Farmall Cub

I went over to the in-laws house today to mow the yard. My father-in-law passed away awhile back and my mother-in-law is in a home with Alzheimer's. We want to rent the house again but in the mean time I have to keep the yard mowed. The next door neighbor's son is 10 years old and just last night I called them to see if they would let him mow it this summer. I figured that would be a great job for a young kid. Anyway, the neighbors weren't home so I left a message with the young mans grandma to pass along. Not hearing from them by this evening I went over there to mow. My father-in-laws mower is a MTD Cub Cadet that is a piece of junk that he got from another neighbor for a couple of hundred dollars. I didn't want to have to try to keep that running all summer long which was another reason for farming the mowing out.

Anyway, I figured I'd have one last time mowing. The grass was too tall to let it it go another day. Yeah,one more time and I'd hopefully be done with it.

I got the front yard mowed and was 2/3 done with the back yard when I noticed some smoke. At first I wasn't too concerned because it uses oil but when I changed directions I could smell something burning. I quickly shut it down and pulled the hood. Flames shot up from the front of the engine around the PTO clutch area. The tractor was near a grove of pine trees so I disengaged the hydrostatic transmission and pushed it out into the yard to get it away from the trees. I went to the garage and found a plastic jug and filled it with water and doused the flames. It's a little crispy now and won't be repaired by me. On the plus side, the neighbor kid is wanting to mow the yard with their mower. I just need to work out the details with his dad.

Glad you weren't hurt. You might be able to get some cash out of it if the tranny is still working ok. Then if you're like me, you'd be happy just to get rid of it any way you could.

Wow! Glad you're ok and nothing else was destroyed. Was it leaking oil from the main shaft seal? She obviously got pretty HOT! Didn't know they'd get that hot.

A fire is how I obtained my 680. It was pretty much melted. Hot enough to distort the aluminum carb, and it only showed 25 hrs on the meter. I bought it from the insurance company, and have been using it for 20 yrs now. (owner lost the gas cap and stuck a rag in it. Parked next to the gas water heater in the garage) Luckily, only smoke damage in the house, and no-one was hurt.

Glad your ok a fire is scary.

My '59 Buick convertible had a carb fire. By the time I seen smoke it was too late I pulled the fire alarm box on the street corner. I was just a kid.

Same thing happened to me once using a used mower that my dad brought home to mow at our farm. It had a vertical shaft engine with the PTO under the frame of the tractor. Turned out the thing was packed full of grass & oil and when she got hot (after mowing for 3 hours) I started to smell smoke. Stopped by a row of trees to take a look and the next thing I knew one of the cedar bushes had flames 25-feet in the air.

One of the first things I do when I'm done mowing is to use the leaf blower to blow the grass and debris out of the tractor. I open the hood, do the mower deck covers, up under the frame, and the rear end. You wouldn't believe how much cut grass gets pulled up into these areas. Also, with the use of electric PTO clutches, it's not real good to use a garden hose or pressure washer to do this. Sure, it's fine once or twice a year, but eventualy they will fail due to the water. The leaf blower is the way to go!!!

gitractorman wrote:...
One of the first things I do when I'm done mowing is to use the leaf blower to blow the grass and debris out of the tractor. I open the hood, do the mower deck covers, up under the frame, and the rear end. You wouldn't believe how much cut grass gets pulled up into these areas. Also, with the use of electric PTO clutches, it's not real good to use a garden hose or pressure washer to do this. Sure, it's fine once or twice a year, but eventualy they will fail due to the water. The leaf blower is the way to go!!!

Bill,
I've been doing that on our Husqvarna since we got it in 2001. I even got the boys - oops - young men trained to do it. We have 700 hours on the tractor.
Peter

My practice also. And the tractor is even green.

I used to have a White rider It wasn't too bad a mower, but had a design flaw in that the muffler was a large square unit mounted low on the front. I was blowing leaves out of the yard just before dark one evening when I noticed smoke and a little flame coming out the grass discharge. I swung it away from all the leaves piled up where the woods bordered our yard, and got it about 30 yards from the house before I bailed off and let the seat switch shut it down. When I got off and got a look at it, leaves had piled up in front of the muffler and finally ignited. The blades were sucking the flames under the deck and keeping them away from anything until I shut it down. Had I left the deck running, all probably would have been ok. By the time I got back with an extinguisher it was burned out. As it turned out, the only problems were a damaged deck drive belt and some minor darkening of the paint on the frame.

Yep,
The fire's can be scary. Glad all involved are safe.
I always try to keep the grass cleaned out from all my cub cadets. Pretty easy to get behind though.