dave110

Looking under yesterday the suggestion I gave would work pretty well I believe. Might have to enlarge the existing hole a little. If you didn't like that here's another. There's a pretty large hole above in the frame side. Super glue a washer to the nut of your choice to hold them together. Now get if you don't already have one of those flexible neck magnets. Wrap tape around the outside of the magnet so it doesn't stick to the frame and feed it through. Might take a few tries to get everything lined up. Personally I hate to weld on a vehicle. Especially when they have electronics as sensitive and old as ours.If you go that route don't forget to disconnect the batteries.

I'll be under mine tomorrow so I'll have to take a closer look. For now here's something to ponder. Take a pc. of say 3/8" thk. x 1/2" wide x 2" long flat stock. Drill and tap a 5/16-18 hole in the middle. Put it up into the hole and use a magnet or whatever to slide it back into place. The flat stock will span the hole already there and you have a new hole for the bolt to thread into. All measurements are approximate because I don't know the hole size but you get what I'm saying? Same basic idea as a toggle bolt you put in dry wall.

60ft birch. That's some good fire wood. Too bad you live so far away. I could disappear that tree for you . Leaf pickup leaves something else to consider. Some mowers have high lift blades that create a higher velocity to pick up and blow the leaves into the bagger. Works OK for light, dry leaf pickup. discharge pipes clog frequently if wet or heavy leaf piles. My Ariens has a blower attachment that fastens on to where the discharge chute was and is driven from a belt off of a mower deck pulley. It's about a 12 inch fan and moves some air. It sucks up wet leaves much better and a clogged pipe is a rarity. Something to consider if you'll be doing a lot of leaf pick up. Not trying to sell you on what I have it's just what I can speak personally about.

Another thing that comes to mind is decks. Many of the quality mowers like Mikes Hustler and my Ariens have fabricated decks instead of stamped steel. Fab decks are heavier gauge steel and welded instead of stamped thin sheet metal. Guys like us can keep the mechanical parts going for years but when the deck falls apart a replacement is just too expensive to justify for an old tractor. Just something to keep in mind a fab deck will last a long time if cleaned up regular. Now with Ariens the ICON is a Briggs engine with a stamped deck while the ICON-X like mine is a Kohler engine with fab deck. A couple hundred more $ but worth it in the end.

Depends greatly on how much you have to mow, how much money you have, and how good you are at fixing things. Being you have a 2001 Dodge you're obviously no stranger to fixing things. I made it through the first 20 years of property ownership on used but quality riders and equipment. Always fixing something but I enjoy that. When Dad passed he had just bought an Ariens ICON-X very similar to what is shown above in price and quality and size. I bought it back from the estate and finally have something I use more than I fix. But if you don't have a 10 acre field that needs to be mowed in an hour $2800 is a lot to spend. If you do go used pick a quality used piece. Or even if you go new. Remember a Lowes John Deere is not the same as a Real John Deere. Around here the Columbia brand is getting a lot of attention. It is Troy Bilt's commercial brand if I understand correctly and is reasonably priced. The Troy Bilt brand cheaped out when the big box stores started selling them. Parts for almost any of them are pretty easy to get in my area. The ROTARY brand is an aftermarket parts supplier that carries many parts for many machines. Hope this helps. Hills are better going up and down instead of across especially when wet. Less psi in the rear tires helps traction a bit.

Love to see a picture of it

And don't forget to soak the axle nut. Have a big breaker bar and a pipe and break it loose before you get the tire off the ground. Man alive that thing can be tight. With my dually hub extensions I need can't reach the nut without removing the wheel and extension first. I need to stick a big pry bar across the wheel lugs to hold while I break the axle nut loose. I swear sometimes the studs will break first. No, I don't like hammering on the axle shaft, joints, carrier with an air impact either.

I'm going through this right now too to replace my Rancho's. Like @AH64ID I will never buy them again. I bought them to replace whatever was on due to a bounce issue and they were no better than what I took off. I should have sent them back. And the finish was terrible. After 3-4 years they are rusted worse than the rest of the 20 year old truck. Not impressed at all. So after thoroughly confusing myself with the many choices on Rock Auto I narrowed it down to KYB and Gabriel Max controls. I went with the Gabriel because it looked like a better shock for the money IMHO. Time will tell how they work out.

Wish they'd lose a drum back here to PA. Sounds like good stuff. Too bad the general public can't get it.

Pretty much anything without paint............

I already have that . Looking for something to help the front as well. Maybe pull my breather tube off? Remember how the old Harleys had a device that injected engine oil on the drive chain? That's what I need. A one shot lube system for the underside. Looking forward to hear about this Boeshield T9.

Very sad situation to say the least. These people are in my thoughts and prayers daily. If only I could send some east coast rain out there. We're coming off the wetest summer in history and winter is looking to be much the same. Best wishes to you @KATOOM and you friends and family

^^X2. Only 2 things will kill these trucks. Electronics issues, and rust. I spent 1/2 hr. under mine with a pressure washer last weekend blowing the salt off that I picked up on my hunting trip. Do it every time I drive in that crap as soon as I can. I've often thought of coating the underside with diesel and drain oil but have yet to do it. @ofelas, what is this T9 Boeshield you speak of, where do you get it, how much Hygard do you mix in, and how do you apply it? Sorry, that's a lot of questions. I assume drain oil would work too? I stock lots of that.

I like that idea. I'll try it the next time. Biggest issue I have is getting those dang rusted fast circlips out . Whats the secret to them? I see now you have a front drive shaft. I'm speaking of the circlips in an axle shaft. Not sure if drive shaft is the same without looking.

gAhhh, Geno's. I keep forgetting them. 1.3 hrs and done. Barely enough time for 3 beers

Maybe apply a little chicken grease? Sorry. I seem to remember over the years a place where TSB's were listed for our trucks. Was that on this site or somewhere else? Or was I just dreaming again?

Gotcha. I've been there already. But what to do if those connections are loose?

Any idea what the fix was? I'm gonna make sure the screws are tight but if it's a bad connection I don't know what to do.

I made a boost bolt for mine long before I knew of the above location. If I'd have to do it again I'd do like above.

I have been getting an intermittent no bus message since July or so. It had went away until my hunting trip last week. When it happens I of course lose all my gauges, but I can pick them up on my ScanGage2 through the OBD port. It seemed to happen on rough road so out of curiousity I tapped, or more like punched the cluster and everything came back up. This happened a few times. Since I can read speed, tach, etc. through the OBD port when the dash goes blank is it safe to assume that the problem is a loose cluster? Just trying to narrow it down before I start the long drawn out testing process.

And my 95 PSD that I had for 14 years and 165k miles only replaced 1 alternator because it quit charging. Never even heard of AC noise back then and no ECM, PCM, or other computer related issues at all. And those glow plugs take alot of juice too. Used to pull the volt meter down as far as these Cummins grids do. Now it ate glow plug relays for breakfast due to over heating but never an alternator diode problem.

Knew it was coming! @IBMobile must have the largest collection of chicken memorabilia in the world

It's not discrimination, just a little fowl play

If he gets drunk again I'll take the next one . That's a cool piece. For myself it would probably go on my front bumper in the holes provided for the front receiver hitch that I don't use. I would worry about it getting lifted though. Damn people steal anything these days.

Now that you bring those up, whats the general consensus on that these days? Was quite a controversial thing on CF years ago. Many said it was so tight you could barely turn the wheel. I shied away from it. Maybe those issues have been fixed?