Great ethanol warning

[smhardesty]

Basically the people run their equipment on a regular basis don't have problems

Yep. That's it in a nutshell. I've never had problems with any of my OPE, but then I always prep them for storage each year. Seafoam might not be the absolute best fuel stabilizer, but it has always worked well for me. I know that STA-BIL works well for a lot of people and there are a few more good winter prep additives. The most important thing is to at least do something instead of just pushing the equipment in a shed and closing the door. I keep a battery tender on my lawn tractor and keep it in the garage where the temp never gets below about 45 degrees. I fire it up and run it at least once a month. It's usually more often that that since I need to move things around every once in a while.

I was guilty of NOT prepping that Troy-Bilt tiller for storage and I ended up having to buy a new carb before I could sell it. Nobody's fault but my own. I'm having some REALLY interesting chats with people selling used equipment online. They pretty much brag that whatever piece of equipment they have was only used for one or two seasons and then has been sitting in storage for two or three years. Their asking prices are WAY out of line and when I try to tell them what it will probably cost to get it ready for use to sell, they get offended and SWEAR it was running perfectly when they put it in storage a few years ago, so there just CAN'T be too much wrong with it.

In fact, I just had a final exchange with a guy. 3 months ago I saw he had a Troy-Bilt mower for sale. In the description it stated that it was NOT running and PROBABLY only needed the carb cleaned. The asking price was $75. When I first contacted him over three months ago, I offered $50. He was offended and told me it cost $300 when new. I explained that if the mower was running and nothing was missing or broken, he might expect to get $75 to $100, but since it didn't even start, it wasn't worth more than $50. He got really nasty with me. I left it alone. Then, a month ago I happened to see he still had it. I again contacted him and offered the same $50. His reply was kind of nasty, but he was still refusing. Yesterday I got a message from him stating he was willing to take $70 for it now. Yeah, $70 instead of $75, like that was a real incentive for me to jump on it. I replied that I had picked up a few mowers and would now only offer him $40. You should have seen THAT reply, LOL! There is no telling what might be wrong with the thing.

Maybe I'm out of line, but a NON-RUNNING mower can't be worth over $30 or $40. So many of the ones advertised online say that the mower is not running, but it was 2 years ago, or three years, or more, when they parked it in the shed. How in the world they expect to get $75, $100, or even more is beyond me. LOL! A non-running, straight push mower that hasn't run in three or more years is a problem waiting to be discovered. OK. call me cynical. LOL!

 

[ILENGINE]

Yep. That's it in a nutshell. I've never had problems with any of my OPE, but then I always prep them for storage each year. Seafoam might not be the absolute best fuel stabilizer, but it has always worked well for me. I know that STA-BIL works well for a lot of people and there are a few more good winter prep additives. The most important thing is to at least do something instead of just pushing the equipment in a shed and closing the door. I keep a battery tender on my lawn tractor and keep it in the garage where the temp never gets below about 45 degrees. I fire it up and run it at least once a month. It's usually more often that that since I need to move things around every once in a while.

I was guilty of NOT prepping that Troy-Bilt tiller for storage and I ended up having to buy a new carb before I could sell it. Nobody's fault but my own. I'm having some REALLY interesting chats with people selling used equipment online. They pretty much brag that whatever piece of equipment they have was only used for one or two seasons and then has been sitting in storage for two or three years. Their asking prices are WAY out of line and when I try to tell them what it will probably cost to get it ready for use to sell, they get offended and SWEAR it was running perfectly when they put it in storage a few years ago, so there just CAN'T be too much wrong with it.

In fact, I just had a final exchange with a guy. 3 months ago I saw he had a Troy-Bilt mower for sale. In the description it stated that it was NOT running and PROBABLY only needed the carb cleaned. The asking price was $75. When I first contacted him over three months ago, I offered $50. He was offended and told me it cost $300 when new. I explained that if the mower was running and nothing was missing or broken, he might expect to get $75 to $100, but since it didn't even start, it wasn't worth more than $50. He got really nasty with me. I left it alone. Then, a month ago I happened to see he still had it. I again contacted him and offered the same $50. His reply was kind of nasty, but he was still refusing. Yesterday I got a message from him stating he was willing to take $70 for it now. Yeah, $70 instead of $75, like that was a real incentive for me to jump on it. I replied that I had picked up a few mowers and would now only offer him $40. You should have seen THAT reply, LOL! There is no telling what might be wrong with the thing.

Maybe I'm out of line, but a NON-RUNNING mower can't be worth over $30 or $40. So many of the ones advertised online say that the mower is not running, but it was 2 years ago, or three years, or more, when they parked it in the shed. How in the world they expect to get $75, $100, or even more is beyond me. LOL! A non-running, straight push mower that hasn't run in three or more years is a problem waiting to be discovered. OK. call me cynical. LOL!

Non running push mowers will go for $5 each at my local community auction in April. People will buy a truck load. Fix what the can to get $25 each at the next auction, and sell the remainder for scrap.

 

[smhardesty]

Non running push mowers will go for $5 each at my local community auction in April. People will buy a truck load. Fix what the can to get $25 each at the next auction, and sell the remainder for scrap.

I've made a few people mad with the offers I make. I screwed up when I first put the word out that I was looking for mowers to buy. My first ads read, "Paying cash for non-running mowers". I got swamped with people calling me to come look at a pile of rust that hadn't run in 10 or 20 years. I went ahead and paid $5 or $10 for a few of them that had really good decks, handles, or wheels. I had to start telling people I wouldn't take what they had. Made a few mad, but a fella can't drag home every rust pile in the county. LOL! My new ads specify, "Cash paid for certain mowers", or "Cash paid for some mowers". I did have one guy bring me 7 non-running mowers and he just gave them to me. 2 went immediately into the scrap pile. Then I took parts from 4 of them to build one "frankenmower". I sold it for $65. I still have 5 or 6 others that I have never looked at other than when I bought them. I don't have $25 in the whole lot, so I'm sure I can get at least that much out of parts. I really think there are two that I can combine to make a halfway decent mower.

I also just bought a Husqvarna self-propelled mower that starts and runs just fine and will drive with the left front wheel, but not both wheels. I'm pretty sure I know what's wrong with it. I ended up giving $30 for it so even if the whole mower is a waste, I have a good, Briggs motor I can set on one of the good decks I have. These little projects are what I was actually shooting for when I got back in the biz. No big money involved and it keeps me occupied. I'm sure younger guys think I'm nuts for wanting to do this just to keep busy, but after 13 years of not working at all, I really needed something to do.

Give me some more info on the auction you are talking about. Where and when is it? I might be one of those guys looking to buy a few of them for projects.
.

 

[smhardesty]

Basically the people run their equipment on a regular basis don't have problems

Yep. True enough.

I just got home from filling the car up with pure unleaded. I paid 55 cents over the price of 10% ethanol blends. This tankful won't tell me anything since I still had a half tank of ethanol blend in it. I'll not be too concerned with seeing any changes until at least the third tank I get. I don't even know for sure that there will be any noticeable changes. I just decided to do it as an experiment.

I had to laugh at something that happened while filling up. A guy pulled in on the opposite side of the island I was using. I stepped around and asked if he was using pure unleaded. He was and it led to a full blown conversation. We talked about how it can be harmful to small engines if you don't winter prep them or run them regularly during the winter. I mentioned I was doing small engine repair out of my garage and he started telling me that he had a tiller he wanted somebody to look at. I asked what was wrong and he told me he was using it and at the end of one row, the gear oil just blew out of the bottom of the case. When he said that, a light came on. I told him he had messaged me on Facebook about the problem. We talked a few more minutes and he asked if I knew what the problem might be. I asked him if there were any holes or cracks on the bottom of the case. He said no, and at about the same time we both said it was a blown gasket. I said there had to be a reason that the seal blew out like that. He then said it was weird because he had just filled it up with gear oil. I'm now wondering if he filled it ALL the way up. I've seen that before. Someone that doesn't know thinks the gear oil should be right at the bottom of the fill hole. He said he would drop it off sometime for me to look at.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I quit trying to flip equp long ago. If someone gives me something i will see if it is worth trying to fix n flip but usually just goes to the Cohen shredder down the street. Folks sometimes get offended when i tell them i would be happy to fix it for $40/hr plus parts and then they can sell it at a loss.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yep. That's it in a nutshell. I've never had problems with any of my OPE, but then I always prep them for storage each year. Seafoam might not be the absolute best fuel stabilizer, but it has always worked well for me. I know that STA-BIL works well for a lot of people and there are a few more good winter prep additives. The most important thing is to at least do something instead of just pushing the equipment in a shed and closing the door. I keep a battery tender on my lawn tractor and keep it in the garage where the temp never gets below about 45 degrees. I fire it up and run it at least once a month. It's usually more often that that since I need to move things around every once in a while.
BIG SNIP
OK. call me cynical. LOL!

What so many find it hard to get their heads around is fuel degregation is not the same for any 2 people at any two places using any two fuels .
Microclimate plays a massive part in how long fuel lasts .
My landlord's house is 450 yards away from my workshop across an open paddock .
I can see his house which is also 20 yards higher up the hill and 100 yards from forest.
My workshop is on the fourth flood bank of the river which is also 450 yards away.
I can leave fuel in my motorcycle for over a year where as the exact same fuel bought at the same time from the same service station in his bike goes off in roughly 2 weeks to the point that his bikes won't start .
I have had customers with a ride on & push mower sitting next to each other in a shed
The ride on fuel goes off in around a month where as the push mower fuel never goes off.
For an experiment he moved them around, left right & the push mower fuel went off .
So now he keeps both of them on the house side of his shed with the push mower behind the ride on and neither fuel goes off.
And before you ask, no goop put in the tanks made any difference .
He had tried seafoam, stabil & startron
Garages that adjoin kitchens stay warmer than those which are detached from the house or near the living room or study.
Some yards will have a very low dew point and the grass gets we the instant the sun goes down where as a near by house may not get any dew at all , so the first yard will always be condensing water in his fuel tanks if they are not kept full and the latter will not condense water regardless of the fuel level.
Ask a keen gardener about the microclimates around their house, not odd to have 5 or 6 on a std 1/4 acre block.
The landlord has around 20 different grasses in the pasture.
It has taken him 20 years to understand that he is better off selectively seeding with the right grass for the exact spot rather than using the general pasture mix for this region .
Look at any ones grass, unless carefully maintained there will be spots that grow 2' a week and others than can barely keep an unbroken cover no matter what the owner does to it .
This is microclimate and it can be changed with really simple things like sunlight reflecting off the window of a vehicle or the house next door.


So all of this "X" magic goop must work because "I" have been using it is meaningless for any one other than you because the actual conditions of your neighbours yard will be different to yours .

 

[7394]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how much difference running pure unleaded makes in my car. Since I found that we actually have at least one place in town that sells pure unleaded I'm going to run it exclusively for a while.

My old Panel truck likes it, & it does sit parked a lot.. Lawn equip is for my personal use so same reason I use 100%.

Suppose I could run E-10 thru mow season, but end before parking lawn equp with 100%..

 

[smhardesty]

I quit trying to flip equp long ago. If someone gives me something i will see if it is worth trying to fix n flip but usually just goes to the Cohen shredder down the street. Folks sometimes get offended when i tell them i would be happy to fix it for $40/hr plus parts and then they can sell it at a loss.

I've gotten a whole lot more selective in buying stuff to flip. When I first got back into the biz I just needed material to start projects with. Now that I have several pieces of OPE that I can spend time working on, I'm being way more picky about what I look at and what I'm willing to pay. I know what I have to work with and what is needed to finish off what I have on hand.

If I was trying to support a family I'm sure I'd have to approach these little projects differently. I'd never be able to spend 4 or 5 hours on a project and only realize $30 or $40 profit on it. Since this is really just a way for me to stay busy, as long as there is at least some kind of profit I'm satisfied.

 

[smhardesty]

My old Panel truck likes it, & it does sit parked a lot.. Lawn equip is for my personal use so same reason I use 100%.

Suppose I could run E-10 thru mow season, but end before parking lawn equp with 100%..

I'm just experimenting with it right now. The one thing I'm certain I'll use it for is all my small engine equipment, especially the older 2 stroke stuff. Since the wife has finally retired, our car sits for several days at a time. I'm thinking it will probably benefit from using it as well.

I'm really surprised at how the mileage on the car has dropped since nearly all our driving is now short trips around town with little to no highway trips. The car has always gotten 28 - 29 mpg combined city/highway. Now we're seeing 22 to 25 mpg. It loves to stretch its legs, getting 31 - 32 mpg on the open road. Different type of driving now.

 

[7394]

Very different type of driving, aka severe duty. Those short runs are harder on the ride than the hi-way..