It all begins with me trying to recover from a 24 hour flu that hit me like a Mack truck all while in 13 degree weather.
First I check the mousetraps that I set to keep the mice out of the tractor. I find no mice but, the little bastards stole the bait from the traps! No big deal, w/e. I hop on the Deere and of course it won’t start because it only fires when the throttle is set on low but the choke is at the other end of the throttle adjustment. I took it in to get it fixed but, they did not fix it, maybe that is why they are out of business. At this point I need my jump/power pack and of course the plastic it is made just shatters in cold weather. Who would ever need to use one in the cold, right? So I wedge the cables on and start the richual of quickly moving from slow to choke until it barely catches and starts running.
The idea was to blow the edge of the driveway back because the Polaris Ranger only weighs about 1000lbs so it can’t really push banks well. As many of you know I have a long(1500ft) and winding stone driveway. It starts off great up until the front tire goes off the edge and the tractor gets just about beached. After about a minute I get it unstuck and think to myself don’t do that again. As I continue onI realize the tractor does not really steer much at all with the blower attachment in the snow. By the time I get to the street I have beached it about 4 times. It would really nice if the blower was wider than the track!
So I get to the street and start clearing around the mail box when the front tire slips off the shoulder. The road was paved in 2007 and the county hasn’t bothered to rebuild the shoulder yet which is why I had to put the mailbox so close to the road and it got knocked over 5 times last winter by the county plow!!! Maybe if I paid more in taxes it be at least adequate. So now I try to get the thing out of the rut and it just slides all over the place as you may have guessed if you have ever gone off the shoulder. The rear wheels eventually slide into the rut. As I keep trying the rear wheels now work themselves almost into the ditch.
After running the 1500 ft back to the house I try to fire up the Ranger to tow out the POS DEERE. As you may have guessed the Ranger won’t start, I am thinking it is a frozen fuel line. Luckily I have the Dodge 4x4 at the house too. So I unbury it from the layers of ice and snow and drive it to the street where the Deere sits with the headlights point to the sky so as not to get hit by a car or plow. At this point I remember the trailer hitch is not on so I kind of hook the strap on the edge of the bumper and start pulling. It falls off but it moved enough to get the Deere out so I park the Deere and move the truck into the driveway.
When I get back to the house I started plowing out the parking area, etc. At this point I see a bungee on the ground and realize one of the chains is now falling off. Whatever, I keep going. I figured I would blow out by the Ranger which is off the driveway. Big mistake. Now the POS can’t get itself back on the driveway in reverse. Did I mention that reverse on the pos is so slow that you have no chancing of rocking your way out of anything?!? So I pull forward to blow a path so I can turn it around and pull out forward. Yep, you guessed it something in the yard jammed the blower and busted the pin. After getting the pos back in the garage I took another nice walk to the street to get the truck and take it back to the house.
CLIFFS: If it has an internal combustion engine it is a PITA. John Deere blowers are great for the yuppie driveways in developments but can’t handle anything that is not flat as glass.
Thanks for letting me rant about a bad night where everything went wrong. I have to go vomit now.
sooo what your saying is you are having enough money taken away from you that you won’t be called eccentric. You’ll just be crazy with all the poor people?
The worst part of snow blowing out your driveway is when you just get done and then the plow drives by and puts 3 feet of snow at the end of your driveway with the drivers laughing:banghead:
lol,I beached my silverado last night.Got in my driveway fine(after backing down my neighbors driveway then flooring it).Then started plowing it with my truck and wasn’t paying attention and was up in the air.Luckily a plow buddy came by and seen me.My grill,exhaust,wheels are all full of snow now.
antique Toro 724 works wonders here in suburbia… it gnawed through anything i pointed it at, rpms drop and the governor kicks in and it lugs down and does the job. i’m glad i didn’t spend the near $1k my neighbor spent on his tin POS that wouldn’t cut through the plow bank, i felt pity and gave him a hand with the plow bank and pushing his father’s car out of the bank and he returned the favor this morning and cleaned up the end of my driveway that blew in for me.
Sometimes it seems like it. In all fairness the truck and tractor are a bit older. One other thing, you can’t push the tractor when is in gear because if you get off the seat it shuts off! Safety switches are for idiots that run themselves over.
I have thought about it but, the Ranger really does a decent job and can manuver a lot easier in a driveway than a much longer truck. I think it would take 4 feet of snow to beach the Ranger. lol That Polaris awd drive is great and I just put about 400lbs of stone in the bed.
Yeah it is a 285 which has plenty of power but 2wd with chains is now where close to the awd Ranger without chains.
I might actually buy a walk behind Honda my bro has one that is siq. It blows snow at least 30 feet maybe 50 feet. He blows snow over his neighbor’s house.:carnut And if it does get stuck it is way easier to get than a 500lb tractor.
I have never been a fan of blowers on lawn tractors, I much prefer the blade. When you are ready to move up from that pussy 285 let me know, I can hook you up. BTW all you need to do is jump the switch under the seat to disable the kill switch, firdt thing I do to a lawn tractor.
its ok, My disc and back blade are in a snow bank in my yard someplace, I need to go find it now before someone hits it with a sled.
Not to mention I blew a power steering line on the tractor, not my lawn mower either. today will be wonderfull
