Just an update on the Sears order for the tractor blade

Just to note that after all the work I put into researching along with the customer reps at Sears to get the correct mulching blade for my new lawn tractor, I got the right blade. Seems they have too many departments and you get handed off from one to the other with each not knowing much about what the other does. I finally got this nice older guy in Tucson, Arizona, where I was born by the way. How uncanny was that. We got off to a really nice talk. He was a good old boy who had been a trucker for I think 40 years and had retired due to his wife becoming disabled and he wanted to be home with her. I wish I could remember his name now. I was able to convince him that it wasn't my fault that my initial order came to me only half the parts I needed and he gave me a free ship on the final second order. I ordered two of the mulching blades as I'm sure I'll need to replace one once it's worn out. This blade will be a son of a gun to sharpen though. It's got ends like a forked tongue snake on each side. I'll take care of it though as I have with the past blade on the now long gone dead tractor, with a plain old file. I'm going to see if I can post some pictures here next in this blog. I want to show some customizing I did to this new lawn tractor. Something Sears should have thought about. They could have even made more money on the accessory item as well. I installed a cigarette lighter adapter to where the throttle lever is located. There was more than enough space. I had been using a small trickle charger on the old tractor, using clamps to keep the battery charged between mowings. I cut off the clamps and soldered on a connector whereby I now have a cigarette lighter plug that I can now keep plugged into the tractor and it's working perfectly. I feel it was a really sweet customization and I'd like to share it with everyone. As soon as I can figure out how to post these pictures. Ahh, I see a link above..here goes.

Ahh, the pic is a little small but I'll go larger on the next one. What you see are the two mounting holes whereby I used a socket wrench and took of the throttle lever plate.

I like the larger picture. Let's see how this goes now. Next pic.

I should have taken pics of drilling the holes and how I measured to where I made those wholes but it's just intuitive I guess. You find the space, size it up by eye, start with a small drill bit and work your way up to make the perfect holes for your bolts. I had worried that the metal would be too hard to drill through but with some patience the drills slowly made their way through without burning up or breaking. I usually start out with an 1/8" size bit or one bigger, then go a couple more sizes up to the final size. This makes a perfectly cut hole with little trouble drilling and no bit getting stuck also. Next pic.

I found the cigarette lighter adapter at Wal-Mart for under ten bucks. I had the wiring connectors in my scrap bins and used the Y-type so the wiring could be easily secured underneath a bolt. I used the throttle lever plate as a grounding source for the black or ground wire naturally.

I like the plastic cover as it will keep out the water from the hose if I happen to splash any water around when I clean up the tractor after a mowing. I next connected the red or hot lead or wire to the positive terminal of the battery. I just knew I was going to do this project as I could not see myself taking on and off that plastic cover that hides the battery just to connect the trickle charger every time after I mow. The plastic connectors for the cover would soon deteriorate and then I'd be looking to figure what to replace them with. Just a hassle any way you looked at it. I believe in making batteries last as long as possible. That means checking the water level at least twice a year here in Florida too.

Here's the finished look with the throttle lever mounting plate bolted back onto the tractor. Pretty slick if you ask me. Now, will Sears get ahold of this and add this to this tractor in the future? My next thought is an umbrella and a cupholder for my beer. I suppose you could think of all sorts of other things but I'm just being practical right about now. Two more pics and I'm done with this. I hope you enjoyed this ingenuity as much as I have.

Here's the trickle charger I bought at Wal-Mart years ago. It still works great and an led lets you know when the battery is fully charged. These units are cheap, just under $20 if I remember right. I should use one on my car too as I don't drive many miles each day and I never get more than three years out of a deluxe battery.