Members bassthumpintwin Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I've put it off for about as long as I'll probably be able to easily get away with.... Dusted off the old mower tonight... Filled the tank up with some gas from last season, and it cranked right up without a problem. I will put it to the test tomorrow to see if it still gets the job done. Changed the wheel drive belts and the end of last mowing season, so they should be nice and ready to go. It probably wouldn't hurt to sharpen the blades, but there's really no easy way to access the underside of the deck, and there are 3 blades to deal with, so I think I'll put it off for a little while longer. See how it cuts tomorrow. Anybody else getting ready for the first mow of the season? How many of you have already been at it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emprov Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I've already mowed twice and the lawns are beyond ready for a third. It's raining out there though so it'll have to wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassthumpintwin Posted April 5, 2010 Author Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I've already mowed twice and the lawns are beyond ready for a third. It's raining out there though so it'll have to wait. Yeah, it's rained off and on for a couple days here as well, but the biggest rain was really saturday, with today being a really occasional/light drizzle. Seems like Saturday's rainfall really did enough to green things up and add some more height though. I'm hoping/thinking it should be dry enough by the time I crank up the mower tomorrow, that I won't have any issues. I made the mistake of missing my window of opportunity last year, and two things happened: It rained so much for a couple weeks that I didn't stand a chance to mow. And with the old belts I had on the mower, if they got wet AT ALL, they would slip if any pressure was applied, via the sulky, or going up hill, so I had to pretty much push the thing over all 1.7 acres of my property. Keep in mind that this is an old "commercial" walk behind that weighs several hundred pounds... The second problem I had was that my starter crapped out when it did dry out enough to mow, so that delayed things even longer. By the time I got around to getting the thing operational, the grass was probalby close to 6" high. So I had to mow on pretty much the lowest speed, or the engine would bog down and die. WELL NOT THIS TIME!!!! (and this thing is SEVERELY underpowered for a commercial grade mower, hence the "") Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members timmerz Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 We've had some ill-timed storms here in the Bay Area....just when it starts to get dry enough to think about hopping on the riding mower it starts pouring again...I have a real nice 32" deck on a 13 hp rider (yes, w/cup holder) that makes short work of my 1/3 acre and my neighbor's 1/3 acre that I take care of in exchange for boat/trailer storage year round...looking a little shaggy at the moment...BTT, that must be a 42" inch deck on that walk-behind? And they are probably powering it with about the same as my 32"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rowka Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 Did it Saturday. We have a handfull of huge Live Oaks that are at the tail end of a shed. These things produce huge amounts of leaves and acorns that are very difficult to rake from our ropey St. Augustine grass. The first mow of the season, for me, is primarily to "vacuum" most of these leaves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dwalmz Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 Be careful using old gas! It'll jack up the carburator! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 4 acres last week. I too need a blade sharpening badly. Unforunately, my mower weighs over 900 lbs. so it's a bit difficult to get at 'em. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Detox Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I don't think wifey's mowed the lawn yet this year. I'll have to ask. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gspointer Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I will need to soon. I need to pull the deck, sharpen the blades and grease the spindles. Also need to change the oil, filters and plugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SA Rios Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 Not even close here. It rained pretty good yesterday and has been in the 70's for a few days now, but it will be dropping more seasonable temps in the upper 50's this week. Probably wont need to mow until first week of May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members prosigna Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 4 acres last week. I too need a blade sharpening badly. Unforunately, my mower weighs over 900 lbs. so it's a bit difficult to get at 'em. Just use a big rock as fulcrum and a T-40 neck as a lever. The body of the bass will lift anything up to a 1/2-ton if the fulcrum is placed correctly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RSBro Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 My lawn overlooks the pool and tanning deck... Win! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Reverend179 Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I've been reconditioning the deck on my John Deere- wire-wheeled all the rust off, stripped the remaining paint from the bottom, POR-15'd, with a top coat of undercoating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members picker13 Posted April 5, 2010 Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I was up at the lake house last week, and decided to get the lawn tractor out and do a good "clean up." Forgot about a pile of bricks and bent the crap out of one of my blades. Now I've got a trough through my yard highlighting my route back to the shed, and a nice concrete scratch on the ramp into the garage, as well as looking for replacement blades and the fun job of putting them on. Doh! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassthumpintwin Posted April 5, 2010 Author Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 Be careful using old gas! It'll jack up the carburator! Well, since the carburator, or any other part on this mower isn't exactly "new" or perfectly functioning, I decided to take my chances... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassthumpintwin Posted April 5, 2010 Author Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 We've had some ill-timed storms here in the Bay Area....just when it starts to get dry enough to think about hopping on the riding mower it starts pouring again...I have a real nice 32" deck on a 13 hp rider (yes, w/cup holder) that makes short work of my 1/3 acre and my neighbor's 1/3 acre that I take care of in exchange for boat/trailer storage year round...looking a little shaggy at the moment...BTT, that must be a 42" inch deck on that walk-behind? And they are probably powering it with about the same as my 32"? It's either 42 or 48. It's been a while since I measured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassthumpintwin Posted April 5, 2010 Author Members Share Posted April 5, 2010 I was up at the lake house last week, and decided to get the lawn tractor out and do a good "clean up." Forgot about a pile of bricks and bent the crap out of one of my blades. Now I've got a trough through my yard highlighting my route back to the shed, and a nice concrete scratch on the ramp into the garage, as well as looking for replacement blades and the fun job of putting them on. Doh! I ran into a problem as well. I was mowing up next to my house, and not paying enough attention in the taller grass, and there was an old steel cabled dog leash laying in the grass. (I don't even have a dog is the funny thing, the previous owners had left it, and an animal must have dragged it out of where I had thrown it out of the way last year). Any way, as soon as I saw it, it was too late. wrapped up around two of the blades and killed the engine, while tying itself into quite the birds nest and wedging itself in between the deck and the blade quite well. Took me about 40 minutes to take one of the blades off and cut the rest of it out of the way. Other than that, things were pretty smooth, although it was still a little too wet on some places, causing the drive belts to slip a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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