Farm and Garden

[Li'l Work Truck]

Its hard to get too ambitious to cut up trees when it is 90°+ and I have a million other things going on.

I call that night work season. I'm a fading redhead, but I still have to deal with 100% of the ultrasensitivity. >90°F and >50% humidity are enough to wear me out just being outside, let alone  do anything, so when summer hits I just switch out to doing things outside of the hours of 10 AM to 7:30 PM, like the road crews.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I call that night work season. I'm a fading redhead, but I still have to deal with 100% of the ultrasensitivity. >90°F and >50% humidity are enough to wear me out just being outside, let alone  do anything, so when summer hits I just switch out to doing things outside of the hours of 10 AM to 7:30 PM, like the road crews.

Well anyway last night (for the reason's mentioned above) I got the C running for the first time in two years and pulled the rake out of the weeds. Went over it with a fine tooth comb and greased all 93 zerks on it.



I pulled the cover off the gearbox to catch the zerks in there and found an ant colony and soup. Zerks in the gearbox took grease great though.



Soup was mostly water, I left the plug out to let any extra drain out. I will just throw some used engine oil there to help flush things around, I don't have a lot to do and it isn't like it is a super fast spinning or high stress gearbox.

 

[racsan]

garden beds this year, cucumbers coming off good. tomatoes are getting ate by something, picked off a bunch of fat green caterpillars last week, that cant be good. beans haven’t produced yet but should be soon.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Tomato hornworms...

 

[racsan]

Tomato hornworms...

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yeah, thats what they looked like. fed ‘em to the chickens.

 

[sgtsandman]

garden beds this year, cucumbers coming off good. tomatoes are getting ate by something, picked off a bunch of fat green caterpillars last week, that cant be good. beans haven’t produced yet but should be soon.
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Too late now, but there is a companion plant you can plant next to the tomotoes that confuses the adult and protects the tomato plant. I think it is basil.

There are whole books on the subject of what to plant next to or near other plants to prevent such things from happening.

In either case, I'm sure the chickens were happy.

 

[Curious Hound]

Tomato hornworms...

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That's what I imagine every time I see guacamole. Hence, I don't eat guacamole.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Dove into the charging issue on the new grass slayer....appears that magnet fell off the flywheel, wedged the stator to the flywheel and ripped the bolts out of the timing cover. All NLA parts...so I removed all that garbage and machined a spacer to mount a pulley on the crank shaft (the big pulley only spins if the deck is on) now I can run a Denso mini alternator next to smaller battery. Still working on the alternator mounting setup.

Also in order to replace two little bearings in the driveshaft/clutch assembly the whole motor had to come out.

I built a muffler since all of these Onan/Allis parts are pretty scarce and/or $$$$$.

Cleaned up a bunch wiring, replaced the worn steering shaft joint, as well...more to come as I continue unf*cking what the previous owner did to this machine.

 

[sgtsandman]

Since I'm going to have the string trimmer out to do the yard, I'm going to mow down all the weeds in the garden so I can cover it in weed cloth. I picked up garden staples the other day. So, I should be good to go once I get the yard cut.

It ink I may have a poly tarp or two that can cover the garden as well so what is left can all get good and cooked. Until next year, when the seeds sprout.

 

[Bird76Mojo]

Dove into the charging issue on the new grass slayer....appears that magnet fell off the flywheel, wedged the stator to the flywheel and ripped the bolts out of the timing cover. All NLA parts...so I removed all that garbage and machined a spacer to mount a pulley on the crank shaft (the big pulley only spins if the deck is on) now I can run a Denso mini alternator next to smaller battery. Still working on the alternator mounting setup.
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Also in order to replace two little bearings in the driveshaft/clutch assembly the whole motor had to come out.
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I built a muffler since all of these Onan/Allis parts are pretty scarce and/or $$$$$.
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Cleaned up a bunch wiring, replaced the worn steering shaft joint, as well...more to come as I continue unf*cking what the previous owner did to this machine.

These are total workhorse tractors for their size. Avoid a repower at all costs. They lose all of the low end torque that makes them great to begin with. The Onan's are expensive as hell to fix but worth it. I stocked up on NOS shortblocks about a decade ago for mine. Found a bunch on Ebay for dirt cheap.

Here's one of mine. I have another parts 720 and a very nice project 616 that I really need to get started on.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Since I'm going to have the string trimmer out to do the yard, I'm going to mow down all the weeds in the garden so I can cover it in weed cloth. I picked up garden staples the other day. So, I should be good to go once I get the yard cut.

It ink I may have a poly tarp or two that can cover the garden as well so what is left can all get good and cooked. Until next year, when the seeds sprout.

Yikes. My green Craftsman GT had a problem where it stopped charging and all the magnets were stacked up in one spot. Nothing damaged. I contacted Locktite and they told me they had some super duper glue stuff. Think it was like $65 for the kit back then, so I measured it out and glued the magnets back in place. Worked great. Now I need to fix the steering but I’m not in a hurry since I have a real tractor and brush hog now.

 

[PlumCrazy]

These are total workhorse tractors for their size. Avoid a repower at all costs. They lose all of the low end torque that makes them great to begin with. The Onan's are expensive as hell to fix but worth it. I stocked up on NOS shortblocks about a decade ago for mine. Found a bunch on Ebay for dirt cheap.

Here's one of mine. I have another parts 720 and a very nice project 616 that I really need to get started on.

View attachment 146418

I have always wanted one of these and now that I am mowing 4+ acres every week with my little Frankenstein 716 I jumped on the opportunity to snag this 620 at auction...paid way to much for its condition, but the Onan runs very strong and all of the hackery is/was reversible. The front tires are driving me nuts, but I'm on the hunt for the 9" wheel setup if I can find them for a reasonable price.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Yesterday the sun was shining... so we made hay!



It still needs a bit of work. First bale broke the twine and pulled it out of the twine arm so I just baled without to get it done so I could move on. Bales have a nice density but really need twine to keep them together. Also it could use a little more gumption ejecting the bale, it doesn't kick it out hard enough to pop back together and relatch.

I got four bales off my water ways and barn for all my work lol.

Hoping for another cutting but this late in the year it is hard to say.

 

[PlumCrazy]

Yesterday the sun was shining... so we made hay!



It still needs a bit of work. First bale broke the twine and pulled it out of the twine arm so I just baled without to get it done so I could move on. Bales have a nice density but really need twine to keep them together. Also it could use a little more gumption ejecting the bale, it doesn't kick it out hard enough to pop back together and relatch.

I got four bales off my water ways and barn for all my work lol.

Hoping for another cutting but this late in the year it is hard to say.

We used our rotobalers a few times....that was enough for me. lol We also have a Snowco baler loader that's supposed to pick them up and toss them on a wagon....see my youtube for how miserable that is.

Its made to tow off of the side of a wagon and it drops them on the deck. (video featuring the late DIngo and me 80lbs ago)

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

We used our rotobalers a few times....that was enough for me. lol We also have a Snowco baler loader that's supposed to pick them up and toss them on a wagon....see my youtube for how miserable that is.

Its made to tow off of the side of a wagon and it drops them on the deck. (video featuring the late DIngo and me 80lbs ago)

We have one of these on a locked up styled WC

For four bales it isn't worth dinking with though lol. It would fit on my C (which is my raking tractor though)

I've been keeping an eye out for something else, a small square baler is like $2k+ anymore... again not worth it for four bales lol.

I didn't give the twine mechanism much attention since 2023 the last time I tried it (and never got to the point of putting string in it before it ate all the lower belts) so really I can't fault it too much.