It's been a long time in coming, but it's together and functioning well enough to mow the yard!
To recap- free mower from a neighbor who moved away. Bad hydro, but a lucky score from the internet (with some adjustments to make it work in my mower), new battery, clutch and some other goodies. I have the rest of the odds and ends on order, and should arrive probably Monday.
I did nothing to the deck, except squirt some grease in the zerks and put on a new drive belt and it mows! A considerable achievement considering this thing was pretty much completely torn down not too long ago.
The pros: It is an absolute BEAST with it's 18hp Kohler Magnum and a comparatively small 48" deck. Throwing the switch for the mower clutch doesn't even phase this thing... Even at 1/2 throttle. I haven't sharpened the dull blades yet and still this thingchows pulverizes the grass. I'm talking BOSS level blade speed compared to my L110 Deere. I'd love to see what some sharp Gator Blades can do on it! I can mow pretty effectively at 1/2 to 2/3 throttle even. The hydro, while noisy has WAY more go than the Tuff Torque K46 in the L110.
Cons: JTK thought I'd see fairly heavy fuel consumption- and I think he may be right. I haven't Fueled completely up yet and compared it to the miserly L110, but I bet it'll lose... poorly. Also the thing turns on a city block! The L110 will easily out maneuver the Snapper. Not sure how that will play out just yet. May be a non issue. As good as the blade speed thing is, I also consider it a con. This thing will Hoover up pretty much any rock within a 20' radius and spit it out at warp 8. I can see that I'll REALLY have to be careful in a few places. With the Deere I can drive on the gravel road and not worry about launching rocks into the next county.
All in all this is a cool mower in my opinion. An old neighbor had a similar mower when I was young and I've lusted for one since! At first I thought that may be a bit weird, but this is BITOG... The home of weird obsessions- so it's actually not weird... it's the norm. I love the song of the Magnum 18 with it's dual exhaust and I love how it's pretty much un-phased by pretty much anything. It's a brute.
And because this is BITOG, I did one super short OCI on Northland 10w30 diesel oil, then went to Northland 15w40 with a Wix oil filter (some crazy alpha numeric number that I haven't ever seen before).
To recap- free mower from a neighbor who moved away. Bad hydro, but a lucky score from the internet (with some adjustments to make it work in my mower), new battery, clutch and some other goodies. I have the rest of the odds and ends on order, and should arrive probably Monday.
I did nothing to the deck, except squirt some grease in the zerks and put on a new drive belt and it mows! A considerable achievement considering this thing was pretty much completely torn down not too long ago.
The pros: It is an absolute BEAST with it's 18hp Kohler Magnum and a comparatively small 48" deck. Throwing the switch for the mower clutch doesn't even phase this thing... Even at 1/2 throttle. I haven't sharpened the dull blades yet and still this thing
Cons: JTK thought I'd see fairly heavy fuel consumption- and I think he may be right. I haven't Fueled completely up yet and compared it to the miserly L110, but I bet it'll lose... poorly. Also the thing turns on a city block! The L110 will easily out maneuver the Snapper. Not sure how that will play out just yet. May be a non issue. As good as the blade speed thing is, I also consider it a con. This thing will Hoover up pretty much any rock within a 20' radius and spit it out at warp 8. I can see that I'll REALLY have to be careful in a few places. With the Deere I can drive on the gravel road and not worry about launching rocks into the next county.
All in all this is a cool mower in my opinion. An old neighbor had a similar mower when I was young and I've lusted for one since! At first I thought that may be a bit weird, but this is BITOG... The home of weird obsessions- so it's actually not weird... it's the norm. I love the song of the Magnum 18 with it's dual exhaust and I love how it's pretty much un-phased by pretty much anything. It's a brute.
And because this is BITOG, I did one super short OCI on Northland 10w30 diesel oil, then went to Northland 15w40 with a Wix oil filter (some crazy alpha numeric number that I haven't ever seen before).
