I managed to postpone the massive repair bills almost two months this year. It seems no matter how hard I try Spring is the hardest season on my wallet hands down. The only way I could maybe make the Spring repair cycle more bearable at this point would be to become a mechanic of these gifts from hell myself.
Seriously Small Engines are instruments of the devil I don't care what anyone says.
I only use Ethanol free treated gasoline. I start the things up each month when not being used regularly. I check the air filters and I am pretty good about cleaning the dead grass and such off the decks and filter screens.
Since I started a regular maintenance regime I can honestly say I have seen marked decrease in repairs. I have also noticed that the repairs I still get are different. These days instead of constant carb cleanings and clogged filters I have things like pull cords breaking or cables snapping.
Yet bottom line I still have seasonal small engine repair issue every single stinkin year on almost every single stinkin piece of equipment.
The one and only small engine that defies this rule is my Jonsen Red chainsaw. I serious love that thing.
Anyway, by being a bit more attentive in my routine maintenance I have pushed the nominal failure dates back from early May to late June so I guess I am making progress.
This year's failures began with the stupid safety cable snapping on my push mower. No big deal I loved that particular mower so much I bought a twin just so I would always have one working. Then the pull cord frayed on the twin. Both were easy fixes and in fact the pull cord lasted on the twin until the safety cable was delivered so my two is one theory worked. Then the riding mower began losing oil. It was using as much oil as it was gas. Somehow the oil filter stopped fitting properly or the seal went bad so I had to fix it. Then the gas tank cracked on my huge crew served weed eater.
Two hundred bucks later (and that's actually a cheap repair run luckily all the repairs were minor this year) it was time to start getting the bigger engines fixed. Exhaust leak on the truck, master cylinder on my little beater car and my son's car. Then it's also inspection time for the truck once again and time to lube and oil the tractor and all the implements as well.
The hardest part about maintenance and repairs is they drain your wallet but in the end you have nothing new to show for it.
Thank the Lord the log splitter didn't break down this year because it and the chainsaw are the only two mechanical devices that didn't.
Oh wait....Neither of my tillers broke down this year.... OMG there's a first time for everything. What the Hell am I bitching about I am obviously making a difference if those two items work. Even the little front tine tiller that has an engine the size of pea worked perfectly this year.
Yet I am still broke from all these repairs.
Oh well at least I didn't have to go into debt to keep up with em this year :)
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!
buddy - i feel your pain!!!
ReplyDeletei just got the atv back from storage at neighbors - it has had failure after failure - got work to do on it - kymber wants to push it into the river...it is SUPPOSED to be our snowplow - i pretty much shoveled all year..
and then there is the waste of time - stay sane!!
Jamby - Trenchie might want to push it into the river but is she going to help shovel? I refuse to shovel snow for the most part. I am sure it's different up there but down here I just hate putting that much work into something that will be gone in a few days anyway. I use the tractor for snow removal now but ya it seems once that stuff gets some age it's constant repairs.
DeleteYou are making progress but it might be good to figure a plan B for when there won't be any parts of maybe even fuel for the things. Some global warming religious priest may suddenly realize that if we eliminate all small engines that the world could be saved. Of course he would fly all over the place in a passenger plane to tell everyone. But really, a plan B for motors is hard to figure but there weren't any of the things much before WW1.
ReplyDeleteSf - Oh I have a plan B actually. It involves the old style push mower, battery operated weed eaters, solar electric fence chargers and Sheep.
DeleteHonestly if you think about it from a rural point of view gas engines solved some work problems but they also added to them. If I knew engines were out of the picture I could use the push mower around the house, put fences around the fruit trees and just let the sheep roam were they want. They wouldn't go far and with no danger of traffic I would be set.
Surely you jest repair bills are like taxes they will always be there.At least they are probably cheaper than if you were just using human powered equipment.
ReplyDeleteBubba - See I am not so sure about that. Without engines yard work at least would become much easier. It's the part about baling hay and feed during Winter to feed the Summer yard workers that would suck.
DeleteYou know what they say about small acre farmers?? Nothing but a bunch of whinny school girls.....Big Evil Kymber Laugh!!!
ReplyDeleteCan you set yourself up a better P.M. list?? Like if filters are on sale off season buy what you need for all?? tune up all winter equipment now, and spring / summer during the winter??
Rob - As far as filters go these days they all use pretty much the same depending on engine type and size really. No real difference in Summer engines to Winter engines. In fact the engines themselves haven't been the big issue this year it's been all the little stuff. Some of it that is not necessary in my opinion like the safety cable type thing. In fact I would estimate 50% of my maintenance costs have something to do with some type of government regulation safety devices.
DeletePP,
ReplyDeleteWhen you least expect it is when a part is needed or some piece of equipment acts up and costs you more money.
If government regs on equipment weren't around we'd all be much happier.
I don't think repairs ever end. That's why a budget is almost impossible to adhere to. You always have unexpected costs associated with repairs popping up. Like my son's blown engine on his Jeep......
ReplyDelete