Agri Fab Mow n Vac

[Sarge 3,463]

I picked up a used model 45-01882 Mow n Vac pretty cheap considering what it cost new . It does have some issues - mostly previous owner's ideas about adapting the deck snout to whatever they had it hooked up to...I think the last one being a Cub lawn tractor . A bit of enlarging the snout opening and a piece of sheet metal bolted on to fix a gap has taken care of that issue . At the other end of the snout someone stuck a piece of plastic tubing in it with some spray foam insulation and some screws to lock it in place - inside it wants to plug up making the transition into that plastic tube since it's not smooth and smaller than the snout's (adapter, I guess) hose opening . I'll have to grab a pic today - it's quite the homeowner upgrade...lol .

 

 

Here is the deck adapter and how I mounted it after some work to seal it better to the Horse's deck opening - you can just see where it's necked down further past those screws and some remnants of the aforementioned spray foam mod from the PO....lol .

 

 

While that seems to work ok at the moment - the vac just seems to lack air volume overall . I suspect I'll have to get a new deck adapter and cut it properly to fit the Horse's 48" deck to get rid of that reduction in the adapter's hose fitting which is sized for 7" & 8" hoses . Current hose measures 4.75" , so I'd say that's a 5" hose and it's suppose to use a 6" (according to the parts list - $89 bucks to boot) but it fits the plastic adapter at the blower unit just fine ? That seems odd to me , why would they call for a 6" hose when the inlet to the blower unit itself is 5" hose size ? Plan to call their snobby Customer Service line again today - they were less than stellar when I ordered a new inlet end adapter for the blower ...this one is a straight outlet and the original parts drawing shows an angled one instead . New part arrived , same as what is on there - so I called and asked why it was different than the drawing since it wants to ride so close to the rear fender of the 16 Auto due to coming straight out instead of an angle , like the drawing shows ....

http://www.speedepart.com/ItemResults.aspx?aribrand=AFB#/Agri-Fab/45-01882_Mow-N-Vac/Mow-N-Vac_Model_45-01882/01|~58|~0005/01|~58|~0003

 

 

Long story short - she said that angled nose adapter for the blower is obsolete and discontinued a few years ago . I explained the one I have is like new so no reason to have a second one laying around and was informed it would cost me a restocking fee , plus return shipping - not exactly a stellar way to do business . When I brought up the drawing and parts list she said it didn't matter - they discontinued that part and moved the part number to the newer style straight nose - basically telling me to go pound sand , nice . This unit was also missing the hose hanger and bungee strap , so instead of ordering a new one based from their service treatment I made that part - took all of 10 minutes and works just fine , thanks...guess I'll have to make my own inlet as well or get lucky and find an older style one used .

 

I'll have to get a pic , but one other thing bothers me about how the blower housing is built . The rear engine side of it where the engine shaft and nose of the impeller sits has a 4-1/8" hole - it should be around 2" or so to help it create vacuum to the deck . I instead , that large opening allows it to blow out excess material onto the engine's cooling fins - not a good idea on a Briggs air cooled engine if you ask me . It is opposite of the engine's flywheel , so at least the air is traveling towards the blower housing and the fins on the engine are pretty clean (first thing I do with every new piece of used equipment is to clean those fins) . I'll be making a slotted 2 piece metal cover to fix that excessive opening today and see if that increases the air flow to the deck . Just find it odd they didn't size it closer to the hub size of the impeller and wonder if they built them all that way .

 

I'll attempt to get a straight answer about the hose sizing and a new deck adapter later this morning - hoping their attitude changes or I might take a road trip to Sullivan Illinois - it's not that far after all and my fuse is getting quite short in dealing with rude service reps from these companies that treat people like dumb cattle . Telling me "the hose might rub your tractor a little but that will work fine" on my freshly painted '73 Horse is not a good way to live a healthy existence....not going to work on an Irish/Union/ex-Marine .

 

Sarge

[Racinbob 11,047]

Ya gotta wonder about some of the customer reps. I think what happened is Agri-Fab redesigned the mow-n-vacs and turned the motor so the shaft is sideways. here's one that was left here when we bought this house.

This is a chip-n-vac but the mow-n-vac now has the motor like this, That eliminated the need for the angled adapter. From what I've found is that the part number remained the same for the older angled part and the straight. Searching Ebay for 43791 brought up only straight adapters. Maybe one will show up sometime.

[Sarge 3,463]

That's exactly how she described it - the new style motor mounting changed the inlet adapter on the blower housing to a straight inlet . If they had only kept the angled part and just clocked it different that hose wouldn't be out there in space just flopping around - seen several now that have bent up the arm that supports the hose on the newer style - not impressed with their engineering work on that nor the blower housing and it's design . Does that one have an excessively large opening where the engine shaft enters the blower housing ?

 

I can fix that inlet issue - I have steel sheet and aluminum as well as a tig - the shop next door can roll the inlet to whatever size I specify - that's not a problem . Maybe I should be building their parts for them...?

 

Sarge

[Jerry77 1,218]

53 minutes ago, Sarge said:

basically telling me to go pound sand

ex-Marine  -- no such thing....semper fi

[Racinbob 11,047]

Yea, it's pretty big. There was a safety switch on it that grounded the ignition if the adapter wasn't on it. It was bad so I removed it and she fired right up. I think the angled adapter would have worked just as well as the straight one. I sold the thing 3-4 weeks ago. I was starting to wonder if that was a mistake when I saw all the leaves but hitting them with the mower deck and some 40 mph winds and all was good. 

[Sarge 3,463]

Here's the previous owner's handiwork -

 

 

The head sizes on that deck adapter are 7 & 8 inches each at the step . Hose on it now is a 5" - but it fits the inlet perfectly on the blower...so something doesn't jive here ...?

 

This is the odd gap at the back of the blower housing on the engine side -

 

 

 

I'll see if I can fix that later today with some sheet steel , will take two pieces which are slotted and an overlap to fix the hole size . Some of that is probably due to two different engine sizes over various models - this one is a 5hp , some had the bigger 8hp engine . Don't feel like a total disassembly of the housing to make a proper welded patch for now - plus it leaves room later if the engine decides to go ..., how does Mr. Hobbs put it -

Kablammo ?

LOL....gotta love F1 and old British drivers as commentators...

 

Sarge

 

 

[Racinbob 11,047]

Oh, I thought you were referring to the other side. I really don't know but from this picture it doesn't look like it.

 

 

 

[Sarge 3,463]

No , looks like on that model they made a cover to keep debris away from the engine - probably due to the chipper being added to the blower unit . That looks like the last series of Techhy's built , probably good idea you parted ways with it - most had some issues .

 

Sarge