Hello all. Hi bestf100 and fordtech. I have not had to replace any LawnBoy mower tires yet. Still have plenty tread. I have not had to replace any cables yet. Ineresting question bestf100 brought up about " Do these tires wear our at a faster rate than other mowers?" I noticed that many of the "restored" vintage LawnBoys already have "slick" tires. My question: Did LawnBoy roll these vintage mowers off the production line with the tires already without tread? Good day.

Hi, I painted parts of a tire with industrial oil base 'alkyd' paint and it hasn't been damaged at all by weather. It's used on fire hydrants, farm equipment, and most industrial equipment. HD and Lowes carry this paint. Latex primer and paint (exterior) would probably work. You could experiment on the tire pieces that were cut off. If you don't have any of these paints, they should all show up in the 'oops' section of paint departments really cheap. Hope that helps. Linda

What your missing is the tire clearance on your tractor? First you need to see (measure) how much clearance you have between the tires and the inner fender area, top of the fender, and the outer side of the fender. IMO the differance between a 12 vs a 12.5 is minimal, the wider 12" rim blows the tires out more and the 1/2 inch may cause them to rub the fenders or rear axles. the difference between 27-8.5-15 are guite abit from 29x12x15. If I had to have the ags I would just buy the rims, put the ags on them, and have a extra set if you plan on keeping the tractor for a long time.

That's an interesting strategy about vine cutting, Dave. I'll see if that works. There is a lot in the literature about the distribution of male and female flowers on nodes and node triggers. Here is what I‘ve learned about sexual expression in cucurbits from the research papers online. Female flower production is reduced in high temps, especially high nighttime temps. There is a clear photoperiod effect as well, in that longer daylength (more light) reduces female flower production. So one strategy for female flower production is some shadecloth, perhaps. It is stated, however, that this photoperiod doesn’t appear to play a major role in field production. With regard to fertilization, high nitrogen tends to reduce female flower production, but low nitrogen reduces ALL flower production. So nitrogen starvation isn’t necessarily a good strategy to get more female flowers. Quite a bit of evidence that extra potassium can increase production of female flowers. So that’s a potentially useful strategy. There are LOTS of chemical additives that can change sexual expression. An interesting one is ethylene gas. You can add stuff to soil that produces ethylene. Ethylene is a powerful growth hormone, and it is well understood that ethylene promotes fruit ripening. But ethylene also strongly promotes female flowers! Now, what is kind of fascinating is that plants themselves produce ethylene (leaves, stems, roots, etc. ) So poorly ventilated plants have more ethylene around them, and more female flowers. That would suggest that female flowers will be more prevalent in greenhouses, and in dense stands of foliage that block the breeze. The temperature effect is a bit of a PIA for me. I delay plantout of squash until mid-summer, to avoid SVBs. That means that temps are very high when I want the plants to set fruit. Ideally, you’d want to set fruit when it is cooler, before the summer heat sets in, because there would be more female flowers, and then use the summer heat for developing and ripening the fruit. All that being said, a general rule is that as plants mature, male flowers come out first. That’s a low-energy way to attract pollinators. Takes more plant energy to produce female flowers, so the plant really only wants to do it when pollinators are around. But since cool temps enhance female flower production, that rule can be broken. So OK, "wait and see" is still good advice, and "luck of the draw" pertains as well.