NOMADICISTA

For more than twenty five years, I've used my General Electric ElecTrak battery powered garden tractor to keep the grass and weeds under control on the properties where I've lived. This spring has been trying for several reasons, one being that the old ElecTrak batteries aren't what they used to be, and the mowing time has dwindled down to about 20 minutes before I have to stop and recharge. New batteries would be nice, but the $400 that they cost isn't in the budget right now.

The other reason that the grass is getting ahead of me is that I don't have my self-propelled grass clipper and manure spreader on the job 24 hours a day. What this means is that I've been fighting a slowly losing battle against keeping things trimmed on the property.

Last weekend, my friend Mark came down to help with the bridge project, and he trailered along an International Harvester Cub Cadet garden tractor. This was a tractor that he had been given and after doing some basic repairs, was giving me on permanent loan to use here on the property.



I was skeptical, partly because I didn't really want any additional gasoline powered vehicles to maintain and feed, but also because I didn't see that it would be that much more useful than the ElecTrak at maintaining the grass around the house, maybe just a little faster.

Well, it does burn evil gasoline (if only it was a diesel), but it turned out to be a gnarly brush destroying machine! I've been using it to clear the back parts of the yard that have become overgrown with tangles of berries and brush. I've used the ElecTrak to do this in the past on a limited basis, but I've always thought that it was a strain on the machine.

The Cub Cadet has a 12 horsepower Kholer engine with an electric start. The drive train is shaft drive to a three speed transmission, no belts to slip. The mower is 42" wide, mid mounted, and although it's belt drive, I haven't seen any inadequacy in it's performance. The tractor was built in late 1969.

The chassis and running gear is like a large farm tractor scaled down to garden size. There are many accessories (none of which this tractor has) such as a "creeper" gear that is a 4:1 reduction gear for ground engagement, a rear-output PTO with a splined shaft, three point hitch, etc. It would be interesting to get the PTO and pick up on a big rear mounted mower or sickle bar cutter.

Apparently, these tractors are in high demand, not only as working machines, but they are very popular with garden tractor pulling enthusiasts who hop them up and compete at events.

Considering how this thing shreds vegetation, I've been knocking down the back parts of the yard, alongside the driveway, and will probably start working on the pasture down by the creek where the berries are beginning to get a start on taking over the place. Even if I only mow once a year, at least the fields will stay clear. Without some kind of intervention, I'll have 15 acres of sticker bush thickets in a short time.

I sure would like to have a tractor like that!! We had one when I was a teenager. Hated it then, had to mow 4 acres with it!!! Its a workhorse for sure!!
HOGCAT

Funny how our values change as we get older!

Just back in from another mowing session. Before starting, I adjusted the spring on the engine govenor, engaging the mower or running into a patch of thick grass or brush was requiring me to open the throttle more to prevent it from stalling. The governor is supposed to regulate the engine speed regardless of load. It's better, but I may make the governor more sensitive still.

This time I chained up the rear tires, as traction was an issue on the uneven ground. Yesterday I got the mowing deck hung up on a root and was stuck for a while before getting a timber and prying and lifiting it free. I only got stuck once today, but it was a "go-get-the-4x4-lock-in-the-hubs" extraction. I was trying to bull through some 8' high salmon berries, and the ground underneath was soft and loamy. I ended up digging a hole pretty fast with the chains and then couldn't back out.

At least I didn't disturb a nest of ground bees today. Yesterday I got stung three times. My right hand is so swollen it looks like I am wearing a boxing glove.

It's a small world.. I had one of these things hanging around the place for years and sold it last summer. It was almost identical to the one you have (12 hp single cylinder Kohler engine with 12 volt dynastart type electric starter). Only difference, mine was a straight tractor only. It had a Brinley type hitch for the attachments that hooked up to the back of it. Still have the disc and sickle bar cutter.

Even though it's gas, the Kohler engine is almost indestructable. Before the likes of Honda and such, it was the engine of choice for professional lawn care folks. This engine still sees daily, hard use at Disneyland at their Autopia track in the go carts.

More on television antennas coming soon on HDTV.

TMAX

TMAX wrote:More on television antennas coming soon on HDTV

I'm more interested in hearing about HDTI (Heavy Duty Tractor Implements).

This tractor does have a three point hitch, but I don't know if it's "Brinley" type. The rototiller for my ElecTrak is a Brinley, and it doesn't have an attachment anything like the IH. The ElecTrak hitch is visable in the photo above. The IH hitch looks like this:



Even if the tiller hitch would fit the IH, I wouldn't have the 36 volts it requires to spin it up (it's for the ET, eh?)

I have some things to tinker with on this tractor. The starter/generator starts but it doesn't generate. The field coil is shorted so I have to use an automotive battery charger to top up the battery after use. I'd like to get that part working because I could mount one of my DC-to-AC inverters on the tractor to run the chain saw from the starting battery, but I'd need some juice to keep the battery from dying fast.

Well, that's the end of that, at least until next week. I was doing a second session of mowing this afternoon and got a branch stuck between the mowing deck and the underside of the tractor. My first hint that something was wrong was billowing clouds of rubber smoke as the belt cooked due to the friction. After clearing the belt and pulleys, engaging the front PTO made the engine stall. I should have gotten off and looked under the tractor, but instead I restarted the engine and engaged the PTO at a higher throttle setting. It only took a second for the belt to break.



So, for the time being, it's back to mowing the tamer parts of the yard with the ElecTrak. I'll go into town Tuesday and pick up a new belt. I shudder to think what it will cost. The 33" belt for the generator was $11, so I bet this one is $30...

Internal Combustion, it's bad for your wallet.

In typical fashion, attempting to find a replacement belt locally turned out to be a wild goose chase. Two places attempted to sell me the obviously wrong belt, and none had a listing for the correct belt in their cross-reference books.

Some research on Cub Cadet web forums revealed that the belt is a 3/8x81", with the generic stock number of 3L810. Searching eBay returned a seller who had "over 20" of them in stock at $6.67 each. I bought three and the combined total with shipping was about $22.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as putting the belt on the tractor and going back to mowing. I tried that. At some point in this failure, a couple of nuts fell off the back of a bolt that assembles the front PTO clutch, and the machine screw that they went on fouled the throw out arm for the clutch. I ended up pulling the clutch assembly off the front of the engine to put the nuts back on. Once I was in there I found that the pulley for the clutch and generator was loose on the engine crankshaft, and locking set screws were missing from the clutch assembly. Tightening it all up and putting it back together made it run properly.

I also did another adjustment to the governor on the engine, and it's in much better control of the RPM's now.

Went down and mowed alongside the driveway and bridge. Back to big weed and berry removal this coming weekend.