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Inverted Bolens

4K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  Ed Cardinal 
#1 ·
Howdy all. It's been sometime since I've visited, but seeing a new season is upon us, I figured I'ld renew my socializing privileges, if I may. I have owned a JD 214 for a few years now, and may have posted, but it's been so long, I don't remember. I'll have to investigate my past here.
The reason I'm posting today is because I'm thinkin you people can appreciate the adventure I got involved with today. My best buddy, (who's been retired a few years now), owns not just 1 but 2 Bolens lawn tractors. Both about the same age, (20 years or so), plus a 60s Wheelhorse. (Which will soon be sold).
His 1st Bolens runs well, and has a few battle scars, but very presentable, and usefull. His 2nd tractor, he just bought last fall, and the body is immaculate, but the motor had a leaking or smoking issue, so my friend purchased a new short block, and made a very nice running tractor. It has some up-graded pedal feature, that doesn't require a shifter from fwd to reverse. Not sure what that's called, but he really likes it. He also rewelded and cleaned and painted the mower deck, and all the belts and bearings were tight. So he was making his maiden voyage with the tractor, and was mowing his back lawn, and called me shortly after. He asked if I could go to his house the next day, and help him with a "slight" problem he incurred. Says he flipped it over, and miraculously didn't get hurt. When I asked him where he did it, he said, "you're gunna have to over and see it, cause you won't believe it". I was in aw when I got there and seen exactly what he was talkin about.
(For some reason, my next pictures won't input, so I'll have to continue in another post)
 
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#2 ·

At this point, we had removed the mower deck. The only lifting devises we had between us was a cherry picker, and some assorted floor jacks. he mentioned hiring his neighbor up the road to bring over his bucket loader, but I talked him into us going slow and seeing what we could accomplish, before we resorted to outside help. We ended up lifting the frt with the cherry picker, the rear with a floor jack,and some strategically place lumber.
 
#4 · (Edited)
That was the easy part. How to flip it was another challenge. We installed some cinder blocks under the frt wheel, and rearranged the straps and cherry picker, and finally got it to settle back onto its wheels.


It took about 4 hrs of scrounging materials and rethinking our next moves, but all in all, we didn't damage anything, and we all can say how lucky he was, "under" the tractor, but crawling out into his basement with a minor bruise and 2 small scrapes. While under it, he said the thing kept running, and was smoking profusely, and all the fluids from the tank, battery and oil were dripping in the wrong direction. Luckily no fires or burns. (One small one from his exhaust pipe I guess). Now comes the task of cleaning it up, and trying again.
So this is what actually caused it to dump. He was mowing in reverse, backing up to his foundation, parallel and up against his bulkhead, and the grade next to rock wall and opening was up-hill. So his C/G was too high, and over it went, in the blink of an eye, into the hole. "Bummer Dude". But no injuries. Amazing.
 
#5 ·
Quite an ordeal to be sure. Someone must have been watching out for him. I hope there is no serious damage to the tractor.
 
#6 ·
Time will tell Doug. Externally it wasn't bad. As for steering and drive train functions, I'll keep you posted. Goes to the testimony of the tractor. It weighs about 700lbs, but held itself off the floor by not only the rear wheels being wedged on the walls, but the steering column and deck lever held up the middle of the tractor. We're still trying to figure how he became up-right in a sitting position "under" the machine, which was up-side down. My wife had the best explanation in that while the tractor was tipping over, he slid off the seat, and landed on his butt at the bottom of the stairwell, while the tractor flipped on top of him. Will also explain why he says his bottom is the most sore. "Man!"
 
#12 ·
When in doubt run rear wheels in wide, or just fire up the weedwacker.

Good to hear no one was physically hurt.
 
#13 ·
Holy crap. He was so very lucky he didn't get REALLY hurt or worse. And it could have easily caught fire or been really damaged.
I once had a Cub Cadet 1250 lose traction on the wooden ramp when loading it on my trailer (25 plus years ago). Then when it caught it shot the ramp out. I fell off and it rolled over and barely missed me lying on the ground.
I also saw my friend mowing his steep hill on a Allis Chalmers B210 and it slipped and rolled over and caught fire and burnt it to a crisp.
 
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