Update Update

[Heavy_Metal]

Thanks--I try to learn something each day!

This could get rather creative, and might be a new category for the board- maybe "over 6 feet tall, and no Miraphone players need apply" or something like that....

[Heavy_Metal]

Have I ever mentioned how much I love posting from my phone?

You almost need a microscope for some of those phones

[roweenie]

I don't know if this classifies as an update, but......

After waiting for some repair parts, I just got my 1972 Gravely 566 up and running for its 18th season (with me, that is) of spectacular mowing.

About 4 years ago, with the help of a special adaptor kit, I replaced the (tired) 12 hp. Kohler engine with a new 16 hp. Honda clone motor, and with its 3-blade, 52" mowing deck, it's simply unstoppable....

(Both pictures made and uploaded with a Samsung Note 3.....)

[Three Valves]

That Gravely is useless without a cup holder!!

[bisontuba]

That Gravely is useless without a cup holder!!

[roweenie]

That Gravely is useless without a cup holder!!

The only down side to that machine is that two hands are always needed to operate it.

But all is not lost....

[Dan Schultz]

I had a Gravely even older than that one that I kept going for years. At that time they were using a cone-shaped rubber power take off that I couldn't find a replacement for. I ended up making parts to make the drive direct. It was a bitch to start with everything engaged but still worked. Don't know what eventually happened to it.

[alfredr]

I have an older Gravely too. Division of Studebaker Corp. It should still be in my shed; I haven't looked at it for years. I think the magneto wasn't producing spark, but it is difficult to look for spark while you are pulling the start cord. I have other (repair) projects that haven't been updated for long times also. So...

No update on anything today.

[windshieldbug]

No update on anything today.

Thread killer.

[Michael Bush]

When you ship a package to the home of someone who works somewhere other than home, requiring a direct signature for the package is not helpful.

Thank you.

[roweenie]

I had a Gravely even older than that one that I kept going for years. At that time they were using a cone-shaped rubber power take off that I couldn't find a replacement for. I ended up making parts to make the drive direct. It was a bitch to start with everything engaged but still worked. Don't know what eventually happened to it.

Dan, I've seen machines with that configuration. There's a shop in West Virginia that specializes in older Gravely parts; I'll bet they would have what you need....

I'll keep this machine running as long as I will be cutting grass; I love it! I really prefer to have the mowing deck in front of me, rather than under me - it operates like a huge lawn mower.

I've contemplated getting a snow thrower attachment for it, but I've got plenty of kids, and an equal number of snow shovels......

[Three Valves]

Midnight Cowboy??

[MaryAnn]

Update: Wednesday I leave on my month-long travel trailer-hauling attempted cross country trip and back (AZ to VA, VA to NY, NY to AZ.)
I did a shakedown cruise to NM. The trailer hauls fine, I do not have any stamina to speak of, and the most "fun" is when you are doing 55 and the semis go flying by you at 85. First there is the push forward from behind as the bow wave hits the trailer, and then there is the suction after the bow wave, which pulls the trailer in towards the huge wheels of the semi. I was probably passed by a total of nearly 100 semis on the trip to and from, and it was very tiring. It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.
Now if I can just manage to not be traveling in sync with a tornado-producing weather front all the way from west to east, it will be somewhat easier. That must happen to cross country travelers on a frequent basis.

[roweenie]

Remember to vote bloke for president.

no free ponies, but low-priced bloke-becue for those who denounce the Democrat and Republican Parties.

Looks like good eatin', and the price of admission is more than reasonable, considering the circumstances.....

[roweenie]

It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.

That's interesting, because I find the exact opposite occurs up here in the Northeast. It's not uncommon to see two tractor trailers driving the speed limit (or under!) side by side, with a trail of 20 or more cars behind them, itching to pass....

[Dan Schultz]

It's National Donut Day!

[bort]

It doesn't help that many of them in this part of the country are going WAY over the speed limit. It's bad enough when they are doing 75, but when they go by at astronomical speeds it gets much more difficult.

That's interesting, because I find the exact opposite occurs up here in the Northeast. It's not uncommon to see two tractor trailers driving the speed limit (or under!) side by side, with a trail of 20 or more cars behind them, itching to pass....

I lived out east for all my life until last year, and never really saw that. What I actually saw is that as you go farther north on the east coast, the driving gets worse and worse. DC and Baltimore are bad enough, but Philly was worse, Jersey Turnpike is dangerous (ask Tracy Morgan!), NYC drivers are terrible, southern CT is nuts, and forget about Boston. Even New Hampshire and Maine are pretty bad. Driving in Minnesota is SO much easier than driving out east, I can hardly describe it.

The only good thing about driving out east is that the traffic is usually so horrible, during rush hour no one can even drive fast enough to make it dangerous. You just have to sit and wait it out.

[MaryAnn]

What I have seen back East is one semi is doing .5 mph more than the semi it wants to pass going up an incline, but rather than give up that .5 mph and fall in behind the "slower" one, that driver will choose to inch by at .5 mph faster and to hell with the lineup of cars who also want to pass at reasonable speeds. Out West, I have not seen that. Now in Amarillo taking a rest day on my longer trip to Virginia, I did have one instance of a semi wanting to pass another semi and neither of them able to hold the speed limit.

[Donn]

I venture out on long distance drives rather rarely, and the last time I was trapped by trailers it was travel trailers. On a 2 lane highway, so of course they weren't side by side, just end to end ... they might have started out that way, leaving a site together, or just ended up bunched up behind the slowest one, but there I was on winding river canyon road through the forest in the middle of the night at 50mph, behind some trailer rig who would brake for every curve etc., and 5 campers and trailers beyond to make it nearly impossible to pass. Nearly impossible. My passenger withheld comment.

[arpthark]

only 3 hours of elephant-room-ism left.

Someone should write a tuba-euphonium ensemble composition entitled, "Conference".

Every famous orchestral excerpt playing at once in various tempi with conspicuous tuning/timing/articulation issues?