Any experience with Modern Mill ACRE decking?
nonsenso
last year
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klem1
last yearnonsenso
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1/3 acre Mower Suggestions
Comments (8)Yes, your logic about saving time with the 33" mower is sound - that is about 57% more mowing width. I'm seriously considering moving to that size in the future for my .43-acre yard, which takes me well over one hour of mowing each week, not including trimming (it's not just a flat rectangle...). I don't think it's unreasonable at all to consider upsizing from a 21" mower for a lot that's larger than 1/3 acre. That Cub/Craftsman mower (same mower) has a long thread about here, with pretty favorable feedback about it so far. Search for that and you'll get a very good idea of what you get when you buy it. I think a few people here got it on sale for $999 or even $899, at which point it's a pretty good value. Two other 33" mowers that somewhat compete with it are the Sutech Stealth and the Billy Goat finish mower. Like the Craftsman, both of these have mechanical single drive. But instead of two blades they have three, and should theoretically give a better cut. They are also more compact lengthwise because of this. And they are more expensive - somewhere in the $1500-1900 range, I think. Another possibility would be any of the several 26" mowers, all of which still use a single blade but belt drive from the engine to the blade. Snapper and Toro/Metro have them, and another one I can't remember (MTD or Troy Bilt, maybe?). These might not be a ton cheaper than the Craftsman 33", however. Another option might be to shop for good used 36" pro walk-behinds, from Toro, Exmark, Ferris, Scag, Gravely, etc. These will be dual-drive models, meaning you use differential drive speeds to turn them. Some are mechanical drive and the really fancy ones are hydraulic drives. I've seen decent _looking_ ones for sale on craigslist and eBay for $1000 or even less, but keep in mind that most have been used heavily by professional crews. If you find one being sold by a residential user who is moving to a smaller house, that's the one to check out. These mowers aren't as compact as any of the others I've dicussed, but they are pretty slick in operation. Finally, in between the pro dual-drives and the 33" single-drive mowers is the Quick 36. This is a 36", three-blade, single-drive mower but it uses a very stout hydro drive. So it's as compact as the Billy Goat or Sutech but has a more heavy-duty and slick-working drive system. It's a "tweener" as I see it. But it isn't cheap: prices start at around $2300 and go up. A key might be to search for a gently used one. I've recently seen a couple of them in my area. I hope this is helpful. Basically I've just written down here what I've been thinking about for myself. Maybe next year......See MoreNew CVT transmissions. Any experience?
Comments (79)I have a Craftsman 917.255810 42" 19 HP Briggs & Stratton Fast Auto TurnTight® Riding Mower equipped with a General Transmissions RS800 CVT (constant variable transmission). It was purchased on Black Friday, Nov 24, 2017. I also purchased the correct Craftsman 9 bushel, 3-bin bagger to fit the mower. I used the mower to 'get up' leaves 3 times in the fall of 2017. I stored the mower in a shed, out of the weather, until this spring. I have used the mower 2 times to mow my lawn. Basically to knock down the onions and dandelions. There was little or no 'real' grass to mow yet. My front yard has a slope that I run side to side on. The CVT started sticking, becoming difficult to change from forward to reverse and back, in the fall. In the Spring it became an issue to the point I contacted Sears Service and they sent out a service technician. He was a contractor for Sears and had enough work with Sears that he didn't do anything else. One of the common problems with this CVT is debris jamming the exterior workings, ie. Variator Levers, Inversion/Variation Control lever (forward/reverse), Drive Variator (variable pulley), etc. The Sears Tech said that my CVT was one of the cleanest he'd ever seen (I attribute this to the few times I had a chance to used it & blowing it off with a leaf blower.) and was not a debris problem or issue. The short of it was that the CVT was failing. The Tech said that the GT CVTRS800 was one of the main issue on most of the calls he was dealing with. He said that Sears & Kubota had gone away from it and were mainly using a hydrostatic transmission again. He did say that John Deere was using it in their new 'consumer grade' mowers sold at big box stores like Lowes & Home Depot. My options were to continue to call Sears Service for 2 years while the mower was still under warranty, then purchase a yearly Service Contract for about 1/2 the cost of replacing a CVT, or try to sell the mower and purchase something else. The Tech did say that he had worked on one CVT RS800 equipped mower that didn't have these issues. It was used on a yard that was about an acre or less and as flat as a 'golf course putting green'. The Tech is coming back in a few days to replace the CVT at no cost to me. The Tech said that the CVT was originally designed to drive the blades and wheels of snow throwers/blowers and it did fine at that. GT tried to repurpose it for Lawn tractors to less than mixed results. I guess I'll ride this horse for two years and then try to sell it to someone with a pool table flat lawn. I'm also with toefungus wondering if there will be a Class Action Lawsuit as a result....See MoreAny experience with Kodiak Steel Homes?
Comments (33)I built one starting back in 2014. And I still live in it. I am an electrical engineer but I have had significant building design experience working as a draftsman for a commercial fire sprinkler company thru college and later in industrial plant construction. And still later, having rebuilt or remodeled 9 houses and one new other steel frame house back in '85 made by another company called Tri Steel. So, I agree with some of what the poster above has said. I had a number of problems with delivery. I did build in a county outside the Austin metro area that at that time had absolutely no regulations whatsoever if you had more than 10 acres. I had them make me an adaptation of one of their simple layouts and added my own porch and a 1600 sf lean to addition for a total of 4k sf, using standard metal building rules. I was able to buy just the metal frame and supply all my own other components. If I had to do it again, I would just design the entire thing myself and then maybe find a structural engineer to review and edit. The frame was built by a company down in Houston and I went down there to pick it up myself. I could have had this fabbed directly for maybe 10K less. Now, I don't see what issues a county like Travis could complain about as compared to a crappy conventional kiln dried wood and OSB constructed frame as these frames are massive overkill and the wood structures are garbage. But I built the 1st steel home in Fulton Co, GA (of Fani Willis fame) and, yes, the people that work in those depts are ridiculous and asinine. Overall, I pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Except for the raw core frame, I had no plans for this and designed the entire thing in my head as I went and was able to find good deals on materials and so was able to do top shelf quality on a shoestring. I built the entire thing myself (with a few laborers on weekends. I bought my own heavy equipment and dug a basement which is nearly unheard of in TX. Well, it took me 5 yrs get it livable and I'm still doing some small things inside, but I was simultaneously building a 10-stall horse stable with an upstairs loft. and a house for chickens, iron stairs up the stable loft, iron pipe fences, irrigation systems...... Ok, sorry for the ramble, but the point is, if your up to the type of thing I described then, at least the concept is for you and if you are creative you can find ways to do what they do without them. I would like to build another (designing the frame myself) as my ultimate dream, but at nearly 70, I'm pretty much done with it all. My place is a mix between traditional TX ranch style and English country style (all stone exterior and a chimney on each end). I'd like to build a large purely English style 2 story with wings, but that's for my next life..........See MoreAny experience with BlueStar Color 9007 (Grey Aluminum)?
Comments (16)MichelleDT -- thanks a million for taking the time to post that picture. I didn't realize you were in the middle of a move (and probably wouldn't have asked you to take the time to do it if I had)! It was especially helpful to see the 9007 sample against the lighter counter sample, and saved me from a potentially costly mistake -- waaay too gray for what I had in mind. If I end up going with a BS, and doing a color other than stainless, I'll definitely get a sample and not just go by the chip at the dealer. Thanks again for your help, and good luck with the move and the house you're building -- looks like it will be absolutely gorgeous!...See MoreMarisol Mayberry
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