New vs Old: Simplicity Regent 18 hp hydro riding lawn mower vs Bolens G174 diesel compact tractor
June 19, 2010
Comparative tests seem to be popular here, so I’ll throw this one in. For the last four years I have used a foot-controlled 18 hp Simplicity Hydro lawn tractor to mow about two acres of lawn, orchard, berms and garden borders at the farm. Far too often it was pressed into service to mow grassed parking lots and occasional stands of tree seedlings for want of another tool to do the job.
That has now changed with the acquisition of a narrow tractor to mow around my 15,000 young trees. I must stress that I currently have a 35 hp tractor with rotary mower for the bulk of the cutting, but as the trees get larger, more and more areas can’t be mowed without casualties.
I decided that the tree farm needed a diesel tractor narrower than 48″. The candidates on Kijiji were a 2WD 15 hp Massey-Ferguson 1010 with a belly mower and this Bolens 17 hp 4WD with a rear-mounted finish mower. I picked the Bolens for its tall stance and versatility.
After a tank of diesel I think I can comment upon the Bolens as a mower. After four years with the Simplicity I have a very good idea of its strengths and limitations.
Simplicity 18 Hydro with 38″ deck:
I paid the extra $300. for the foot-controlled model and it was money well spent. The hydro is so smooth to control around trees and obstructions that a first-time operator likens it to waltzing. It’s an excellent mower on the flat where you have to work around stuff. Only on slopes does it run into trouble with a lack of traction. Strategies develop to deal with the traction problem, so the only galling problem I found with the mower was its ineptitude in dealing with dips in the ground which result in the loss of traction to one back wheel. Much hiking out by the operator proved the solution to these frequent spinning situations. I also learned to hike out over the edge to keep my balance when mowing along banks, a common occurrence on this lawn. This involved a fair amount of effort on my part, but the ballast enabled the light mower to do a pretty good job on angular terrain. I always found this a spooky activity, though, and wouldn’t let anyone else run the mower on steep slopes, regardless of the safety interlocks. The nice thing about the foot control when cutting under trees, of course, is that if you stop driving, the mower halts immediately. This is good when one finds himself skewered by an apple bough.
We don’t have much open lawn to cut, just one 400 by 80′ section. The Simplicity eats it up on cruise control at a top speed of around 5 1/2 mph. Reclaimed from a pasture, this section has a few low-lying rocks which jump up and whack the trailing roller an occasional good one. This is distracting to the operator, but doesn’t seem to have harmed the deck. The surveyor’s stake under a pile of leaves on my sister’s lawn, on the other hand, bent the roller, affecting the cut quality until I devised a way to straighten it by removing the rubber rollers and having at it with a 4′ pipe to bend it back.
I should stress that the Simplicity has done a fine job under difficult circumstances. There are a lot of rocks. I have learned to avoid them and mow most of the lawn at a 3″ cutting height. Two 400′ rows of 15 year-old spruces are a pain, but duty requires that I slalom around them at least every two weeks. The Simplicity has been rammed through a lot of foliage over that time and doesn’t show any ill-effects from the abuse. My body, on the other hand, has developed a deep antipathy to the blue spruce as a species. On a hot summer day it’s like running into a barbed wire fence to come up against one of those things. White spruce foliage is much softer.
Anyway, mowing along the ditch which separates the spruces from the flower beds is always an adventure. Larger wheels would be good for clearing occasional washouts. Mowing the berm behind the flower beds is too hard on the Simplicity, though. Basically this is a pile of boulders dug up by the excavator and piled along a fence row. I removed the fence and determined that the only sensible way to reduce string-trimming time would be by mowing the hay and weeds growing between the rocks. Rough going, mitigated slightly by several yards of topsoil brought in by Ranger to build a road for the mower.
But that’s the easy stuff. Last week I had to mow a slalom around 16, 680′ rows of seedlings, one turn every 10′. Thought I’d grind the steering gear right off the poor thing. That’s when I decided we needed a heavier machine for this kind of work. To its credit, though, over three evenings the Simplicity hung in there for about six hours of sustained, low speed mowing of very long grass in a rough field. That’s not the first time, either.
My main criticisms of the Simplicity? Its 18 hp Kohler engine needs to rev at full speed to work the hydraulic pump property. It’s thirsty on fuel and noisy. The ride’s a bit punishing compared to my larger tractors. On the other hand the lawn looks terrific and the mower hasn’t fallen apart after quite a lot of abuse.
Bolens G174 Compact Diesel Tractor with 48″ Woods RM48YM-2 rear mower:
At 1200 pounds and another 305 for the mower, this is a substantial machine. It rides pretty well if you keep a pillow on the seat and the twin cylinder Mitsubishi 17 makes a lot less fuss than the hysterical 18 hp Kohler single on the Simplicity. Traction is excellent in 2WD, let alone 4WD with differential lock. It’s tall and looks tippy. At one point mowing across a slope under an apple tree I stopped the machine and climbed off, fearing a roll-over. I lifted as hard as I could on the uphill fender, though, and couldn’t budge the thing. Hiking out over the side is out of the question on this machine.
A rear-mounted mower can do a fine job on the flat. Sharply undulating terrain, on the other hand, causes problems of geometry and unmowed patches of grass. Even with its traction problems, the Simplicity does a better job on the uneven lawn. The big problem with the Bolens, of course, is that you are cruising along with all gears turning. You aren’t going to stop suddenly and back up the way you do routinely with the Simplicity. Thus the mowing job will consist of gradual, sweeping turns, leaving a lot undone. There’s a reason why the hydraulic mower has taken over the market.
In the field, on the other hand, the Bolens shines. It will power through very long grass leaving the old Woods mower no choice but to follow along. When the three blades are sharp, it does a very good job. Hit enough rocks and the blades will become dull, but the Bolens still has lots of power to beat the blazes out of the hay, even if it can no longer cut it. Sharp turns swing the mower wide, and casualties result if the operator doesn’t plan ahead. And things go by fairly quickly. The mower runs fast, at the middle pto speed of around 700 rpm. 4th gear of 6 seems to be about right, and about 2/3 rpms. Some horses are clearly larger than others.
Update, 24 June, 2010:
Over its first week at the farm the Bolens has been busy. One six-acre field of seedlings has proven too closely-planted to mow with the wider equipment, so it looks as though it will belong to the 48″ mower for the foreseeable future. This work involved long runs down rows of seedlings, cutting weeds out of the way.
When the contractor sprayed with herbicide last fall in anticipation of the spring planting he dug up the ground with a crude spring-tooth rig to mark each row. This produced an unusable trough down the centre of each cleared area which the planters dutifully avoided with the trees, veering occasionally over almost to the grassy verge in search of plantable soil. Hence the rough ground and the wonky rows.
This meant the Bolens had to work over rough soil for at least half of its passes down the field. 4WD makes steering easier and improves the ride. The mower thus had to power through a fair amount of sandy soil, though rocks are scarce in this field. Long hay was definitely a factor, but the Bolens seems to have plenty of power to tear its way through heavy stuff, albeit in 3rd gear, low range. It’s awkward to go from 1 hi to 3 low when the grass gets heavy because of the complex shifting involved.
The tractor is durable, though. Two tankfuls of diesel this week have resulted in no oil consumption and no maintenance required save the replacement of the ancient drive belt on the mower and three blade sharpenings. One strong advantage of the 3 point hitch mower is the ease with which one may sharpen the blades on the machine. Just raise the mower up, put a jack stand underneath for safety, and have at it with an angle grinder.
Just for the record the tractor’s headlights are highly functional, focusing in a useful manner on where the mower will next cut.
I’ve mowed the lawn twice with the Bolens now and am getting better at it. Learning to trust it on slopes was the big thing. It can climb its way out of awkward situations very well — as long as the mower is down. When the belt broke I lifted the rig and headed for the garage, up a steep slope. Not a good idea. The beast reared and pivoted 90 degrees on me before I could regain control. This is potentially very dangerous, so today I’m off to get weights for the front. I’ve also started planning a weight-distributing hitch to allow the towing of trailers once mowing season ends. No way will I hang a trailer off the end of the 3 pt. hitch. Too unstable. (UPDATE, 30 July, 2011: Turns out I was wrong on the previous statement. I bought a 3 pt hitch trailer hitch and use it whenever I need to wrangle trailers. The Bolens has no trouble with a bunch of hitch weight or a tandem trailer with a half-ton on it. Negative hitch weights are something to watch, though, as the bar can ride up.)
Which is better?
For cool factor, the Bolens wins, hands down.
For a tame lawn with trees and other objects to mow around, the Simplicity is the clear choice. For field and woodlot work where a conventional tractor is too wide to fit, the Bolens is an awesome addition to the collection. The diesel, gear-driven Bolens is easier on fuel than the hydraulic Simplicity.
Coincidentally, we bought the new Simplicity and the 1981 Bolens for the same price. I expect the diesel tractor to be at work on the property long after the gas mower has departed for the junk yard, but a parts shortage or catastrophic failure might change things.
Actually, the real competition is between the Bolens and my TAFE 35 tractor equipped with a new Rhino 160 rotary mower. The Bolens is doing the lion’s share of the mowing because it is so much handier around little trees. So the TAFE, four times its weight and twice its horsepower, complete with new canopy and expensive mower, sits in the yard while I bounce around on this handy little beast.
UPDATE: 30 July, 2011
Last summer I bought a 48″ off-brand rotary mower for the Bolens. At about 400 pounds it’s no problem for the little tractor, but I immediately realized I had to add an overrun clutch to the PTO shaft before I rolled through a building, driven by the flywheel effect of the mower on the drive wheels. No live PTO, eh? With the extra clutch it works fine, and has proven a good deal handier than the larger rig mentioned above for mowing over soft turf, under overhanging black walnuts with brittle branches, and of course down rows too narrow for the wider mower. To my surprise the little rig can cut through long hay just as well as the larger one, though with less groundspeed and coverage.
A three-point hitch dump box sized for this tractor turned up used at the local equipment dealer. I think Walco calls it a 10 cubic foot dump box. It’s pretty handy for cleanup around the property when another implement isn’t already hanging from the 3 pt. hitch. My plan is to use the box for deep incursions into the woodlot after clean firewood. If I drag the same wood out to the road with the winch it’s all coated with grit and a pain to saw into stovewood, so I have decided to go directly to the pile of limbs and trim it there.
The Bolens will carry the 8000 pound winch and the pto will move impressive logs with the cable, but it lacks the lifting power to skid logs after they’re chained to the unit.
UPDATE: 26 March, 2013
The Bolens has spent the winter as a garage queen. Equipped with the 3 pt hitch dump box it’s exceptionally handy to hit the remote I clipped to the hood, back out, close the door, run over to the woodpile, load up and back the load up to the woodpile in the shop for unloading. I even fitted the right fender with a scabbard for my chain saw so that we can make brief sorties into the woodlot for dry ironwoods when conditions permit.
During an interval when the power steering on the TAFE was broken, I pressed the Bolens into service on a 7′ rear-mounted blade in an attempt to clear the driveway. It worked until the snow became too deep. Then it was hopelessly outgunned by the laws of physics. It didn’t have the traction with turf tires, and it lacked the mass to shift heavy snow sideways with the blade angled. I was very happy to obtain the part to put the TAFE (with its winter cab, loader, snowblower and loaded tires) back into operation.
Out of the debacle with the blade, however, I discovered that a pair of tire chains off an army surplus Jeep would fit the rear wheels on the Bolens with a little fixing. The chains greatly increased winter traction without causing any serious problems. Rust on the garage floor and a lumpy ride aren’t so bad in mid-winter.
During sugar season I contemplated using the Bolens to gather sap, but it’s remained on woodpile duty with the dump box. My Polaris Ranger TM (2WD) is still the go-to vehicle for personnel movement and sap hauling. The Bolens is too awkward to get on and off for repeated stops.
Tree Planting Day
April 29, 2010
Leeds County Stewardship Council contractor Jane McCann demonstrates how the mechanical tree planter works.
Jane and her crew put in about 7,500 trees today, primarily white pine, but with sizable clumps of tamarack, white oak, yellow birch and shagbark hickory as well.
New Tractor Gloat
January 11, 2010
The constitutional crisis in Ottawa will just have to wait because I want to tell you about my new tractor. It’s not as though prorogation will go away in a week, right? And I have the snow in our driveway just about worn out now, so I think it’s time for a report.
The new addition to the family is a TAFE 35DI. I went to look at a backhoe but the huge thing intimidated me with its advanced age and complexity. This little Indian Massey Ferguson seemed the same size as my beloved MF 35, only with power steering, a modern loader, and “part of a cab” as my neighbour Lloyd charitably described it. Somehow over the past fifteen years it had accumulated only 345 hours on the meter.
A slightly smaller 4X4 Kubota just hadn’t felt right. I hated the weathered plastic dash and it was very cold in the field where it sat. For all its homeliness, the TAFE seemed solidly built, in excellent condition, and it offered a bit of shelter from the biting wind. Besides, it looked lonely and it was Christmas. Hey, people bring puppies home at Christmas. How dumb is that?
On the BBC car show Top Gear, host Jeremy Clarkson filmed a test in which an Audi A8 completely outclassed a Corvette – yet he picked the Corvette as his favourite. He rationalized that the Audi was just “too good a car” for him. I could understand that. Driving around a muddy field in my Toyota 4Runner just made ruts. The same drive in a golf cart was an absolute gas. A vehicle can be too competent to be fun.
O.K. the tractor’s basically a toy. Walnut trees are not a dairy herd, and it’s not as though they will die if it doesn’t work. That said, the TAFE can run my snow blower, the bucket does a great job scraping the driveway, and the lights enable me to play outside after dark. Snow removal in the very early morning may prove essential with a commuter in the house, and I think a good set of lights on the tractor at the end of the driveway should prove reassuring to drivers passing over Young’s Hill.
My friends Tony and Anne hadn’t been to The Lodge for three weeks, I’d run out of snow around the house in Forfar, so I decided to nip up to Newboro to tackle their large, pristine driveway. “I have a cab on my tractor now,” I thought smugly, so off I went with a light hat, rather than my trusty helmet and face shield.
The TAFE ran strongly on the road and steered with reasonable precision. I soon discovered, however, what Lloyd Stone had meant when he said I had part of a cab. There sure is a lot of wind on that stretch from Forfar to Crosby, and most of it came in under my right-hand window. From the screws embedded in the metal frame, it’s clear the previous owner had installed a piece of carpet to take up the space not filled with hydraulic hoses and controls below the window. I would have given a lot to get it back from him right then.
Debating whether to continue in the cold or not, I stopped at the highway building to turn away from the wind and warm up a bit. Out of the wind, though, things were fine. The reforestation north of Crosby dramatically cuts down on the sweep of a north wind, so the rest of the drive was much easier, even pleasant.
The traffic was another matter. All of those Saturday drivers politely insisted on sharing the road with me. The band of ice along the edge of the pavement and the glare, steep shoulders looked like suicide from my perch, and I resolved to keep at least two tires on pavement, regardless of the traffic behind. A misadventure in the ditch at fifteen miles per hour would have gruesome consequences inside this box of steel and glass.
Now I understand why those guys in backhoes and tractors won’t get over to let traffic pass, even when there seems to be an ample shoulder on the highway. Look down into a frozen ditch from a sloping, ice-covered shoulder, and suddenly holding onto that dry asphalt for dear life becomes a real priority.
Soon it became pointless to look back, so I just soldiered on down my portion of the lane and let the cars find their own way. Drivers seemed quite good-natured about it, but the guilt I felt couldn’t match the fear of sudden death if I ventured too far over out of politeness.
In any case, the driveway-cleanout went well, and on the return trip the wind was on the left side of the tractor with its full door, and thus the cabin was much warmer. Tony contributed a piece of carpet, so the next project is to close in the rest of the cabin. Unless it snows.
Unfinished lapstrake pram needs new owner.
November 4, 2009
http://picasaweb.google.ca/rodcros/UnfinishedLapstrakePram#
This is a winter project which will outclass any other dinghy in the harbour, guaranteed.
The first pram was appraised at $2800 and was a boat show winner. It never lost a rowing race against a hull under 15′. This one’s more elaborate.
I’ll provide clear walnut for the seats and floors to go with the kit. $800. or best offer.
Post a comment here or inquire at
rodcros at gmail.com.
(The “at” above is to discourage spam-generators).
Halfway through the construction of a basement door my chop saw quit this morning, an obvious burned wire somewhere. So I took the thing apart and located the culprit, shorted another wire on the re-assembly, took it apart again and generally familiarized myself with the machine and its construction on the next three or four disassemblies. Then it went back together and worked fine until I tried to cut a board. Damned thing was turning backwards. Tried reversing the polarity on the plug. Nope. Put that back.
The only thing that wasn’t the same as before was that the motor housing had gone on upside down. Off it all came and apart it went. The red wire gave me fits again as I re-routed it for the fifth time, and then the thing worked, as normal, but more smoothly than it has run in years. Nothing like a thorough cleaning to spark a motor up. Turning it backwards really lets go with a lot of dust.
Almost four hours lost, but it was fun.
More on the Polaris Ranger TM
November 7, 2008
I’m just in from a half day’s work with the Ranger, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how well thought out the machine is. The first task involved pulling a drag around a small garden plot to prepare the seedbed for a nursery crop of shagbark, chestnuts, butternuts and walnuts. The golf cart used to strain to pull the drag, so the task occurred at full speed. The Polaris has a lot more power and traction, of course, so it makes an easy job of it, yet it still turns sharply enough to get into the corners of the patch. Its wide track leaves compressed soil everywhere, so I think next time I do this I’ll build a yoke to allow it to tow two of the four drag sections, rather than just one.*
After that I “ran the rows” of this year’s five-acre walnut planting, inspecting each seedling and reseeding where necessary. The golf cart used to spend hours on this task, but to my surprise I found the Polaris better suited to it. The seating position allows a good look at each plant. When I make brief stops to plant walnuts where needed, the machine sits and idles, then moves on without fuss. The bus-like steering wheel leaves lots of space for movement on and off the machine, and the tall seat allows me to slide on and off it, rather than climbing up and sitting down in the EZ-Go. Over two hours of repetitions, an inch or two in height makes a big difference. Earlier in these articles I have criticized the bed height of the TM because it makes loading heavy objects difficult. On the other hand, the height is ideal for picking tools and in this case, walnuts, out of the bed without stooping.
I’ve even come to enjoy the pocketta-pocketta-pocketta rhythm of the big 2V engine. The body of the machine seems quite tight, because I haven’t noticed any rattles. My glasses sit comfortably on the dash at all speeds in a depression which must have been designed for them.
One other thing of note: a section of drag harrow is perhaps the worst possible implement to transport in or on anything which can be scratched. The plastic box had no problem with it.
*Update, May, 2009: When I finally got around to cutting the steel to make a yoke for two sections of drag harrow, I discovered that the Polaris doesn’t like to turn while pulling a heavy load. This meant I couldn’t get around the narrow garden plot, so I unhitched the Ranger and backed in my Massey Harris 30. It’s a lot bigger, but it has wheel brakes which enable it to turn sharply while under load. A 1947 tractor isn’t as versatile as the Ranger, but it’s still the better implement for tilling soil.
The Trailer Project
October 29, 2008
Tomorrow’s task is the erection of one of those chintzy little 10 by 10′ portable garages bought mail-order from Winnipeg. The new Polaris Ranger’s demands must be met, or else I’ll gimp around all winter with icy back and bottom, and my tools will rust from dips in the soggy leaf-container on behind.
A more significant problem rests with the Ranger’s outlandish dimensions: it won’t fit any trailer I own, so I can’t even take it back to the dealer should it need service. Not to worry, I’ve been yearning for a new highway trailer for some years now.
I found a good 6X10 utility trailer at a farm implements dealer, but I didn’t like the price. As well, when I inquired at the Ontario License Bureau I learned that: “Only livestock trailers are exempt from provincial sales tax,” regardless of my tree-farm status. I was not about to add another 8% to the already-exorbitant rate. Steel prices are high, eh?
Then I found on Kijiji a set of axles, springs, wheels and tires off a large boat trailer. The owner had replaced the running gear with a heavier set to use for a steel dive boat he owns. The kit looked like an interesting way to start a winter project, so I drove to Kingston and picked up the axles.
I decided to find a welder to make this project happen. Peter Meyers was willing. His loader picked the axles out of my utility trailer and I headed off to the nearest metal yard for some scrap 2″ pipe to extend the axles from 5 to almost 7′.
Through a series of email conversations with pals, I developed the following set of objectives for the trailer:
1. transport the Polaris Ranger;
2. have a versatile bed surface available to transport pieces of machinery, as needed;
3. have a stake trailer available to transport logs and lumber to mill and/or market;
4. have the capacity to transport 1 cubic cord of firewood on the highway, as needed.
The occasional 3-ton capacity and the greater smoothness of towing are why I’m interested in a tandem, rather than using just one of the axles. Yet I want to stay with a smaller-is-better principle in its building, as I see little point in hauling around a lot of extra height, width and weight. Removable sides improve the trailer’s potential versatility, but extract a penalty in convenience; i.e: the drive-on-and-forget ease of a golf cart in a 5X8 box with ramp.
The other conundrum has to do with the trailer’s potential length. A ten-footer would carry the Polaris in better balance than a twelve or fourteen, but a longer bed would work better for lumber and logs. Without a back gate a few feet of overhang wouldn’t be such a big deal, though. My son suggested that his sports car is 13.5 feet long. How could he know that?
The other thing is that the Polaris likely won’t venture away from the farm much. The trailer’s far more likely to haul lumber and machinery for use on the farm.
A system of stakes seems indicated by the wish list above. Regadles s of how it looks, I want a tall stake on the right rear to provide a fulcrum for swinging heavy planks onto and off the trailer. I have found that a similar wooden stake on the lumber trailer is invaluable in making the transfer from trailer to pile. I pull, lift one end, pivot and drop, never lifting more than half of the weight.
Maybe a flat bed with cleats on the sides would work. I could use heavy ratchet tie-downs like what the lumber yards use, substituting chains for the really heavy stuff.
Another priority will be to keep the bed of the trailer as low as is practical, given the nature of the axles and tires. A 21″ height would be a reasonable target. I think a pair of ramps will do for access to this trailer. I’d keep the 5X8 for utility loads such as lawn mowers, golf carts and leaves.
Peter Meyers warned about potential trouble with the Ministry of Transport if we build the trailer too big. I don’t want to get into the annual-inspections routine or have to install brakes. The price list at the metal place woke me up. 1 1/2 by 3″, 1/8″ wall square tubing costs 3.60 per foot. Similar 2″ square tubing costs 3.24 per foot. 2 1/2″ angle iron, 3/16″ wall, costs 2.82 per foot. This tends to shorten a trailer rather quickly. Let’s see: 5 1/2′ by 9 1/2′ will do it…
Notwithstanding my son’s hint that his Porsche is 13 1/2′ long, I think I’ll trim as much “weight” as I can from the trailer at the planning stage.
That’s about it, so far.
UPDATE: November 3, 2008
This evening I discovered that there are no books on the subject of utility trailer construction in the Ontario Library System. The best the research librarian in Smiths Falls could do was a Haynes trailer manual in the collection of the Toronto Public Library, but it’s missing. Maybe I should write a book about this project.
Peter and I settled upon 3 by 1 1/2 square tubing for the frame, and he likes the idea of continuing the frame sides on to form an “A” tongue. That will mean hauling 18′ steel home. This isn’t much of a problem: one of the many trailers at the farm is a tri-axle narrow flat bed 17′ long.
UPDATE: November 8, 2008
At a junk yard I ran across three, three by four inch beams, 17′ long and 1/8″ in wall thickness. I couldn’t resist, so I brought them to Peter for use as the main structual members of the frame. Another foray into the used market proved fruitless, so I bought the remaining material (mainly 1/8X2X2 square tube) at Heaslip’s in Smiths Falls. Or so I thought. When I delivered the steel, Peter had been thinking about the tongue and decided that it needs to mount as a V beneath the bed, rather than an extension of it, so I need to pick up an additional 16′ of 3 X 1 1/2″, 1/8th wall. Oh well, over-runs happen. On the other hand Peter cut and lengthened the axles very neatly, then straightened the bent one to where I couldn’t find any evidence of damage. The guy’s great at straightening steel.
The axles are a bit over 3/16″ steel, so I guess the vendor’s claim that they are rated at 3500 pounds isn’t too crazy even if they are only 1 15/16″ in diameter. The springs are 5 leaf, now moved to beneath the axles to lower the trailer bed.
This may turn into a pretty good trailer.
UPDATE: Nov. 11th, 2008
The basic frame is now complete at 11′ 9″ by 6′. The outer frame is made of 3 X 4″ expanded tube, 1/8″ thick, with stringers on two foot centres of 2 X 2. The “A frame” tongue is on the same level as the top of the bed, made of 1 1/2 X 3 expanded tube, with similar reinforcement underneath to take the weight back to the outer edges of the frame. Peter will next turn the frame over onto the suspension and weld on the large tandem fenders. I think I’ll use 1 1/4″ basswood planks for the floor and bolt the planks to pieces of angle Peter welded on to the front and back cross members for the purpose. That way I won’t have to drill into the main structure to fasten the wood, and the hollow steel should stay dryer without holes in it. The basswood will be strong for ten years and then deteriorate, so I’ll replace the bed at some point before that. Clear basswood’s abundant in the woodlot and surprisingly tough stuff, as long as it isn’t trapped with moisture in a cavity. With the lighter wood I can easily keep the trailer under 1000 pounds.
The 6′ tandem fenders I bought at Princess Auto wouldn’t fit the trailer. The existing frame for the fenders had come with the axles, and it was clear that we needed 5’6″ units to fit the space. An Internet search revealed that a trailer store in Stittsville had two in stock, so I gratefully drove in to pick them up. The new fenders also had a teardrop, a rounded lump of sheet metal to occupy some of the empty space between the tops of the tires and provide reinforcement for the flat surface above it.
I asked Peter to rig up out of scrap some sort of “headache bar” for the front to which I can fasten a simple winch for pulling and holding cargo. He’ll also put stake pockets along the sides and front for tie-downs, or in case I decide to build a low picket fence around the perimeter for hauling firewood. I’ll wait and see what I need as a ramp. I do have a couple of planks with aluminum ends from another trailer, so I’ll try them first.
UPDATE: 19 November, 2008
I’ve scrubbed most of the red paint off my hands, but I’d have to describe outdoor painting in late November as a chancy activity at best. The compressor would barely start because the oil was so cold, and when I poured thinned Tremclad into the sprayer I realized that this was unlikely to work. I sprayed around a couple of corners with diminishing success until I gave up and used a roller. That worked pretty well as soon as I gave up any aspiration to do more than prevent rust. The trailer’s a rough piece of equipment, not a show piece, so it was more important to have the metal protected so that I could use it over the winter than to have a gemlike paint job.
The basswood boards went on after two coats of Cuprinol and I worked the rest of a gallon of paint into them, as well. The trailer is now very red.
Next I’ll wire it, then fasten the boards on. It may take a few days for the paint to dry, though, as it hasn’t gotten above freezing for a while around here.
The overall quality of the construction on the trailer seems to be very high. Peter Myers did a great job on it.
UPDATE: December 6th, 2008
The wiring was an interesting challenge on a cold November day. Because the trailer is over 80″ wide, Ontario regulations require a set of clearance lights at the back. Everyone looks at them and speculates about how long they will last, exposed as they are to banks and loading docks. I put the wires inside a conduit so that I should in the future be able to fish a new harness from front to back without crawling around on the ground. The rest of the wiring went well. Clearance lights went onto the ends of the headache bar.
Then when I connected the rig to the truck, nothing but the left signal light worked.
On a hunch I tested the lights with a 12v battery. Everything worked perfectly. The truck was the villain. I replaced the back pigtail and then all but the right hand signal worked fine. For some reason my Tacoma won’t fire the right-hand signal on the trailer, though all other lights on truck and trailer work perfectly. So far in a year of ownership, this is the only glitch that has defeated me on the truck.
The Ranger loaded onto the trailer without difficulty, and so we then had to devise an efficient method of holding the machine in place. When the dealer loaned me his 6 X 12 utility trailer to bring the Ranger home, he simply winched the machine up against the front rail with a heavy strap and left it. The front tires pulled against the railing provided all of the restraint the rig needed for a highway haul.
With a flatbed I figured I’d better do more, so I winched it against the headache bar with a ratchet strap and then attached two more smaller straps from stake pockets at the sides to the trailer hitch at the back of the Ranger.
This proved less effective than a single, strong attachment point at the front, so I added a commercial-grade strap tightener (the kind you use a separate bar to tighten) and installed 7/8″ basswood sideboards to wooden stakes to enclose the bed. This also lined and strenghtened the fenders.
I’m still using four-foot 2X6 basswood planks with aluminum ends as a ramp. For now I store them in the bed of the truck when hauling.
The system is still evolving, but one strap with a heavy hook runs from the strap-tightener to an appropriate hole in the undercarriage of the Ranger. The front tires tighten up nicely against the headache bar and so far nothing has moved during a couple of tows over moderately bumpy roads.
The tandem trailer works very well, with a smoother ride for the Ranger than I expected. That does not mean that the rig is easy to tow. For my four cylinder pickup the one-ton weight is not a problem, but the sail area on the Ranger is quite considerable, especially with the mesh insert which links the roll bar to the passenger compartment. As I wrote before, the beast towed much better with the mesh removed, but now I have the license and the slow moving vehicle sign mounted up there as well, no doubt robbing even more power through wind resistance. I’ll be o.k. in fourth gear for local jaunts. If I need to go far, I’ll remove the mesh grill and use fifth gear on the highway.
Missing my EZ-Go: EZ-Go TXT vs Ranger TM revisited
October 17, 2008
I never should have sold that cart. A good friend bought it and it will do him and his wife for years, but the Polaris Ranger TM is no substitute for a golf cart. It’s too cumbersome. It has to be started and put into gear. I can’t do a quick U turn in the driveway with it. Sure, it’s great off the road and it carries a huge load and it’s much better for passengers, but the best use of a golf cart is to make a series of lightning dashes between the barn and the garage, back to the house, then over to a tractor in the field with a wrench or a can of gas.
Now I walk. No, this is not good for me because I have to walk back, usually carrying something heavy. There’s no way a hundred yard walk with a five gallon can of gas is good for the spine. Without the cart, I now park outside the barn and walk in, rather than blasting through with the EZ-Go and grabbing a tool off the bench on the way by. Now I have to think twice about starting the Ranger up because it uses a lot more fuel than the golf cart.
What’s more, I figured out a year or so ago that it’s way cheaper to drive a golf cart than to walk. A pair of hiking boots is good for about two hundred miles, by the makers’ estimates. Even on eBay, these boots will cost about $100. That’s fifty cents a mile for shoe leather. A set of tires for the golf cart? Forget it. They don’t wear out. Chances are a golf cart will run on twenty-five cents per mile, total cost. And that doesn’t count wasted time walking. I don’t know what the cost of the Ranger will be, but it uses more gas than a golf cart.
Mind you, my walnut production has increased to fit the capacity of my new vehicle. Each trip to the woods brings back three to four times the load the golf cart carried. The Ranger also tows utility trailers without strain or complaint. On the road it really motors, with twice the speed of a cart. For any distance over 100 yards it has a significant advantage over the cart. The four-wheel brakes are also great for dignified descents of hills, especially when towing.
People react differently to the Polaris than to the cart. Many visitors and family members have had a lot of fun with the golf cart, but they saw it as a weak but sturdy toy, something to be bullied and ridiculed, though with a grudging affection, like the time Charlie and Shiva pushed and drove the thing through a foot of snow back to the woodlot, just to say that they had done it.
The Ranger gets more respect. It’s bigger than most visitors, so they look up to it and approve. They also like the way things they load into the back have a trick of staying there, not falling out, as was often the case with gear and the EZ-Go.
I’ll conclude this update with a harrowing anecdote, the last, I hope, in which the Ranger figures: I put a .22 rifle aboard and headed back to the woods to meet with a visitor looking for squirrels. Normally with the EZ-Go I put the muzzle of the unloaded bolt action rifle in the glove compartment on the passenger side, then let the stock sit on the bench seat. Worked fine. This time I unwisely tried laying the rifle, butt toward my thigh, on the broad bench seat. Nothing untoward happened until I blundered onto a new trail cut through tall maple saplings. I was just picking my way through a narrow gap when suddenly the rifle took off, cartwheeling like a Mossberg frizbie out the passenger side of the Ranger and skidding to a halt, butt-first, under the leaves about thirty feet from the seat. That’s when I noticed the maple sapling rubbing against the passenger side of the Ranger. It bore a scar where the front sight had dug in. The seat and the belt retractor had compressed as the tree tried to shear off the barrel against the roll bar, and then the gun found the path of least resistance, cartwheeling wildly to the right off the bench seat.
The laser scope was forcibly dismantled, though I found all of the pieces, put it back together, and it still shoots all right. It might have been a different story had I left a clip in the gun with one up the spout. The clear rule here is never leave a firearm (or any protruding object) on the seat of a utility vehicle while under way.
You can hardly blame the Ranger for this. The problem was the absent-minded geezer at the wheel.
They’re both fine vehicles, but I had underestimated the value of golf-cart-convenience when I made the decision to sell.
Alternatives to oil
July 20, 2008
The wind generator overlooking Rideau Lumber in Smiths Falls waves to me each morning as I turn left at the stop sign. It’s a very nice-looking piece of equipment, and would likely make a fine toy. This week I asked about it and received a brochure. Then I noticed a console on the wall in the office. “Does that meter show the generator’s output? Could I please look?” The girl at the counter let me pass, and I sneaked in to satisfy my curiosity. There the readout blinked: 137 watts.
This was in a gentle breeze. The blades were spinning quickly enough that they were a blur, but not invisible. 137 watts. 1 1/3 shop-sized light bulbs. Enough to run this computer and leave a little for a reading light. Of course if I used the new bulbs I could run ten of them at that rate, or charge up the batteries on an electric golf cart. For $15,000. Hmmm.
Anyone can tell you there’s a great deal of power in the sun. My mother has that nailed with a very simple solar collector for water. She runs a hose from the well into a 250 gallon plastic tank, allows the water to warm up, then siphons it down to her flowers. The energy gain on a summer day is quite amazing.
Solar collectors on a roof can be a real back-breaker in winter, though. Seems a snow-covered panel on a roof doesn’t collect any energy, and a trip up to clean the thing off can prove downright dangerous.
This week I happened upon a Swedish manual for adapting engines to wood gas. Most non-military vehicles which saw use in Europe during WWII used wood gas as fuel. The Swedes have kept working on this technology ever since, as they have lots of wood and no secure oil reserves. The online manual explains the case for wood gasification: wood gases, properly extracted, produce quite a bit of power, and the process doesn’t deprive anyone of food. Wood gas can be readily fed into the carburetor of a gasoline engine, and even alternated with diesel in bi-fuel applications. The fuel cost savings are phenomenal.
The downside is a steep learning curve, potential catastrophic explosions, long setup times, short engine life, poisonous gas production, tar and ash buildup, heavy labour, constantly dirty working conditions, and the difficulty of transporting a supply of firewood in or on one’s vehicle or implement. The furnace to produce the wood gas is not small or light, either, effectively ruling out golf cart applications.
What stopped me was the budget for the project. When done by a government, it cost about $11,000 to convert a mid-sized tractor or heavy truck to wood fuel.
I wondered what a hobbyist could do with scrap materials and duct tape, though, so I looked up wood-gas engines on YouTube. The ensuing afternoon of viewing went quickly. What struck me about the films was how well the guys worked together, and how happy they were in making anew something that had worked out of necessity a generation before.
They were having so much fun I immediately wanted to join the crews. These guys are the sorts who get a kick out of drilling a 1 ½” hole into the side of a Ford two-barrrel carburetor so that they can fit a new tube into it. It worked, too. The camera car couldn’t keep up with the modified pickup during a demonstration on public roads.
Then there were the four guys in the old Volvo who towed a trailer loaded with their bags of wood blocks through their test cycles. They did some impressive plumbing and sheet-metal work on that car.
One guy methodically explained how his 8 hp engine can run an automotive alternator to charge a battery and then produce usable household electricity through an inverter. He had the engine running like a top, though at one point in the startup process he used his hand as a carburetor to control the gas flow.
Producer gas is basically the mixture of methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen which is produced from the heating of wood. It needs to be filtered before it gets to the engine, else the tar and water vapour buildup will shorten the engine’s life. The engineering of the filters seems to get the most You-Tube attention.
One of the films showed a series of photos of 1940’s producer-gas powered cars. Most furnaces were installed where the trunk used to be. Some had the furnace and condenser neatly fitted into the coachwork. The most interesting shot was undoubtedly the one of the elegantly-attired young woman standing on a rear fender of a fine automobile, reaching down into the firebox with a poker.
At first I thought the idea of powering an engine with wood was ridiculous, but after watching the YouTube films, I think I might like to try it. My wife is not keen on this idea.
the Walnut Diary 