I think you are saying that you see the trans pulley quit turning when you release the bail- but you still can't pull back the unit? For each wheel there is a drive clutch that you can carefully disassemble, lay everything out as it goes back together and clean/ lube them. Then your wheels should release.

I picked up a light/moisture/ph meter pretty cheap at my local hardware store. Inside my gh, light levels are only half of direct sun. I feel most things are growing fine full-term in this environment. Outdoor stuff is not growing at twice the rate, for example. Except maybe with the corn, where the gh plants are definitely smaller and wimpier, but it doesn't look like I will see many ears this year, no matter where they were planted. My feelings are that the somewhat shaded covering will help your seedlings. Keep in mind you'll need to harden them off to plant in direct sun if the shade is too heavy where they are started. Venting is important, also how you anchor your structure. I'd wonder how long-lived the covering is in direct sun, or how much of a snow load it could take over the course of several years. Do you plan to remove the cover and store it after your seedlings are planted out? For 300 bucks, I ordered enough twinwall poly from FarmTek to cover my home-built 2x4 gh frame. Year two and it's working great, handles a 12" snow load no problem and shades just about right to avoid baking plants in the gh too much. I've actually left my door open this year. Nuisance bugs got in anyway, even with the door closed, so now at least the bees help pollinate my squashes. At least one commercial grower I know leaves both ends open on the gh she uses to sell plants. I grow full-season in mine. I start seedlings indoors under lights, but I did start some things directly in the gh this year. $300 ain't bad for a 10x20, but at the same time, I'd have to think it's probably kinda "cheap" in construction, so be prepared to have to spend more to seal, anchor or beef it up to make it more reliable or suitable for your seedlings or environment. I also needed to add things like inside watering, screened roof vents and windows, electricity on a GFI circuit, plus timers and thermostats to operate fans and heaters. And I spent major effort sealing out the critters who loved to burrow in from below. I just don't think the setup you mention will last more than a few years unless you take it down and store it out of the weather once the seedlings are establshed. At that point, perhaps a simple hoophouse is more appropriate and less expensive. For not much more than your $300, you could upgrade to some other more-durable options that could be left assembled year-round. In my own book, the maintenance issues when I was using a cheaper covering just got to be too much. It's so much nicer not to have to deal with stripping it all down and storing or replacing it once or twice per year. -Ed

I have a 20 year old JD LT155 with a Hydro static transmission that I have used to mow lawns between 0.5 and one acre. While the first 10 years of its life was mowing very flat lawns for the last 10 years it has been used to mow a lawn that has a general slope of about 20 feet in 100, with areas much steeper. . The tractor's transmission has never let me down. I use it for mowing, towing, and similar jobs. Many cars with automatic transmissions do not go that long without major transmission work. As for use, my yards have always had a lot of trees. The hydrostatic transmission makes it easy to mow in and out of the trees and around the flower beds. NO SHIFTING, just push down on the foot peddle to get the speed needed to mow that part of he lawn. To reverse move your foot from one peddle to the other. When mowing up a hill I do not have to change gears, no need to worry about rolling down hill when you have to stop on a hill.

I have a YS4500 I bought last year and mine makes the same noise when starting out. I'm guessing if I had hilly terrain to mow I would hear it going up hills also. I think you will have to decide how much of an incline your using it on and if your doing a lot of that stuff then it may not last. But as a side note I have a 1976 Bolens H16 with who knows how many hours on it. It has an old Eaton hydro in it and has whined since the day I brought it home. Last time I tried it it was still going strong. I also have a old Ford 18 horse lawn tractor made about 1991 and it whines like that also. I have no idea if the tranny has ever been worked on or replaced though. So I'd say it's hard to say how long it will last. My new X465 Deere makes no noise at all but then that thing is a buldozer compared to my other tractors. Bill