Garden Tractor Info

Because I am a John Deere fan I check in on this Yahoo forum frequently: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JohnDeereGardenTractorClub/ Stan is the main moderator for the group and is also a lawn and garden tractor mechanic. Joseph also moderates this forum as well as quite a few of the other garden tractor forums. Both guys are very helpful and knowledgeable. Another good John Deere forum with a huge amount a good information is WeekendFreedomMachines http://www.weekendfreedommachines.org/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

The Case garden tractor Yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/casegardentractors/ is a great resource. At the shop we have been combining two Case 446 garden tractors into one working tractor and repowering it. If you would like to check out the repower on the Case 446: http://www.jimsrepairjimstractors.com/case-repower-ingersoll.htm I told the owner I would find him an operators manual for the roto-tiller that came with them. I searched for quite a while and then asked on the Case Garden Tractor Forum. Within an hour at least two replies led me to where I could buy one.

Links to other brands of garden tractor Yahoo groups:

Wheel Horse garden tractors: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wheelhorsegardentractors/

Yanmar tractors: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yanmartractorownersgroup/

International Cub Cadet: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ihccubcadettractors/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ihcubloboyseries/

Gravely garden tractors: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gravelyclub/

Simplicity and Allis Chalmers: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SimplicityandAllisChalmersGardenTractors/

Bolens garden tractors: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thebolensclub/ and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BolensTractorsClub/

Massey Ferguson garden tractors: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masseyfergusongardentractors/

I check into quite a few other garden tractor groups that aren’t brand specific and some that host classified ads and wanted to buy ads. This is just a sample of my favorites.

I was surprised to find out Curtis Cabs isn’t making cabs for the garden tractors anymore. The smallest tractor they have a cab for is the John Deere 2210 or the Kubota BX 1800/2200. Where have I been? Someone called asking for a hard sided cab for a John Deere 455 garden tractor so I called Curtis. No luck. We have the Bercomac winter and summer garden tractor cabs but nothing hard sided. The Berco cabs are soft sided and quite light, and of course quite a bit less expensive. I’ve added a page to our web site: http://www.jimsrepairjimstractors.com/curtis-cab.htm showing the hard sided cabs from Curtis. They have a nice selection for the John Deere Gators, both the standard Gators and the HPX type Gators. Curtis has a handy snow plow / push blade for the Gator. A cab and a snow plow on a Gator would make a nice winter machine.

Our newest piece of equipment around the shop, and actually not having anything to do with garden tractors, is our new Bercomac 2 stage ATV snowblower. We’ve gotten quite a few calls and e-mails about this one already. I say already because here in Minnesota we haven’t gotten any snow yet. We hadn’t really paid any attention to the ATV market until we saw this snowblower in the Bercomac brochure. We did just a quick comparison of the differences between the Berco and the only one or two other manufacturers that offer ATV or 4 wheeler snowblowers. What stood out to us was the 23 Horse Power Kohler engine with a de-icing system. The competition has a 13 HP engine. This snow thrower also has a unique control saddle for the needed switches. A nice detail we liked was the electric chute rotation and chute deflector. The snow blower has it’s own dolly wheels for support and uses frames from WARN or Bombardier.

Jim is always thinking up something new and is trying to figure out how to make it work with a John Deere Gator. The Gator is about 12 inches wider than the snowblower. Of course this is not what they are made for, at least not yet. He’s picturing one of our Gators with a Curtis Cab and the Berco snowthrower going out to battle a winter storm. If you would like to see more ATV snow blower details, check out our web page: http://www.jimsrepairjimstractors.com/atv-snowblower.htm

This past year we have been expanding our web site and the information, services, and equipment we offer. It’s been an exciting change and a lot to learn. I (Bonnie) have been taking online classes and learning to make our web site, http://www.jimsrepairjimstractors.com, more professional and easy to use.

New for Jim is offering free outdoor equipment technical support. While he has always helped people repair garden tractors and other equipment while talking to them on the telephone and with e-mails, he is doing a lot more of it now. He doesn’t know all of the answers but he knows quite a bit, and he loves those garden tractors! A few times we have looked to the Yahoo garden tractor forums to get more ideas from guys who also love working on garden tractors and the attachments. I will add some links here to the many forums, it’s a good resource.

Even though it may seem the blog will only be about garden tractors, we’ll talk about some of the questions Jim gets e-mailed to him every day about all kinds of outdoor equipment and small engines.

So check back soon!