A 50 mile solo on the John Deere 300 snowmobile

It was a sunny day in early February. I was on my last day of my trip home to snowy Minnesota to visit my folks and do some riding.

The 1976 John Deere 300 was purchased by my dad in 2008 at a farm auction estate sale. It had last been registered in 1991 and was well coated with barn dust, for at least it was kept inside.  Gone over mechanically by a guy that knows JD machines well, it is a nice running and riding sled.  

I left the folks property which intersects the trail, and headed south towards the town of Grey Eagle, where I stopped at the Junction and topped off my tank with 2 1/2 gallons of gas. The tank is I believe 6 gallon capacity and there was a room for half a gallon at the top, if I fill it all the way it tends to leak around the cap seal.

    A guy stopped while I was fueling up with a late model Polaris. Amazing how far design and technology has come.

South I headed from Grey Eagle, a couple miles of open field and road side freshly groomed, then the trail hooked back north and west into woods, very tight and twisty with lots of off camber turns. The JD was a blast, just throwing my weight around in the turns with the right amount of throttle would allow a controllable drift.

The "uphill" in the pic was steeper than the pic looks. I stay to the right and stand up going up these so I can see if someone is coming the other way!

Several miles like this, across some state WMA land, very pretty with a few ponds and lots of deer tracks.  The trail comes out alongside Todd County 103, then a half mile down, crosses the road and comes past "Shipwrex" formerly the Golden Eagle. Hung out there as a kid quite a bit, many times when I shouldn't have!

Deer have pawed this up, I saw corn cobs they found that the combine missed in this snow covered field, one of many the route crossed.

  

And on in to the town of Burtrum. In places the trail there was very steep road ditch, good thing I wasn't carrying a passenger or we would have gone over.  Many times in the wooded sections I stopped to clear branches etc from the trail, knocked down from the foot of snow that fell two days earlier . In one spot, I saw a rock the size of a large dog someone had glanced off of, just off trail.  

The noon wistle blew, a thing still done in small towns (6pm too) as a throwback to days gone by.  I lived 3 miles from this town from age 6 to 18 ('73-'85) and there was a grocery store, a gas station/auto repair shop, a post office, fire hall and the bar. The bar is all that is left.  
  

Leaving Burtrum, the engine was very doggy on low throttle and I could smell gas. As I got off the pavement back to the snow trail it bogged badly and quit.

 I took the console door off and pulled the cord. Fuel spewing out the vents on the Mikuni! Sticky float? I pulled the plugs and they were wet. Damn! I took the carb off with my Leatherman pocket tool's Phillips screwdriver attachment
(I had spark plug wrenches and a STANDARD screwdriver along with) throttle and choke cables on, took the bowl off, just a couple tiny specks of grit in there. 

 The carb had been completely disassembled by a friend who showed me the workings of it as I am more familiar with Tillotson butterfly carburetors, and it was totally spotless inside. I had nobody to call if I could not get it going, and my dad's S10 had a rusted through brake line and was at a garage being fixed. I wished I had ridden the Ski Doo about this time!

However, put the carb back together, and put it back on. Left the spark plugs out, pulled the rope until no more gas spit from the plug holes due to the flooded crank case. I put clean, new Champions in (I carry spares)  and the thing re started. I quickly got my coat, hat and helmet/gloves back on as they were shed in the 30* sunny day. Off I went! No, I did not take a pic of the sled with the hood up and parts scattered at the time but wish I had now...

     
  
Another shot of the deer tracks in this field.

In to Swanville, the town I rode the Ski Doo to on the previous Friday (see blog entry)  This pic of the Deere is from Sunday afternoon when I rode over in the near foot of fresh powder, some of the ride right down the paved but un plowed county road.

Once in Swanville, I snapped a picture of the groomer used by the Swanville Snow drifters, who maintain the trails in the area.

 I took a slight detour on to lake Pepin, and took pics of some ice fishing houses to show the wimps back in Georgia where I live how we drive right out on the ice and sit in a warm shack to do our winter fishing.

Yes, I'm wearing vintage Ski Doo clothes while riding my John Deere. Two reasons! 1, the helmet I got for my 14th birthday and it still fits, and 2, the jacket, a vintage Ski Doo jacket, was a gift from my wife this Christmas. And it's comfy and warm.

I left Swanville, heading more or less north on the trail (hey, it's late as I compose this, and I don't have a map in front of me) until I reached a crossroads, after crossing a small bridge over the Swan river.

 

I went right, towards my destination of Flensburg to visit my friend who has an equipment repair shop there.  On the way I passed this old 1930's car shell and a couple pieces of old equipment. I recognize a horse drawn mower and a road grader.

I learned from my dad that along this convoluted route I was traveling through Culdrum township (Minnesota counties are divided in to townships, each 36 square miles) that my paternal great grandparents had a small farm there. Dad recalls being very young (6 in fact, would have been 1935) and his grandpa trying to get dad to steer and drive his 1928 "Whippet" automobile slowly as it pulled a wagon (likely steel wheeled) through a field so grandpa could fork hay on it. Did not work well, dad couldn't reach the pedals........so the team of horses did not loose their jobs that day.

I am being watched by some beef animals here!

  I traveled on, through several pasture gates (open) along the way. The way the trail system works is by local land owners allowing the club to have a 10' or so wide strip to travel through. The land owners agree to have their gates open December 1st through March 30th, the typical snow season, and the club is operated by member contributions and some state matching money. The snowmobile traffic is routed away from roadways as much as possible and away from residences.

Where was I? Oh, after leaving this farm land the route took me in to the woods again,  now the path had not been groomed since leaving Swanville and was much rougher, rutted from other machine traffic.  Not having 12" of articulated suspension travel it was a tad rougher going for me. At times I rode standing up so I could see deep ruts and moguls ahead. The Deere is not overly comfortable to ride like this due to the angle of the handlebars, my Ski Doo is a much better sled to stand up ride on, but not as stable overall as it is a narrower machine. They both have their strong points and draw backs.

I came along and there were four or five nice size deer in the trail about 100 yds ahead. I stopped and killed the motor. They trotted off but actually came closer to me in the brush. One watched me with it's ears up while the others browsed, or pawed the snow to reach berries and acorns beneath. I took some pics, look closely! I was there several minutes and got the camera from my pocket and everything, until I moved more they stayed. 

They were very healthy looking, and had thick, greyish winter coats they don't have when I normally see them (November hunting season) and any bucks have shed their horns by this time of the year in MN. 

For some reason, I took no more pics. I got to Flensburg, pop less than 200, a few miles later. Stopped at my friends shop, shot the bull and looked it over. Then walked literally next door to the Flensburg liquor and sat down, ordered a "Flensburger" at my bud's recommendation. That sucker was a third pound of some of the best beef I have eaten and served with onions, tomato and a heap of tater tots. I had a Grain Belt premium to go with (can't get Grain Belt down south.....) and was totally STUFFED. 

Back on the 300 I went. I ran anywhere from 20-30 mph depending on how rough things were, with some blasts of 40-45. On a stretch where the trail ran adjacent a hard packed snow gravel road, I saw the needle touch near 50 before I ran out of road and had to slow. The sled will run (or has run) 58+ wound out on hard pack snow on a lake, but that took a loooong time to get there. Afterall, it's a 28 horse 295cc mill made by Kohler so I won't complain!  I used 3 1/2 gallons of fuel mix, and went about 50-55 miles by the odometer.  Horrible fuel mileage for a car, but not bad for a two stroke snowmobile engine of the vintage.   

 I made one stop for fuel, lost 25 minutes with the sticking carb float, stopped for a bunch of pictures and of course many road crossings but had a great time.  The only other sleds I saw were parked in Flensburg, nobody else on the trail aside from me and the animals that afternoon.

Once home, I siphoned the gas from the tank (it has a short useful life) so dad can use it in his Stihl saw, and put the Deere in the shed for it's long rest until I can return next winter.   

A trip on the '73 Ski Doo in central Minnesota on a sunny February day

I made a pilgrimage to visit the folks in Minnesota. Though I reside in coastal Georgia and have spent nearly 27 years between Florida and Georgia, I still love to make a trip back in the Minnesota winter.  I grew up around snowmobiles, tinkering and riding when I could keep the 50 and 100 dollar well worn machines I had running.   Now I'm better at tinkering! Well, maybe......

I have a 1973 Ski Doo Olympique 340cc machine, 23 horsepower I believe, maybe 2 or 3" of suspension travel. Modern machines have well over 100 horsepower, and suspension travel in the 12" range.  But I like the simplicity of the older machines, and as seldom as I can ride, can afford them. I bought this Ski Doo for $175 in 2006, and have maybe $300 maximum in it.  In preparation for a long vintage machine poker run the next day (I'll blog that too) I felt I should do a shakedown. After all I last rode the machine in 2011, two years ago!

I left mom and dads, who's property borders on a groomed, marked snowmobile trail maintained by the Swanville sno drifters (apologies if I did not get the name correct) snowmobile club.  The trail runs through sections of woods, frozen swamp, over fields and on old railroad bed in places.

I stopped off the trail a tad to get some shots of ice fishing houses on Long Lake. My family used to go swimming in this lake when I was a pup.

No need to get out of your warm truck until you are right at your door! The lake has about 20" of solid ice and is very safe to drive on as I compose this.

I arrived in Swanville, 10 miles by my GPS, which cost more than I paid for the sled :)  To the left, Pepin Lake. To the right, Swanville.  Not sure the population, around 400 or so. Arch rivals to Grey Eagle, just ten miles down the road. I went to Grey Eagle. 

Here I am, at the back door of Red's Irish Pub.  Too much bare asphalt to park in front for me! I had a quick draft beer, and went back out. Had to be home by 3 to run some errands with my Dad. Well, didn't have to, but I wanted to!  Oh, the yellow bungee cord is holding the console door shut. The latch does not work well, it flops open over rough terrain and then the noise level from the open throated Tillotson carb going WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH gets to ya!

When I came back out, I looked the machine over to see how things were. Not good! the front bogie wheel assembly had the screws/nuts come out that hold the rubber idler wheel to the flange, and the flange was digging in to the rubber of the track.  I had a 1/2" wrench in my pocket, tipped the machine on it's side, and pulled out the assembly.  However, I really needed a 9/16" to tighten the track up more to compensate for not having an assembly in there. I did not, so I took it really easy going home on the acceleration and braking as the drive cogs would slip and "ratchet". 

BELOW:  To the left is Burtrum, to the right, back to Grey Eagle.

 

Not another soul on the trail this Friday afternoon!

On the way back, I saw this rig in the parking lot of the Bruno's Hub Supperclub (great food and drink specials folks, overlooking scenic Long Lake!) and thought I'd get a pic to put the differences between modern snowmobiles and my '73 in perspective.  Look at the suspension travel on those things! But I bet I don't have the payments they do!

Look at this old bus! I started elementary school in 1973, and the busses were orange. I do not know at what point yellow became the standard color. This may well have been a bus I rode, I recall the first couple years driver Walt Baird at the wheel,  a 48 passenger "THOMAS" bus. F700 Ford, two speed rear axle. And the inside was always that sky blue color. The windows all rattled, we had more miles of washboarded gravel in our township than paved for sure.  This one was clearly taken from bus duty long ago, and appears to have some sort of a hunting camper type conversion done to it.  Did not see a license plate, but she looks to have not seen the road in years.

Home again! I went 19.43 miles, and hit a top of 44.6 mph along the way. 

The rest of my collectibles (har har) a 1976 John Deere "300" in the green and a 1971 Moto Ski "Capri 338" in orange. The Moto Ski came to me missing it's original "Hirth" single and had a single cylinder Rotax 10 horse, 247cc in it. Ran great but topped out at about 17mph!  I bolted in a 335cc Rotax, 20 rated HP.

The camper is an old 12 foot "Mallard" brand. Has some water damage inside, may fix 'er up one day.

Haulin' off the scrap metals on a Saturday mornin'

  Time to clean out the stash. I crush all the beer cans drained in Jethroland throughout the year (well a few sodapops too, have to mix the booze with somethin'...) and sooner or later they have to be hauled off.

I also pick up old marine batteries I find left on the docks at the marinas I end up working at, and whatever other odds and ends I have. In this case, the remnants of the old gas grill from last April's post, a rusty file cabinet and the like.

Now it's not like the yard is a giant scrapyard, I have an "area" behind my shed and fence unseen by others, well unless they crawl over a fence.  So I loaded up the S10 and off we went.

There was a line!

 

There goes a year of beer up the conveyor!  I think I had more than 23# of cans though, there was another guy unloading at the same time as me and I think there was a mixup. However, I wasn't going to make a big deal over a few bucks, especially since I had 615# of batteries that cost me nothing but time to pick up.  The receipt is down below, I scanned it.  They didn't take the old catalytic converter from my wife's car as I needed to cut the steel pipes from the inlet/outlet, nor would they take my heavy aluminum storm door as it still had glass in it.

As bugs said, that's all folks!

Scrap receipt
 

Free Small utility trailer- near FINISHED!

After a couple hours with a wire wheel on a grinder (wear saftey glasses folks!) knocking loose rust off and giving it a good coat of "Ospho"  to convert the rust (iron oxide) to iron phosphate, treating the metal to prevent moisture and oxygen from reaching it (this is from Ospho literature), I sprayed some paint on.

Ideally I'd have flipped the trailer over and done some grinding on the bottom side, and had the expanded metal tailgate sandblasted, but time and budget ruled that out.   

I used an industrial enamel from NAPA stores, sold under the Martin Senour brand in a dark machinery grey color.  The first coat was sprayed late on a Sunday afternoon, and before the paint dried the temp dropped from 65* to about 50* and heavy dew settled. The next day I came home from work and looked at it, the paint had dried totally flat.  So the next Saturday here on the west side of Savannah we had unseasonably warm temps for early December. 76*, and I sprayed on a second coat. This came out nice and shiny.

      
I also welded up some guards from 1/8" flat steel to keep the tail lights (hopefully) from getting broken off.  I then installed new LED tail lights. The kit was about 25 bucks from Harbor Frieght tools, I didn't keep really close records.  I however did not use the cheesy "scotch lok" wire connectors, they pierce the wire and don't seal it.  I used butt connectors and shrink wrapped 'em.

Yes, that is a shitty weld on the top of the guard. I know. My Hobart 135 MIG machine was giving me fits, and it normally about welds itself. I'd strike an arc, the arc would cut out, and back in, like a machine gun.  I later found the problem- the small leads from the trigger contact go through the main cable with the liner and wire for the feed, then come out in a small loop right outside the body of the machine. In my moving the machine around or putting things down on the bench it sits on, the small leads had gotten nearly cut through. So each time I struck an arc, the amperage would build (it was only contacting on one or two strands) and then it would loose the connection, and effectively cut off the weld. 

All fixed now.  Here it is with the new lights on. Still to do are some longer, heavier saftey chains, and put some plywood on the sides. Oh, and fill out the form and get it registered! Until then, I'll hang my boat trailer tag on it if I need to use it. 

 

 

 

Here's a couple "befores!"

 

 

 

 

   

Free utility trailer revamp part II

Now that it's November and the summer is gone, I have finally gotten back to updating the blog on this project that I started last June.

In early August, I finally got over to Steve's (the donor of the rusted relic) place with the replacement axle, and mocked it up in place.


My pal Phil gave me a pair of 15" rims with good Continental tires on them from a Ford Ranger pickup. These have the same 5 lug on a 4 1/2" pattern as the trailer  axle hubs. I slid the axle in over the springs and put one wheel on, positioned it where I wanted it.

  
Then I "C" clamped the axle to the springs, and made a measurement from the center of the leaf spring to the end of the axle on the side with the wheel where I wanted it. I then went to the other side, and marked it for the spring center-

Then I went home and several more weeks later (try October!) I narrowed the axle 7 1/4".  I used a pipe cutter, made quick work of it.

Just sheer concentration on that face.....

And once cut, I had to get it dead straight to weld it back together.

The axle, as purchased, had some camber to it. I took it out and made it straight. As narrow as it is now and considering it will likely never be loaded close to it's 3000lb rating, she'll be fine. In any case better than the home cobbled truck axle that was in there before.

Now where was I? Oh, I took the piece I cut out, cut it in half endwise, flattened it somewhat with a hammer, and used it for reinforcement of the splice. Came out nice I think-

On a Saturday in mid November I made it back over, clamped it all together, swept out the leaves and towed it home.

I spent some time trying to hammer the fenders into some type of less mangled shape than they were, as well as cutting the brackets and moving them in to better cover the tires and not stick out so far.
See below, before shot-

And an after-

  
Did not get any pics, but I cut the 1 7/8" coupler off the tounge and welded on a 2 incher so I do not have to swap the ball on my  tow rigs, as the boat we also tow uses a 2 incher.

I then pressure washed it, let it dry, and started to use a wire wheel on a grinder to knock the loose, flaking rust off. I treated the rusty metal with OSPHO, a chemical that converts iron oxide (rust) to iron phosphate before attempting any kind of paint. I think it is going to be dark grey in some industrial satin finish enamel. Then to put some plywood on the sides, fill out the GA DMV form for a home built trailer. 

That's all I have now, hope to get it finished and wired with new lights in a week or two.