Saturday, May 5, 2007

Tractor Maintenance - Clothing Optional

Alright, I already mentioned that the donkey I bought the lawn tractor from was allergic to maintenance. At least he was honest enough to admit that he never had the tractor serviced - I'll give him that much. Since the weather was a little crappy today and I'm nursing a sore shoulder (hopefully I won't need anything other than rest for it) I decided to do some light maintenance on the tractor myself. Oil was changed, new plug and new air filter installed, etc. I jacked the ass-end up to get the mowing deck high enough to get at the blades, figuring that they probably needed to be sharpened. It cut well, but I figured that 7 or 8 years between sharpenings was a little longer than recommended. After removing the blades, I began to wonder if the previous owner was mowing grass or gravel. Seriously - those were the worst looking blades I've ever seen! Check out the evidence when compared to a new blade:






The blades were in bad enough shape that I figured it wasn't even worth trying to sharpen them, as I'd have to take off so much material. Plus, these blades are designed for use with a bagging system, which I don't have and don't want to get.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Holy cow! That won't cut the grass, more like beat it into submission. Good luck with your new project!

Muskego Jeff said...

Surprisingly, it actually cut fairly well. I couldn't tell by how it was cutting that the blades were as bad as they really were. The guys at the John Deere dealership got a laugh out of the old blades.

Smudgemo said...

Can you fix a snow blower or at least a blade to that thing? Shovels are so old-school.

Muskego Jeff said...

I could if they were still available. Rumor is that some of the MTD brand tractors use the same mowing deck and add-on's, but nobody I talk to knows for sure anymore. I wouldn't bother with a blade. The driveway is too long and the snow is typically too heavy for a 12.5hp tractor. I've still got my 30+year old snowblower, and since it still runs I plan to keep using it.