McG_Landscaping

[McG_Landscaping]

Damn! That is a heck of a drive! Luckily there is an Advance Auto store 5 minutes from my house so I tend to go there frequently. I meant to ask you before I saw in one of your pics you were dumping debris at a facility and I wanted to see if that was Boyd.

[joef450snowplow]

why does your plow braket stick out like that?

[McG_Landscaping]

Originally Posted by joef450snowplow

why does your plow braket stick out like that?

Because I have a unimount. The newer ford trucks can only have a western ultramount so i had to get an ultramount setup which is really small then a conversion kit for the unimount to fit which is quite a bit larger. I dont like the look of it but it is functional! I might take it off in the summer but I might not.

[Dr.NewEarth]

Looks nice.

I've bought a few toro personal pace over the years. Most of our strata/hoa sites can have many small yards with skinny gates. Alot of them are shady and mushy at times.

The H.D. is a quick fix when you are short on money or need an immediate back-up
plan when another piece of equipment has died. Some-times its quicker too to replace and fix the other one later. Parts take time to come in to the supplier.

We don't use the H.D. to repair things. That can take 2.5 months minimum!
Large equipment dealers are abit of a drive away.

John Deere gave us as much
credit as we want. Their small commercial machines can be quite heavy for our yard conditions.

The other dealers don't have good credit programs for the commercial stuff.

Here's what I found to be a good pro-active program
Those less expensive red mowers have to have fluids and filters changed at least once a week or every 25 hours minimum.

The wheels and gears attached to the axles have to be totally taken apart and cleaned up with a wire brush and regreased every couple of months.
They need to be checked for wear alot more routinely.

The transmissions last on average one year commercially. A replacement here is
$102 plus tax. It takes about an hour of swearing to get the new one in if you haven't
done the job before. Look into this, you need some specialty ring pliers. Get a set.

I also have a decent erganomic workshop with specialty tools
and a small library on two and four cycle engine repairs.

The gear cogs in the wheels wear out quick down their middle and you lose speed.
If you don't check regularly,
these gear cogs can also fall off and the key and spring under them can fall out so you
have no transmission action on the one side. This can also wear out the end of
the axle where there is a groove for a special C type retaining clip.
Then you'll forever only have power to one other wheel

If the employees don't bother to tell you that the machine is running funny one day,
and they use it regardless for a shift....your machine does the above and you are
possibly left waiting a week for parts and either a broken or improperly operating machine that takes the employee longer to do the job with.

I figured that if I invested in the machines, I should know what parts wear out the quickest and have as many replacement things as I can on hand.

So, the cogs, clips, springs, c clip and other special washers that they use are good.
to have on hand.
The flat metal piece between the wheels and the body that the wheel bolt goes into
tends to wear out alot. It's kind of a triangular thing with tapped bolt holes in it.

You can save one from the right side and use it again if
a left side wears out. I suggest you also have a tap and die set on hand.

The spring that makes the handle bar come back up to the neutral possition fatigues
about once a year on those models.

The wheels themselves are plastic and I use hotglue to make the geared wheels stronger by filling in the voids between the ribbing and around the big gear.

If you hit a big bump or turn a deep muddy corner you can bust a wheel.
Then you're wobbly after than with possibly an uneven cut.

I put spare rear wheels with big gears on the front also. Wobbly front wheels don't seem to matter as much to the cut. It only takes a minute to change wheels
from front to back.

I had an employee report that an (ex !) employee did not pick a mower up to
remove from the trailer bed. It needs to be set down softly, using proper
back lifting techniques.

This guy pulled the mower out straight so it got about two seconds of air time
before it came crashing down 18 inches to the ground. Three wheels broke.
We need rear baggers here when it is really wet. I do find that those particular red machine models leave a faint line of clippings on the right hand side, particularly on dry lawns in the summer.
Just my experience. Some years you can't attain your equipment dreams.

You may already know all of this and hopefully my information will help some-one else.

[normower]

I live like 5 minutes from the Hampton Home Depot and
Autozone. Where do you work mainly?

[McG_Landscaping]

Originally Posted by normower

I live like 5 minutes from the Hampton Home Depot and
Autozone. Where do you work mainly?

I mainly work in Shaler/Hampton/Millvale/Ross and a little bit of West Deer but if i get a call I will work anywhere in this area! I am based off of mount royal. Do you have a company? Maybe I have seen you around?

[Pressedun]

Wow another landscaper in Gibsonia, I'm by RT 8 and 910.
Posted via Mobile Device

[93Chevy]

Originally Posted by normower

I live like 5 minutes from the Hampton Home Depot and
Autozone. Where do you work mainly?

Come on over and join the Western PA networking thread, link's in my signature

[deere615]

Originally Posted by 93Chevy

Come on over and join the Western PA networking thread, link's in my signature

Tim I just wanna say that thread was a good idea!

[McG_Landscaping]

I spend most of the weekend painting/ assembing sides for my truck in the lovely 35* pittsburgh weather today. I also changed oil and plugs in all of the mowers and trimmers. Here are some pics!