Near miss with the Bolens HT23

[slf-uk 914]

I had last week off work and had a very busy weekend getting the last of the jobs done before returning to work. The last job on Sunday was to cut the grass on our 3.5 acre field. The grass was very long and dry.

 

It took about an hour and half to cut and for the last five minutes I thought I saw smoke coming out of the hood. When I finished cutting I stopped and lots of smoke was coming from under the hood. I lifted the hood to find that grass has wedged between the inlet and exhaust manifolds and was on fire. Grass that was on fire had dropped onto the drive shaft and grass between the engine and dash tower was also on fire.

 

I jumped back on a drove flat out to outside the workshop. As a split second decision I decided to use the air gun on the compressor to blow the grass out rather than hit a very hot engine with CO2 or water. The compressed air made the fire much worse for a few seconds but blew the grass that was on fire off the tractor.

 

A full inspection followed and no damage done, phew. It does smell a little funky though.

 

I have never had this happen before. I am not sure if I have just been lucky in the past or this is a one off.

 

It was fun but not to be repeated. No pictures as I was a bit busy.

 

Iain

[Triumph66 1,256]

Iain,

Your quick thinking saved the day. Hope this doesn't happen again otherwise you might have to have a flock of sheep to keep the grass down!

Andrew

[Stormin 4,458]

Lucky man. Can you make and fit some kind of guard to stop grass building up by the exhaust manifold?

[slf-uk 914]

I am thinking about making a grass collector for it because when the wind catches the grass coming from the collector it goes everywhere on the engine, which at the very least does not help with cooling.

 

Iain

[Ian 2,417]

A lucky escape for both you and your Bolans Iain! Glad you both made it unscathed.

[slf-uk 914]

I have added a picture of the HT23 with it's cutting deck on as my forum picture to remind me to take even more care of it in the future. 

 

A Bolens HT is an incredible machine for grass cutting, it is mind boggling just how much grass you can cut is such a short time. They are a fast machine so it might just be me insisting on grass cutting flat out most of the time.  

 

Iain