Quote :

"that 316 up there appears to be missing its gauge wheels on the deck"

is that a deal-breaker?

10/23/2012 4:46:55 PM

no, but you'll want to buy some replacements if the seller doesn't have them. they prevent scalping when you go over uneven areas.

10/23/2012 4:59:06 PM

^yep. and without them you could possibly rip off the cutting deck... at least with my parent's old craftsman you could

10/25/2012 10:58:32 AM

update, I went ahead and bought the 316. The mower has about 800 hours, but the previous owner had "restored" it last year. Anyway, it looks really good for the age. It's overkill for just mowing the lawn, but I guess I won't be losing money if I decide to sell it in the future.

11/4/2012 12:30:40 PM

Time to revive this thread. I need a lawn mower and would prefer a riding one. I don't feel like spending more than I did for my first car, so my budget is less than $600. This will be for a 3/4 acre yard.

What are your thoughts about getting a used Forrest Gump style Snapper? What about restoring a John Deere 110? My parents have had a rear engined Craftsman at their lake house as long as I can remember that's been indestructible.

3/20/2013 2:21:23 PM

Quote :

"What are your thoughts about getting a used Forrest Gump style Snapper?"

Rode one of these for 10+ years. Never had a problem. When my dad got a fancy new one, he gave the Snapper to the kid down the street. He was still using it as of last summer (I stopped mowing the grass at my folks' around 2004).

3/21/2013 12:35:13 AM

get a mower that's painted black


rattle-can a "3" on the hood.


mow 2x fast.

3/21/2013 8:49:59 AM

agreed.



fuck yeah...

3/21/2013 8:51:27 AM

So I think I'm going to make the switch to TruFuel. Picked some up the other week. It's like $5/can at Lowe's (I think it's a 32oz can). I just kept fearing the possible damage to my equipment, especially since I forgot to empty & run dry several times. It's about 2.5 times more expensive than gas + ethanol treatment + oil, but I figure it's like insurance Though, I think I'll continue to use gas + ethanol treatment in my mower...


Also, I picked up two attachments for my FS90R: BF Mini-Cultivator Attachment and a circular saw blade. The cultivator works ok - the rotate seemed a bit slow. It's certainly not the best for large jobs (obviously) or hard packed soil (which is what I have). Haven't used the saw blade yet.

[Edited on April 10, 2013 at 9:07 AM. Reason : .]

4/10/2013 9:02:41 AM

as long as you drain the fuel and run it until it shuts off at the end of the season, you won't have issues. ethanol isn't an issue until it sits around for a while.

4/10/2013 9:05:10 AM

^yeh, I know. But that's my problem. I'm forgetful.

4/10/2013 9:08:04 AM

that's pathetic

4/10/2013 9:08:44 AM

haha. I know. But often I'll think that I will use something again soon, then don't and so it sits for a while.

4/10/2013 9:10:23 AM

...eyeballing a mint JD214 that's sitting roadside near work. We'll see how much the old man wants for that thang!

4/10/2013 10:03:53 AM

that's a nice tractor.

4/10/2013 10:38:16 AM

So I just found out that my (the) FS 90R has an autofeeding head

I looked back at all the paper work and box for it... there was nothing about the line head on there and the website doesn't list anything about the specific head that comes on it. So I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about not knowing.



_______________



Any recommendations for a tow-behind (lawn tractor) sprayer (note: not tank + wand, but at least tank + spray nozzles). All I can find are $bermuda or horrible reviews (cracked tanks).

______________

For those of you not in Old School:

I recently prepared my lawn tractor for the season:



[Edited on June 20, 2013 at 1:44 PM. Reason : .]

6/20/2013 1:42:22 PM

autofeeding? as in you don't bump it on the ground to feed more line?

6/20/2013 3:03:09 PM

no, that's what I mean. just tap it on the ground and it feeds out more line. the last 3 I've used didn't have that capability and thus I never knew about it

[Edited on June 20, 2013 at 4:37 PM. Reason : none of them were mine. the fs 90r was my first personally bought/owned]

6/20/2013 4:36:23 PM

Most of today's are weed eaters are like that

6/20/2013 5:09:04 PM

pretty much all decent quality string trimmers have been that way for as long as i can remember. the landscaper i used to work for used these instead:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/100056334?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&N=5yc1v&R=100056334#.UcOFfec3uSo

i didn't really like them. the advantage was you didn't leave crop circles in the grass from feeding line. of course, the solution to that is just bump against concrete or something.

the only other time i've used a non-bump feed trimmer was a cheap piece of shit my dad bought from walmart. it had some retarded feed method where the string would get short and the engine would rev up and centrifugal force would sling more string out, then the safety guard would cut it to the right length. it sucked balls. no idea why folks buy crap like that for $75 when there is a pile of quality used equipment out there from manufacturers like Stihl and Echo.

6/20/2013 6:50:59 PM

friend of mine (i.e. farm) had an 80's/90's husky trimmer with handlebars, harness, and a fucking manual feed head. you had to pull the spool downward with the machine stopped, set the line, run it until it wore the line down and do it again.

.... they had another one, smaller engine, but with a tap-n-go head.... I'd run circles around him while he tried to blaze through knee high grass with 20" worth of trimmer line flailing about. It would wind up, rev up, then WHAAHHPPPP out to the full length, then repeat.

6/20/2013 7:52:45 PM

Any recommendations for a tow-behind (lawn tractor) sprayer (note: not tank + wand, but at least tank + spray nozzles). All I can find are $bermuda or horrible reviews (cracked tanks).

6/21/2013 8:31:11 AM

must not be a very popular attachment

6/28/2013 8:59:57 AM

honestly, that's a Northern Tool type of thing (if I were shopping)

6/28/2013 9:00:42 AM

i agree. if the tank cracks, just patch it with some two-part epoxy.

6/28/2013 2:30:13 PM

bout time to rebuild carb & tune up the old line trimmer

also, motherfuck flooding a 2-stroke. Last week I flooded the trimmer, blower, and the goddamned chainsaw, one right after the other.

7/22/2013 8:30:37 AM

I've gt 6 trimmers and 3 blowers I've got to rebuild right now

7/22/2013 9:27:49 AM

my dad has a barn full, too.

small engine repairman would have a hay-day

7/22/2013 10:05:35 AM

Any recommendations for a pull-behind lawn sweeper for a riding mower? have lots of trees so any time I need to mow, I have to walk around and pick up small limbs or pine cones. F.W.P.

1/19/2014 12:45:45 PM

how big is your mower? That will determine your capacity; used a 42" model growing up, and it would lift the ass of a 12hp/38" cut rider with a good load of wet grass.

1/19/2014 3:56:28 PM

Don't have one yet. I'm thinking about getting a 46" Husqvarna in the spring.

[Edited on January 19, 2014 at 4:52 PM. Reason : n]

1/19/2014 4:51:12 PM

my mom uses the one Tractor Supply Co. sells. it seems to work pretty good.

1/19/2014 6:20:39 PM

questions:

- what do you guys do with old mower blades? I figure they aren't worth enough to making scrapping worthwhile; I guess I could find someone locally to sharpen them, but I got 4 new sets for 50% of normal price... so these won't be needed anytime soon.

- can I continually reuse RV antifreeze, year after year? I have it in my tank sprayer and power washer to prevent damage.

- how often do you change your mower oil? I know the manufacturer says yearly, but that seems to be overkill.

[Edited on March 18, 2014 at 9:51 AM. Reason : .]

3/18/2014 9:50:09 AM

Quote :

"- what do you guys do with old mower blades? I figure they aren't worth enough to making scrapping worthwhile; I guess I could find someone locally to sharpen them, but I got 4 new sets for 50% of normal price... so these won't be needed anytime soon."

sharpen them with an angle grinder and balance them on a nail. it's good enough for me.

Quote :

"- can I continually reuse RV antifreeze, year after year? I have it in my tank sprayer and power washer to prevent damage. "

yes, you can reuse it, but can't you just drain those things?

Quote :

"- how often do you change your mower oil? I know the manufacturer says yearly, but that seems to be overkill."

i do it yearly because it's cheap and takes 10 minutes. yes, it's probably overkill. i also check the air filter and usually replace it, shoot some grease in all the fittings, check the tire pressures, etc.

3/18/2014 10:10:00 AM

i change the oil ever year also as part of my spring prep. i take my blades to get resharpened, most full-service hardware stores will do it for a few bucks.

3/18/2014 10:58:40 AM

thanks.

Quote :

"yes, you can reuse it, but can't you just drain those things?"

Yeh, but that's no guarantee all of the water is out. I'd rather spend $5 on RV antifreeze then hundreds on replacing pumps, etc.

Guess I'll change oil next nice weekend; the air filter still looks nearly new. As for the blades, well I bought several new sets thinking I would tear mine up pretty good, being in a new yard that is rocky and with lots of limbs. So I'll just throw the old ones in the pile and if I ever get back to them, I'll have them sharpened.

[Edited on March 18, 2014 at 2:04 PM. Reason : .]

3/18/2014 2:01:46 PM

Decided it was time to get srs about leaf blowing.

Lol...Just realized I made this post almost two years ago:

Quote :

"I bought a 4 stroke Craftsman leaf blower the year I bought my house. Great for cleaning gutters, driveways, walkways, etc., but when the leaves really start to come down in the fall it is inadequate. It just doesn't have enough juice to move big piles of leaves like a 2-stroke backpack blower. 8/2/2012 5:55:56 PM"

[Edited on June 5, 2014 at 10:56 AM. Reason : l]

6/5/2014 10:42:43 AM

If that's the BT-150, I bought the same one last fall. My only complaint is that I waited until 2013 to buy a backpack blower. holy shit that thing is life changing.


I also finally bought a new mower. After a year of scouring craigslist for a good used commercial walk-behind, i said fuck it and bought the only consumer wide-cut mower available (30" cut)



So far, I have no complaints. Mowing time for the entire yard was cut in half. I need to either build or buy a striping kit for it next.

[Edited on June 6, 2014 at 10:21 AM. Reason : .]

6/6/2014 10:20:01 AM

It's the 350BT. I was buying from Amazon and there was only a $10 price difference between the two. Reviews on it are really positive. I'll put it through the paces this weekend and see how it does.

[Edited on June 6, 2014 at 3:37 PM. Reason : l]

6/6/2014 3:35:57 PM

Quote :

"My only complaint is that I waited until 2013 to buy a backpack blower. holy shit that thing is life changing. "

You're not kidding. This thing is awesome! I just wish my neighbors had kids who would bag these huge piles of leaves for $minimumwage.

[Edited on June 7, 2014 at 11:47 AM. Reason : l]

6/7/2014 11:47:04 AM

^^ I have the 150BT. Pretty weak for blowing leaves in the yard, but it will move small piles decently and keeps the driveway clear.

FYI, a small engine repairman told me to mix the oil and gas at 1.5 bottles/gal. of gas. The normal mixture they recommend is too lean. Also, add in a few drops of ethanol treatment every now and then. The fuel lines are prone to rot out eventually from ethanol damage.

6/7/2014 1:40:06 PM

Quote :

"FYI, a small engine repairman told me to mix the oil and gas at 1.5 bottles/gal. of gas. The normal mixture they recommend is too lean."

all my 2-strokes are stihls. i use stihl 2-stroke oil and mix it according to the label. i trust the OEM over Ricky the Repairman.

6/7/2014 2:10:06 PM

I bought a can of True Fuel (premixed, pre-treated, and ethanol free) just to get going so I could crank out some work before it got dark yesterday, but I'll grab a gallon of ethanol free from that station on 401 that sells it the next time I ride by there. The manufacturer calls for 50:1 which I'm fine with.

6/7/2014 5:32:13 PM

Sounds like you have a care plan that works for you.

Mine stopped running after about 1.5 years of use when one of the fuel lines failed. I did not know about the dangers of ethanol to 2-strokes before. I've been going strong for at least 6 months now following Ricky the Repairman's advice.

6/8/2014 2:34:04 PM

mixing too much oil probably won't do anything but waste oil. i'm not sure how small engine OEMs feel about it, but Yamaha specifically says in their 2-stroke outboard manuals that it's ok to mix too much oil, but not less.

and that ethanol treatment isn't necessary unless you're storing it with fuel in the tank for a few months or longer. however, in that case, it's cheaper and easier for me to just dump the tank and run it til empty. the treatment won't keep it from eating up lines and tanks that aren't ethanol-resistant, it's just there to increase the shelf life of E10. of course, the best option (and what i do) is to just buy e-free, but it isn't reasonably available to everyone.

6/8/2014 5:16:36 PM

Shell's 93 octane is ethanol free, so i just buy 93 for my lawn equipment. left a half tank of gas in my old mower over the winter. started on the second pull.

6/8/2014 11:34:36 PM

maybe at your particular shell station, but that's not the case at all of them

6/9/2014 6:19:53 AM

yeah good call, i shouldn't have assumed that.

6/9/2014 2:59:17 PM

Several years back you could count on all Shell V-Power being ethanol free, but I don't think it's been that way for at least 4-5 years.

6/9/2014 3:41:54 PM

Need new lawn mower.

Briggs 190cc or honda 160cc.

Similar power with the edge going to the honda but the "internal timing belt" frightens me"

8/26/2014 4:04:59 PM