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Test Mule

7K views 29 replies 10 participants last post by  sublime68charger 
#1 ·
I used an engine stand rated at 900 lbs to make a testing platform for small engines. It's fine at higher RPM's but you should see this 12 HP Kohler running at idle. It really knows how to dance. It would probably throw the Cub Cadet dash through a window if I let it run like that for very long. That engine actually runs very smooth at idle mounted in a tractor frame though.
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#5 · (Edited)
I'll see what I can do about a video :happy:

The K341 in the 1650 Cub Cadet I had would shake the pockets off your shirt. Seemed like almost every bolt/nut on the tractor loosened up at one time or another. I actually did have it on an engine stand (a different one). It would break dance at any RPM and jumped around like a rooster on speed at half throttle.

I found a better dash after this pic was taken but never installed it before I sold the tractor (replacement dash is on my engine test stand now). You can see by the crappy alignment how badly the shaking damaged the fibreglass lip where the hood rested.

Engine Auto part Machine Pump Automotive engine part


Land vehicle Vehicle Tractor Outdoor power equipment Agricultural machinery
 
#6 ·
"It would break dance at any RPM and jumped around like a rooster on speed at half throttle."
You sir have a knack with words...made me chuckle since I was terrorized by my grandmother's ornery poultry (chickens, geese, turkeys) back when I was a little, but fast, spud in the barnyard. You had to be fast to outrun them cause there weren't any trees nearby to climb or pull a stick from for self defense.
Definitely post up a vid...engine break dancing might become a new spectator sport, you never know. And nice work on the engine stand.
 
#7 ·
No video yet. No time. Been busy. Yesterday was a perfect outdoor painting day so I took advantage of it. Today will be the same. I need to get my 'Croc' (Gator wannabe) painted and back together so we can use it. Actually the highest priority for getting it mobile is so Shotgun Frank can go for rides.
Dog Mammal Vertebrate Canidae Border collie
 
#8 ·
Chicken phobia always makes me laugh. My youngest sister is petrified of them because our grandmother had a rooster that was a world class jerk and used to terrorize her. So then years later she said I'd never be able to prank her because she knows me too well. That was a crazy thing to say. I'm a patient guy so I waited a few months and then got a nice fat red hen from a neighbour and sneaked in her apartment and put it in her shower and closed the curtain. I also put a trail of chicken eggs from her apt door to the bathroom just to give her a bit of a heads up. She didn't know it was me that had done it and called the cops to come and help her. They just laughed. The humane society eventually sent someone to get it after she chased it into the hallway and then called them and pretended she didn't know how it got there. Every year since then I have given her something chicken related for her birthday. That's what family is for right? (heh heh!)
 
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#25 ·
I used an engine stand rated at 900 lbs to make a testing platform for small engines. It's fine at higher RPM's but you should see this 12 HP Kohler running at idle. It really knows how to dance. It would probably throw the Cub Cadet dash through a window if I let it run like that for very long. That engine actually runs very smooth at idle mounted in a tractor frame though.
My 212 and 214 front ends bob up and down like crazy when you shut them off. It takes 10 seconds for the engine to stop spinning. My X748 shook like a wet dog when you turned it off, just for a couple of seconds.
Chicken phobia always makes me laugh. My youngest sister is petrified of them because our grandmother had a rooster that was a world class jerk and used to terrorize her.
Roosters can be mean SOB's. I used to help a guy in his chicken houses when I was 12-13. The roosters would try to spur you any chance they got, you couldn't turn your back on them. I had my jeans ripped a couple of times and picked up some scratches, but they never got me deep. The guy I helped pulled up his pantlegs to show me the scars he had from getting spurred. Several times he had to get stitched up.
 
#9 ·
When I wuz a little spud and we all (parents, aunts/uncles, cousins) lived close to my grandparents farm, my grandmother kept 100-200 white leghorns for egg income, plus assorted white Chinese geese, guinea fowl, and even some big white domestic turkeys. When my late uncle Floyd bought a new fire-engine-red El Camino (think big fins and all the chrome), the king stud turkey would try to whip his own reflection on the side panels of that El Camino. He would also ruff-n-guff anyone who got out of it. Wasn't long before the El Camino was traded off, cause Aunt Joyce didn't favor turkey assaults when they visited the farm. My grandmother was a tough poultry-master, if any of her birds got too rough they were seized the leg with a chicken hook, and wrung by the neck until dead...most went into the pot. I howl when I see "funny videos" on TV of people getting chased by poultry...course when you're the victim its not so funny. My wife was frightened by farm fowl as a kid...may explain her fondness for all manner of chicken in the kitchen, well-prepared and very tasty, too.
 
#10 ·
A big turkey could do some serious damage to a paint job I bet.

I have a red cardinal that thinks my F150 mirrors are his mortal enemy. He would try to pick a fight with himself all day long. So I went to the buck shop and got a couple cheap shower caps. Kind of a pain to put them on and take them off but it's better than dealing with scratches and bird poop. He appears to especially hate my truck because it's red. My wife's Edge is silver and he never bothers it. Her theory is he does it because I'm a dink to birds after I spent last summer battling with some stupid swallows trying to make nests in my new bay when I had the big doors open. It has 12 foot ceiling and it's 17 feet to top of the open rafters so I can't easily knock a nest down. One of them was ridiculous about it. It would fly in and I'd chase it out by banging really loud on a tin pan. Then it would try again and I'd chase it out again. That went on all day for weeks whenever I had the doors open. My wife would sit on the porch and laugh listening to me cussing and banging. That crazy little bird was obsessive-compulsive or something. If it does it again this year I'm going to get a supersoaker and then we'll see who's boss.
 
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#13 ·
I remember your engine stand Roger. I have a pic of it somewhere from a thread about them on the old WFM site. I'd post it but by the time I find it I will have forgotten why I was looking for it. I've seen ~1000 lb engine stands like our's for as low as $59 on sale so they're definitely affordable for somebody who works with small engines a lot. Haven't done it yet but I plan to put rubber wheels on mine so it's easier to move around. Only takes a flat washer laying on the shop floor to bring it to a screeching halt with the steel wheels and the most weight it will ever have on it is a K532 Kohler so regular tires should be fine. My 3 ton cherry picker has the same issue but I'm not sure rubber tires would be a good idea with a heavy V8 engine hanging on it.

Yup I have a fake owl. I hung him up near the big back door of the bay they were trying to nest in but he didn't work worth a hoot so I shot him (just kidding, heh heh!). I used to work in an orchard for extra money when I was a young guy in high school. They tried various things to keep the birds out of the cherry trees. One such attempt was using a 'banger', which is basically a 'gun' that auto fires shotgun shells with just gunpowder in them. The noise was supposed to scare the birds but all it did was irritate the home owners along the front of the orchard. A fake hawk balloon on a tether didn't work either.
Land vehicle Tractor Vehicle Agricultural machinery Car
 
#12 ·
Army we must think along similar lines. I have had an engine stand very similar to yours for years and have used both horizontal and vertical shaft engines on it. Currently it has a Kawasaki vertical on it. I also included a picture of my 3/4 size engine lift for garden/lawn tractors. Roger
 

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#15 · (Edited)
Army,

Chasing off nuisance birds is a real challenge. In Oregon one method to keep the birds from stealing too many blueberries from the commercial fields was to use a live falcon -- the handler would fly it up and down the rows and that would keep the little birds away...for a time at least. For my own blueberries at my last small acreage home, I built a frame and netted them with great results and we always had a bountiful crop.

A waterfowl hunting friend of mine always used to say "every day is new day to a duck" by which he meant that no matter how savvy the birds seemed to be getting by the end of a day's shooting, the next morning would have them coming right back in on your decoys...

Chuck
 
#17 ·
Speak of the devil.. yesterday I was mowing and realized the swallows are back. They put on an amazing flying circus, diving and swooping and eating bugs. They're like tiny fighter jets. It's easy to see just how primitive the flying machines we humans have invented are by watching those swallows.

I've heard that about ducks Chuck. Maybe shutting down every night erases their short term memory, kinda like RAM? I had a pet rabbit like that as a kid. His name was Mr Rah-Bit, which came from a joke our father told us about a rabbit, a lizard and a turtle striking it rich. He would be scared of me in the morning but by the afternoon he was my buddy. Then the next morning he'd act like he'd never seen me before. Some rabbits are just looney toons I guess.
 
#18 ·
The crazy swallow is back too. It was sitting on the hydro line behind my shop in the rain yesterday waiting for a chance to sneak in. Maybe I can figure out some way to ground the little bugger.
 
#19 · (Edited)
That swallow is indeed nuts. I had the big rear door open all day yesterday but I wasn't in there much. They must work really fast because it built a nest in the frame of my 96 Splash V8 project in about 8 hours. I showed it to my brother and he said I need to work faster or the Ranger is gonna turn into a bird sanctuary.
Automotive tire Tire Vehicle Transport Automobile repair shop
 
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#21 ·
Franky is a purebred Border Collie. We got to watch his parents working the cattle at the Amish farm where we got him. Amazing dogs. Franky is an expert at frisbee catching but we don't have any cows or sheep so he has to stick to herding small kids. He's actually a very gentle dog and would never hurt a fly but he nips at their heels to get them to follow orders. Which they never do, heh heh!
 
#23 ·
We also have a female ****zu that we got to keep Franky company when we're away. Little kids love her but she's the dumbest pooch I ever saw. She's like a toy dog that was somehow turned into a real one ..except for her head which is still full of stuffing. After 7 years the only word she understands is 'treat' and shake-a-paw is her only accomplishment. She's so untrainable she still has to be walked on a leash and we live on a farm for crying out loud. She has never grasped the concept of having her leash taken off and has to be reeled in like a fish. And when she's being walked she'll suddenly take off running full tilt and hit the leash limit like that dumb ass dog Foghorn Leghorn loves to terrorize.
 
#26 ·
One of my K532's always did a shake 'n bake shutdown accompanied by a chirping sound at the end like tin rubbing on tin. Never did figure out what was causing that noise. The other two 532's don't do it.

Grandma's rooster was devious. He'd hide around the corner at the back of grandpa's workshop/garage and attack you. So I started carrying a hockey stick and whacked him and chased him around whenever he tried to get me. The hens would squawk loudly and run around like the sky was falling. Grandma gave me heck for disturbing them and possibly causing an egg shortage. That rooster was a big chicken if you stood up to him (like most bullies). He stopped coming after me when he realized what would happen if he did. A Happy Gilmore slapshot motion was the most effective. He could duck out of the way of an overhead swing but wasn't so good at avoiding butt shots.
 
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#27 ·
My maternal grandmother was a farm wife who kept about 100 white leghorns, with a motley assortment of roosters, white Chinese geese and a handful of white turkeys. The geese and turkeys were terrors when we were little, they loved to chase us around but didn't mess with grandma...she would only put with so much, then it was Off with their head and into the pot! The big tom turkey, Caruthers, hated my late uncles fire-engine red first model El Camino...60's something model with the big rear sidefins. He would try to whip his own reflection in the doors, and would attack anyone who didn't exit fast enough.
Like Army, we used to go armed with sticks, etc., and run out to gather the eggs then hurry back...watching our 6 all the way.
 
#28 ·
For some reason I think fondly of that killer rooster now. I miss grandpa's nasty workhorse Bill too. Probably a variation of Stockholm syndrome.
 
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