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Monday, December 19, 2016

Flexible And Stay Calm

We had 20" of fresh snow and went out and plugged in the block heater and started the tractor to clear the snow. Went about 20' and stopped. This is the second winter we have had this tractor and we had the same problem last year when it got colder. The diesel gelled and apparently it won't run again this year with our cold temps. I have fresh fuel and have treated it with the anti gel that the dealer recommends.

Even with all that it still gels and won't run. Tomorrow I will have to drain the fuel tank, replace both fuel filters and refill the tank. That will be labor intensive and may take most of the day because the sub frame and snow thrower will have to be taken off first. We cleared the driveway with our small walk behind Sears snow thrower. We are wondering if it would just be better to get a second walk behind snow thrower.

We bought the tractor with the snow thrower on the front to not have to walk behind the snow thrower we started with. Our old tractor was the same model and brand and we never had a problem with it not running the 12 years we had it. The new one runs fine except in cold temperatures. We are a little sad over having a pretty expensive tractor to move the snow with and have to consider buying another larger walk behind snow thrower.

We bought the new tractor because the old one was getting up in age and we 'thought' having a new one it would be more reliable. We are trying to stay flexible and calm and make the right decision. There has to be a solution to this fuel not flowing properly and maybe we will have to keep both vehicles outside and put the tractor in the garage and keep it heated with portable propane heat.

A tractor that will not run in cold weather is not much use to us so we have some hard decision to make in the next few days.

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