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Re: (ET) E15 with broken back. *sigh*



On 9/8/2010 6:05 PM, Max Hall wrote:
I broke the back of one of my E15s a few years back hauling a boiler out
of a neighbors basement. I limped it home, (my bother and I stood on the
deck to maintain drive belt tension!) loosened the drive belts,
straightened it up, wirebrushed (and kissed it with the angle grinder in
a few places) and welded some 1" angle steel along the lower edge of
both sides... not a continuous bead, but just a nice connection every 3"
or so. Then applied some lovely rusty metal primer, snugged the belts
back up, and got back to work.

The top of the tractor deck is likely strong enough... all you have to
do is beef up the lower edges of that same stamped part... a few holes
in the vertical surface, or even scallops out of the bottom edge, won't
matter with fresh steel in place. Good for another 40 years.

Hm. That's a possibility; I do have the geeenuine elec-trak welder, and a working E20, and if I blow holes in 1 inch angle iron I *really* need help....

So maybe I'll rip off what's left of the box this weekend, flip the tractor over, and see what's left down there. Then if it looks possible go over to Home Despot and grab a pair of angle irons. Maybe I should just get 6 foot ones and go the whole length of the tractor...

Ultimately this E15 could become the "snowblower" or something like that freeing up the E20 to live it's life happily in the shed. And maybe put a little placard saying "note: Don't put an Elec-trak bucket loader on this tractor" or something.

Chris