One sound you don’t want to hear……
When you are on the riding lawnmower is “POOF”! But that is exactly the sound I heard yesterday while aboard the mighty Kobie, the Kubota diesel riding lawnmower. Kobie, you ask? Yes, here in Pulpland, all of our vehicles and things that ride have names. There’s Chuck (the truck), Hank (the SUV), Gertie (the utility golf cart), etc, etc. Being as we are around family, there are a whole lot of other names but we’ll skip those for now, you get the point. Anyway, Kobie and I were tackling an extreme yard job, some of the grass/weed/plant life at least a foot tall and we were dealing with a 110 degree heat index day so yes, extreme heat and some tough work to be done. And we had a couple moments where Kobie seemed a little upset so I did the best I could in taking breaks and all. Heard a bit of a whine at one point so decided to have a look at the engine and quickly noticed that the battery positive cable had come in contact with the exhaust pipe, completely melting it to near non-existence, and figured this might be a good place to start with some care. Maybe some additional radiator coolant (aka, anti-freeze? Why not.) A quick trip to the local Rural King, mind you, my first and let me say, quite impressed, they had a little bit of everything, including exactly what I needed for the cable fix, including a couple wrenches to make it happen. Repair made and I was off and running, only had about a quarter of the yard remaining and could hear a little thunder in the distance so wanted to get it done fast and be on the way. And then the “POOF”!
And then the “POOF”! Looked down and there was dark fluid everywhere, clearly this cannot be a good thing. Shut the Kobie down and opened the hood once again, more fluid everywhere, quite the mess and time to consider next steps. Substance looked and felt like oil so there was no chance of trying to start back up again. Went and got Chuck (the truck), drove across yard to Kobie’s stuck place and hooked up the tow strap to bring the Kobie to a safe spot. Got there and called it a day, storm was a coming!
Kobie clearly needed professional help (I’m good but only so much I can do on that end) so time for the mower hospital. As I was loading him onto trailer, I noticed that things seemed a little whack on the hydraulic end (as in, I originally thought we had blown a head gasket and this was an oil discharge that caused the mess…not so). Perhaps a hydraulic line blew? Sure sounded better then a semi-melted engine so I was at least happy on that.
Flash forward and Kobie at the hospital. Hydraulic fluid tank good as well. Hum. Something definitely blew and now not sure at all what it was. But it can’t be that bad so feeling a lot better on this. I expect we’ll have Kobie back at full capacity sometime next week and that will be a great thing. Gonna call this one a win for sure!
Pulp Deck is substantially complete and up and running (calling it the Pulp Grill as well as we have moved those operations onto the deck). Progress pics on New Pulp and Pulp Improvement pages so give them a look. See you all next week!!
