A friend of mine (TJC Transport) emailed me a central NJ craigslist ad for a "free" riding mower one town over. Since mine's been ressurected from the dead several times now and still spits out parts I figured "free is for me" and called the guy and sure enough, the mower was still available. I offered to pick it up "immediately" and he said sure, here is my address.
So, I drove to home depot and bought two 8' long 2x10's for ramps, and drove to this guy's house. A whopping 11 mile trip from my house to home depot to his house.
He was standing in the driveway and came right over, and couldn't thank me enough for taking the mower. I asked why he was giving it away and he said because he didn't think he could sell it considering it needs a battery and a couple of the bolts are missing that hold on the mower deck, and tomorrow, he and his wife are moving because the bank is taking possession of his house. He said three years ago he borrowed against all the equity to pay for his two daughter's college education (they seniors this fall) and between then and now the value of his house dropped about 400K, and his bank "demanded" repayment of that dropped equity within 30 days. Sad story to say the least.
But, I have a free mower and I went through everything and sure enough, many bolts are missing, some of the pulleys are a little chewed up, but at quick glance nothing looks horrible enough where I'd feel I wasted my time. So, I've attached the battery charger and waiting to see what happens in a few hours.
Here is how I loaded it, and last minute he hollared out of the garage and asked if i wanted the lawn cart trailer that goes with it "for free" ? Sure, my truck is big and in it went:
Getting it out was a bit of a pain because once it started rolling down the 2x10 ramps it got enough speed where it pushed me backwards and I had to jump out of the way. But it stop before hitting the garage doors or the house so no big deal. I pushed it and the trailer around and parked it.
17.5 Kohler engine, has oil, new filter, and just waiting for the battery to charge so I can kick it over. With the charger attaches the engine rotates slowly but doesn't catch though I can hear it trying to. Once I have more juice I'm pretty sure it will kick.
The tariler is nice also - locking dump bed, made of plastic/poly so no more cuts from the rusty old trailer, the yellow remains of which you can see just ahead of this mower next to the bedbox (I really need to clean up my yard, don't you think?)
Also, you can see in the far distance by the giant pine tree the old mower this replaces - mower plow. And yes, I'll be grafting the mower plow project over to this mower, since it's much larger and has an equally much larger alternator.
Whiel it's labeled "Scotts" on teh outside, it's labeled "John Deere" on the inside.
Good news.. after charging the battery for a while it started, let out one little puff of smoke, and it runs smooth as silk. Hydrostatic drive so it's smooth and easy to adjust speed, and got to get a feel. The steering is nice and tight, unlike the old mower which often makes it's own decisions as to direction requiring a lot of compenstation.
The dipstick is quite low so I don't know if it's just low or if it leaks but I'll figure out what oil goes in it and from there I'll monitor it regularly. I ran it on the gas that's in there which the guy said is about three years old, which is the last time he mowed his own lawn with the thing.
The deck is quite screwy, but nothing looks too bad that I can't fix it with a few days work.
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2002 F350 7.3 Ltr. 6sp.DRW 170K miles, 13' service body W/2200 # Venco hoist, Air compressor,10KW welder/generator, Air Horns, ceiling mtd CB W/250W Amp, Exhaust brake, Aux. Idle Control and Vac. operated hot water control.
1952 F1 flathead Project Truck
(It's got eight cylinders and I use them all )
I did the necessary repairs and mowed the lawn today. It still "puffs" a little smoke upon startup but goes away almost immediately. I hope that is from sitting unused for three years but I'll pay attention to it.
I changed the oil (there wasn't much left) and the filter so we're starting fresh.
The actual damage to the deck was much less than I originally thought, once I power-washed off all the clumped grass, mud and dirt and parts flew out onto the driveway. With really close inspection, these parts were NOT from this mower deck, and just metal "things" tossed on the deck that eventually got covered in goop. A couple of springs, a few bent up pieces of metal that resemble hooks, etc.
The only thing wrong with the deck is the deck height lever on the left side of the seat had worked loose off it's pivot - easily fixed with a washer and a cotter pin - both were missing.
That was it!
It will take some getting used to as my old mower had none of it's safety features operating. I had disabled them because those parts were broken when I got the mower and was too cheap to buy the replacement parts.
Anyway, if I push the pedal to go in reverse and the blades are engaged, the mower shuts off. There is a yellow pushbutton I can push and hold to avoid this from happening, which is annoying because to mow the little strip of grass on the side of the house between the porch and the garden, I have to go back and forth three times since there is not enough room to turn around without falling off the stone wall into the garden. I will learn to use this button BEFORE hitting the reverse pedal ha ha ha.
The seat has a switch that will immediately kill the engine if I get off the mower, which is necessary to open and close various gates to get to the next section of grass. I can avoid this from happening if I engage the parking brake, and I will learn to use this BEFORE lifting my fat butt off the seat.
The third anomily to get used to is the hydrostatic transmission. All my previous ebay and curbside riding mowers were belt driven with a manual transmission, so I got real used to controlling speed by selecting a gear and not having a proportional control of speed by mere pedal pressure. This is really nice, and allows much more control than trying to frantically shift from 4th to 2nd just before plowing through a garden, as was the case with the old mower because the clutch system was completely broken. I had to use the gearshift as a throttle in a sense and while that wasn't fun (or safe) one gets used to it.
Another thing I really do like is when I left off the forward or reverse pedal, it stops, sits, and doesn't roll away even if I don't engage the parking brake. My old mower would roll away on the slightest incline and often finding neutral was next to impossible because it generally slip into 1st gear if I left it running while opening a gate.
So for the price of a cotter pin, washer, and eventually a new battery, I have myself an absolutely awesome mower that lets out a little puff off oil smoke when I start it.
Huge improvement! My son who turned four this february, asked me if he could have the old mower to play "fire engine".
Maybe it's time for a bigger electric vehicle for the boy. At least he's back to asking for something with wheels rather than treads - all winter he wanted me to make him a ride-in army tank.
Not a bad find. Best I could do around here was a K-Gro branded AYP for $30. It's a 16hp twin and a 42" deck, but needed a starter, tube, and then I managed to trash the hood so at least it fits in with my vehicles here. Still mows decent, though.
Good luck with that electric vehicle project. Have you thought of getting a little mart cart or mobility scooter to start with? I see them on CL all the time for reasonable prices. Just picked up a decent one for my father in law for $200.
On a side note, I found on my mower that all the engine kill safety switches were run from one wire off the key switch. Cut that wire, and no more problems.
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Jared
The government said all my vehicle were too old to be clunkers
Nice find. It is amazing what some folks will give away for free or next to nothing.
The Kohler command is a pretty reliable OHV engine. I see your valve cover is clean and dry-that is good as there were issues with vc gaskets on some of those engines. Looks like yours is tight.
Once you get used to hydro, it is hard to go back to anything else for mowing.
Do you have to hold that yellow button down? Most of the JD's I have had experience with allow you to push it once when you start backing up then release it. It will keep the mower from shutting off until you go forward and then back into reverse, when you will have to repeat the process. Should, anyway.
The idea is to make you think and look before backing up. I'll bet $100 that the guy in the next neighborhood over from me wishes he had something like that on his old Sears mower. Might have prevented him from backing over his grandaughters foot.
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97 250 PSD Ex Cab Sd 4X4 ZF5 135k
6637 in, 4" stainless ex
cat-less
Pyro & Boost
15.6k (tx c00n!)
Fumoto drain
HPX
Marinco block heater tap
08 Diff cover
R.P. trans fluids
203 deg t-stat
Line-X
SiriusXM music & talk
Hula HP
EBPV brake
"I tried being reasonable. I didn't like it."
The smoking on start up seems to be fairly normal for vertical shaft Commands. The 20HP V-Twin Command in my Father's Wheel Horse does it too. It seems it has something to do with oil seeping past the rings when it sits. As long as it doesn't burn oil continuously, you should be fine.
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- Ian
1987 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4 2.9
Needs a lot of work, including some rot on the body, but shes getting there.
Thanks for the tip on the brief oil puff. I was just a bit worried for the last mower went from a slight puff at start-up to an outright blue cloud during the entire mow, within a summer. Of course I was asking a worn-out 5HP engine to sit in place of a dead 14HP, so I should have expected that I guess.
In playing with the yellow button, you're right, I only have to push it momentarily. That wasn't obvious from the little picture next to it but now I know and that's much more convenient than holding it in while going backwards, twisted around to see what shrubs I'm about to back into ;-)
I agree on the hydro, this is my first and I do not plan to go back. Proportional speed is intuitive and much easier to control than shifting-for-speed as I had to do in the past with the prior mowers. I think mine slips just a little but I'm not going to worry about it for a while. I'll just not use it to haul a trailer full of patio blocks.
For my son's car, I haven't really thought about what to drive it yet because I'm still pondering size, overall shape, and of course how to do an IRS. Instead of 10" harbor freight tires as I did with the last one, I'm going to use riding mower wheels - the rears - I have a set on rims so I would just need to ebay myself another set of the same size and fabricate from there. If I can find big enough motors/controllers on the cheap I'll make most of the body out of steel.
For IRS I was thinking of mounting the motors in the lower a-arms driving the wheels directly, one per side, or using a hydro mower axle. I was considering the latter due to my recent experience with this mower until I realized how much a replacement unit costs. Wow! Direct drive might be easier and fabricating a-arms isn't very difficult for something this small and slow. For a road-use vehicle that would be another story and more precision would be necessary.
I'm still in the mental design stage and how it may progress totally depends on what cheap parts I find. The first one's video is here:
Even though my property is reasonably flat, I realized after building the first one that a suspension *is* necessary as well as some kind of decoupling of the rear wheels. We twisted many, many axles to pieces simply by turning really sharp on the grass. I eventually attached the left rear wheel with a woodruff key and the right side had a pin through it, so if things bound up to tightly instead of twisting the axle the pin would break and the right wheel would just become a free-spinning coaster wheel. Was easier to machine new pins instead of making key slots in a axle.
Wheelchairs and scooters are a good idea for parts, I'll comb and see what I can find cheaply.
Thanks for the tip on the brief oil puff. I was just a bit worried for the last mower went from a slight puff at start-up to an outright blue cloud during the entire mow, within a summer. Of course I was asking a worn-out 5HP engine to sit in place of a dead 14HP, so I should have expected that I guess.
In playing with the yellow button, you're right, I only have to push it momentarily. That wasn't obvious from the little picture next to it but now I know and that's much more convenient than holding it in while going backwards, twisted around to see what shrubs I'm about to back into ;-)
I agree on the hydro, this is my first and I do not plan to go back. Proportional speed is intuitive and much easier to control than shifting-for-speed as I had to do in the past with the prior mowers. I think mine slips just a little but I'm not going to worry about it for a while. I'll just not use it to haul a trailer full of patio blocks.
For my son's car, I haven't really thought about what to drive it yet because I'm still pondering size, overall shape, and of course how to do an IRS. Instead of 10" harbor freight tires as I did with the last one, I'm going to use riding mower wheels - the rears - I have a set on rims so I would just need to ebay myself another set of the same size and fabricate from there. If I can find big enough motors/controllers on the cheap I'll make most of the body out of steel.
For IRS I was thinking of mounting the motors in the lower a-arms driving the wheels directly, one per side, or using a hydro mower axle. I was considering the latter due to my recent experience with this mower until I realized how much a replacement unit costs. Wow! Direct drive might be easier and fabricating a-arms isn't very difficult for something this small and slow. For a road-use vehicle that would be another story and more precision would be necessary.
I'm still in the mental design stage and how it may progress totally depends on what cheap parts I find. The first one's video is here:
Even though my property is reasonably flat, I realized after building the first one that a suspension *is* necessary as well as some kind of decoupling of the rear wheels. We twisted many, many axles to pieces simply by turning really sharp on the grass. I eventually attached the left rear wheel with a woodruff key and the right side had a pin through it, so if things bound up to tightly instead of twisting the axle the pin would break and the right wheel would just become a free-spinning coaster wheel. Was easier to machine new pins instead of making key slots in a axle.
Wheelchairs and scooters are a good idea for parts, I'll comb and see what I can find cheaply.
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