More "Stuff"

Or Junk, as my wife likes to call it.  I've been looking, off and on, for a snow cab for my Sovereign.  My driveway isn't that long, but it faces East/West.  When the wind is blowing, its nearly impossible to keep the snow out of my face.  Its annoying and I'm getting to the point in life where I don't like being cold...In fact I HATE being cold.  

Couple of days ago, my Craigslist alert went off, and Viola!  There was a snow cab about an hour away from me.  It looked pretty clean, and the price wasn't too bad.  I got on the phone as soon as I could.   After I talked to the man (Clark), I made "the Call" to my CFO (aka, my pragmatic wife).  I showed her the listing and asked if:

A) we had anything going on that night and 

B) Could I spend a couple hundred MORE dollars on my tractor addiction.  (I bought some tires recently too, more on that in a bit)

She said, "Yes, if I needed it I could get it."  We all know I needed it. 😀 Wahoo! 

I arrived in Lansing and Clark was actually talking to someone else who wanted it (or so he says...maybe a sales tactic?).   It didn't really matter...The cab was super nice, I was there, and it was coming home with me.  There were only a couple of rusty spots on the metal frame.  The rest was just dirty.  I asked if he would take less...he said no...but his price wasn't too bad, so I agreed to take it.  We were shooting the breeze a little, just talking about Guy stuff...Cars, Tractors, guns, snowmobiles, etc. 

 I was eyeing up his garden tractor.  Its a year newer than mine, but all the same options, with one caveat...His had the infamous Triad engine (Mine is the far more durable Command).  He thought it was a Command and was quite disappointed to find out it was a Triad, which have a tendency to overheat, drop a cylinder liner, then self-destruct (in that order).  I talked about some of the modifications I had heard about for the Triad, and gave him some links to check out.  He also didn't pay that much for it (stole it from an Auction) so he still got a good deal.  

Then he started complaining about the belt for his snowblower vibrating all over.  I looked at his set-up and noticed that his PTO idler pulley was in the wrong spot.  I also noticed his blower was from an older tractor and the drive pulley was flipped the wrong way.  

In the end, he knocked 25 bucks off the price of the cab, for my help!  He was a super nice guy.  I really enjoyed talking with him.  I think that is my favorite part of this hobby is meeting like minded people.  The chase is fun too!  I will literally spend hours looking through craigslist and ebay postings, looking for a deal.   

Here it is, as I bought it:

Its currently disassembled.  I washed all the vinyl (in the bathtub) and am cleaning up and repainting the couple of frame members that were rusty.  

This cab will need a couple of very minor modifications to work on my Tractor.  Its actually designed for older style tractor (7100 series).  The instructions tell me to drill holes in the fenders for the back mounting bracket, but that just isn't going to work for me.  I'm going to copy the design from the later models and weld on a new bracket that utilizes existing holes.  The front mounting points are also a tiny, little bit different.  I believe I'll need a couple of spacers for that, but its no biggie.  

Oh yeah,...The tires.  My blowing tractor got new Shoes!  Put some ags on the back and tri-ribs on the front.  She looks like a mini farm tractor now!  The tri-ribs I got used, and they weren't too bad, price-wise.  The rear tires made up for it!  They were 85 bucks a piece!  But, I have a lot of real landscaping to do next year, with my ground engaging attachments (grader blade and rototiller) so In the end, the more aggressive tires will be worth it.  Even with what I've spent on the tractor and all my attachments, hiring a contractor to do my yardwork would be more expensive. 

Here is the Sovereign, all ready for snow (minus the cab)