I got up this morning with the best of intentions to mow the west meadow. It is the only area that hasn't been under water in the last few weeks-had a back yard full on 3 separate occasions in the past week-the water just went out for the third time today. I walked the ground and thought it was dry enough for the Jinma with the 60" finish mower, so mounted the mower and went in to the field-no dice, it was too heavy and was leaving ruts.

Decided to get the lawn tractor and use it instead. Thats when I noted that both the riding mowers needed servicing and washed, so went ahead and washed both of them, sharpened blades, greased them, noted the filter numbers so I can get oil filters and change the oil, and then went ahead and mowed the field. The grass is already 10 - 12 inches high in some areas, so I had to run pretty slow. Also had several areas that were pretty muddy, but got through them.

I wanted to get this done to chop up the debris left after we cleared all of the branches the ice storm knocked down-pretty hard on the mower, but will really help for the second mowing.

We are expecting as much as 3 - 8 inches of rain in the next 3 days, so the water will be back up again in a few days. I still have about 4 acres left to clean up the fallen trees, branches, and the debris brought in by the flood waters, so it will be a while.

I'm going to build a platform for the top of the hay forks tomorrow, about 6' X 4', and use it to stack firewood I cut from the falls, also use it to move the branches too small to cut into wood to a pile for burning. I have been using the FEL to push some of the debris on the perimeter of the tree line out of the mowing path, hoping that the branches will deteriorate in several years.

As soon as it dries out, I will run over the entire pasture areas with a rough harrow, then seed, and follow up with a fine harrowing in of the seed. May use some lime and fertilizer also.

All in all, it looks like the storms and floods are going to account for about half of my summer to get the place cleaned up.

Still got to get the wifes pool in, and do the garden whenever the rain stops and the ground dries up enough to plow.

Looks like a good summer for tractor time!

Well...the power just came back on after 5 days of darkness. We had an ice storm throughout SE Missouri that has wiped out a good number of trees, felled power lines, frozen water pipes in unheated homes, and made driving almost impossible for 3 days. I just took my first hot shower in 5 days this morning.

Snorkel has been busy cleaning up the carnage-even with a wounded hydraulic pump, she justs gets better and better.

I put the bale carrier on the 3 point, raise it up, and raise the bucket off the ground before I load it, and then go around and cut the felled branches, putting the firewood in the bucket, and the branches on the bale carrier.

Then take the branches to the burn pile, and the firewood to the wood stack. Then, go back with a log chain, and pull the branches that are hanging in the trees, or still attached to the trees, and start the process all over.

Worst part of it is, I am doing a lot of damage to the turf I have been trying to improve for the last 8 years. No way around that problem, as the branches and limbs must go! While it would be nice to have a set of turf tires, I would be switching them around with the AG tires so often that I would'nt get much work done.

The tractor has been indispensible for the cleanup process. I still have to get back into the forest when I take care of everything around the house. Right now, it looks like a war zone all around the neighborhood.

I always worried about having enough to do when I retired....but with this old house and the help of Mother Nature, I don't have to worry!

Headed across a soybean field Saturday, only to discover it was quite muddy. Rears were slipping while chugging up a slope so I decided to shift it into 4WD. Recalled reading in forum that someone said to turn front wheels slightly while slowing rolling and engage 2WD/4WD lever.... it worked like a charm... no hangups or grinding, or anything. Pulled me up the slope with ease.

The 284 is a great workhorse! Remembered to take it out of 4WD when onto the level, solid ground.

Reminded me of last spring when I got the pickup stuck in mud next to the pond. The tractor hadn't been delivered yet, but my wife's transgender brother (now a 52 year old woman) stopped by with three of his/her friends.... presumably also all former guys. I got them to all climb into the back of the pickup, and the added weight and a little rocking got me unstuck!

Wish I had a camera.... a truckload of transvestites!

Started to take the gear and bearing assembly for the pump coupling apart...and then thought I should call my dealer to see how the parts came.

The call resulted in a lucky find. Dealer had just received a new engine, and could take the entire assembly, the coupling, bearings, and gear, inside the housing, and send it to me.

I have that on the way, plus a new seal kit for the pump.

Should be reassembly time next week if parts are here.

Funny how when a tractor is down, you have a use for it everyday!

I pulled the hydraulic pump today, took about 30 minutes, disconnect both liquid lines, then take out 4 bolts holding the pump to the tractor. This results in you totally disassembling the pump as these bolts hold the ends of the pump together also.

checked out the condition of the pump and the seals-all looked good. Can't find any reason why the pump isn't working.

Decided to remove the plate the pump is mounted to in order to see if the coupling is bad-then found out I could have removed the pump in one piece in about 5 minutes by removing 2 bolts, and still get the coupling out. What a deal!

The drive coupling is bad. There is a male tang on the pump that fits into a female slot on the drive coupling-but the tang just turns inside the coupling on my tractor-the femaqle slot is worn out. I've pulled the entire coupling assembly-the casting that holds the coupling-with its 2 bearings and the drive gear on the coupling shaft.

Now I will remove the bearings, and the gear, then discard the coupling shaft, and install the bearings and the gear on the new coupling shaft i have ordered from my dealer.

Then the process of reassembly, not so difficult now that I have discovered that I can assemble the entire pump assembly and then mount it with 2 easy to reach bolts.

Will send some pictures to another member that knows how to post them on this site so others can see what I am talking about.

Waiting for parts....

Looks like I have the first major problem with "snorkle" since I bought her. Looking at 400 hours now. Yesterday, I used the tractor to move 4 buckets of dirt with the FEL, then levelled the dirt with the box blade. Parked the tractor in the shed when I finished.

Today, came out and plugged the LRH heater in for about an hour, then started up the tractor. I let it warm up to operating temp, then pulled the stick to raise the FEL-nothing, no engine bogging down, not a quiver from the loader. Next I tried to raise the blade, again, nothing.

Can't comprehend how it can go from working to not working at all when all that happened was that it was parked overnight!

Started looking for the problem:

Pulled the Hy fluid filter and cleaned it.
Checked hy fluid for level and any moisture-all OK
pulled the diverter valve off and cleaned it-no change
disconnected the factory QC's, cleaned & reconnected-no change
Had no steering, tried deadheading in each diredtion-no change

Checked for pressure at several points in the system-no pressure.

Out of time and energy for today. Will pursue problem, take off hy pump in next several days.

I spent the entire weekend using the tractor, moving dirt and mulch. Then used the hoe to dig holes for 5 more fruit trees, and planted the trees.

Had my 2 granddaughters help pick up sticks and branches all over the place, put them in the bucket, with the longer ones accross the bale carrier on the back, and then took the whole mess to the burn pile.

Then I removed the handicapped ramp from the front steps, just backed the bale carrier under it and loosened it from the porch, and drove away with it-stored it in the back of the barn.

Just when I was ready to call it a day and put Snorkel away, the neighbor called. He had a 1905 KRUPP 77 mm cannon, weighing 3,400 pounds on the car hauler, having picked it up in Grand Rapids Michigan the day before, and could I bring the tractor over and help him unload it from the car hauler?

I came over with the tractor, and after blocking the rear end of the trailer, we commenced to ponder how we would roll the canon off of the beavertail on the back of the trailer. After many seconds of ponderin, we decided to hook a log chain into the eye bolt on the tail of the cannon, connect the other end of the log chain to the tractor rear hitch, roll the cannon back to the end where the beavertail ramp started, then put the tractor in low side, roll the cannon just far enough onto the beavertail ramp that it would continue to keep rolling, and then put the tractor in reverse and let it gradually lower the cannon down the ramp onto level ground.

The plan worked perfectly, and from there it was easy to roll the big wheels and put the cannon inside the building.

Before we out the cannon away, we had to fire a dummy round thru the rechambered 50 caliber barrell just to see if it would work - woke the whole town (14 houses) up real quick!

A good end to a good day!

Hi there !
I have an FT404 and it doesn't start well in the morning, since its not winter yet .... I also noticed that lacks of power in the 8th gear. Could anybody have any idea why this happens, since it has only 3 hours on the dash.
Its the injector pump?

Thank you guys .
excellent site !
Avenue

Well...I've had a good week with Snorkle. Spent 2 days using the tractor to carry lattice and framing material to enclose 60 feet of back porch from the ground up 5 feet to the base of the porch. The top of the bucket, when leveled, makes a good platform for cutting boards and pounding on things!

Then had a load of dirt delivered, and spent about 5 hours filling in some low spots in the yard, and trying to remediate the mole damaged areas. The FEL is indispensible! Next day I hauled 3 tons of mulch from the pile to the rear of the porch to cover an 1800's vintage cistern dome. Again the FEL took most of the work out of the project.

Thursday, put on the bush hog, and mowed the garden off. Then installed the single bottom "potato plow" and plowed the garden. I plowed in high side, low range, second gear, 4WD. Ran the plow down almost to the 3 point crossbar, and it really broke up the dirt. There were some stretches where the tractor bogged down just a little, and the front wheels were slipping.

Friday rebuilt about 40 feet of board fence that I had the unfortunate luck to roll a large tree trunk into when trying to pick it up with the FEL. Had 4 five inch posts just snap like firecrackers when the stump rolled into the fence. End of day Friday both snorkel and I were ready for the weekend.

Bob

Well the JM354 finally arrived. Im now standing looking at three crates. Puttin the gloves on and turning on the tractor beam.