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Project I’ve been wanting to get to for many years and finally dug it out and got it done. Just have to finish putting decals on it.

baling hay, every person should be required to do this for 1 summer before the age of 21. I think the world would be a better place

I baled my first field yesterday! Not as difficult as I thought it would be, but that’s not to say it was easy. My aunt and uncle own a couple dozen acres, mostly wooded, but they have a small pasture. They had asked me if when it was time, would I be willing to help bale hay. Knowing that no one else in the family would help, I said yes. Well, yesterday was the day. Still kicking myself for not getting some shots of the baler working, but the misses and my aunt grabbed a few. It was hard work, but a good learning experience. What I enjoyed most was being able to spend that much one on one time with my uncle. We put up 170 bales, which is about half of what they normally get out of a cutting, but was just the right amount for a first timer haha.

Speaking of plowing...We had the stertz Farm day yesterday and it was a blast! My uncle Bob in the orange shirt hosts it on his 160 acre farm. His oldest son and my oldest cousin David (in the shorts) was helping him unload this wagon of grain. They are pitching the shocks into the Case threshing machine that my Great Grandpa bought brand new in 1939! It was a sticky and still day but still a lot of fun. Many times they burn up the straw left over but this year Bob decided to bale it. The old 230 Case Baler was so awesome to listen to. I hopped up on the wagon and loaded about a wagon full and it took me back to when I was a kid listening to this same machine working out in the fields! Of course, for this to be a complete Farm Day, there needed to be some GT plowing. It seems like a common theme but the area that we tried first didn’t plow well and we had about given up. Then I found another area that was less “rock-like” and it plowed decent. The guy in the gray shirt is Jeff (one of my IH buddies), and he made it out with his new bride and their little son. They watched me make a couple of passes on GhostRider and then Jeff asked if his wife could try. Here she is in the saddle for her very first time ever plowing. She did a good job and enjoyed it so much that she actually took a couple of rounds. Their little boy was just super excited with all the tractor activity and really enjoyed watching his mom plowing and then riding on dad’s lap while he plowed. All in all, it was another super fun Farm Day! Speaking of Shynon and his 1054, my dad and mom went to a car show yesterday and so I brought dad’s Clyde (953) up to plow. I am amazed at how well that tractor plows! I’ll put together a write up and some video clips in the plowing thread later...

Did the pick up off the ground onto the wagon. Worst part was getting the hay stacked in the hay loft. Bales came up the conveyor you had to grab it and carry it to the far end of the loft to start stacking. Hot and very little airflow.

There is another solution....mount a return spring on the OUTSIDE of the hoodstand... like this on my C-160 Auto.. Very easy to do, and to change out if / when it breaks.

I also grew up on a dairy farm in the '50s and '60s and spent the summer haying. There were about a dozen of us boys that would work on all the area farms harvesting grain and hay from an early age. The smallest child would drive the tractor (5 or 6 years old) then you graduated to rolling bails toward the row where the tractor was headed, next you became a wagon stacker and by twelve years you could throw bails onto the wagon. Didn't need a gym membership to get into shape! We all made some good spending money every summer and had a good time doing it. Now my cousin runs the family farm (1,200 acres) with one helper. God bless modern harvesting equipment!

My uncle uses to say hard work was good for a young soul. At home we used to bale 1500/2000 bales each of 3 cuttings a summer. We didn't have a cab tractor, so the raking and baling could get dusty. Did lots of hauling, loading it 52 bales on the truck, 104 on the low trailer. The 1st college summer I worked at a machine shop and several of the machinist had small farms. They worked their farms on weekends and baled hay for others during the week. Cut customers hay on Monday & Tuesday after work, Then we usually hauled 500/1000 bales on Wednesday and Thursday. Tasted my 1st white lightening from a farmer that made it from the red cane sorghum he grew for hay. Those were good days!

My uncle was telling me about the first time he did it. The farmer had the baler drop them on the ground, and had a tractor with multiple wagons come behind. One guy drove the tractor, two on the ground throwing the bales up onto the wagons, and one guy stacking. He was 15, and the youngest and smallest guy. He was one of the two tossing them on the wagon. They got done for the day and the farmer came up in his pick up truck with four cokes. He took the price of the cokes out of their 3¢ a bale pay. I was drinking a bottle of water at the time and I asked “So how much do I owe ya?” It was hard work, and it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like it, but I enjoyed it. If I want to own land some day, it’ll be a useful thing to know how to do. I was extremely sore when I first woke up, but I was surprised how quickly I “bounced back” from. I still don’t plan on doing too much today though, my grass can wait another day 😂

Ignition timing on Kohler engines. Gapping the ignition points at .020 has always been the standard answer for how points should be set. That probably will get you into the ballpark where the engine will run, but with a bit of additional effort you can improve the engine’s power and performance. The Kohler engine manual (page 9, Section 6) in the Red Square files section covers two methods for setting the ignition timing, Static Timing and using a Timing Light. This manual is a relatively new manual and it glosses over the fact that many of our engines were built prior to the ACR (automatic compression release) camshaft. Earlier engines (mostly 1965 and earlier) had a Spark Advance camshaft that can not be timed using Static timing. At rest (and very low RPMs) the timing is retarded to fire slightly after TDC. The timing mark (S or SP) on your flywheel is at twenty degrees before top dead center but at rest the points on these engines break about ten degrees after top dead center. The manual tells you to Static Time to the "T" mark on the flywheel but the only reliable way to check or set the timing on these engines is with a timing light. There are a couple ways to determine what camshaft you have. Presuming the camshaft in your engine is the one it was born with the data plate on the engine has a suffix that can tell you what camshaft was used. The table below will tell you the suffix applicable to your engine. The other way to determine what camshaft you have is to remove the cam gear cover and take a look. If you see a mechanism attached to the cam side of the gear it is the ACR cam. The following engines have the spark advance camshaft; K-141, Suffix prior to “C” K-161, Suffix prior to “J” K-181, Suffix prior to “D” K-241, Suffix prior to “D

Got the fender pan and new seat installed on the GT2500 today. Then I took her for a drive around the neighborhood. Eventually I'll get all the tin repainted on her.

The top soil was dozed off the surface of the garden area in the late 80s.It is really hilly here so once I terraced the garden surface, I moved the topsoil back with a C120 and a 10 cu-ft cart.One sifted load at a time.I was a lot younger then and it was something to do at the end of the day.We now add leaf mulch and residue from the hen house.Nothing goes to waste.

After a few minor setbacks yesterday and today (I really don't know how many times the folks here on Red Square have pulled my fanny out of the fire) But today was the day we rolled her out of the door, filled to tank to the top, fired her up and took her for a ride This is NOT a show tractor. I rebuilt her just for me. Basically a 1968 Charger 12 with a 69 engine with the breakerless ignition. Didn't like the "push/pull cables" so swapped out a "lever controls" dash. Quit smoking almost 12 years ago so didn't need the cigar lighter. I'm not a big fan of the all red tractors so ......... Wanted a "stack" muffler ever since the first one (C121) and finally did it Some of the earlier photos show a stack I put together. The more I looked at it, it just wasn't right Called Jim Kemp and ordered one of his....WOW what a difference. Looks good, well made and sounds great Thanks to everyone who followed along, got me out of a few tight spots and offered up some humor along the way

Zach was able to come along to get his new engine... I forgot how big an M16 engine really is...what a Hunk of steel. Rick was so impressed with the whole situation, he decided to knock $50 off even though I handed him the cash for the total price. I can see that I’ll be installing an engine soon...

This is spring # 1230. Take the measurements to a hardware store and match it.

Started bailing at 12 through my teens for my uncle and other local farmers. Never made more than .75 an hr. Usually just 3 of us. Farmer on tractor another guy stacking and me tossing them up. Never used an elevator. I played pony league baseball on Saturday's and a lot of times a farmer was waiting when the game was over for me to help.

3 cents a bale??!!!! What part of the country paid that kind of money? Most I ever got was 2.5 cents a bale and that was only because I was the only one trusted to make sure the rest of the kids (I was 17 and they were 14 & 15) wouldn’t screw things up. The guy paying the money and owned all of the equipment was a fellow classmate who I ran track with. Most of my life was 2 cents a bale. And I can remember my Grandad’s consternation when guys wanted to get paid by the bale. He was a believer in $1.00 or $1.50 per hour. In his defense he ran a top notch operation. Hay elevator to get bales to the loft; multiple wagons hauling from the field; one or two really good stackers on the wagon stacking bales as they come out of the baler (my favorite job, out in the open all day and I could stack hay); someone just transporting wagons to and from the field (this was a really important position, needed to be someone who wouldn’t dump loads driving up the hill from the creek bottoms); a full crew at the barn unloading and stacking in the loft; a full hot dinner cooked by Grandma served on her good china at the dining room table (10-12 guys); and Grandma, Aunt Lois, and my Mom would bring out pie and ice cream for mid afternoon break. Now that I write all of that down I see why Grandad didn’t want to pay by the bale. And while stacking in barn lofts in August heat was really hot; the only times we would shut it down (not Grandad’s operation, he would never take a chance on the hay getting wet) were because of the hay fields is being in creek bottoms with NO BREEZES and temps in the 90s. Several times we would tell the farmers “To hot. We will be back at 6:00 PM and then work most of the night.

If you have a couple of 1 1/8" hubs kicking around you could use a couple of bronze bushings in each hub. Don't need high speed bearings for a load of grand-kids and the ride would be better with a pair of 23" pneumatic tires..

Bailing is not the hard part! Its being in the hay loft on a hot summers day ! Growing we had the giant forks that you would jab into several bails and use a trip rope in the barn to release them. A rope went out the other end of the barn hooked to a tractor. Had to have good Communication skills for this operation!!

Thanks for jogging the memories.My wifes uncles farmed about 400 acres in western Va.Just about any time we visited was haying time.The baler they used put the bales on the ground and I always help load the wagons.For a young man, at the time it was something to do and I always enjoyed it.

I also got to drive my aunts 50(?) Farmall Cub. Biggest tractor I’ve driven to date. I was amazed that it it was so much quieter than the 8hp Kohler. Unfortunately the wife wasn’t around to get any shots of that.

What a way to celebrate! A feature win!

Irv and Jr came out today. Jr is getting his deck put back on soon!! Doing final touches on it now. Cant wait to mow with it!!

At the races, my father in-law just set the VROA / Berlin Raceway track record, by 2 tenths of a second!

A couple more pics from our ride last night...

Trying to beat the rain Bev and I digging spuds. Potatodigger.mp4

Working in the R & D lab, I installed an extra set of blades on a 36 inch rear discharge deck. How this idea started was the Horse Bug bit my brother. I gave him an old 211-4 cause one of his mowers was down. I must admit the 36 inch RD deck cut pretty nice. To small for me. He liked it so much he went on CL and bought a 208-4, cuts great too. Looking at those machines, the front of the deck is connected to the front axle and pivots with the from wheels. Sure seems like a nice design. (not to mention my brother is a nut about his lawn). I have been working on and off the last couple years on a 88 516H. Finally got it runnable and my brother came up and took her for a spin. (I think he is in love) but says he has no more room for another mower, but ask if there is a 36 inch rear deck that will fit. Well anyhow, I was working on a 36 just to have and thought if I put mulching blades on it to see if it competes. I seen a while back were a member used two sets of blades and thought that may give me that fine cut. Some of my findings are; 1 makes more noise, 2 does use more power, 3 pulverizes the grass, super fine clippings, 4 does blow out from under the deck more, and 5 cuts pretty nice. I had the height set a notch lower than usual and the cut pic it is hard to tell but don't look to bad. I now some other members have done this and hope they share their thoughts.

I have an update. So I finally had time to pull carb off open front panel and adjust valves. They did need it! Then decided to pull the spark plug to check the gap and while doing that I noticed the porcilin under the tip was all cracked and falling apart. Put old plug in with the valve adjustments and she worked like a brand new tractor! Might need to slightly Fine tune carb but mowed 4 acres like nothing! Thank you to all who had ideas and helped walk through the issues!!

Too bad there’s not a puking reaction 😂

Oh yea ! Had to clean out the cow or the pig barns with the 8n tractor !!! l can still smell that aroma !!!

The worst job I have ever done as a kid was detasseling corn for seed companies. This was a pain in the.... well the back side anyway. Riding in that little bucket between the rows in 90° temperatures pulling the tops off the corn stocks

Great idea Dave... getting that little spring hooked up inside requires a lot of very salty language....

I am using these from McMaster Edit:: getting that spring mounte is a challenge....

I'm afraid my Lear Jet is in storage for a while.

It's probably the adjustment on the drive belt cover needs to be bent correctly to correct this problem. There is also a little arm that bolts to the motor as well that helps

A Super C for your birthday!!!

I hate to say it but the best source for 1" hubs is off the green garden tractor fronts.That is what I use for heavy builds and I get them used off of the popular bidding site.

Grandpa, well into his 70's... used to pick them hay bales with a pitch fork, up through a hole in the ceiling for stacking up in the loft. I remember the sweat pouring off his face like a spigot every time he bent over to pick another.

I’ve done shingles.... not a fan. As of yesterday I’m 141, and that’s too much weight too high off the ground for me 😂 The only “nope” moment I had in boot camp was the repel tower, and I had to be persuaded off. The persuasion was in the form of a Drill Instructors boot between my shoulder blades

My son was genuinely upset that he couldn’t get on the wagon and help. The way he’s growing, he’ll be ready to in ten years or so.

Another Day another chance to do something. just adapt the Valveblock and mount it. Therefore i build a Baseplate, where the Valveblock is just scewed later. Than i rounded the Edges and paint it. Coffeebreak Drilled 2 holes, threaded and screwed the Valveblockbaseplate by 2 Screws. So i have the option if the Place was wrong for usability i can later simply move. Because all Hydraulic was on right side, i decided to mount the Valveblock on the right, also while i planed it before on the left Console. We will see if this was a fail or not. Positive is, that the Hydraulictubes become shorter. Rethinkin if i use Pipes and tubes or just tubes but actual no decision is made finally. It also depends on Bendingradius, if i have enough clearance.

I agree with tunahead that abrupt shut down caused a failure that starting fluid is not going to solve. I would take a heavy wire strait from battery positive to solenoid or starter post and see if it will start, if so then you know problem is electrical. And if not electrical make sure fuel pump is squirting gas into carb, this is where a little squirt of starting fluid will let you know if it is lacking fuel if the fluid will get it to bark. Prolonged use of starting fluid is never good, I have used wd40 or similar in place of starting fluid as it does offer some lubrication so not to dry out seals and so on.

I think that's your best bet, just take a slow careful look around the entire tractor and look for anything obviously wrong that might have been caused by hitting that stick. Did you disengage the mower after this happened? How big was this stick, and is it possible it might have hit any wiring, or fuel lines, or pretty much anything outside of the deck? Look for disconnected wires, unattached hardware, anything unusual. Take your time, and let us know what you see.

The 330 was only made one year, 1986. Deere sort of made the 330 to test the market - they took a 316 Onan and put in a 3 cylinder Yanmar diesel. It's basically a strip down version of the 318, but with a diesel. The following year, 1987, Deere brought out the 332, which was a 330, but added all the "extras" that the 318 had, i.e. dual hydraulics, power steering, etc. The 330, even without power steering (which you can add), and the single spool of hydraulics (which you can add), is an excellent tractor. The JD diesels rule the field on plow days.

Happy Birthday Glen!

i regularly alternate my cutting angles on the lawn, i also cut at the highest setting , and regularly tow a spiker to help aireate the surface. keeping the blades sharp and the bottom of the deck clean also helps. i use 42" r/ d deck, recently rebuilt, its so smooth and quiet its amazing , pete

Oil pressure switch in Section 11 of the parts manual WH # NN10273 (Vender # 309-0546) https://www.onanparts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=697 Garry

Plowing season right around the corner. Put the ags on the 1054, gonna make a dual for one side

If it's a vehicle that you value, I would fix it right. When I young, we used Bars Stop Leak. Pour a can into the radiator and it would seal pinholes. Then when the car started overheating and the radiator had to be cored, we learned that we were clogging the radiator as well as plugging the leak. My dad used to pour black pepper into his radiator. He was cheap. Same results

Put Vader to work this evening and got to teach the little boys some roofing. The roof on the kids playhouse is about 20 years old and shot and so we decided it was time to replace it. I had enough extra shingles left from a large project and so it was a “labor only” situation! Judge and Zach helped haul the old roofing and throw it in the wagon. Once the roof was clear and the debris cleaned up, we discarded the old shingles and then loaded the trailer with tools and supplies. Once I was confident I had everything that I needed from the big job trailer, it was back out to the playhouse. The three of us took turns driving Vader back and forth because it is just too cool to let any one of us drive it the whole time! Zach handed me up shingles... and Judge got to help with cutting starter course shingles and bringing those to me. One side is done and the other is struck out. The mosquitos were starting to show us who was boss and so we called it a night. Tomorrow we will wrap it up. Fun times with my two little boys and the Super C!