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Post by bobbbiez on Feb 8, 2009 11:50:29 GMT -5
 Hey Swimmy, that's a damn good idea! Good thinking for a young attorney.  We should all bid on it to push up the price of sale. ;D
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Post by Clipper on Feb 8, 2009 13:14:15 GMT -5
I was thinking it would work quite well here in the south for those that seem to think it prudent to drive 5 mph below the speed limit and to remain in the left lane all the time.
Hell, if I mounted that on the front of my pickup, I could knock 10 minutes off of every trip to Johnson City. Just slowly ease up behind the morons, and grind em up and spit them out on the edge of the road, where a sweeper and the sheriff's litter patrol can take care of them. I could even take the truck in and have "Jaws" and a picture of a great white shark airbrushed on the tailgate. Yep, and maybe a fibreglass dorsal fin for the roof.
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Post by Swimmy on Feb 9, 2009 6:43:26 GMT -5
That's also a possibility, but the ad says pick up only. You gonna be able to tow it back to TN?
It took me a minute to realize you weren't talking about Johnson City, NY.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 9, 2009 7:24:05 GMT -5
That WOULD be a major drawback. Looking at that behemoth for a second time, I see that with it properly mounted to the front of my 4x4 pickup, I would need a periscope to see over it and drive. As far as the "pick up only" clause, I have to think it weighs much more than 1/2 ton, and my truck is only a 1/2 ton pickup, and to load that thing in the back OR mount it on the front would most likely blow the tires or break the springs.
AH BUT TO IMAGINE and envision the possibility of grinding up and spitting out those discourteous left lane drivers. It was a vision that brought an evil sense of satisfaction to my heart, if only for a fleeting moment, LOL.
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Post by dgriffin on Feb 9, 2009 8:31:00 GMT -5
I've never told anyone this, but Mrs. Dave is a left lane driver! Or had been, I should say, until one day I discovered the cure.
We were on our way somewhere and deep into a long day of interstate driving when I let her take the reins, but of course not without giving my short lecture on "How To Drive Like You're a Man," which never fails to upset her. (It used to amuse her, for the first 30 years.) I say it just to get her blood pressure up, because I'm sure that puts her more on the alert.
She is actually a very good driver, except for her habit of getting out in the left land and holding court there. I get nervous when other drivers come up behind us, flash their lights and almost kiss the bumper. Such antics don't phase her in the least. One afternoon, when the fellow behind us was eventually able to pass us on the right, he gave me the finger as he drove by my window and shouted something I couldn't hear, but could imagine from the look on his face. I turned my palms up and rolled my eyes and pointed to Mrs. Dave. His complete countenance changed and he rolled his eyes and took off in swirl of dust and understanding.
"What was that about," the love of my life asked.
"The man behind us was surprised you were so young and pretty," I replied.
"He was?"
"Yes," I said. "You probably haven't read the report on the Internet, but it's now well known that only old ladies stay out in the left lane."
She has kept right ever since.
Well, most of the time.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 9, 2009 11:14:13 GMT -5
Left lane drivers and people who never use a turn signal are my two biggest pet peeves with Southern drivers. NY state will give you a ticket for driving in the left lane. My dad got his ONLY ticket for driving in the left lane of the old RT 12 back in the 50's, because the right lane was too damn bumpy. (it was still a concrete 4 lane back then, and quite worn and cracked in the right hand driving lane. )
It also seems a habit here to simply pull up and stop in the middle of the road, and let the people behind you try and guess what your next move may be. Usually if they are looking to the right, you can bet that it is an indication that they are going to go left, and are just looking right to fake you out.
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Post by Swimmy on Feb 9, 2009 18:26:55 GMT -5
NY state will give you a ticket for driving in the left lane. My dad got his ONLY ticket for driving in the left lane of the old RT 12 back in the 50's . . . . Boy times have changed. I got pulled over for passing on the right on I-90. The bastard in the left lane was doing an even 50 and refused to pull over. So I pulled over and cruised back up to 65 (I saw the cop up a ways and decided to keep it to 65 until I passed out of his range). Cop pulled me over. He had a fight on his hands and walked away with a warning . . . |
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Post by dgriffin on Feb 9, 2009 23:25:21 GMT -5
NY state will give you a ticket for driving in the left lane. My dad got his ONLY ticket for driving in the left lane of the old RT 12 back in the 50's . . . . Boy times have changed. I got pulled over for passing on the right on I-90. The bastard in the left lane was doing an even 50 and refused to pull over. So I pulled over and cruised back up to 65 (I saw the cop up a ways and decided to keep it to 65 until I passed out of his range). Cop pulled me over. He had a fight on his hands and walked away with a warning . . .Hahahaha! A good reason to be a lawyer! |
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Post by clarencebunsen on Feb 13, 2009 20:20:52 GMT -5
If Utica's snowblower is "over the top" for you, here is one that every New York homeowner should have www.popsci.com/node/30913Piping the coolant through the handle was the feature that sold me. |
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Post by dgriffin on Feb 13, 2009 23:47:43 GMT -5
Hahaha! I had a home made garden tractor like that once. Built by a guy who happened to have a spare rear end from a '50 Ford and a transmission from a '39 Chevy laying around his garage, along with 3 inch angle iron and a horizontal 15 hp B&S engine. Sold it to me for fifty bucks. That thing could pull a plow through the dirt like nobody's business. But I was always adjusting his favorite solution for linkages ... cable.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 14, 2009 13:05:13 GMT -5
In the late seventies I live up on the tughill plateau and the snowfall was ridiculous. A neighbor and myself built a "doodlebug" out of an old chevy truck frame. We used the chevy chassis, but put a Ford 300 C.I.D. engine on the chassis, backed up by TWO 5 speed transmissions. The damn thing would pull a house away, and we never had any trouble pushing snow with it, but we took it in the woods that summer to pull logs out and while it would gear down to where the wheels just barely turned, we snapped several drive shafts trying to pull more than the driveline could handle. The blade lift was made by using pulleys and cable, and a second steering wheel to the right of the driver, that had a suicide knob and when you cranked up the blade, there was a gear on the shaft that served no other purpose than to allow the driver to drop a ratcheting dog into that gear to hold the blade up. The blade was homemade from hardwood 2x10's and angle iron.
I remember one summer many years ago, there were garden tractor pulls at the Taberg Firemen's field days. There was a garden tractor there with a V-8 car engine mounted on it. ow THAT was a tractor to contend with. LOL. Bobbbiez should go after THAT one instead of my wimpy little 18 horse, haha.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 14, 2009 13:23:42 GMT -5
Ya know dave, your tractor that could pull a plow gives me an idea. I have a 5hp tiller that sat out behind the garage when we bought the house. I tinkered with it an got it running, and replaced the valves and piston rings. Although I always have to garden done by a neighbor with a farm tractor and a 6 foot tiller. I have a Honda Harmony small tiller for cultivating. I wonder if I can engineer the modification to build a REAR tine tiller out of that old junker. Not that I need a rear tine tiller, but it would be a fun welding and mechanical project to play around with on rainy days. You know, one of those "putter jobs" that guys our age seem to get involved with occasionally, haha.
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Post by dgriffin on Feb 14, 2009 13:56:53 GMT -5
It might work. Certainly, rear tines are a lot easier to use. It's too bad that by the time I could afford one, my garden dwindled in size such that I really couldn't really justify one. Today, my garden is down to about 20 by 30 feet.
But to what did my wondering eyes appear one day 2 years ago as I dropped off metal at the town dump, but a complete Sears rear tine tiller! It looked beat up and the engine head was pulverized. The rear cowling was all bent up from being dumped off the back of a truck. And it was the smaller model, 14 inches.
Of course, I brought the little orphan home. The clincher was the tiller utilized a 5 hp horizontal engine, just like the one on my very old John Deer front tine I'd been messing with for years. I could simply swap the Deere's engine onto the Sears.
Was a little more difficult than I anticipated, but when complete, it worked like a charm and it truly was much easier to use than my old front tine.
For about a week. Then the damned engine began to give me trouble. There's a long story behind the engine, but I won't go into it. Suffice to say, this was the second time it burned up a connecting rod and probably scored the crank shaft. Late in the summer we had a porch sale, and I figured I'd get rid of it. Through a pricing misunderstanding between myself and Mrs. Dave (so she says), milady sold the tiller to some guy for $7 while I was down at the hardware store that afternoon. That's SEVEN DOLLARS!
He got a good deal, I think. Told my wife he likes to fix small engines. I'll let him deal with the crankshaft.
So, I'm now without a tiller. I thought of buying one, but I don't know at this point. I may not have a garden if we move. Last year, I found my old set of disks in the bushes out behind the field and dragged them around the garden in cirlces with my lawn tractor. They're a neat little set, very old. There are two lines of six discs, one in front of the other, each about 40 inches wide. they came with the handmade tractor I mentioned. (I sold that tractor, the buyer didn't want the discs.) I had already sold two
nice 4x5 foot spring tooth harrows a few years ago.
But the disk did a nice job, sort of like a spike harrow they use for "no-till." I bought an straight-shaft grass trimmer, which I needed in any case, and the attachment that works like a Mantiss. Did a nice job.
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Post by Clipper on Feb 14, 2009 15:25:15 GMT -5
I had a similar crankshaft problem with a mower I overhauled a few years ago. I took a small engine course while working in the base fire department many years ago. I enjoyed tinkering with the small engines so I bought a cyclinder hone, a valve lapping device, a couple of different valve spring depressors, a flywheel removal tool and other stuff. I put about 35 bucks into overhauling one small Techumseh vertical engine and it siezed a couple of weeks later. I had replace the bearings, the pistons and the valves, but had no way to grind the crank or to tell that it was bent a little. The engine ran fine for a while and then simply went all to hell in about a minute flat, haha. I still pick up old mowers beside the road, and put them back in running order if they look to be worth fixing, and then I either sell them or give them away. I recently bought an old reel type "REO" brand mower at an auction for $10. I doesn't start, It is a 50's vintage, vertical Briggs with a cast iron block. I am hoping to be able to make it run again. You cannot beat the smooth cut you get with a reel mower, and not that I would do the whole lawn with it, I would love to play with it, haha.
I had a mantiss tiller, and loved it, but when I received the honda harmony from Kathy's cousin one year for Christmas, I gave away the mantiss. The honda engine is much more dependable and the tiller is a little easier to handle. Both do about the same job quality wise.
Sears is selling a craftsman weedeater that can convert to different configurations, such as a tiller, edger, pole saw, and a sweeping broom. Pretty neat. I may have to buy one, just because I think it is so neat, haha.
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Post by dgriffin on Feb 15, 2009 17:24:18 GMT -5
I always thought I'd get a Mantiss or the similar Troy built item. A friend has a Mantiss and likes it, as you did. But last year, I think the price of any of them was near $400 and I just couldn't justify it. Although, I think by the time I bought the straight-shaft and the tiller attachment, I think I probably spent about $150
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Hey Swimmy, that's a damn good idea! Good thinking for a young attorney. 
