Hello. New Member

[mozer71]

I guess it is about time I joined this group! I bought my 1971 154 about 15 years ago for primarily mowing and it has been a wonderful tractor. I have a few acres in the Shenandoah Valley and the grass really grows tall. The land is sloped and The LO Boy has been able to manage that without tipping over.

[Eugene H.]

Welcome to the forum.

[Indy4570]

Welcome! show us your tractor

[mozer71]

Thanks Eugene. Fwiw I'll say some things about this 154. The PO had painted it all up really nice (he was a bodywork guy). That area was great but the deck was pretty shot. A lot of the mechanicals needed attention and every improvement was noticeable. These are really nice simple machines. I had blown out a few mower tractors before acquiring the 154- they couldn't handle the job. The bent deck was straightened and re enforced, all the jack shafts/housings and bearings were rebuilt. I was able to make a few of the main spindles too. It was all basic lathe work with a little milling for the key slot. The governor to carb arrangement is real important-as you know. When over in the valley, there are a few places which sell fuel without the ethanol. Total good thing for older engines. The machine is amazing but I wish I had the "creeper gear".

[mozer71]

Hello. I have not posted a pic of anything. It just looks like a standard 154 with the lighter front end. There is the bracket for the snow plow and associated linkage. The deck is an IH 3160A (I think) wind tunnel design, discharge to the right. It has a wide roller at front and no trailing wheels. It is rare to see the actual configuration of the linkage to the rocker shaft's arms. What is cool about that, is that I can adjust the belly deck height on the fly from very high to low as situation permits.
I have some pix on a camera and should post one.

[Eugene]

Welcome from another Eugene

I have a 154, mostly used a mower tractor. Mine has the creeper and a 3-point. The creeper works great if the grass gets ahead of me. The 3-point with bar works as a trailer hitch.

If I could find a tiller, the creeper would work great in the gardens.

[mozer71]

Hello Eugene. I was looking for the creeper gear since early 2002 or when 154 showed promise to be THE mowing tractor. I have the thin, tall ag tires which lift the frame slightly higher. The deck is able to tuck up higher because I made a fixture of idler bearings which direct the drive belt to the main deck drive pulley without rubbing on the deck.

[mozer71]

Cont'd. With all of this, it could have been better with the creeper planetary. The deck speed requires the engine to run top speed but 1st gear is too fast. Gosh if it was a tad slower, things wouldn't choke up.
Edit because I thought about this more. If the PTO drive is the same ratio as the final drive, the deck drive is also slower.

[Eugene]

The C60's engine maximum torque is at 1600 RPM, Engine maximum RPMs is higher.

You can idle the engine down a bit and still have it's maximum torque applied to the mower.

[outdoors4evr]

The numbered series tractors have a Live PTO which is driven separately from the transmission. (Flywheel to PTO Clutch to output shaft)
The creeper gear is installed prior to the transmission input so this only impacts the transmission and final drive, without impacting the PTO.

[mozer71]

Well there it is again, the reason. I'm glad that my 2nd guessing was wrong. I rebuilt the clutch throw out bearing around 2004 and it made sense then.

[mozer71]

Thank you all for the advise ; Eugene H, Indy4570, Eugene and outdoors4evr . I missed the "new member" intro section-sorry about that. Any further questions or posts will be done in topic as a regular newbie member.