Lawn mowers are not designed for gardening, adding tractor to the description doesn't change that either, buy an old red belly Ford tractor and go from there, costs the same but will run farm equipment. Lawn mowers don't have an alternator, it's more of a magneto type that is just designed to recharge the battery, not very good at that.

 

Tell that to BULLFROG!

Today I got one of my trellisses out, and "WEEKS Seeds" Giant Speckled Lima beans and "YARD LONG" string beans set out in the yard - pictures to follow.

BULLFROG HOPPING!!!








You build what you want....

The top pic was with the deck still attached, in the bottom one I had it off to modify some parts of it. I had just added the TALL LUG tires.

I know engines and machines - they fascinate me!

Don't jack me twice about a thing like that - I'm doing what I love to do, okay?

I hotrod everything...

The tires came from Tractor Supply Co - Carlisles High Lug. I got sick and tired of slipping backwards on hills!

BULLFROG has a six speed backend, and can climb a tree with the right traction in Granny Low...


Now - you can be P'd O about this post if you want (FOR THAT MATTER SO CAN I) But the bottom line is what works for some don't for others.

I've got a workin' situation here, and I like it.

Cheers to ya!


Kind of "REDNECK" but I had an old above ground pool surround laying around my place. THICK PLASTIC!

It seemed to be good to keep weeds from growing up under it - so I tilled a three foot wide stretch it could cover, and set bean trellisses over it. Easy to cut through - hit it hard with a framing hammer!


That is where some of my beans will be coming up.....

(With the addition of some sections of PVC pipe to hold the wire frame trellis up. I used ZIP-TIES to support it)

Best of all is that it lays flat - and the lawn mower can't get it wrapped in it's blades

 

I had an old 72 model Craftsman Lawn tractor with the 48 mower attachment, (it was an option) Had the 20 hp Onan 2 cyl engine.. I took an old horse drawn plow (9 in bottom IIRC) and converted it to three point hitch I could sink that plow in the ground and pull a wheelie about 100 ft to the other end of the garden. and all the time throwing rooster tails with the tractor cleat tires. Trans was Hi/L with 3 forward/reverse. When playing I ran it in Hi 2nd, when it got to serious "farming I threw the front and wheel weights on and ran Lo 2nd.. To tell the truth I had more fun playing with it!!!

I'm with you Greywolf, Hell I'd even try to hot rod a push mower!!!

 

I DID hotrod push mowers - I grew up building unimaginable combinations out of leftover parts!


That was why I once had a MINI-BIKE that went fifty miles an hour.....

I ferget if I was twelve or fourteen at the time.

Do you remember the old BONANZA and TACO mini-bikes?
I had a Bonanza

 

My cousin built one for sled pulls, you ain't tellin me nothin, but there is no PTO for them, an old wheel horse had a PTO and tiller setup, hard to find those. For the cost of the wanna be equipment, you can get real garden stuff, an 8N and rear tiller for less than what Sears has to offer.

 

Well my old sears was a 72 model, and it DID have a PTO, I gave $150 for it in 1980, and used it plowing the garden, mowing 3 1/4 acres, and anything else that came to mind until 2004.. In the time I had it I rebuilt the carb once, replaced the belts 3 times as best I remember. Of course there was plugs, points, oil and air filter changes. I know it will not do what an 8N would do, but it did what "I" wanted and I think it was a pretty good deal!!!!

I even got a sickle bar mower for it later, it was great mowing the ditch at the front of my property, and the creek banks...
By the way, I sold it in 2005 for $250 and the guy STILL uses it.. It was a tough old buzzard.. I regret selling it now....

 

Don't make them anymore, not sure why they stopped, but new Sears tractors cost way too much for what you get, deck pulleys are sealed and go out after a year or two, long gone are the serviceable stuff that was built to last, the last I saw Wheel Horse was in the 90's.

 

You got that right.. I was told that the old one I had was made by Massey Ferguson under contract to Sears. I don't know if that is true or not. But that darn thing had about 25 or 30 grease fittings on it.. When it came time to grease it you had better bring your lunch!!!

I think the new ones are all pot metal and used beer cans.. I bought a Troy Bilt mower in 2004 and it is ready for the scrap heap. Of course they are made by MTD now, so THAT explains that....

 

Dad paid $500 for an old Troybuilt tiller, the old cast iron gear box engine linked via a belt with 2 pulley settings, not a quick change setting either. He thought he over paid till he had to replace the belt, was slipping, he put the belt in the low pulley, when it started diggin he was like, dang it goes deep. Today things are cheap and disposable, quality lost out to quantity, I don't think Briggs is as good either, hp is increased, throttle is decreased to be emissions friendy, yet they won't outlast the ones they replaced. People need a 6 hp push mower to cut their grass, others bog down, dad had a 3 1/2 hp Briggs given to him by my grandfather, was my first mower, it had outlasted countless frames, and these were heavy steel compared to today's. I recall being young, hating to cut the yard, I'd not pick up sticks or nothing, mow right over them, that thing chopped everything, you could trim the edges of stumps, bush hog the garden, etc, those old ones wouldn't even bog down, not even cutting 3' tall grass. You ever seen a lawn where you hear a lawn mower, not see till your up close and the yard is almost as tall as the person cutting it, they raise the front of the mower, push forward, lower, and repeat?
I worked on a Cub Cadet once, was a 48" cut a little larger than one of the big Sears garden tractors sold today, it was built just like a tractor, small 4 cylinder engine bolted to the gear box bolted to the trans axle, no frame, was so wicked, I'd like to have one now.

 

I'd about kill for a CUB LO BOY tractor, but it's on the wish list for one of these days... I once lived in an apartment complex that the grounds maintenance crew had two tractors for: A CUB CADET, and a CUB LO BOY. Both of them were nice machines.

I fergot to mention - Bullfrog originally cost me $150.oo, I also have a Scotts (Made by John Deere supposedly) that was GIVEN to me when a rod broke from lack of oil ("Better watch dat"). The rod cost 70 bucks, add in gaskets and shipping and I have a two year old "Scotts Deere" that I only gave $99.oo for....

I pay no attention the the cash I throw at them for modifications - the tall lug tires on the 'Frog for example were $140. I also did a fuel system mod, adding a shutoff valve, and a filter. It adds up - but if it's only a few coin at a time it can be thought of as "HOBBY CASH"

Now I ask you - It don't git no better than THAT does it?

And I hear you loud and clear on the old 3 1/3 horse engines. DITTO leaning on the handle to raise the wheels for deep weeds....

I pick up a lot of old mowers at times when people set them out for trash pickup. I consider them "GARP" equipment because they are 'PRE-DESTROYED'. If I can fix 'em (which is how it normally works out) it just doesn't matter what happens to them since they were free anyhow

Some of my best bush hoggers were once junk items left out for special pickup...

And I love Tecumseh carburettor setups. Briggs are a summitch and always have been! A float bowl makes a heck of a difference, it's the only way you can run a gravity fed tank. Kohlers are float bowl carbs too, but it isn't until you get into about the 18 horse range that you find them on a Briggs. Some of the big Briggs rigs still had a funky fuel system that (if it failed) could fill the crankcase full of gasoline, and I guarantee you never want that...

About my day today - if you have never gone parasailing try cutting up a one hundred by twenty foot black plastic sheet in an open yard at this time of year all by yourself with a pocket knife...

I needed two pieces ten by fifty, and a twenty by fifty. Ever notice the wind never blows until you are in the worst position on earth to deal with it?

Downwind from a smokey fire, upwind from the biggest (F)ing deer you've ever seen, etc...

It was kinda like that. I thought I was about to cross the mississippi river without a flight plan on file.

But I got 'r dun!

I want to see if the sun on the one section I have layed down heats it up enough so that it stretches and lets it settle in the bowl shapes I dug under it so that the plants will get watered right. I am trenching around the edges and burying the tarp sides to keep the wind from lifting them.
There's no point in spending cash on landscape timbers when I have lots of DIRT that can be used for that!

I plan to do most of my watering with a hose in the evenings, because I find it relaxing to look at the plants and tend them.

My tiller now has a nick-name that I would get booted from FTE for writing in a post...

"My bare feet stink, my dog produces marvellous fertilizer, and I don't want to think about what might be in my hair..."


~Dutch in the Memphis area

 

I had a Tecumseh engine on a gocart, hot runnin engine, you saw sparks or flames coming out the exhaust pipe, dad manipulated the governor a bit, lack of after he was done, 3 1/2 hp and would fly with 2 kids on it. Those engines are hot, dad wasn't fond of them, loved the old Briggs, I sure would like to have one right now, a real engine mower, they scream while running and will cut cast iron. My uncle hit a water box lid once, put a cut in the 1/2" iron lid, bent the blade but was sill runnin.
When cleaning under the deck, you have to watch how you lean the Briggs or you'll have gas in the oil, I know that.
The old Sears 5hp front tine tiller used to work my poor arms out, you had to hold back on it, force the front down, the rear rake pole wasn't long enough to make it dig 2 hours behind it and you was THE MAN cause anything less would walk off yelling F-it. Valuable lesson learned, when a friendly neighbor ran a plow through, yes it turns it up from down deep, red clay leaves forms like those wide noodles, rolls like the ocean, I'd rather take my tiller and turn under the asphalt driveway, that would be oh so much easier. I've dug ditches by hand, learned to think smarter, rather than work harder, so I now dig with a classic Ames folding shovel with pick built for the military. That dam tiller taught me, find a rear time tiller or rent one before trying to break ground with a front tine, or buy lots of muscle creams and pills, cause you're gonna need them.

 

BTW, OMG I found one, wish I could afford it.
International Farmall Cub Cadet Lo Boy 154 Tractor

 

I just cain't go near it - it would wreck my budget for good and all right now.

Same reason I stay away from some parts of SEARS....
The CRAFTSMAN part in particular

(WHAT IS LEFT OF THEM)


~Serves 'em right for doing away with Roebuck....
(He observes, distantly)

 

I still buy their tools, the hardware stores want to see the receipt and original container before replacing it, the ones on the parts trucks require other hurdles to jump through for replacement and many still refuse, I have many mechanic friends who have heard it all first hand.
BTW there is a non runnin Wheel Horse complete with front blade and rear tiller, now that is a find, get it going and you're ready for work.

 

Well....I was begiining to wonder if those pepper seeds were ever going to sprout. This morning, had about 70% of the seeds up. Still hoping the others come up soon. Thanks again, greywolf!