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Winter 2020 with the LSE on a snow ride. Does good on the packed trails, just leave that throttle up and that Hydro lever down and keep up the momentum. Sweet sound from that Magnum.

Put the snow blower on the 520-H, so now I'm officially ready for winter. Also added a new tractor to the fleet. Before we left on vacation, FedEx dropped off a package that was anonymously marked. Not sure who sent me this, but it's pretty cool!

“Hot water heater” makes everyone in this household cringe…

One note : If you decide to go the stainless route, avoid using a stainless nut with a stainless bolt. Often times this will end up giving you some thread binding issues and make it difficult if not impossible to remove them at a later date.

Does this count?

Take a picture of the other side of the unit. Squonk is onto something. Later piston to piston sunstrands had a real brake band on the hydro motor no internal parking pawl. Creeping may mean you need to do the neutral adjustment shown in the owners manual

Regarding all the above comments, it is sad really. And frightening. The consumer mentality is costing us far more than we realize in the short and long term… we are running low on home grown fixers, knowers and makers… having outsourced these to many other areas of the world… I am amazed at the comments I get when people see my 3 early 80’s Black Hoods… as if they are museum pieces… folks cannot conceive of a 40 plus year old machine that still “works”… My nieces and nephews know when they come over they will get two things: some opportunities to help “fix” the SL&WHN RR and of course, a ride as the fruit of their labors…! One kid at a time…

Lights on!

When I started burning wood many moons ago my dad told me to open the damper and the stove vent and let it roar for about 3 minutes every day. I did this religiously every morning when I loaded the stove. I checked the chimney occasionally, but never cleaned it in the eleven years that I lived there and it was as clean as the day I started using it. But "you have to start with a clean chimney"

For once, i am ready. The 520 with a Predator 14 is in the shop and does not depend on even having a charged battery. A nice Ahrens snowblower to chew a slot in front of the door if need be. The 520 barely touches the gravel and on level areas skims barely above at the lowest setting. No chains on the ATV tires , as they work fine the way it is. Backup plan for Snowmageddon is a 853 Bobcat with no limit on how bad it can get for smowfall.. Best backup plan of all is being retired and wait till the storm is over and the sun comes out.....

The problem is real, but the use of a stainless steel assembly paste should prevent the problem.

Those wheels would look real nice on this tractor too. I don't think the owner would notice, he's way to busy working on a boat load of others. Side shot C-160-A. Soon his new handle will be @ebinmaine X ??. Isn't that right @WHX??

Uhm… get address from @ebinmaine, take battery powered impact and lug socket, jack up front, jack up back, 5 minutes…tops… leave note saying @ebinmaine said it was ok…

More organizing and cleaning up the basement workshop today. Chucked a few things. Put some stuff out to the outdoor workshop. Moved some other stuff. We now have a better idea of the pile of parts for the truck and also Colossus. We made room to relocate the table from the area by the workbench over behind the pegboard wall so we could more easily work on the big boy tractor. Trina started setting up - in her words - "My wall" on the pegboard. 😃 Being "not huge" in stature she had a hard time getting to many of the tools/supplies on the wall behind the workbench. I suggested putting all the hammahs at the top so handles were within easy reach. She took it from there. Even got all the spray paint from various projects on a shelf at the bottom. Back side is mostly ⅛ board. I need to order some pegs/hooks for that.

It may not happen, because your drive pulley isn't extremely small. But if you still have slippage with a smaller pulley, you can add a fixed idler in the frame holes behind the step support. It's not to add tension, but to make a larger contact on the drive pulley.

I concur. Our 96+% efficient gas hot water maker has a blower to move air through it, stainless steel combustion and exhaust areas, and a condensate drain. Exhaust air is surprisingly cool after all that.

Yup. If appliances could be 100% efficient, they would be. For example, gas water heaters begin to condense in the flue at about 82% efficiency. At that point, the condensation contains enough moisture from dew point of heat loss that it becomes corrosive. I don’t believe there’s near as much corrosive properties in wood flue gas, but then you have carbon build up in the chimney, etc. that airflow and temp to carry it out is crucial.

Ya gotta turn that big piece into a whole bunch of little pieces.

Changing the fronts to tri ribs or turfs with roller chain around the circumference would reduce the turning friction but still maintain the steering control.

We had a very popular hand truck! One year it stayed behind as a loaner and we collected it on Parents' Weekend a month later. Your daughter is probably both pleased and a bit surprised that her practical skills and tools are not common. About a dozen school districts in our county fund a "Board of Cooperative Education Services" (BOCES) that has a couple of locations where they teach a number of trades, but entry is pretty competitive (not enough capacity) and since you have to travel to the central sites, the students are largely separated from their local high school circle of friends--for teens that's a big discouragement. It also prevents someone who is primary academically focused from easily adding wood shop or auto shop or cooking, for example, to their usual "college prep" courses as you could before the "STEM" craze and budget cutbacks (as you noted). Sigh.

BBT and I did a little reorganizing and put up this pegboard wall. Peg section measures 4' wide x 6' tall. One side is ¼ holes, ¼ thick. The other side is 2 x 4 ft of the same and 4 x 4 ft if the light duty ⅛ holes, ⅛ thick. The board pieces and most of the 2 x 4's came from the widow we've been helping out. This wall is easier accessed by Trina so I told her to lemme know what we want on it. First things... Row of hammers 🔨⚒️ The "block" under it is her step stool. 😂

It can get pricey but I like to replace all visible hardware with stainless. This allows you to service the tractor without having to touch up hardware every time. Other wise, paint your hardware with one or 2 coats of paint and then brush touch them after installation.

Found a few pictures of the Horse and Deere together. I realized once relocating to Maine I would need a bigger tractor to be able to tackle larger tasks. Unfortunately storage becomes an issue and I do not like leaving much to the elements. The Kwik- Way served me well and do miss it for the lighter tasks but when the job requires a little more power I go diesel. 2009 3320.

Spend some time mowing lawn or clearing snow and you'll quickly fall in love with a hydro. The ability to switch directions by simply moving the lever forward and back is very handy.

Hey guys, I have had some people asking, so I thought it would be a good idea to give an update. The blurriness in my left eye is gone, the double vision is gone. Really just some pain and a VERY large scar on my upper eyelid. It still feels like I have a thumb-tack in my eye... but at least the stabbing pain is gone. Tylenol is my best friend... Don

Yeah, according to my calcs. the additional friction will only result in a 2.637 % loss in the efficiency of the blower. Buttt, the low pressure area created by the obstruction will result in a cavitation zone downstream of the bolt heads when blowing wet sloppy snow. The resulting pitting from the cavitation will eat holes thru the wings in 5.879 hours. I recommend overlaying that area with Stellite 6 tig rod ASAP.

We are swapping the tiller to the snow thrower. We got a couple inches Wednesday and figured it’s only a matter of time before the real snow comes.

Duh...........I knew that. Can I have 'em?

Them're stock on the 420lse.

Day late, but got the new light switch and led bulbs installed.

@ebinmaine the forums on Hearth.com are the Red Square of wood heat. Just like here, I've learned far more than I could ever contribute from very knowledgeable and friendly people. That said, I think a lot would depend on the stove, the wood and the flue. If you have an efficient stove,truly seasoned wood and well designed flue, then I think you could safely use a heat exchanger. But you wouldn't need to, because you're running an efficient stove with seasoned wood and well designed flue. After reading a bunch of threads on Hearth.com I used some incense sticks and traced the airflow around my house. Then I set up a small fan on the floor in the doorway of the coldest room. It creates a convective loop that moves cold air toward the stove and hot air down the hall into the coldest part of the house.

We have quite a few water heaters… 40 gallon natural gas Stove - natural gas coffee maker - electric Microwave - electric Fire pit - wood Two mirrors and a black pot… Couple fish tank heaters… Two ‘s with ICE’s… in a pinch they will heat water or fry an egg if you’re patient…

What model # is the tractor. This is the period when they switched from the Sunstrand Hydrogear to the the Piston /Piston type. Maybe a different linkage?

I really enjoy your phrasing there! There’s no “hot water heater” in my house either… Steve

I can not tell you how many Middle and high school shop class rooms in the early 90s I removed the exhaust systems out of for the making of new class rooms and I noticed a trend from different school boards , for example if the school was located in a majority of a Asian community these shop classes were always converted to Music class rooms ,but the main thing is they were almost all done away with , I also worked on many new regional Tech schools and mostly they were either Science based or culinary based , Now let me tell you my tool box story , when I was in 7th grade I had a choice of elected classes , I could take it was either wood or metal Shop , I elected to take Metal shop after the first few weeks there we were ready to make are first project , I remember walking in to the class room and on one of the work benches stood a very nice ornate table Lamp and after my teacher explain the lamp and how we all were going to make one to take home and then the teacher split us up in small groups and said ok get started ,as everyone of us started grabbing our materials My teacher came over to me and said follow me, he took me in to the tool room and reached down under the workbench and pulled out a tool box and said to me you are going to make this .. I said why.. he said well I have watched you for the past few weeks and I feel you have very good skills but dont take this the wrong way but I have a feeling you will need this in Life , 7 years later I became a apprentice for a Union I was sent by my Union to work for a small specialty metal shop I did not realize it at the time but I was learning under true Master craftsmen after many months of working in the shop, A call came in to the shop from a field Forman to send out the kid to the job tomorrow , after 34 years in my trade II will tell you I have worked on many well known iconic buildings in NYC, but nothing comes close to that day when I was told Kid take your tools home and tomorrow your going to go over to liberty Island and start work on the Statue of liberty Project , I still have that old hand riveted sheet metal toolbox, it was long retired from from job sites, it houses all my plumbing tools today ,but every once in awhile I need a plumbing tool and when I reach under my work bench and grab it , A smile comes to my Face .

I second what @Achto said. I used a Magic Heat unit in one of my camps up North for many years. It was used primarily because when I was heavy into snowmobiling and arriving late on Friday nights it would usually be around Zero inside. This helped bring the temp up in the camp but was only used for roughly 2 or 3 months. I eventually removed it and gave it to a neighbor here in Southern Maine. I would agree with full time winter woodstove use you would need to keep an eye on the flue passages. Think I bought it from Northern Tool for just over $ 100 dollars around 1995. Nice quality unit though.

The Voglelzang design one that you have pictured is not the best reclaimer. Very few heat flues and no way to clean them. Magic Heat is a much better design for reclaiming heat and it has an internal scraper so you can clean the flues every day. https://www.shelllumber.com/magic-heat-mh-6r-heat-reclaimer-8000-to-30000-btu-black-for-6-in-bottom-crimp-chimney-systems.html?feed=Froogle&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIm6Ov54fc9AIVTsmUCR3-CgwrEAQYCyABEgKaS_D_BwE We had one of these above the Wonder Wood stove in the house when I was young. It was like adding a second wood stove as far as heat output. As mentioned above it can cause your chimney to run too cool resulting in build up inside the chimney. To keep this in check, Dad would clean the chimney 2 or 3 times per heating season. Never had a draft issue though. Wood stove and Magic Heat got moved to the garage after Dad installed an add on wood furnace in the basement.

When we heated with wood indoors, I cleaned my chimney and stove pipes MONTHLY. Overkill? Yeah. Safe? Absolutely.

I cleaned my chimney and stove pipes yesterday, I never had so much buildup and tar. I cut down two dead locust trees this fall and they produced the nicest firewood, since they were standing dead I thought it was good to burn, so I brought it straight in. Apparently the moisture content was real high causing the problem, I need to purchase a moisture meter, (suggestions?). The chimney cap is like a stainless steel box and it was so gummed up that I gave up getting it completely clean, I would imagine that the heat reclaiming thing would have been even worse.

File the tips down to fit in the holes? When you file the tips leave a little burr on the end facing out so the ring doesn't slip off so easily. Doesn't need to be very big but enough to catch the edge of the rings. Not sure if Gregor's dilemma was the tool didn't fit in the ring holes or there wasn't enough room to get to the ring. Quality of tool wouldn't really matter for the later so... For the amount of rings I do the cheapos are in order and will get modified down to a nub.

One custom throttle knob complete.

Or just take a trip to MI… According to my map, you only need to travel about 5 inches anyway!

Road-trip time! When I lived in Florida the only way to add to the herd was to go where they are. My part of North Carolina is also a Wheel Horse desert and I ended up going to the Garden State of NJ to buy my GT-14 with a loader. The tractor was worth the trip and once you have had a loader you won't want to be without one. The Florida Flywheelers shows have a HUGE flea-market and you may be able to buy one there. They have two shows coming up, one in January and one in February. Load up your and drive it around the show grounds, it is too big to walk the whole thing in a day. https://floridaflywheelers.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/21-22-show-season.pdf

Funny you should mention that. On move in day to college, we always took a small tool box and a wheeled cart. everybody else would be tugging loose items up the sidewalks to the dorms and the farm family just piled the poly tubs on the cart and did it like a boss. I had to keep close tabs on my set of wrenches , sockets , and Allen wrenches as people struggled with their futon furniture. To this day, the landlord often needs to borrow a fastener or a battery drill from my daughter when he forgets something. We took two carts after the first year and tried to allocate them carefully to older couples or female only move in crews. Just the looks on many faces of "Why didn't I think of that were something to see" There are trade schools at high school level that teach academics and trades. i taught carpentry for a few years in the Eighties until they reduced the size of the program. now that same school has a Caterpillar warehouse next door and places students into work programs there

My youngest son’s new puppy Winter. It’s a Pomsky.

So agree ,I do not want o get on my soap box here but here I go, in short we do not produce hardly anything here anymore , So no manufacturing , No wood shops ,metal shops In the schools today. so a young person never even get the chance to see if they have Mechanical aptitude . Most people have no clue about anything if something stops working 90 percent of the time they throw it out , Most people today do not even have a clue how the world works , they do not even know where there food they buy in the store comes from .I had a apprentice one that did not even know where milk comes from seriously had no clue he thought it just appeared in the store, Life has been made to easy for people today , I saw a video recently of a father who set up a old rotary phone in his living room then called his 20 yr old Son and his sons friend in to the room and he asked them to make a call from the phone neither of them could not figure out how to dial a phone number and make a call , I remember when your TV stopped working my dad would take the Tubes out we would go to the drug store to test them if one of the tubes were bad they would unlock the bottom of the tube testing unit and sell you a new tube.

What I found works pretty well is to take a piece of corrugated cardboard and using a tapered t handle reamer make snug fitting holes to push the fasteners into up to their heads - a 2 inch spacing allows you to paint all 6 sides of the hexbolts - and not the threads. Bill

Is this better?

Had this one out today moving some stuff around after getting the Charger back home. Grabbed a few pics to "re-motivate" myself. This one is so close to being complete. Of course with Christmas right around the corner, Santa Clause duties will get most of my free time, but I hope to have a test drive soon!