I was recently given an old white industries mower. I just wanted the rear wheels and the V-twin engine but one front tyre was U.S. I drilled 4 holes in the side wall on each side then filled the thing with expanda foam. One 500 mil can did the job nicely.
And tubes are a heck a lot easier on the old back...I ZTRs in here that have foam filled tires. The lack of spring is a back killer when already have back problems and moles. They ride like solid wheels on straight axles.
Another flat fix that I hate to cleanup after is that liquid fix it flat junk. Destroys tires from within and damages the rims.
I knew there would be negatives but economics and my landlady says all my "machines" must be move able. I live 50 miles from the biggest town, a tube cost $19 and $20 to fit while the can of fizz was $16 and available from the small hardware shop in town. I already had the cordless drill and 1/2 drill bit AVB is there a half decent riding mower on the market??? I don't think so and they were all designed by odd shaped people, most have the steering wheel down between your - my groin and typical knees in the ears position
I have a -yazoo 3- greenfields 2-cox stockman 1- Duetcsher Y360
3- yardbugs 2 MTD 1 rover colt 1-white and I did have a husqvana that thankfully was stolen.
Hmmm. Must be those toy mowers. I am 6 foot 250 lbs and most mowers that I work on are fine. Now the neighbor that is 5'8" 300+ lbs recently brought a small ZTR that his stomach hangs nearly over the front axle does have problems with the lap bars with even adjust at their forward max position. I still haven't figure out why he brought a $4000 mower when all he needed to spend on his old mower was $450. But of course neighbor was too cheap to let me fix the problem before it got so bad. Now I got to hang his old mower so I can access the under carriage to weld 4 steel patch plates so I can remount the engine once I change the engine's access cover (oil pan) where he broke off 3 of the 4 bolts and broke the muffler. The mounting holes are currently about 2+ inches long slots from the wear.
Now there are a few taller people that will have problems even with the average rider here. I meet a gentleman back in the Summer here that was 6'8" and I know he would have problems using one. He had to watch out even for door openings. How he was driving that MG Midget was the question of course he had the seat back as far as it would go.
I now know why he is so heavy too as he rides it to the mailbox instead walking to the mailbox. I was down to 240 but I have been offline a few weeks to a messed hand and arm but they are getting better now so I back at work and boy it does pile up when no one does it.
Now I did see a small rider mower which I called toy riders at the local Wal-mart that probably would look like it would get squash if I sat on it. Definitely designed more for a kid to use than an adult. For is there a decent rider on the market there are here but I have no idea about the land of Australia.
As for being $20 to change I didn't know a pair of flat tip screwdrivers were that much but of course I always have them around too. Yes I normally use a small tire changer but every once a while the rims are struck on the axles I use the screwdrivers. I just did two rear tires on a go cart that needed tires but the owner just wanted tubes as the tires were $45 apiece. Until this I had only seen green tire slime but these had hot pink slime. Boy I hate this stuff.
AVB, I had to change the motor on a Kingcat ride on last week and then I remembered why I stopped working on them, just too hard and I have a pit in the floor of me garage so I can walk around under them and even then they are so difficult to get at things. People just don't understand the work involved
You got that right. They think we have magical powers as we do create miracles at times.
Even the manufactures are not considering us when it comes to repair ability. Things like changing carriage bolts to regular hex heads where we to take the dang mower half apart just to replace a pulley. A lot of times the hole is still square when you do get the pulley off. Just don't to type what I called many times because of this.
I spent 4 hours the other day doing a valve job and the customer was in the shop 3x before I got it done and now the he is dragging his feet picking up his log splitter as I charge for the parts and 1 hour labor.
