What have you done to your Wheel Horse today?

[kpinnc 10,942]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

I can lose a lot of small pieces in 5 seconds.

 

I waste most of my time walking around in circles in my shop looking for what I just had in hand five minutes prior.

[davem1111 1,943]

2 minutes ago, kpinnc said:

 

I waste most of my time walking around in circles in my shop looking for what I just had in hand five minutes prior.

 

I do that a lot too.  And curse a lot.    If you can do it without cursing, I admire you.   If you don't curse for religious reasons, God Bless you.

 

I found some time today to re-weld the baffles in one of my 48" decks, and sharpen the blades.  This one is kinda rough so it's the one I use out in the fields. Hit a small tree stump and it bent the baffles and of course one of the blades hit it. Welded in a few short pieces of ReBar to help hold it in place. I'm not posting pictures of my welding - it's so ugly, it may cause nightmares for the better welders here.  Did some mowing with the 416-H... I'm actually getting used to the hydro handle on the column and kinda like it. It's possible to control the speed somewhat with hands on the wheel. Still, I will probably sell that one after I get time to do some cleanup and painting. 

 

No time to mess with the "new" 520-8. Gonna be a few weeks before the higher priorities are out of the way.  Unless it's raining a lot.

 

I heard from 4 of my 5 kids today. The one I didn't hear from is under my Ex-wife's thumb and scared of her, so I'm not surprised. Sigh. 

[davem1111 1,943]

On 6/17/2023 at 1:37 PM, Desko said:

No rain for the past couple weeks so I took that time to glue my new center cap on and split and resealed the spare intake manifold for the 520H and try out one of those cheap adjustable carbs from amazon. Overall not super impressed with it looks and fit wise but hopefully it makes it run better because even after cleaning the accelerator pump and carb the original will still hunt and surge. 

 

Having that problem with my 520-8.  I'm hoping to not have to do all that but it seems likely.  I look forward to hearing how the carb works out, and it it's good I'd like to know the seller/model, etc.  Good luck.

[davem1111 1,943]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:15 PM, D_Mac said:

Got the 310-8 finally running. Water in the lines. Should be bringing it home in the morning. Going to need a shoe horn to get it in my garage.

 

Time to build some heavy duty shelves like @Pullstart has so you can put them in double-decker?

Edited June 19, 2023 by davem1111

[ebinmaine 63,363]

7 hours ago, davem1111 said:

The one I didn't hear from is under my Ex-wife's thumb and scared of her, so I'm not surprised. Sigh

I understand that, directly.  

[ebinmaine 63,363]

7 hours ago, davem1111 said:

I'm not posting pictures of my welding - it's so ugly, it may cause nightmares for the better welders here. 

 

No worries Dave. You're in good company.  😁. 

I can make two pieces of metal stick together after a few tries. Good thing grinding wheels exist.  

 

[Roger R 434]

23 hours ago, davem1111 said:

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads here!   My 17 year old son drew this card for me, thought you'd enjoy seeing it - I love it! The 312-A was the "model" for it:

 

 

Awesome.... Wish more realized that a "handmade" card is so much more appreciated than a card store version,with a "canned" message.

 

[Roger R 434]

16 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

No worries Bob.   

I can lose a lot of small pieces in 5 seconds.  

Good to see I am not the only one

[davem1111 1,943]

12 minutes ago, Roger R said:

Awesome.... Wish more realized that a "handmade" card is so much more appreciated than a card store version,with a "canned" message.

 

We have a "thing" about handmade cards here in our household. They are worth way more than what Hallmark gets for their mass printed cards, and not in dollars. 

[kpinnc 10,942]

14 hours ago, davem1111 said:

I'm not posting pictures of my welding - it's so ugly, it may cause nightmares for the better welders here. 

 

Welding trick number one? Go slow. Number two? Grind and repeat LOL. 

 

I am no welder. But I can say that not one of my stickums ever broke! 

Edited June 19, 2023 by kpinnc

[2drxploder 36]

@mrc i don't know where from originally. We have been slow at work, found them cleaning the shop, boss said I could have them, along with a yazoo/keez 61" zero turn mower. Runs and mows. I guess he got to much money???

[davem1111 1,943]

1 hour ago, kpinnc said:

 

Welding trick number one? Go slow. Number two? Grind and repeat LOL. 

 

I am no welder. But I can say that not one of my stickums ever broke! 

 

Since the only "formal" welding training I had was in middle school shop or high school shop in the early 1970's, I don't remember much. I'm not trying anything fancy, like welding aluminum.  Plain old stick welding. Steel on steel, but often different thicknesses. How much amperage and what type of stick to use when, say, welding a thinner baffle onto a thicker deck shell to get enough penetration to stick without melting away the baffle metal to where there's nothing left to weld to, were the biggest challenges in the job I just did. I think I started with a 6011 stick at around 50A but it blew away the baffle metal. Switched to 6013 but had to up the amps to 60. Or maybe it was the other way around. The sticks in the corner of my welding cart that were closer to me worked best whichever those were . I usually have to go back over each weld once or twice to get a good connection. I'm sure I'm ending up with 2-3 times more metal deposited than necessary, but for this job it's out of sight and not in the path of the blades, so I don't really care.  It's hard to get the grinder in some of those tight spaces, so I'm not doing much grinding after the welds, just for cleanup before.

 

Looking back, it probably would have been best to weld pieces of rebar onto the edges of the baffle that go up against the shell FIRST on the workbench, then weld that into the deck. If this comes apart again, I'll try that approach.

[davem1111 1,943]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:49 PM, Beap52 said:

Some time ago I asked how to set the deck height  on my 520H.  I was having a hard time setting the deck height for 3 1/2 inches because that is how tall my neighbor mows his grass.  I've been mowing his yard (about 1 1/2 acres) all summer because he has cancer and the "poision" the doctors gave him to fight the cancer perforated his intestines.  He now walks with a walker and I doubt he gets much better.  We have a zero turn but I like using the 520H.  I've wrote all of this to get to this:

 

Someone suggested that I may need 7" deck wheels to get to the height.  I had some 3/4 treated plywood and gorilla glue in the shop so I made some sample wheels to see if I wanted to invest thirty or so dollars in 7" wheels.  Well, the plywood wheels worked just fine.  I guess I'll be making a trip to the farm and home store before long and buying 7" wheels. 

 

 

I've been swapping decks between tractors a lot lately, and on the ones with hydro lift it does seem to be hard to get a proper height without actually lifting the deck some with the hydro, which I dislike because it's just "eyeballing" it. I cut the front yard way too short yesterday, with the deck all the way down but the wheels as far down as they would go, so I did the side yard with a little hydro lift.  Putting bigger wheels on the deck seems like one solution, but I think I'm going to review the "Quality of Cut" manual again first.  Does the bar that goes from the linkage to the back of the deck adjust height, or just leveling? Maybe I just need to adjust that thing. 

[Handy Don 10,696]

The front-to-back rod is for leveling.

 

Different decks set up differently with regard to dead level vs. down in front. The manual is the way to confirm for your deck.

 

The 42 RD and 42 SD that I’ve set up per the manual on a 310 were pretty close to the cut heights expected using their height adjustment lever positions up to a bit over 3” max. You may have some part of the gauge wheel supports that’s out of whack.

Getting higher than that, say up to 4+ inches, will require larger (7-7.5”) wheels and taking the level adjustment to its limit (or beyond)

What we learned at my son’s camp was that even when lifted to the travel height, the belly mowers and 10hp are really taxed to mow dense weed as high as the hood of the tractor. We’ll be moving to a different solution this summer. Stay tuned.

[davem1111 1,943]

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

What we learned at my son’s camp was that even when lifted to the travel height, the belly mowers and 10hp are really taxed to mow dense weed as high as the hood of the tractor. We’ll be moving to a different solution this summer. Stay tuned.

 

Wow, do you mean bottom of the hood or top of the hood?    If you mean the top, well heck, even my GT-1848 has trouble with that. I'm planning to rent a walk-behind brush hog to handle some tall dense stuff in a few weeks. I used to be able to borrow my neighbor's Ford Jubilee and 5 foot brush hog, but he put spiked steel wheels on it because he got tired (pun intended) of getting flats from the rampant honey locust spikes along the edges of his fields, so I can't drive that down the road anymore without serious consequences.

 

I had been hoping I could pick up a side sickle bar that would fit a 300-500 series but haven't lucked out on that yet.  I liked the project (don't remember who, will have to search) where he created a front mount for a deck of some kind so it can run in front and a bit higher. A front sickle would be good but those aren't very wide and don't know if they will fit a 300-500. Yeah, I should have a bigger tractor and brush hog, but I'll be downsizing in the foreseeable future....

[kpinnc 10,942]

2 hours ago, davem1111 said:

. I think I started with a 6011 stick at around 50A but it blew away the baffle metal. Switched to 6013 but had to up the amps to 60. Or maybe it was the other way around.

 

6011 is a good all-around rod for steel. Hard to make it pretty but it works. 6013 is a shallow penetrator, and can make prettier welds. 70xx is harder and typically requires more amps.

 

I used 6013 on thinner stuff too, but my wire welder has made me lazy. Even using flux core, it's less messy and more forgiving. I welded mount tabs on a muffler with it, and can weld up to about 5/16 plate as well. I haven't turned on my stick welder since I got the wire welder. 

 

But for heavier stuff, the stick welder can't be beat. 

[SylvanLakeWH 24,249]

2 hours ago, Handy Don said:

even when lifted to the travel height, the belly mowers and 10hp are really taxed to mow dense weed as high as the hood of the tractor.

 

1 hour ago, davem1111 said:

Wow, do you mean bottom of the hood or top of the hood?  

 

They'll do it... no problem... just need to go in 1st gear...

 

My C105 10hp brush hoggin'...

 

 

[Handy Don 10,696]

3 hours ago, SylvanLakeWH said:

They'll do it... no problem... just need to go in 1st gear...

 

Exactly. They will do it, but they let you know they are not excited about it and it is slow going 😄

 

I have a plan....more horsepower and more blades.

[lynnmor 6,834]

6 hours ago, davem1111 said:

 

I've been swapping decks between tractors a lot lately, and on the ones with hydro lift it does seem to be hard to get a proper height without actually lifting the deck some with the hydro, which I dislike because it's just "eyeballing" it. I cut the front yard way too short yesterday, with the deck all the way down but the wheels as far down as they would go, so I did the side yard with a little hydro lift.  Putting bigger wheels on the deck seems like one solution, but I think I'm going to review the "Quality of Cut" manual again first.  Does the bar that goes from the linkage to the back of the deck adjust height, or just leveling? Maybe I just need to adjust that thing. 

 

The adjustment on the rear of the deck is indeed for leveling.  Some 42" decks are to be 1/8" high in front, and that prevents the shorter cuts caused by the front hanging down.  Be sure that you have at least the tire pressure specification in the manual, low tires will make a significant difference in cut height, of course set the tire pressure before making any adjustments.  Using the lift doesn't allow the deck to follow the ground so it is best to avoid that.  Be sure to set the transport height when making adjustments.  When I look at many Wheel Horse tractors I see the front of decks hanging down.  I use a deck height gauge to get it right, of course you need a good flat floor to use one.

 

[8ntruck 6,443]

I took Clyde's 2 year old battery into the NAPA store today for a load test.  Failed.  Walked out with a new 370 cca battery. 

 

Now, why did the 2 year old battery go kaput?  Since the old battery came with Clyde, I don't know it's history.  The new battery is the start of the troubleshooting sequence.

 

Got to hook up his ammeter and make sure the charging circuit is operating correctly.  Will also check the battery voltage while the engine is running.

[Horse Newbie 6,935]

On 6/17/2023 at 1:37 PM, Desko said:

No rain for the past couple weeks so I took that time to glue my new center cap on and split and resealed the spare intake manifold for the 520H and try out one of those cheap adjustable carbs from amazon. Overall not super impressed with it looks and fit wise but hopefully it makes it run better because even after cleaning the accelerator pump and carb the original will still hunt and surge. 

I too had little success cleaning a factory carb on my 1994 520H, so I bought an Amazon carb, and more the most part it functions well. Just a slight hesitation to go full throttle… No problem, I just push the throttle lever up slowly.

But most importantly it got rid of the surging.

[Keith of kent 45]

73 Raider 12 in action

[Desko 552]

7 hours ago, Horse Newbie said:

I too had little success cleaning a factory carb on my 1994 520H, so I bought an Amazon carb, and more the most part it functions well. Just a slight hesitation to go full throttle… No problem, I just push the throttle lever up slowly.

But most importantly it got rid of the surging.

I can live with that lol good to hear that they at least work and don't surge all the time! 

[lynnmor 6,834]

9 hours ago, Horse Newbie said:

I too had little success cleaning a factory carb on my 1994 520H, so I bought an Amazon carb, and more the most part it functions well. Just a slight hesitation to go full throttle… No problem, I just push the throttle lever up slowly.

But most importantly it got rid of the surging.

When you removed the welch plug, did you find dirt behind it?

[Horse Newbie 6,935]

1 hour ago, lynnmor said:

When you removed the welch plug, did you find dirt behind it?

I never removed the Welch plug…

I guess had I removed it, although I had no idea how, I would have had to use a new Welch plug to replace, huh ?