Lawn tractor report and how government regulation costs you money...

for the hundreds and hundreds of people waiting with bated breath.

Ok - I know of at least one person who cares.  Thanks, Odie.

The maiden voyage of the new lawn tractor was today.  We first purged the transmission, which entailed figuring out how to use the disengage lever.  Hubby mastered that in short order.  Next we needed to adjust the seat.  We loosened the bolt under the seat and that darn thing wouldn't move no matter how hard we pushed and pulled.  All of sudden the Hubs looks over on the side of the seat and Eureka - discovers a lever.  Guess what?  You get to adjust the seat like a you do in a car.  I was impressed, even though that little factoid was nowhere to be found in the manual.  (We put the bolt back on and decided not to tell anyone how dumb we are - so don't tell!.)  

After meticulously measuring the blades for proper tilt and making sure they were level, the oil was checked, gas tank filled, and off I went only to discover the ride was beyond rough.  It was like driving a Mack truck without suspension.  Hmmmmmmmmmm.  Back to barn where hubby asked if I had checked the tire pressure.

"You know, they over-inflate the tires for transport", sayeth he.

Well, no - I didn't know that but apparently this tidbit of info was repeated multiple times in the operator manual. 

After searching everywhere for the tire gauge we finally located it in the glove box of the van.  How weird is that?  The rear tires called for a maximum psi of 10 and when checked we discovered they were pumped up to about 24.  The fronts were just as bad. You know, of course, that people have been killed by exploding tires.  Whew!  Escaped that fate.

Back out I went, engaged the blades, and had a rip-roaring time going whiz-whiz for hours.  It's was hard to believe 4 more little horses under the hood and 4 extra inches of cutting width would make such a difference, but I was done in half the time.  Hats off to Husqvarna!

How government regulation costs you money.

All lawn tractors are now made, compliments of the nannies in Washington, to turn off if you try to go in reverse with the blades engaged.  I'm guessing that somewhere, somehow, some doofus backed over his kid.  Obviously you have to back up at some point.  Because of our landscaping, I have to back up often - really often.

Not to worry.  Husqvarna has an extra position installed on the starter key area in order to back up while the blades are engaged without shutting down the engine.  Because some goofball in Congress decided that lawn mowers shouldn't be able to cut when the tractor is in reverse, lawn tractor manufacturers had to come up with a bypass.  Now this little feature wasn't free.  Someone had to pay for it and that someone would be moi or anyone else purchasing a lawn tractor.  Unless you were mowing the straight-away on a golf course, in which case you would engage the cruise control (honest to gosh - it has cruise control), no one in their right mind would operate the tractor without putting the key in "back up with blades engaged" mode.  So what the hell was the point? 

Dopes!