Export thread

Yesterday, went to mow some tumbleweeds with my 2005 LT1000 lawn tractor.
1. Found a tire was flat; added slime, pumped it up.
2. After 20 minutes of mowing, and moving to the front, my deck belt/blade engagement cable failed. Since I had a new spare one, I didn't try to use a hose clamp to self-engineer attachment to the handle/rod.

3. A little later my left mandrel/spindle locked up, stripped out the top pulley. I also had a spare pulley (and spare mandrels) so I simply swapped in a new one.

When it rains it pours at your house. Get that ol' girl running and slay some grass.

slomo

sounds like someone sabotaging you.

Have hardly mowed in the last 12 months, lack of rain. So mostly tumbleweeds.

Update: a few days ago - still no rain - I was finishing up the tumbleweeds mowing. The left lawn tractor spindle broke, but I had a spare here.


But that caused the top pulley to grind through the left brake bar; since I didn't know that a shop 25 miles away would have such part, I just repaired that temporarily with part of an L- bracket I had here and 4 rivets. All fixed now. New brackets on order.

Cusser said:

1. Found a tire was flat; added slime, pumped it up.

Click to expand...

Finally bit the bullet and ordered a replacement rear tire yesterday....where the leak showed externally did not go through, apparently air was working its way around to escape.

Also yesterday I bought a non-pneumatic replacement tire for my wheelbarrow at Harbor Freight; the inner tube had been patched several times, and it's a pain in the butt to get the inner tube out and back in; and there are lots of thorns. Harbor Freight tire/wheel, about $23.

Murphy's Law.

Cusser said:

Finally bit the bullet and ordered a replacement rear tire yesterday....where the leak showed externally did not go through, apparently air was working its way around to escape.

Click to expand...

I needed a new lawn tractor tire (rear, 18x9.5-8 NHS), ordered one through Amazon; it arrived with clear tape holding on the shipping label, but so tight it deformed the tire. I had tried plenty of Slime, could not do a plug or patch as it appeared that the hole only went through to the inner plies, then leaked somewhere else.

Anyway, like most of us, I reviewed Google and YouTube to figure out how to replace the tire. Let's just say that it was a real challenge, both getting the old tire off, getting the new tire on, and setting the bead/filling with air, and did not go as readily as it did for the guys in the YouTube videos. Because the tire was deformed in shipping, I could not use the rope/strap technique to seat the bead, was fortunate to get that seated and filled with air.

I would say the process took almost 3 hours over two days, removed the old tire first day, the remainder the second.

If I need to ever do another one, I will consider a tire changer from Harbor Freight.
https://www.harborfreight.com/search?q=tire changer

I have a Kawasaki Mule utility vehicle, tires are 22x9x10 and 22x11x10 rears... tires have always been a PITA to get off... almost ruined a wheel once... i found it's cheaper to go to my local tire shop that charges $10 a tire while i sit on a bench.

Trick to anyone who trys to work with a deformed tire. Let it sit in the hot sun for a couple of hours or a bath of hot water. Rachet straps work better than the rope method, wider the better.

Scrubcadet10 said:

I found it's cheaper to go to my local tire shop that charges $10 a tire while i sit on a bench.

Click to expand...

I wanted to paint my new patio cover, so didn't have time to try one of the local tire stores Sat. morning. I have a feeling it would've been $20 to $25 here though...

Another method that works with new tires is install an inner in the tire while off the rim. Let sitting and then let it cool over night while the tube is still inflated. Tire tire set in the new shape as it cools over night.

As for those HFT tire changers the mini I still need the screw drivers to get the tires on. The larger one I got just haven't ever mounted it

StarTech said:

Another method that works with new tires is install an inner in the tire while off the rim. Let sitting and then let it cool over night while the tube is still inflated. Tire tire set in the new shape as it cools over night.

Click to expand...

Good idea !

I fought for years trying to change tires and seat beads. Many bad words. I bought a couple things to make life easier and with less bad words. I bought a bucket of tire soap. Rub some on the bead areas and it makes a huge difference getting tires off and on. Second was the full size HF manual tire changer to break down beads. Much better than the mini tire changer bead breaker. Third thing is an air blast bead seater. Even the worst deformed tire i can seat in just a few seconds. Still hate those 4 inch tires though.

Yes
This is where you see real cheapness manifest it's ugly head.
One of the reasons why I like the Aussie made mowers is the 4" and a lot of the 6" wheels are cast alloy split rim wheels .