Age old question, Winter Storage?

[Smithsonite]

I hear that, fellas. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. What's worked for years continues to work for me as well.

 

[Billlh]

Here in taxachusetts as I mentioned before, I do about the same. One thing I did a few years back is buy a battery maintainer device. I think the reason I got it was there was some sort of sale or I got a good price off coupon. As what my my wife calls me, a FOG, ....&%$$**%$#@....Old Guy, I guess I am not changing my approach and though it does not matter one bit, I now wonder why there seems to be a pretty significant difference in how folks wintrerize their lawn equipment. I wonder if there is enough fuel formulae differences here and there or dealer to dealer to make a difference? I am confident a lot of the concerns have simply persisted and won't go away from the first days of ethanol adds when the fuel systems did not tolerate the stuff.

I use the maintainers a lot simply because I have so many machines and it's a royal pain to pull all those batteries out and bring them home (I have several properties ). Then take them all back and put them in the appropriate machines. Plus then I have to mark them all with markers so I know which battery is which lol. It's just a lot easier to have multiple maintainers on the machines all the time when they aren't in use. I still have a few I have to pull and then put back in, because I don't have power near them. But it's nowhere near as complicated as it used to be. 1st world problems I know lol.

 

[Billlh]

I hear that, fellas. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. What's worked for years continues to work for me as well.

Yeah pretty much how I feel, I've spent all these years unenlightened. I think I'll just stay that way lol.

 

[MarineBob]

Yeah pretty much how I feel, I've spent all these years unenlightened. I think I'll just stay that way lol.

Speaking of enlightened......my goal is to be the last person on earth to have a cell phone. Sadly I have had to learn how to use some features on my wife's phone to be able to live these days. I do get some adverse feed back when I suggest my thoughts on texting..........My view: texting is an activity best left to thirteen years old girls who want to know about who the cute boy in their class is. Otherwise, if you got something to say to me, say it to my face or in vocal words

 

[Billlh]

Speaking of enlightened......my goal is to be the last person on earth to have a cell phone. Sadly I have had to learn how to use some features on my wife's phone to be able to live these days. I do get some adverse feed back when I suggest my thoughts on texting..........My view: texting is an activity best left to thirteen years old girls who want to know about who the cute boy in their class is. Otherwise, if you got something to say to me, say it to my face or in vocal words

Well Bob I'm not quite that "Unenlightened" lol. I actually do use a phone to text and make phone calls. You might want to try that someday, you may find they can be quite useful.

 

[MarineBob]

Well Bob I'm not quite that "Unenlightened" lol. I actually do use a phone to text and make phone calls. You might want to try that someday, you may find they can be quite useful.

Not to get too philospohical but I think the ability to instantaneously communicate has caused a decay to society. No one plans anything, everything is extemporantous, no body thinks any more, they just 'do.' Tell your grandkids about when you were a kid and since the family did not have any extra money we had a party line telephone. Try to explain that to a 15 year old....LOL

 

[PGB1]

Not to get too philospohical but I think the ability to instantaneously communicate has caused a decay to society....

I was on a project recently where 32 of us all went to lunch and sat at one long table in a college dining hall. During lunch, not one work was spoken because each person had their face buried in his or her cell phone. Decay, as MarineBob accurately put it!

All of the other tables were alive with students' conversations. On the way out, I noticed a basket at the entrance with a sign "Deposit Phones Here". For the rest of the project, I dined with the kids.
Paul

 

[davis2]

So I live in NY and I've been doing this for a very long time. Part of being an old guy. I fill the tanks and park them. If I can't get power to the battery I take them out and keep them in my partially heated garage and charge them a few times over the winter. The rest stay in the tractors and I keep a maintainer on them. I'm getting lazy in my old age. I've never used Stabil and have zero intentions of starting now. So far I haven't had many issues. The mowers start in the spring and we go back to mowing. Occasionally they require a bit of starting fluid to get them going again. I have quite a few lawn tractors 4 John Deere's 1 JD zero turn couple Grasshoppers and an older Craftsman. I treat them all the same way. I do run ethanol-free gas in my trimmers and blowers. But I burn way too much fuel mowing to spend all that on ethanol-free gas. And no I'm not a commercial mower though I have enough equipment to be one lol.

Bill, where in NY are you at? I'm from Lee Center in Oneida County. After years of fighting with snowmobile carbs, I started using non-ethanol fuel and stabilizer with a splash of MMO in my fuel can. I've had good luck even now that I live on the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland. I'd say if you use a good quality fuel, you could get away with no stabilizer. But as a younger man, I always didn't have the time or $ to do things the right way. So I've found what works for me. If something works, do it how you want, right?

 

[7394]

Agree, I'm not into cellphones..

 

[MarineBob]

I was on a project recently where 32 of us all went to lunch and sat at one long table in a college dining hall. During lunch, not one work was spoken because each person had their face buried in his or her cell phone. Decay, as MarineBob accurately put it!

All of the other tables were alive with students' conversations. On the way out, I noticed a basket at the entrance with a sign "Deposit Phones Here". For the rest of the project, I dined with the kids.
Paul

Just to extend my thoughts a bit, the world of no planning, everything spur of the moment, no planning ahead: aside from lack of communicating, it breeds lack of accountability and responsibility. In other words, if I say, let's meet at noon, tomorrow for lunch, I will be there. But the phone generation will say, yeah, I didn't make it, I texted John at 11:45 to say something came up. And sadly the texter will actually beleive such behavior is acceptable and not disrespectful. I think that sort of lack of civil behavior is bred by the face in the phone generation. I used to drive to my job a few years ago. I went by several school bus stops with 6-8 kids waiting on the corner. Amazingly every day, each and every one had their face buried in their phone. Every day, every morning at 7 AM