TheMilitantMechanic

Canopy V6.0 & "Swervin"

Tuesday, April 01 2008

We've tried 2 different canopies on the rough mowers. First was the fabric like the buggy tops. Second was a TuffTop, which went on easy, just got bent fast. This is a broke Club Car top. The frame is made of 1 5/8 fence post (16 GA) with the bends of 1 1/2 electrical EMT, cut to fit. So, about 6 hours labor and less than $30 in materials.. that's assuming you keep your wrecked tops.. I started with some 2 X 2 cut to 2" and drilled for a 3/8 bolt. The top pieces are welded on, use a level for positioning. The lower ones are tacked on. These will help hold the thing together while you work on it...

Cheesy Sign Design

Monday, March 31 2008

If this was a highway project, sign companies would have big problem (I think). I thought the way it was put together was a bit cheesy although it wasn't meant to be run over by a cart.. So I suppose this could be taken with a grain of salt. I thought it was strange that a 15 pound brass plate would be hung up with (2) 1/4 X 20 Allen head screws. Nothing against the Allen heads, but they were only 1/2 inch long. The sign was held to a post by a 1/4 X 2 aluminum bar about 2 feet long. So the Allen head screws held the sign on one side, and the bar was held on the signpost with (3) 1/4 X 20 Screws...

Club Car Terminal Stud Replacement - 2008

Thursday, March 20 2008

They said, "It won't run, but we know it's not the batteries". I said, :) okay.. It was the A2 stud burned off by a loose wire. Had to do a bit of research on how to fix this. Chuck at Jeffrey Allen, Club Car dealer, helped. Getting the old stud out, I broke the insulator. They do make a kit for this, and that's really what made this possible. We used a replacement terminal that we would normally use on a battery cable and brazed it to a 5/16 bolt We were able to crimp the brush wires to the terminal,then insert it into the new insulator bracket. That pretty much did it. If you didn't...

Reel Storage V2 - Jason Tyson - 2005

Wednesday, March 19 2008

Jason Tyson of Forest Lake Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mi. sent this Tip in. It's a reel rack setup for 6 reels, made mostly out of 2" square tubing with some heavy duty casters to move it easily. Click on the link for more pictures and blueprints....

Quick Parts Lookup for Filters - Eric Kulaas - 2005

Wednesday, March 19 2008

Through trial and error we came up with a system to ease the time to come up with the right filter. What we've done is use prefixes for our inventory. For example, all filters begin with the prefix "F" followed by "A" for air, "F" for fuel, "H" for hydraulic and "O" for oil. So, a hydraulic filter for a Toro 3100 would be a FH-34-7530. By using the inventory lookup, you can type in FA and go straight to the air filters, FH for hydraulics, etc. With a descriptive description for each item the part can be found quickly. We've continued using the mfgs part number for the ease of ordering. This is...

Water Logged Golf Carts - Eric Kulaas - 2005

Wednesday, March 19 2008

It's a beautiful winter day in FL. Temp is unbelievably warm for this time of year, about 75, water temp is about 71, also good. It never ceases to amaze me how these things always happen right at lunch time. You get a call on the radio, just as you've sat down for a bite to eat. "Could you meet me out at the lake by 4". Fortunately, we have a few divers on our staff and one went home to get his gear. This water isn't very clear and the lakes are manmade and deep. This was in about 20 feet of water. First thing we tried to do was recover the personal items. Then we hooked up the tow ropes to the...

4 Bolt Fans - Bill Hughes - 2004

Wednesday, March 19 2008

I started making these about 10 years ago. As you are probably well aware the bedbar adjustment bolts on the four point Toro greens reels and the 5000 series fairway reels along with many of the Jac reels have adjustment bolts with the 3/8" square heads. They often round off with very little pressure. This wrench has two small (I use 7/16" or 1/2") 3/8" drive sockets cut in half and the square ends are welded to a short (6") piece of flat steel so that one of the ends is square with the steel and the other rotated 45 degrees. This allows one side of the wrench or the other...

Rough Mower Mods - Ian Findlater - 2004

Wednesday, March 19 2008

Over the past two years of looking after our 3000 hour second hand Jacobsen HR 5111 rough mower I have always been annoyed at the number of hours it has consumed with maintaining the Jockey wheels and spindle bushes. Whenever it is out on the course you could hear the deck adjusters flopping about in their "flogged out" state. This past winter I decided to sort it out once and for all. I replaced the jockey wheel roller bearings and stem bushes with "X-Lube" plastic bushes, The plastic bush cost about $2 each and don't require greasing. (a little on assembly stops squeeking...

Verticutter Setup Tool - Mark Melanson - 2004

Wednesday, March 19 2008

After years of using those different thickness bars that come with verticutter units to set the depth of cut, and thinking to myself that there just had to be a better way, I finally had an idea come to me one day no too long ago for building something that would make the task easier and more precise. In the past, when asked to set the units up for a specific purpose by our superintendent, it was always a trial and error situation depending on where we were at with the H.O.C. on our greens, how long since the last time they were verticut, etc. It basically always came down to a "let's try...

I'm not sure anyone saw this coming..

Saturday, March 15 2008

Walking from one equipment maker's booth to another, I noticed a complete mower in a booth I was passing. It was the R & R booth. The mower looked very much like a 3100. At first I thought it was remanufactured. It was that close a copy. It wasn't a reman. It was new. Just stopping there and thinking about it, just standing and letting your eyes follow over it, they've been selling most of these parts for years.. They just put them all together and added the structural pieces. Brilliant. You can get it in either the standard manual steering version or with hydraulic power steering. Both units...