G'day Max

Half the fun is fixing a broken item with spares bits 'n pieces you have
lying around. LOL

After the Cox was just about totally rebuilt and strengthened we bought
a garden tractor, an old Howard actually, and it would drive up a
vertical wall. We were fortunate that the seller had the implements for
it, there was a grader blade, single furrow plough, ripper and a
home-made disc plough so this combination was fabulous, plus of course
it had a slasher. Then we made a tipping trailer that was 'the' most
useful item in a big garden...it looked funny because it had Mini Minor
wide wheels with slick (worn out) tyres and was heaps better than any
wheelbarrow.

Because this garden tractor was constantly in use doing other things and
I couldn't get the lawn mown, I bought a demo model Honda ride-on with a
39" (1 metre) cut and a nice gearbox with reverse....so much nicer to
drive than a Cox could ever be!! We fabricated a trailer hitch which
meant I could cart chain saw/spray gear/whipper snipper/tools/dog/etc
etc to wherever I wanted to work on the place (12 acres), then unhitch
the trailer and start mowing.

Both the Howard and Honda could mow up the very, very steep dam wall
over large rocks.....like you've mentioned. At the chute in the mower
deck (where grass/rocks/etc used to be ejected at a million miles an
hour) we fitted short lengths of chain as you see on large slashers,
this stopped stones/rocks being flung everywhere.

I used to mow along the side of our road for about a klm each side,
although had to remove small saplings with the chain saw so I could fit
the Honda through...also did this around the dam area and the whole
place used to look like a park when mown. Also good to keeping snakes
at bay as there was no where for them to hide.

Because I live in town now I'm not up to date with ride-ons but would
recommend you get one with a comfy and well sprung seat, this is
important if you have to mow a few acres. The Honda had headlights too,
which always made me smile, but this also meant it had an electric
start....so then an old car radio with headphone socket was my next
luxury. Gee, might as well be well set up when mowing so much grass!!!

Bronwyn ;-)

Max wrote:
HC wrote:

G'day Max

Phew...now I'm searching the old grey matter because we had exactly
the same problem with a Cox many years ago, although it was only one
of the many problems!! Don't start me!! LOL

What we did was cut a bracket from some gal angle and attach it to the
mower deck (can't remember exactly where). Attached to the bracket was
a roller bearing that came out of something else that was lying
around...our spare parts dept was a bit of a dog's breakfast and
contained all sorts of stuff. All good for something at some time or
other!!! LOL

Anyway, the bracket that was attached to the mower deck meant that the
belt had to run in a fairly tight space and couldn't fling itself off
the pulley. I seem to remember that we bought an incorrect size belt
(on purpose) too, but can't think if it was larger or smaller. I do
remember though, that we tried a breakable link belt but that was
disastrous, they are easy to fit but stretch like crazy.

Sorry I can't be anymore specific, it was a longggg time ago, but hope
this might start the ball rolling.

Bronwyn ;-)



G'day Bronwyn.

That was the first thing I said to him! How about a spring loaded idler
wheel? Great minds ay! :-) He did look at me a bit strangely though! LOL.

Your spare parts dept. sounds just like the kind I like. My wife can't
understand why I want to have all this junk laying around, she isn't
into fabricating things like I am. But is ever so happy when I fix
things for nothing with just a piece of old steel and a few bolts I had
in or behind the shed.

I was hoping someone had tried the idler wheel approach. You probably
used a smaller belt so that it sat down deeper in the pulleys, is my
guess. And I will stay away from breakable link belts, regardless of
what ride on we buy.

Thanks for your reply Bronwyn.

-Max



Max wrote:

G'day.

Looks like a nice friendly newsgroup you have here.

I was wondering if any of you good people would know a fix for a Cox
ride-on mower that throws belts? My next door neighbour wants to
sell his 6 year old Cox mower for $1,000. But he also doesn't want
to sell it because it has thrown belt on a regular basis since it was
new. He reckons that his ears would never stop burning! :-) He says
it's a twin rotor with a belt that you just about need a road map to
replace.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

-Max