[michael l.]

Well, I finally have gotten the 318 ready for it's first winter duty, and thought I would thank the fellow members for their help, whether they realize they helped me or not,, this site was a big help.
I bought most of my stuff from fellow members and was very happy with all of the transactions and comfort of dealing with nice people.
Rebuilt the 49 entirely, and changed the stock sprocket to a 34 tooth. Added rubber flaps I bought from tractor supply as baler belting.
The onan engine is running very well, after replacing all gaskets, sealing intake manifold and just doing the general maintenance, including heat shield, Thank you JRL.
I opted to use solid cement blocks as ballast. At 1.34 apiece and weighing 32 lbs., I couldn,t resist. And they fit very well inside my new 3 point hitch I got from KB. Thanks Kb.

 

[michael l.]

couple more pics

 

[michael l.]

Sorry for the blurry pictures. The picture resizing seems to be hit or miss! Mike

 

[flintmich]

Michael, blurry pics or not, that is one handsome 318. Pretty resourceful using the blocks too.
Best of luck with her this winter.

TJ

 

[Hammerdown-7]

Hello Michael
That 318 Look's Ready To Eat some Snow ! Regards, Kurt

 

[michael l.]

Thanks for the kind words, TJ and Kurt.

 

[KB]

I hope its ready for tomorrow.

I like the weights, I have used a platform with bags of cement before, and its good cheap weight. the CMU blocks look cleaner, and might even hold a coat of green or yellow paint if you really wanted.

Enjoy the 3 point hitch. I'm glad your as happy with the deal as I am

KB

 

[gwc]

Psst Michael someone stole your right rear tail light!!!!!!!!!!!! So that the reason you made the picture blurry so we couldn't tell.......LOL...Gary

 

[hankvc]

Nice looking 318 setup you've got there, Michael.
I hear tell you're going to get a chance to try out that snow thrower up your way over the next couple days.

Yes, happiness is the bark of a good-running Onan doing useful work.

Hank

 

[jlang]

You are very welcome on the heat shield insulation Michael! Happy to be able to help you!

Michael, send me a big hi res photo and I will resize it and post it here for you. BTW, My PIXresizer works very well on this DELL PC.

 

[michael l.]

Kb, I like the idea of the paint. maybe solid green with a yellow stripe. Noreaster on it's way,,.
Gary, I was hoping you wouldn't see the rear lite!
Maiden voyage for the 318 in my backyard Hank, Can't wait,,. 12-14".
JRL, Reposting my pic would be GREAT. Thankyou Kindly, and I will give the Pixresizer a try.

 

[jlang]

Michael, this is as large as I could make your photo small enough for WFM posting.

 

[michael l.]

JRL, Thank you. Your picture is much clearer then mine. I have been playing with the camera to improve the quality of resized pictures. Having my camera set at different pixel settings and then resizing, still seem to get poor quality pictures. But I will keep trying. Also I will try PIXresizer again.

 

[mkos1980]

Nice setup!

 

[michael l.]

Well, After snow throwing for 2 straight hours with the 49 and 318 I am wondering how long this setup is going to last me!
I have a dirt driveway and it was not frozen yet. Last nite we got 14-15 inches of heavy wet snow. But not as heavy as it could be.
I put the tractor at a medium pace and had new rubber bailing belt, and the 34 tooth sprocket.
It pushed the snow, more then sucking it in and throwing it. By pushing, I mean it pushed the snow 15 feet out in front of the tractor and threw very little of it at times.
I slowed the tractor speed down and it still pushed more then throw. At times it sounded like metal separating from itself inside the housing, and there were a lot of branches down from the trees as te snow dod a lot of damage in our area.
But the sbnowthrower never plugged up, and the rubber flaps were worn down to the impeller after only one use.
Also the HARDNOSE paint put out by POR15 has come off in a couple little places, and the blitz black with hardener on the auger has worn off compl;etely on the edges of the auger.
Used at least 3 gallons of gas and burned 4 ounces of oil in 2 solid hours of very heavy use.
The governor would search under load because the snowthrower would blow snow, then stop blowing it, and then blow it again .And I was going pretty fast piling the snow up in front of the snowthroweer.
All in All, fairly exhilarating to say the least.

 

[michael l.]

I'll try again on the picture. Where you see the blank gray area is where the snow was being thrown. Probably 35 feet or more.

 

[elankford]

What I found with IrfanView when resizing is I can adjust the resolution, and the color depth, but the file was still being saved with the full color depth unless I choose "options" when saving and decreasing the quality of the file save. I was otherwise having to make my images WAY smaller than the ones everyone else posts to get them below 75k.

 

[michael l.]

Thanks Ed, I will try using the options and see what happens. I appreciate the help.

 

[elankford]

"Save as" and click "show options" and it should be obvious what to do then.

 

[jlang]