newly planted grass, or if for some reason you miss a mowing and the grass is extra tall. In both cases, the clippings would be detrimental to the grass.

I can see the use in the cases. Good points.
Obed

 

[Obed]

My wife went to Kubota today and asked them about the mower drive belt tensioner spring we bought from them two years ago. They said they had sold us the wrong spring. They ordered a new spring which should arrive at the end of this week.

 

[sld]

Bagging is also great in the fall to pick up leaves. Talk about shredded....