[AT] OT- Gift Horse Lawn Mower

HERBERT METZ metz-h.b at comcast.net
Fri Sep 17 19:28:26 PDT 2021


Warren,
Your friend also knows where to go if he has trouble with his ZTR. 
Herb(GA)

>     On 09/16/2021 11:10 PM Mogrits <mogrits at gmail.com> wrote:
>      
>      
>     Thanks for all the responses. I've decided I'll give my friend 300.00 to preserve the friendship and call it a day. The mower is working. It will not track straight and cannot be adjusted to do so. But it can be induced to go straight by being vigilant.
>      
>     I figure after one spindle, two idler pulleys, two belts, one battery, three blades, oil change and oil, fuel and air filters, two rear tires, two spark plugs and re gluing the seat cushion to its frame, and all the time to do the above, the 300.00 is in fact to retain friendship and I will wind up somewhere near one third the mowers original retail cost. I can accept that- as my friend could never admit he couldn't repair or resurrect the mower. I told him I was going to be teaching Toro seminars going forward after this experience.
>      
>     Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
>     Warren
> 
>     On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 10:40 PM Indiana Robinson < robinson46176 at gmail.com mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com > wrote:
> 
>         > >         I intended to answer this but forgot until I saw a 6' Scag zero-turn at an Amish consignment auction Saturday. Scag started making good commercial mowers quite a few years back. I tried to get a BIL to look at one since he was doing a lot of commercial mowing at the time. He was not interested but later "discovered" them himself and bought 2 of them.  :-)
> >          
> >         About haying... I guess I have not been communicating well about what we do... There is no left over or waste ground here. I cash rent  much of the farm out for grain farming. The rest, except for a 17 acre wooded mini-farm in the next county, is in horses up to our elbows. Seven of our own and currently 16 client client horses. That is pretty much our limit unless I switch some more land from cash rent to horses (that pay).  :-)  We make a lot more per acre from the client horses than we do from the cash rent but I can't just give the boarding enterprise free-reign (sorry about the pun) simply because at 79 there just isn't enough me to do everything needed. The mowing that son Scott does with the big batwing is not wild growth. It is controlling large weeds and tall grasses in pasture lots. Every square inch of grass is grazed, even lanes and riding trails and wood lots. Nothing is just wild growth. A few areas that are allowed to grow up in the fall are basically "stored" standing grass for winter for our own horses to supplement the cornstalks and soybean stubble that they over-winter on. "Everything" is grazed... It is all a very complex mix of pastures, lanes, paddocks, dry-lots and riding areas that are also grazed during times of grass stress.
> >         We have a small round pen about 35' but I'm ready to build a second one about 50'. Not fancy but functional. Maybe a small set of bleachers under the shade tree west of the arena.
> >         There are about 4 miles of lanes, some of which are ridden and some are mostly grazed but can be ridden at times. One client now wants a practice jumping area. A previous client was into barrel racing. Who knows what will be wanted next month.  :-)  Management gets a little intense now and then but we generally love it. Now that it seems that the 90's temps are backing off we need to start building a fire in a fire ring again. Sometimes that is all that it takes to get folks to start sitting around in the evening.  It's fairly easy to distance out and burn a batch of marshmallows and talk a while. It may be a little too soon...
> >         Son Scott bales hay (big bales) from about 5 properties close but not here.
> > 
> >         On Wed, Sep 1, 2021 at 6:49 PM Mike M < meulenms at gmx.com mailto:meulenms at gmx.com > wrote:
> > 
> >             > > >             I bought a Scag 5 years ago, and have never looked back, cut my mowing time in half. I only cut about 5 acres. Farmer, why don't you have some of that hayed? I have a cattle rancher that hays my field. I used to bush hog it 4-5 times a year, I let him bale it free.
> > > 
> > >             Mike M
> > > 
> > > 
> > >             On 9/1/2021 7:35 AM, Indiana Robinson wrote:
> > > 
> > >                 > > > >                 I have been quite happy with my zero-turn. I bought it 3 or 4 years ago, I'd have to look. It's a Husqvarna MZ-61. 61 inch cut and a 27HP Briggs V-twin. It has a tall heavy fabricated deck, not a stamped one. One of my must haves was for large drive wheels and tires, not those fat little donuts they insist on putting on so many mowers these days. They would shake you to death in our use of it. We cut about 10 acres most weeks. I also cut under the electric fences on all of the horse lots several times a year. Son Scott mows the open areas with his MF-1155 and a 15' bat-wing mower a couple of times depending on rain and pasture loads. We also mow all of our road ditches with zero-turns, some of which are too steep to mow safely with a tractor type mower. Some areas are wooded and that is where the zero-turn shines. As much as I love the zero-turn I do have to admit that there are times I would rather sit and mow in a more relaxed manner holding the steering wheel in one hand and a cold drink in the other.  :-)   When you are mowing with a zero-turn it's all business... It simply requires both hands full time to steer. You never relax... You tend to work as fast as you can drive and cut clean even in close quarters and on rough ground. After about 3 or 4 hours of that you are ready for a break.
> > > >                 This MZ-61 has been pretty much trouble free especially considering the kind of heavy use it gets here. I replaced the electric mower clutch switch, the deck belt and it's on its third set of blades.
> > > >                  I try to change oil about once a month depending on use. Oil is cheap, even premium oil... The same with grease.
> > > >                 BTW, I recently read an article where Briggs is now recommending full synthetic oil for their engines... I don't think I had read that before.
> > > > 
> > > >                 On Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 10:43 PM Jim Becker < mr.jebecker at gmail.com mailto:mr.jebecker at gmail.com > wrote:
> > > > 
> > > >                     > > > > >                     Scrap iron is about 7 cents a pound.  References on the web come up with weights between about 500 and 750 pounds.  500 * .07 is $35.  So I’d say the value as you got it was $35 to $50.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     Jim Becker
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     From: Mogrits
> > > > >                     Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2021 9:02 PM
> > > > >                     To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group
> > > > >                     Subject: [AT] OT- Gift Horse Lawn Mower
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     I recently mentioned looking for a Zero Turn mower to a friend and he said he had one to spare. He said his wife wouldn't use it anymore so he "bought her a new one". That's an even funnier statement if you knew them. He said for me to take it, work on it, and pay him what I thought it was worth. Uggh.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     It's a 2011 Toro SS5000 Timecutter 50" cut with a Kawasaki 22hp engine.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     Drained and freshened the gasoline.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     Three of four tires were flat but will briefly hold air...a couple days anyway, after I plugged a rear. The rears are worn out and need replacement. The battery is weak but will hold a charge about a week. The deck belt was broken so a replacement was fitted to reveal a bad idler pulley (I should have known something broke the belt). So that was fitted only to reveal a bad spindle. Bought and replaced. So, mower deck problems solved.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     First use revealed it to be a NASCAR mower, only turning left strongly, and it wound up in our pond and had to be pulled out with a tractor! I stayed dry and only the front wheels got wet. So internet search revealed how to balance steering and I used all the adjustment to no avail then inspected and found a badly worn drive belt. I acquired and replaced that and lo and behold, I think if I undo my steering adjustments and figure out how to re-attach the foam pad piece to the steel bucket seat I may have a mower I can use.
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     So I guess, after replacing a battery, two tires, deck belt, a spindle, tensioner pulley, drive belt, probable soon drive tensioner pulley and seat repairs my question is this...
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     What would you pay this good friend for this neglected mower?
> > > > >                      
> > > > >                     Warren
> > > > > 
> > > > >                      
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
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> > > > > 
> > > > >                 > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > >                 --
> > > >                 -- 
> > > > 
> > > >                 Francis Robinson
> > > >                 aka "farmer"
> > > >                 Central Indiana USA
> > > >                 robinson46176 at gmail.com mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com
> > > > 
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> > >         > > 
> > 
> >         --
> >         -- 
> > 
> >         Francis Robinson
> >         aka "farmer"
> >         Central Indiana USA
> >         robinson46176 at gmail.com mailto:robinson46176 at gmail.com
> > 
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